Haven Orecchio
Journal Contributor
The Theatre Department will be holding its annual Fall Showcase this weekend in the Studio Theater. This year, the plays featured are The Man Who Turned into a Stick by Kobo Abe, directed by Brittany Daley, 2011, and Bleed (a term to describe photographs without borders) by Kacie Kirkpatrick, directed by Ryan Began, 2011.
“Directing the show was a lot of fun,” said Daley, “but it was a lot of hard work.”
The Man Who Turned Into a Stick demonstrates the concept of alienation by the younger generation using dramatic imagery, symbolism, and lighting.
This short one-act play focuses on life, death, and what happens in-between. A hippie girl (Teryn Chin) and her friend (Alec Lawless) sniff glue while sitting on a street. They are then interrupted by a falling stick (Ryan O’Connor), enriched with the essence of a dead man, as most sticks are. Standing nearby, two agents from Hell (Isaiah Rotondi-Gray and Vicki Hanes) battle the hippies for possession of the stick and the spirit of the man.
The girl’s friend eventually gives up and allows the agents to take the stick because he senses that it is more than just a stick.
The male agent had been training the female, who was still tainted with humanity. He tries to teach her how to see spirits of the dead as just sticks. He explains that they are all disposable, just as the souls of those who are captive in them.
Bleed (a term to describe photographs without borders) is a more of a modern play, written by a recent Suffolk Alumn, Kacie Kirkpatrick, that focuses on self discovery and image.
Young Layla (Jessica Miller) graduates high school and moves from her hometown to New York City in hopes of becoming something “better.” She works on her passion, photography. In the big city Layla finds herself caught between two lovers, her best-friend-turned-boyfriend from back home (Kevin Hadfield) and a “screwed up” rockstar (Ryan O’Connor).
She spends six months living two lives and holding a relationship with both men in different cities. With her hometown boyfriend, she feels forced to be the “perfect” girlfriend and becomes overwhelmed. She escapes the mold he puts her in by dating a guitarist she met on a photo assignment in New York. In this relationship Layla takes the roll of her boyfriend from home, and the mu sician struggles to meet her expectations. Each character has to discover themselves before attempting to love anyone else.
The Theater Department allows any student to submit a proposal to direct a performance of their choice, and accepts between two and four shows per year for the Fall and Spring showcases.
Began and Daley were notified that their proposals were approved last May, leaving them five months to pull together the scripts, actors, and staging. Both Began and Daley are experienced in directing shows in the past.
“We had the summer to develop the scripts, but we just started the auditions and rehearsals around a month and a half ago,” commented Began.
Although the theater department advertises open auditions to all students through flyers displayed online and around campus, most of the actors are theater majors.
The Fall Showcase is free and open to the public. The Studio Theater can hold between 50 to 65 guests per night. Performances run Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and during the weekend at 3 p.m. To reserve your seats be sure to call (617)573-8282, or visit the Theatre Department directly.
