When it comes to his graduate directors’ first project at Ohio University, Dennis Delaney wants them to keep it simple.
“Ideally it would be on black boxes and only have black curtains,” said Delaney, head of the professional director training program.
In their first year, the graduate directors are given $50 to $100 to do a realism project, a play rooted in reality with simple production values and a small cast. This year’s realism project is Crooked by Catherine Trieschmann, a play following three women on their journeys toward self-discovery and the acceptance of love and truth.
Delaney said the main goal of the realism projects is to focus on the communication between the director and the actors. There is a full production team of stage managers, designers and more, however Delaney said those other components are “gravy.” He said later productions have more layers and include complexities with sets and costumes.
“You can do theater without a lot of the other stuff, but you can’t do it without actors,” he said. “I look at the director’s ability to communicate clearly their vision of the play and ensure the actors put that vision on stage. It’s pretty fundamental and basic, but that’s where you start.”
Kerry Glamsch isn’t starting from the beginning. The first-year director worked as an Actors’ Equity Association actor from 1984 until 1991 and then shifted his focus to writing and directing while also taking up several teaching positions at many universities.
Because of his work as a writer, Glamsch said he is judgmental of the scripts he reads and it has to be a “damn good story” for him to get behind it. Crooked is one of those stories.
“I love (the playwright’s) compassion toward her characters,” he said. “I think she’s a really fine writer.”
The play follows a mother, Elise, who has moved herself and her daughter, Laney, back to her hometown after she institutionalized her husband, who is mentally ill. Maribel is a religious girl and Laney’s only friend in the new area.
In exploring these three women’s journeys, Crooked tackles the difficult issues of faith, adolescence and the mother-daughter dynamic. Though these themes may seem to lead to a more serious-toned play, Glamsch said it is quite funny, which allows the audience to be more comfortable in hearing the play’s message.
“It is a tragedy looked through the glass of comedy,” said Rachel Weekley, who plays Elise and is a senior studying theater performance. “It takes some very poignant pain, but we as humans — as real people — we cannot constantly suffer. … We have to find the humor in tragic situations. … (The play) lets you know you can get through it, and I think sometimes we all need to know we can get through it.”
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