MAGGIE GILROY
Reverb Editor
While the street art panel gathered in McEwen Hall for the Visiting Artist Program, a much smaller, but equally enthusiastic, crowd met next door. The eager audience attended the premiere of “All In The Timing,” a series of One Acts by David Ives.
An independent project directed by senior theatre arts major Jessica Ames, the production was produced in conjunction with the Performing Arts Company Thursday and Friday evening.
“All In The Timing” consisted of Ives’s five one-act plays performed by a small four person cast consisting of Mike Benoit, senior theatre arts major; Molly Waters, junior acting major; Dominique Kempf, junior theatre arts major and Michael Flanagan, junior theatre arts major.
According to the American Theater Wing, David Ives is an Off-Broadway playwright known most recently for his critically acclaimed full-length play, “Venus in Fur.”
For “All In The Timing” Ames chose the one-acts “Sure Thing,” “The Philadelphia,” “English Made Simple,” “Singular King of Guy” and “Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread” out of Ives’ extensive body of work. Each one-act utilized the absurd to comment on everyday life experiences including love, second chances and language.
“I chose ‘Phillip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread’ first and I really loved it. It was really weird and crazy,” said Ames. “It was so weird and it was just so much fun to think about what I could do with it with just this bare bones thing that I had.”
Each one-act had an absurdist element to it, including characters who could re-do their actions at the sound of a bell, a character who was stuck in a world that resembled a state in America, an English lesson that resulted in romance, a man who thought he was a typewriter and falls in love with a piece of paper and having an unexpected run-in with a lover, which resulted in a cacophony of language.
“As much as it is absurd, you definitely can make sense of it,” said Benoit. “You can make sense out of the situations and the words that he’s writing.”
“David Ives writes really smartly; he writes for smart actors and a smart audience,” said Waters. “He doesn’t treat them or belittle them at all in terms of their intelligence. He expects you to use it. And Jess really
let us use that a lot, which, as an actor, is really, really refreshing.”
Ames chose to direct the production merely for fun and to find another opportunity to direct before she graduates in May. As Ames aspires to be a director after college, this production gave her more experience beyond the directing class required of theatre majors.
“As time went on Jess really helped us figure out what she wanted out of the process and what some of these things meant,” said Kempf. “It was difficult considering just the absurdist language.”
The cast had a mere three weeks to rehearse working around the busy schedules of the cast and crew as many were involved in “RENT.”
“The process was pretty intense,” said Benoit. “We rehearsed quite often. Jess was quite enthusiastic throughout the process.”
The cast was off-book only a week before the production.
“Half of our rehearsals was work, work, work and the other half was actually a fair amount of play and laughing over the mistakes we made,” added Flanagan. “Jess, for every show she directs, she has a quote book of all the stupid things that come out of our mouths, whether it comes from lines or other things, she knows how to make a very tightly knit cast. She knows how to make good chemistry between actors.”
Ames reminded Flanagan of one of their acting professors, Edward Sharon, and the advice he gives actors during scenes.
“Everything that she was saying, as far as a direction at some point, it was always effective,” said Benoit. “Very specific, very right to the point.”
The performance gave the cast and crew an opportunity to see the production in a new light.
“It’s always fun to see what the audience finds funny that you didn’t realize was that funny during the rehearsal process,” said Kempf.