'Alien' invasion

They enter one at a time. Some stride in confidently, others seem to apologize for their presence. One clicks across the wooden floor in bright red high-heels that upstage the sound of her voice when she begins to read her lines. \nAll of them are trying out for a handful of eclectic roles that will allow them to join another temporary theatrical brotherhood -- the cast of "The Alien from Cincinnati," a play written by third-year Master of Fine Arts student Jonathan Yukich. "Alien," which premieres at 8 p.m. Friday, explores what happens when a young girl discovers she has been impregnated with an alien. She becomes the news of the day and a fascination for a mad scientist, a feminist scholar, and a conniving TV reporter. To maintain her sanity and protect her child, the girl embarks on a cross-country odyssey in search of herself. Little does she know but the alien father is in hot pursuit.\n"It's hard for me to explain auditions," said Noah Tuleja, also a third-year MFA who is directing "Alien" for his thesis project. "Really, it's something that just clicks," \nTuleja said he wants actors to understand the core of each character. To be cast, an actor needs to know the character's motivations, personality, goals and be able to demonstrate them through strong acting choices. \n"Say there's a line: 'Stand back, you blue-headed freak,'" Tuleja said. "A choice would be, 'How do I feel about this blue-headed freak? Am I scared?'"\nAs each actor tries to quiet his or her nerves and begins to read from the script, another 10 seconds of excitement passes before dying away at the second sentence. All too soon, the audition committee learns which characters will be botched in certain ways. Professor Slosh's lines will be mispronounced. Kelly Pink's lines will be read too quickly. Yet now and then, a moment of hope: not for the actors, several of whom plaintively glance at the audition committee while leaving the room as if to ask how their reading went, but for the director, playwright and stage manager, all huddled around a table waiting for the spark that will kindle their creative fire. \n"I think we were very pleased with auditions," Tuleja said, adding he believed the audition committee had been able to find an excellent actor to play each role.\n"Mainly, for me, it just comes down to the talent," Yukich said. "But certainly looks and things like that had to do with a couple of the characters."\nFriends since their first year at IU, Yukich and Tuleja had been collaborating on the production a long time before auditions started. Yukich had given Tuleja a copy of the "Alien" script as long as a year and a half ago, and found out that Tuleja would be directing the IU production of it around last January.\nIn the spring, the two asked several actors to read through the play so they could form a better idea of how it would work onstage. While several of the actors who were initially asked to participate in the read-through were cast after the open auditions this fall, both Tuleja and Yukich said this was a result of their audition performances rather than any preconceived ideas about who should be in the play.\n"We were certainly looking at different people in different roles," Yukich said. "I don't really remember who played who last spring."\nTuleja agreed that most of the actors who were cast were fairly obvious choices for the roles. \nOne actress who made a strong impression on him after the initial auditions was Sara Rebrovic, a theater major who now plays Claudia, the female lead in "Alien." Although Rebrovic had played Claudia in the spring read-through, her dynamic performance during the fall auditions surprised Tuleja.\n"She did things in the audition that were different (than in the reading)," he said.\nRebrovic said she went into the auditions with a strong idea of who she wanted Claudia to be and let the impulse of the moment take care of the rest.\n"One night you say a line slightly differently than you've ever said it before," she explained. "(But) I think it's important to make a decision about the character."\nRebrovic added that she had wanted to be a part of the production ever since she first read the script.\n"When I read this play it moved me so much," she said. "I think it has some really poignant messages to give the audience."\nFor several other actors, however, the idea of being involved in a premiere production was daunting at first.\n"I wasn't too sure about it when I first sat down with the script having never read it, but after I read the script … my confidence grew," said Kenny Dellinger, a senior majoring in theater, who plays the title role in "Alien."\nDellinger said rehearsals have been an exhausting process for him because of the complications involved in playing an alien.\n"It's very hard because I have to change everything about the way I speak," he said. "We spent almost as much time on the voice as (on) the walk and posturing."\nFortunately, Tuleja had definite ideas about how to prepare the actors through the rehearsal process.\n"When we (first) got (into) rehearsal, we had group movement exercises. Everyone was working on their own separate character," Dellinger said. "We'd play games. We'd basically play follow-the-leader and go running around the room."\nTuleja said one of the techniques he used to help actors discover a range of possibilities for their characters was to play different kinds of music and ask the actors to move around the rehearsal space.\n"There's one specific piece, a Chopin piece, that's played three or four times throughout the show," Tuleja said. "That's one piece I would use for the warm-ups."\nAfter about two weeks of movement and other warm-up exercises, the cast began working on scenes from the play. \nDuring rehearsals, several actors practice pieces of a scene while the others hang around the rehearsal space in small groups, giggling at the inevitable inside jokes that develop after spending hours cooped up in one room with the same people six nights a week. "Quiet, please!" is a frequent command from stage manager Taylor James, although at times it begins to sound more like an exasperated plea. Two actors who play escaped convicts trying to pass themselves off as Siamese nuns, chained together as part of their role, clink loudly wherever they go like the soundtrack from an old horror movie. But when their fellow actors begin to perform the scene in order to try out the new ideas they have just incorporated, the room falls silent. Afterwards, the performers cluster together in the middle of the room to receive advice and praise from Tuleja or sometimes Yukich. \nThough Yukich usually directs his comments about the acting to Tuleja -- as the director, he plays liaison between the playwright and the ensemble -- at rare times he will speak directly to the performers.\n"Have you ever seen a girl falling for a really big cheeseball … and you think, 'that's so sad,' because she's falling for a really big cheeseball?" he asked two actors after they finished a scene together. "That's what we have to have."\nFor Yukich, being on location while one of his plays is rehearsed and performed is one reason that this production of "Alien" is so special.\n"It's been really nice for me to be in on the process and get to go to rehearsals," Yukich said. "It's been a luxury to actually be here."\nTuleja said he also enjoys having Yukich present.\n"A lot of (living) playwrights aren't there during the rehearsal process," Tuleja said. "(Jonathan and I) tend to see eye-to-eye on most things and on the things we don't, it's good to have somebody to bounce (ideas) off of." \nStill, Yukich stresses his presence is ultimately unnecessary because the important things about the play are apparent in the dialogue. As a playwright experimenting with an unusually presentational style and bizarre subjects, Yukich has to make sure his scripts are self-explanatory to actors and directors.\nRebrovic agrees that although it is exciting to have the playwright present, premiering a work is in some ways no different from participating in any other production, because in order to personalize a role, actors have to re-envision the character in their own mind. One of the best parts of this experience for her has been having the opportunity to bring her imaginary Claudia to life.\n"(Claudia) is driven in what she wants to do and knows what she needs to do," Rebrovic said, adding that she feels the character truly loves people and wants the best for them.\nAs the members of the cast and crew prepare for opening night, most seem to share similar hopes for the play: that it will entertain while intriguing audience members to search for the answers to the difficult questions it poses. \n"I hope (the audience members) come out with some questions ... about how they live their lives," Tuleja said.\nDellinger, however, took an entirely carefree approach.\n"I think it's a very hilarious play," he said. "I would love it if everyone came and just laughed."\n-- Contact staff writer Elise Baker at elimbake@indiana.edu.