IU Theatre opens 3 plays

Starting today, IU Theatre will show the first of three new plays for its program “At First Sight,” a collection of pieces written by master of fine arts students Kelly Lusk, Iris Dauterman and Nathan Davis.

Incorporating themes and issues of sexual trauma, mental paralysis and the nature of fate, the plays challenge various ideas and social constructions.

The first piece, “The Art of Bowing,” will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Wellz-Metz
Theatre.

It is a meta-theatrical drama that explores human civilization, the role of divinity in human life and the philosophical concepts of fate and determinism. The genre of meta-theater blatantly breaks the fourth wall.

Techniques of meta-theater include the actors’ recognition of their jobs as actors and of the play they are in. It has roots in the work of the 20th century dramatists Tom Stoppard and Samuel Beckett.

“The groundwork was laid by playwrights like Beckett,” said playwright Nathan Davis, a third-year MFA candidate. “This bare, spare world where large ideas can fit. It’s a combination of being very specific and very vague.”

For Davis, the thematic elements of meta-theater often take precedence over its characters or narrative aspects.

“I look at characters in terms of archetype — what they stand for or what they represent,” Davis said. “I don’t view my characters as actual people.”

Universality rather than individuality figures heavily in “The Act of Bowing.” The actors each play multiple roles throughout the development of the play and emerge onto the set under the premise that theater itself is dead.

From this metaphorical death, however, Davis said he believes his characters have been given a chance to achieve a greater kind of freedom.

“Ideas of freedom and death are very much common links,” Davis said. “The death of self so that God can move within you. The journey of submission. Giving yourself up for a greater truth.”

Davis worked on the project with director Rob Heller, a second year MFA student who has worked on numerous projects at IU, including a play by Davis’ colleague Iris Dauterman.

“It’s been a very highly collaborative process,” Davis said. “Rob’s enthusiasm for the script and commitment to keeping it fresh and dynamic is exactly what the play
needed.”

The second piece, “Lacy and Ashley Live in a Trailer Now,” will open at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Wells-Metz.

It is directed by Dale McFadden, associate chair in the Department of Theatre, Drama and Contemporary Dance.

“Lacy and Ashley” is about a gay couple in a place of their life they didn’t expect to be, Lusk said.

“They find themselves stuck in a trailer, stuck in this town,” Lusk said. “It’s hard for them to get themselves out of this rut.”

The play draws influence from the notable Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, whose work “Three Sisters” deals with the difficulties of moving out of the ruts of life.

“It’s kind of a fantasy we have of just moving,” Lusk said. “But this move to be happier isn’t always the best of options.”

Throughout the play, other characters including a drug addict and a gay man who finds himself in relations with married men maneuver in and out of Lacy and Ashley’s life.

Lusk said by writing characters he considers rather unlikeable, he believes he is able to reach a culture not often depicted in theater.

“I wanted to explore people that society views as bottom of the barrel — gay people and trailer trash,” he said. “People who don’t think very much of themselves talking with one another. It ends up being about how they communicate and how they make a community of themselves.”

Lusk’s themes of human sexuality and community are also apparent in Dauterman’s play “Trigger Warning,” directed by professor and actress Nancy Lipschulz.

The play will open at 5 p.m. Wednesday. It features issues of sexual violence, trauma and survival.

“It was difficult to write about,” Dauterman said. “I wanted to be very respectful. I wanted to make sure that none of the characters came across as stereotypes or helpless victims. I wanted to make sure I portrayed the severity of what was happening to them.”

“Trigger Warning” brings attention to sexual abuse in the lives of five women who share their stories with one another in an effort to release themselves from their trauma.

Dauterman, who describes herself as “ambitious to the point of being idiotic,” believes that sexual abuse and the role of women in playwriting is underrepresented.

By writing multiple roles for strong female characters, she said she views herself as representing a demographic in need of a voice.

In dealing with strong themes and controversial subject matter, Dauterman, like Davis and Lusk, said she would like for her work to inspire and provoke her audience.

“I would love to change some minds,” she said.