What Do You Want To Be When You Give Up

Billy Siegenfeld and Jordan Batta have so much talent and electricity that it seems to spill out into the audience. Siegenfeld’s play, What Do You Want to Be When You Give Up?, is both a powerful and intimate piece that combines tender acting, beautiful singing, and explosive dance. To see two performers so magnificently attuned to each other is a delight. As the story unfolds, the drama grows from a simple disagreement in a rehearsal room to a thrilling exploration of what it means to be an artist in a world that seems to only get bigger and bigger. The play works its magic in a subtle and revelatory way; as the performers flit between delicate dances and riotous eruptions of funk and tap, so too does the conversation shift between the hilarious banalities of suburban life and the extraordinary potential for art to heal the broken parts of ourselves, especially in dark times. Do not miss an opportunity to see this show!

Actor and Playwright

[This play] dares to tell – no, show – the struggles, frustrations, and needs of a woman trying desperately to reconcile her artistic self with her role as a mother and wife. I immediately thought to myself, “I know her.”…It is their constant moving in and out of sync with one other, as all of us do with our colleagues, friends, lovers, spouses, and children, that makes this play both powerful and refreshing.

Senior Lecturer, Department of Dance, Randolph College