2008 Woodie Awards
"Six Characters" Appear on Smith Stage
Senior directs final Smith play
Schuyler Clemente
Issue date: 5/13/05 Section: Arts
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As seniors prepare for commencement and alumnae gather for reunions, the Smith College theatre department is running its final show of the season. From May 12 to 14, Nobel Laureate Luigi Pirandello's "Six Characters in Search of an Author" can be seen at the Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre.
The show is directed by Zoe Block '05, who is also a co-founder of and actor in Leading Ladies: Smith College Musical Theatre Ensemble.
Pirandello's play is a piece of what is known as meta-theater, in that it "comments on the institution of theater," said Block, who added that it is almost a play within a play. It addresses questions of "who is more real, the characters or the authors," said Block. Though it was written in the early twentieth century, only the characters of the play within the play are kept within the period; the mix of the "actors" and "characters" makes for a "dramatic contrast between multiple worlds," according to Block.
The play begins with a cast of normal, modern actors rehearsing for a performance, and about fifteen minutes into the action a group of ghostly figures seems to materialize out of nowhere and approach the stage, claiming that they are characters whose play went unfinished. These characters are demanding that their story be told.
Initially, the play seems to be about the conflict between the actors and their vibrant, melodramatic director, but it soon becomes about the conflicts between the characters who desperately want their story told. The colorful actors and director begin to fade into the background, and they are overtaken by the black-and-white-clad characters. It's simultaneously eerie and lively, a ghost story wherein the theater tries to embody and overtake the ghosts, but cannot.
The director was written in Pirandello's script as a man, but is played by a woman, with no script changes beyond changing male pronouns to female ones.
Luigi Pirandello's "Six Characters in Search of an Author" can be seen at the Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre from Thursday, My 12, to Saturday, May 14, at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $7 general admission, $5 for students and seniors. For more information, call (413) 585-ARTS.
Additional reporting by Rebecca Craven, Arts Editor.
The show is directed by Zoe Block '05, who is also a co-founder of and actor in Leading Ladies: Smith College Musical Theatre Ensemble.
Pirandello's play is a piece of what is known as meta-theater, in that it "comments on the institution of theater," said Block, who added that it is almost a play within a play. It addresses questions of "who is more real, the characters or the authors," said Block. Though it was written in the early twentieth century, only the characters of the play within the play are kept within the period; the mix of the "actors" and "characters" makes for a "dramatic contrast between multiple worlds," according to Block.
The play begins with a cast of normal, modern actors rehearsing for a performance, and about fifteen minutes into the action a group of ghostly figures seems to materialize out of nowhere and approach the stage, claiming that they are characters whose play went unfinished. These characters are demanding that their story be told.
Initially, the play seems to be about the conflict between the actors and their vibrant, melodramatic director, but it soon becomes about the conflicts between the characters who desperately want their story told. The colorful actors and director begin to fade into the background, and they are overtaken by the black-and-white-clad characters. It's simultaneously eerie and lively, a ghost story wherein the theater tries to embody and overtake the ghosts, but cannot.
The director was written in Pirandello's script as a man, but is played by a woman, with no script changes beyond changing male pronouns to female ones.
Luigi Pirandello's "Six Characters in Search of an Author" can be seen at the Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre from Thursday, My 12, to Saturday, May 14, at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $7 general admission, $5 for students and seniors. For more information, call (413) 585-ARTS.
Additional reporting by Rebecca Craven, Arts Editor.