New Voices 2004

New Voices 2004 is an interesting mix of farce and seriousness that sometimes comes a little too close to reality. The piece is composed of five student written one-acts woven together with theatrical panache that create a meta-narrative that continues throughout the piece. The five plays being presented are "Beyond Our Control" by Phil Haas '05 and directed by Abby Mahone '03; "The Journal" by Adam D. Pinti '06 and directed by Troy Dwyer; "What's the Story?" by M.E. Lerman '04 and directed by Amanda Ellison '04; "Holidaze" by Kevin McKeon '03 and directed by Lydia Brubaker '05; and "Stained" by Danielle Tolles '05 and directed by Rachel Roccoberton '04.

Here's a little about each of the five plays:

"Beyond Our Control" takes what could be a true-to-life situation and twists it around so that the audience isn't really sure of what actually occurred. The four characters each give their sides of the story, but the real truth is only able to be reached by the audience member. The events in the play have indeed affected them in different ways, and their decisions from this point forward are going to impact them for the rest of their lives. Ultimately, they're only looking for answers that may not come and hopefully a way out of what could be a very compromising situation.

"The Journal", which runs in three separate parts throughout the piece, "is an outrageous comedy that chronicles a quest for true love," says director Troy Dwyer. In this play, the main character, a librarian named Dora, played by Annabelle Meunier '04, is in pursuit of happiness and true love amongst a menagerie of characters. It has the comic elements that can bring us away from reality and more towards a dream world, but at the same time you notice that the "dream world" is even more off-center than it should be as the play continues. Dora's final realization brings us back to the crux of human existence—just to be happy with what we have in life.

"What's the Story" is a humorous farce that disturbs the reality of the audience through its endless theatre within theatre approach. "Things don't go the way you expect them to," says director Amanda Ellison '04, and this goes for the actions onstage and for life in a broader sense. Viewers will be thrown for a loop as they are ultimately brought to questions of, "Who's really in charge of this world?" and "How much control do you really have?"

"Holidaze" follows the choices and realizations made by college student Tony, played by Timothy Bungeroth '07, when he abruptly receives what director Lydia Brubaker '05 describes as "an introduction into the real world." Ultimately, "Holidaze" is about discovering what is important in our lives and "how we deal with the pressures of things that aren't important to us," explains Brubaker. It brings the audience in touch with the gravity of the choices we make in our lives, how we go about making those decisions, and the ways in which forces and ideas in our realities will always clash.

"Stained" is about a family coping with a suicide - the reality of grief and those days after a death when reality seems unbelievably skewed, as though the survivors might wake up and find their loved one absolutely fine. "Stained" confronts how a single action can affect multiple people in totally opposite ways. It presses the audience to see themselves in the light of the character's situations. Ultimately, "Stained" brings us to the harsh reality that as director Rachel Roccoberton '04 describes, "Nobody is completely stain-free."

Looking at it from the point of view as one of two Production Stage Managers, this was a tremendous project to undertake. Putting five casts together in the same space and trying to work them all together in a way that made sense was an interesting challenge for our design staff and our five directors. I really think that without their ingenuity and help, this project would not have been as successful as it was. Each member of the company, both actor and tech alike, brings something fresh to the stage each evening and that's what makes New Voices 2004 different. It's not the same show each night because the energy behind it drives it in different ways and it has the ability to affect each audience member differently. Each of the plays is a separate entity and takes the stage in a unique way, but their collective realities produce a fusion of viewpoints that examine the definitions of our world as a whole. The project and the material within may even change how we, as people involved in theatre, look at our own lives. As a final point, New Voices 2004 may not be your typical night at the theatre, but if you take the challenge to experience something different, you just might find yourself absorbed in a way you never knew you could be.