Father and daughter struggle to bond in Urbanite’s ‘Birds of North America’

Jay Handelman, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
·4 min read
Stephen Spencer and Dekyi Rongé star in the Urbanite Theatre production of “Birds of North America” by Anna Ouyang Moench.
Stephen Spencer and Dekyi Rongé star in the Urbanite Theatre production of “Birds of North America” by Anna Ouyang Moench.

Actress Dekyi Rongé has a rare opportunity in her still-young career to repeat a role and get more deeply into a character she only recently started connecting with.

In Anna Ouyang Moench’s play “Birds of North America,” which begins this week at Sarasota’s Urbanite Theatre, she plays Caitlyn, who audiences see spending time birding with her father, John, and trying to connect amid a relationship strained by different views about the world.

Rongé spent October performing in a separate production at Third Avenue Playworks in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, and describes her casting at Urbanite “a rare treat. It’s a pleasure to do the play twice, especially any time you encounter a play that has this much depth. There’s so much to mine and discover. Think of any of the great Shakespeare plays. Everybody wants a chance at some of those greatest characters and I think this is one of them.”

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Dekyi Rongé plays a young woman who learns birding from her father in the Urbanite Theatre production of “Birds of North America.”
Dekyi Rongé plays a young woman who learns birding from her father in the Urbanite Theatre production of “Birds of North America.”

She said Caitlyn is an “inspiring, beautiful role for people of my generation to have that voice that’s engaging with the older generation. It’s a lens to express ourselves.”

Rongé stars with Stephen Spencer, who returns to Sarasota after a long absence to play the father, John. He earned his MFA at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory and played John Merrick in the opening production of late Sarasota company Theatre Works in the late 1980s.

John is a scientist who is struggling with his research and he is concerned about a seeming lack of direction in Caitlyn’s life. The play builds in periods of silence between them, both for birding and for each character to figure out what to say and how to respond.

In the play, the audience sees Caitlyn and John once a year over a 10-year period beginning from when John starts teaching her about watching birds. They had a chance to bond and be part of nature, but times change.

“Each scene takes place the next fall and time is moving forward in the play, and as time is passing, climate change is happening,” said director Summer Wallace, the theater’s co-founder and co-artistic director. “The planet is getting warmer, the migration of birds is changing. The way she has woven in climate change is pretty brilliant, because the characters are also running out of time. Time is precious to fix this relationship.”

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Playwright Anna Ouyang Moench is the author of “Birds of North America” at Urbanite Theatre.
Playwright Anna Ouyang Moench is the author of “Birds of North America” at Urbanite Theatre.

In a 2021 interview with The Washington Post, Moench said she had wanted to write about the human experience of climate change for some time.

“I didn’t want to sound preachy or like I was trying to teach a lesson in an ‘Afterschool Special.’ I wanted to write a play that was a real play. I’d never seen that done,” she told the Post. “When I hit upon the structure of these two people meeting in the same place at the same time of year over a decade, it allowed me to not only show how the characters were changing but also how the climate was changing.”

Spencer describes the play as “exquisitely written” and said he relates to the relationship because he has a daughter, born during his time in Sarasota, who is about the same age as Caitlyn.

“The more we talk and the more we discuss, the more I bring some of that father-daughter dynamic to this play. That’s the joy of rehearsal, not only learning about the play, but the characters and ourselves.”

Rongé said the playwright also encourages mixed-race casting. The actress has a Tibetan and German background, and while the role doesn’t specify that combination, “it’s refreshing for me to be able to my own race with no apology.”

Summer Wallace is co-founder and co-artistic director of Urbanite Theatre in Sarasota.
Summer Wallace is co-founder and co-artistic director of Urbanite Theatre in Sarasota.

Wallace said the play stood out when the company was considering plays for the season because of the way it depicts the father and daughter relationship through birding.

“Birding is their communication tool and we’ve discovered there’s a longing in the play, a longing to see birds, a longing to see each other, a longing to be seen to be understood,” Wallace said. “We all have someone in our lives we love but our views are so different from theirs and we wonder how do we bridge that gap.”

“Birds of North America”

By Anna Ouyang Moench, directed by Summer Wallace,. Runs Jan. 6-Feb. 12 at Urbanite Theatre, 1487 Second St., Sarasota. Ticket are $39, $25 for 40 and younger and $5 for students. 941-321-1397; urbanitetheatre.com

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: ‘Birds of North America’ takes flight at Sarasota’s Urbanite Theatre