SnapShot Press Release | IS THIS A ROOM
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“Is this a room?”
If it is, it must be at least four walls of anxiety, institutional failure, personal strife, and historical significance. Assuming it is, then it must be built on a foundation of curiosity, questioning, and discovery. And if that is so, then it must be void of certainty, tainted by values, checked by morality, and investigated by the FBI [Ha!]
To enter a space where you know an individual is giving a statement about something that may be life-altering, while their worldly possessions are being rummaged through, to inquire about the definition of the spatial programmatic zoning they are standing in, is crazy work [but hey, the Feds are notoriously wild].
So let’s roll the tape.
Sunday’s [March 22nd, 2026] Milwaukee Chamber Theater’s performance of Is This A Room was a quick-paced, direct display of what it looks like to play back reality, and the nuances of humanity as they unravel. With no glitz or glamour, no stage, and no boundaries [except for a carpeted zone in the middle of the theater], the audience watches a nails-on-the-chalkboard interrogation of NSA contractor / US Air Force veteran Reality Leigh Winner by Special Agents Justin C. Garrick and R. Wallace Taylor about leaking NSA reports proving Russian interference in the 2016 election.
[Fascinating Stuff!]
Is it really espionage or is it good-ol’ modern whistle blowing with a dash of “Aww Hell No Government; this ain't that?” I would say the latter, but you can be the judge. Regardless of your ability to discern, it should be noted that Isabelle Muthiah [who plays Reality Leigh Winner], Rasell Holt [Special Agent R. Wallace Taylor], and Jonathan Wainwright [Special Agent Justin C. Garrick] had a firm command of THAT room. Every little cough, sniffle, murmur, shifty movement, and darting eye created a tension that was hard to watch but so enveloping that you couldn’t look away. The subtlety of Tina Satter’s original concept & direction of the interrogation transcript, in conjunction with Brent Hazelton’s [Director] MCT execution, requires you to be a silent participant in the intimacy of a lived truth.
I wanted to scream, “Reality Girl! You have not seen the search warrant yet! Don’t let them into your house, don’t let them touch anything, and you'd better zip your lips unless you are asking for a lawyer.” Right, wrong, or in the grey. Still, she had rights. But there was no point. It was what the kids call “cringe”. The boundaries of duty to self, country, and populace all blurred into pacing, panic, and comedic doom. [When Mark Corkin interrupted the interrogation, asking for a toothpick, I almost lost my cool. There is no way in real life that a random FBI agent did that . . . but as the transcript goes. YES THEY DID! Smh].
However, the art of this stage act sits deeply where truths are unspoken. The moments where the transcript [& thus the scene] is redacted, the why, the who, [but most importantly] the what is redacted, and red lights flash, the walls flickering with static displaying the word REDACTED. . . That is where mouthing, gesture, movement, and stillness show us that emotion goes beyond words. The ability to take 80 pages of interrogation and turn it into theater, noting that it is real, knowing that this is what happened to somebody's life, seeing that this is our species in all its glory, ultimately knowing that more happened after [prison, election security disclosure, journalistic scrutiny, public discourse on government transparency, etc]. We will never know [unless our society forces governing systems to change] what was redacted. We will never know how those FBI agents really feel unless they decide to reveal that information to the public [and why would they?].
This type of art allows you to grapple with threads of our existence and puts it in front of you to be digested, in a more accessible way, giving you space to sit with it. We can not change the past, but we can make note of where we want to go. But first, we might want to ask Is This A Room we should be in.
Lexi S. Brunson | Editor-in-Chief /CW
