Marquette Theatre is welcoming a new production, “All in the Timing,” to the stage with a collection of six one-act comedic plays written by the American playwright David Ives.
Opening night was Nov. 10 and the show runs through this weekend. Tickets are $20 on the Marquette Theatre ticketing website and the last showing is a Sunday matinee on Nov. 19 at 2:30 p.m.
The six one-act plays are an exploration of comedic forms, said Joshua Soape, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences, and one of the two student directors. Every setting is different although four of the six plays explore contemporary New York City.
As student directors, each director was paired with a small group of about five to six actors; three principals and two understudies.
The pieces “Words, Words, Words” and “Variations on the Death of Trotsky” are led by Soape, and Natalie Murray, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences.
Soape’s piece, “Variations on the Death of Trotsky,” highlights the Russian Communist Leon Trotsky and his eventual death from an axe to his head. Soape said he hopes for his scene to resonate with the audience as it points to a deeper meaning about mortality.
Soape and Murray both said although the plays were written in the early 90s, many of the topics discussed are still comedic today. The play shows range from testing if language can alter our sense of time, to learning of Leon Trotsky’s (a Russian Communist in the Civil War) eight versions of death.
Murray directed, “Words, Words, Words” which explores the characters of three chimpanzees Milton, Swift and Kafka, who are tasked with writing famous texts from literary greats such as Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”
Each scene is about 10 minutes long which Murray said made it important for her to gauge the right amount of time needed to practice.
“I think with mine, even though it’s like a 10-minute scene, it’s very physically taxing. We built in stretch time at the beginning of rehearsals because we found it was necessary but still, I learned very early on that I couldn’t run it too many times per rehearsal,” Murray said.
It took a month for the students to research and prepare for the plays.
“I think part of mine is the research into who these literary greats are and thankfully as an English major, a lot of that has been built into my time as a student here. I think another part of prep was [the tire swing, there’s a tire swing in mine] so there was a lot of physical prep and a lot of experimentation,” Murray said.
Included in the month, both directors had time to get closer to their actors as they led them through the process.
“I definitely think they’ve seen a different side of me than anyone that I’ve been in a show with has seen. I’ve given them instructions but one thing I really try to do is instill agency in them and make sure they know while they’re up on stage being very vulnerable and acting like chimpanzees, I’m ready to do it with them,” Murray said.
Ben Shields, a first-year in the College of Arts & Sciences, said he has been acting since he was four years old and loves theatre at Marquette. He was placed in Murray’s small group and “All in the Timing” is his second performance at Marquette.
“Having the experience of being directed by Natalie who was a fellow actor in the last show and just having a big student community around me in this production has been great for finding connections with people and building up a community as a freshman,” Shields said.
Shields said his role as a talking chimpanzee required him to key into the knowledge of who his character is as well as the combination of body and movement.
“I worked a lot on that especially in my voice as well because when I act, I really enjoy putting my character into the way I speak and into my voice and tone of voice,” Shields said.
Murray and Soape said they are looking forward to sharing “All in the Timing” with the Marquette community and revealing the distinct characters each actor spent time perfecting.
“So, I hope that when watching “All in the Timing,” it’s a really good time where they enjoy themselves and catch these witty references. Then by the end of the night, I hope they’re thinking about something,” Soape said.
This story was written by Mimi Sinotte, she can be reached at [email protected].
