Senior's directoral debut to premiere this weekend

One of the most unique times of the school year for IU Theatre and Drama students is the end of the department's producing season. It is the time when theater students produce, direct and act in independent projects. Students flock to work together every semester whether or not these productions are sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Drama.\nThis weekend, one such independent project will open at the John Waldron Arts Center. Frank McGuinness's three-character play "Someone Who'll Watch Over Me" will mark senior Peter Gerharz's directorial debut with a show he said he's had close to his heart since he began working in the theater.\n"It's a play that I've loved for as long as I can remember reading plays," Gerharz said. "It's a play that I've loved as long as I've been in the theater. So I figured the best way to be involved with it was to produce (and direct) it and I thought it was a good capstone for my time here."\nThe play takes place in a terrorist prison cell in Lebanon and brings together three men -- an American named Adam, an Irishman named Edward and an Englishman named Michael. The three are held hostage by unknown and unseen assailants and strive to keep their wills alive in hopes of being freed.\nBecause two of the characters in the play come from western countries where terrorism is also alive (England and Ireland), there is an interesting parallel to the notion of Arab-world terrorism. The two are brought together with all of their prejudices. With the third character -- the American -- the dynamic is even more interesting because of America's role in world affairs. But throughout the play, the cell forces the characters to forget their culture and remember their humanity.\nGerharz said he chose to do the play before the events of Sept. 11 and before the recent conflict in Israel. But he said he believes the play is only made more interesting and topical because of the conflict, while maintaining that the play is important away from those world events.\n"I chose it before because I thought it was incredibly touching and very interesting -- I was very moved by it," Gerharz said.\nHe related that the setting in the play creates a vacuum for the characters within it.\n"Without the institutions that have guided (the characters) throughout their whole lives, in that vacuum that they create in the cell, they're able to see what makes them similar as opposed to what makes them different," Gerharz said.\nThis production allows Gerharz to work with actors he has befriended and worked with before and those he trusts. Senior Blake Bowen, who plays Adam, has been involved with many IU productions in his four years as a student. But this production brings him to the stage with two actors -- graduate students Ira Amyx, who plays Michael, and Erik Anderson, who plays Edward, whom he also trusts.\n"The three of us really feel a vibe together," Bowen said. "With Pete as well, we think we can organically build something with trust. This is a chance to really do that with people we've known and worked with for three years now."\nAmyx and Anderson said they also share the sentiment of working with Bowen and Gerharz as well as doing a production independently.\n"It's nice to be away from the pressures of the university and be able to act with people I want to act with -- work with people I want to work with," Amyx said.\nWhile this is Gerharz's first time as a director, that has not hindered Bowen's experience at all -- rather, it has enhanced it.\n"He knows this play more than any director I've seen know a play -- he loves it," Bowen said. "We all can see that and through that we develop a trust in the fact that he knows what he's doing with this. And because it's his first time, he allows us to help him through just simple questions in a very open environment. It's very comfortable and I think he's a good director."\n"Someone Who'll Watch Over Me" will play Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. at the John Waldron Arts Center, 122 S. Walnut St.