For two short plays with seemingly no beginning and no ending, the University Theater’s weekend production drew good crowds and positive feedback from the community.
Edward Albee’s The Sandbox and Sam Shepard’s Icarus’ Mother were directed by David Epstein, the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation artist-in-residence in the Department of English/University Theater.
The cast ‘ six sophomores and juniors gave three performances over the weekend at the campus’ Dana Arts Center.
The plays celebrate theatricality, and posed a challenge to the actors to create the characters themselves, said sophomore Sian-Pierre Regis. The plays start in the middle of the action, and do not seem to be about anything in particular, but rather about the interactions of complex characters.
‘What struck me right away about both plays was that they presented unusual challenges,’ Epstein wrote in his director’s note in the program. ‘There are no backgrounds supplied, little or no history of involvements, nothing much for them to lean on. There are vague hints given along the way, and out of the hints evolve characters.
‘For the director, the challenge has been to help them discover the landscape, and to some degree, illuminate it.’
Albee’s The Sandbox features an overbearing ‘Mommy,’ played by junior Rebecca Sprio, and an alarmingly nervous ‘Daddy’ (Regis), who bring feisty ‘Grandma’ (junior Stephanie LaCava) to the beach to sit in a sandbox, because she is seemingly about to die. Junior Daniel Wakeman plays an actor who happens to be swimming at the beach, and whom the audience later learns is an angel of death. Junior Gregory Crider plays a musician, and also provided a musical interlude between plays.
Shephard’s Icarus’ Mother takes place in a park, where a group of children has gathered to watch a fireworks show. The play featured the same cast of performers, with the addition of sophomore Drew Beitz.
‘Both plays are wonderfully mysterious in their exuberant, youthful sense of what theater can be,’ Epstein said. ‘Their use of space, image, movement, light, and sound unites them. The plays fill us with wonder.’
The actors agreed that the plays challenged their abilities.
‘I really didn’t understand my character of Daddy until two weeks before the play. I decided to make up a history for him. This really helped me, and I think I captured a good character,’ Regis said. ‘He was a character who was believable and that was the most important to me.
‘Our director was incredible, and gave us free reign over our characters. It was definitely frustrating at first because I was stressed about who my character was. But in the end I am so happy he didn’t let me know, because I felt so satisfied about who I decided my character to be,’ Regis added.
The actors and Epstein knew the audience would leave the performances with many questions. Their goal, they said, was to leave the audience ‘intrigued,’ said Epstein.
‘A lot of people left the play wondering what they just saw and that’s what we expected. What they did say, though, was that the acting was awesome. This is really what we wanted,’ Regis said. ‘We wanted these plays to show theater or theatrics at their best, and even though some didn’t understand the plays, they appreciated theater a lot more after leaving.’
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