Though University Theater staged its fall production, “1,500 Meters Above Jack’s Level,” for five nights the week of Oct. 18, Brehmer Theater sat strangely empty. Instead, groups of about 50 people met on the steps of Dana Arts Center, where a yellow school bus waited to transport them to Glendening Boathouse to watch the performances.
April Sweeney, assistant professor of English and the play’s director,
had known for a while she wanted to use the unusual location.
“When I walked into the boathouse, in 2007, I saw that space and immediately thought, I want to do this play and I can do it here. It was an impulsive decision.”
Written by Argentine playwright Frederico Leon, the play tells the story of a family in transition, as a son seeks to move past the loss of his father by creating his own family. At the same time, he tries to help his mother recover and re-engage in life – no easy task, as she refuses to emerge from a bathtub.
Melissa Gamez ’13, one of three student actors in the production, thought using the boathouse was an interesting interpretation of the play, fitting well with the water motif.
“Clearly, water played a significant role for the personal and political implications of the play, but I believe that we had much more freedom to experiment with the water, as well as with each other [thanks to the venue].”
The story, in fact, unfolds in a bathroom, and while it’s unique enough to have a character spend most of the play sitting in a water-filled tub, the unconventional location of the play added to the unfamiliarity.
Yet Sweeney said this was her goal – she liked that the boathouse space was for storage, that it was so close to water, and that it was “foreign.”
“The idea was to take the reality of a functional, utilitarian space, the best simulation of a real bathroom, and there would be a tension and a dialogue between the space of the bathroom and the space of the boathouse,” she said. “And inside both of these real spaces, allows another space for the play, for the fiction of the play to fit.”
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Following the Friday night performance, attendees spoke of the realistic set – designed by Marjorie Bradley Kellogg, assistant professor of English – and the memorable location as they stood waiting for the bus to take them back to campus.
Students in the audience seemed especially intrigued by the use of a working bathtub, and with the acting, as well.
Joining Gamez on stage was Michael Piznarski ’11, Octavia Chavez-Richmond ’11, and Simona Giurgea, visiting assistant professor of English in the University Theater.
Piznarski noted that the play was “a great experience, and it really made a tight unit out of the four of us.”
Whether or not the location and small size of the boathouse aided in forming their bond, the actors turned in compelling performances, and their onstage chemistry was apparent as they portrayed the family’s sharp emotional shifts in the limited and unusual stage space.