Student plays debut in Ring
By Will Wingfield
Graphics Editor

> February 1, 2001

Two student-directed plays will debut next week in the Ring Theater at Scales Fine Art Center: At Home (Split, Part I) and Up Down Strange Charmed Beauty and Truth. The playbill will begin at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 5 and 4:30 p.m. Feb. 6.

Directed by Senior Jenn Wynne, Michael Weller’s At Home features sophomore Keri Senges as Carol and senior Greg Willsey as her husband Paul. The play opens with Carol and Paul at a dinner party where they get into a serious argument.

“I think it’s interesting that they fight about the same thing and make up, but they never actually solve the problem,” Senges said.

“Part of it is arguing, but a lot of it is romance,” Willsey said. “There’s a whole lot of funny lines.
Junior Hillary Heard, sophomore Erin Lichtenstein and Brannon Shiflett, ’99, perform Up Down, directed by senior Meghan Guerrero. The play is set in Providence, R.I., where two teenage sisters in an abusive household enlist the help of their Uncle Danny to help them escape. After the oldest sister, Steph, reveals a secret, Uncle Danny and his nieces spend a bittersweet evening together.

Guerrero had the opportunity to speak with Edward Allen Baker, the author of Up Down. “It boosted my enthusiasm about the play,” she said. “It was neat to talk to him and learn about the characters.” Lichtenstein said about Guerrero, “she’s the type of director that’s so focused on characterization … on the world of the play as much as what’s said.”

Heard, Stella in last fall’s Children of a Lesser God, plays 19-year-old Steph. “I think a lot of (the play) is it unfolding as it goes along,” she said. Lichtenstein, who appeared in H.M.S. Pinafore and Lysistrata, plays 17-year-old Marley. She said the play is “really about the relationships between the sisters.”

Wynne directed Children of a Lesser God last fall and, although she has been working on At Home for four months, rehearsals have been held only for the past two weeks. “Everything happens so much faster,” she said.

“It’s always fun to work with a student-produced show because you really feel like it’s a team effort and everyone’s in it together,” Heard said.Two student-directed plays will debut next week in the Ring Theater at Scales Fine Art Center: At Home (Split, Part I) and Up Down Strange Charmed Beauty and Truth. The playbill will begin at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 5 and 4:30 p.m. Feb. 6.

Directed by Senior Jenn Wynne, Michael Weller’s At Home features sophomore Keri Senges as Carol and senior Greg Willsey as her husband Paul. The play opens with Carol and Paul at a dinner party where they get into a serious argument.

“I think it’s interesting that they fight about the same thing and make up, but they never actually solve the problem,” Senges said.

“Part of it is arguing, but a lot of it is romance,” Willsey said. “There’s a whole lot of funny lines.
Junior Hillary Heard, sophomore Erin Lichtenstein and Brannon Shiflett, ’99, perform Up Down, directed by senior Meghan Guerrero. The play is set in Providence, R.I., where two teenage sisters in an abusive household enlist the help of their Uncle Danny to help them escape. After the oldest sister, Steph, reveals a secret, Uncle Danny and his nieces spend a bittersweet evening together.

Guerrero had the opportunity to speak with Edward Allen Baker, the author of Up Down. “It boosted my enthusiasm about the play,” she said. “It was neat to talk to him and learn about the characters.” Lichtenstein said about Guerrero, “she’s the type of director that’s so focused on characterization … on the world of the play as much as what’s said.”

Heard, Stella in last fall’s Children of a Lesser God, plays 19-year-old Steph. “I think a lot of (the play) is it unfolding as it goes along,” she said. Lichtenstein, who appeared in H.M.S. Pinafore and Lysistrata, plays 17-year-old Marley. She said the play is “really about the relationships between the sisters.”

Wynne directed Children of a Lesser God last fall and, although she has been working on At Home for four months, rehearsals have been held only for the past two weeks. “Everything happens so much faster,” she said.

“It’s always fun to work with a student-produced show because you really feel like it’s a team effort and everyone’s in it together,” Heard said.