PREVIEW: Herculine and Lola at USC's Center for Performance Experiment -- By Alivia L Seely

“People often think that identifying as transgender or words like 'intersex' are all new things, but the inclusion of Herculine’s story from the 1800s gives a different perspective. Struggles with gender identity and sexuality are not new--it’s just been excluded from the mainstream conversation,” -- Rachel Kuhnle, Lola in Herculine and Lola

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A jump through time and a change in culture, and yet, the same problem is still seen. Will comfort be felt or sexuality understood as playwright Dipika Guha’s script is brought to the stage?

Herculine and Lola is a play that showcases the struggles of gender identity and follows two women in their search to find peace with their bodies. Herculine Barbin is a women from the past. A schoolteacher in 19^th century France, Herculine writes a diary conveying her troubles as an intersex person. While leaping forward to present day, Lola is an American teenager who travels overseas with her parents, when they break some complicated news to her about her body.

“Lola looks and acts like a female and in fact believes she is a female until her parents inform her that it’s not so simple,” says Carin Bendas, a second-year MFA acting student at the University of South Carolina and playing the role of Lola.

Guha’s writing paints a picture of what it feels like to be someone struggling with gender identity. “This play has been enormously challenging to wrangle because of its structure and size. I wanted to create a three-part structure for the stage where we would depart and ‘be’ somewhere entirely different in the second part,” says Guha.

Herculine may be a piece of the past, but her problems are still prevalent in today’s contemporary culture, as audiences will see through Lola’s character. Rachel Kuhnle, also a second-year MFA acting student at USC and playing the role of Herculine, mentions never working in any production that takes sexuality and explores it so much. “People often think that identifying as transgender or words like 'intersex' are all new things, but the inclusion of Herculine’s story from the 1800s gives a different perspective. Struggles with gender identity and sexuality are not new--it’s just been excluded from the mainstream conversation,” says Kuhnle.

Most people have come across an intersex person before; we just wouldn’t normally notice it, Bendas mentions. As it seems, today’s culture is more understanding when it comes to an intersex or transgender person. Knowing that people had to deal with gender identity issues at a time when the culture was not as accepting really puts an emphasis on how evolved our culture has become-though obviously not far enough. Despite period differences, Herculine and Lola bond together through their imagination and love.“Our life experiences play a huge part in the characters we create, especially in a play where the characters' journeys are so personal,” says Kuhnle.

Audience members have to keep their imaginations going and remember the unique culture each character belongs to. With such dramatic time period shifts, showing scene changes can be a challenge, even for set designer and director Steven Pearson.“It’s a very cinematic play and to do that with a simple element, to bring to life what is written on the page, is always a challenge, especially to go from one environment to another and from one time to another. We are using more general furniture and props to have the audience’s imaginations anchor on them. But the most important part is the actors in it,” says Pearson.

This will be the first production of the play, and Guha is delighted to have Pearson behind her. “He understands what this play is after down to its marrow and has worked tirelessly to realize the story in a kind of bare theatrical landscape I had imagined when I wrote it,” says Guha. “He has given me the greatest gift that a playwright could ask for, which is the absolute commitment to staging the play as is written.”

The play will run from November 15-21 at the Center for Performance Experiment on 718 Devine St. Tickets are $5 and are available only at the door. Show times are 8 p.m. every night, and on Friday, November 20, two shows will run at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.

PREVIEW: USC's Threepenny Opera

The Threepenny Opera, written by Bertolt Brecht and directed by Steven Pearson, is back at the University of South Carolina. This production brings about USC’s first musical Mainstage production since another of Brecht’s works, Mother Courage and Her Children, was performed in April of 2009!

The Threepenny Opera follows the deeds of the charming, but innately vile, Macheath (Josh Jeffers). Macheath is a notorious criminal who is widely admired by beggars and thieves of Victorian London, and is known for thousands of heinous crimes, including thievery, adultery, and murder. Macheath only sees wild success in all of his endeavors until he takes the young, and naïve, Polly Peachum (Candace Thomas) as his wife in secret. For when Mr. and Mrs. Peachum (Benjamin Roberts and Rachel Kuhnle), discover that Macheath has ‘stolen’ their daughter away, they vow to have him arrested and hanged.

“[The play] was radical when Brecht first introduced it as a sort of anti-opera, anti-establishment sort of theatre,” Pearson explains.  “It has a sociopolitical bent which says, ‘Look at what is going on the country and in society, at thieves and beggars and the commodification of people.” Threepenny is Brecht’s adaption of John Gay’s 1728 satirical ballad opera entitled The Beggar’s Opera. Both plays take a socialist standpoint to make social commentary on the inequality of the classes in capitalist societies. “Brecht was talking about the same things that are happening now, and even though the play is set in the 19th-century, it has a very contemporary feel,” says Pearson.  “It all keeps coming back, people wanting to cut funding that supports the poor, the discrepancies between the haves and have nots…  Really, nothing has changed.”

By placing such a self-serving, ironic-hero in a role that one is intended to sympathize with, it forces the audience constantly question who in the play they should be identifying with or fighting for. Even Mr. Peachum, who is the strongest supporter of traditional morality, still only gains income through the exploitation of others and only truly has selfish intentions. “The play centers around beggars, thieves, and whores, or “the poorest of the poor”, trying to lift themselves from their current socioeconomic state,” explains Josh Jeffers (Macheath).  “…Not a single character has the luxury of remaining incorruptible, nor bears shame because today, not only is the financial gap between the poor and the wealthy significantly wide, but we’ve become profoundly desensitized to corruption.  If our audiences feel confronted with this theme in either capacity, then I think we’ve succeeded. “

And being a Brecht production, which focuses on the alienation of the audience, or verfremdungseffekt, Threepenny should be considered less a ‘musical theatre production’ and more ‘a play with music’. “The audience plays a major role.  We use music and, occasionally, direct address to include them in this story because the themes are so universal,” Josh Jeffers explains, “…The music in a Brecht piece is a tool used to comment on the theme of the moment, rather than advance the plot or reveal characters’ intentions.  Brecht’s music isn’t necessarily as melodic as we’re used to.  It’s rough and messy because the characters and themes are rough and messy. “

Mack is back! Show times for The Threepenny Opera are 8pm Wednesdays through Saturdays, with additional 3pm matinees on Sunday, October 4 and Saturday, October 10.  Tickets for the production are $12 for students, $16 for USC faculty/staff, military personnel and seniors 60+, and $18 for the general public.  Tickets can be purchased in advance by calling 803-777-2551 or by visiting the Longstreet Theatre box office, which is open Monday-Friday, 12:30pm-5:30pm, beginning Friday, September 25.  Longstreet Theater is located at 1300 Greene St.

The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill English Translation by Robert MacDonald Original German text based on Elizabeth Hauptmann's German translation of John Gay's The Beggar’s Opera

Directed by Steven Pearson Musical Direction by Matthew Marsh

Preview by Rebecca Shrom

"Our Town" at Longstreet Theatre - a review by Jillian Owens

The University of South Carolina’s second production of the 2014-15 academic year isn’t the most adventurous of choices, but it is a popular one. Often-produced, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town (directed by Steven Pearson in USC's Longstreet Theatre) tells the simple story of a simple town full of simple people,  but also tackles themes as heavy as why no one seems to appreciate life while they’re living it, and the meaning of eternity.

One of the reasons this play is so -- in my opinion -- over-performed is that it’s easy to produce. The script dictates that no props or sets be used. The actors must instead mime all action. Ladders become the second floors of houses where characters exchange secrets, and there are a few tables and chairs. That’s it. No real budget is required. Another reason this play is often-produced is that it’s extremely popular. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1938, and its 1989 Broadway revival garnered a Tony and a Drama Desk Award for Best Revival.

Our Town is divided into three acts: Daily Life, Love and Marriage, and Death and Dying.  The play opens in the tiny town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire in 1901. An equally omniscient and nostalgic Stage Manager (Carin Bendas) introduces us to several of the townsfolk and explains the town’s not-very-exciting history. We see the Gibbs and Webb families sending their children off to school. It’s all a bit tedious, and it’s meant to be. We meet the two teenagers, George Gibbs (Matthew Cavender) and Emily Webb (Nicole Dietze.) Much like the town of Grover’s Corners, there’s nothing really remarkable about either of them. We begin to see them fall in love. We see them marry. Nothing remarkable.

The third act poses an intriguing question: If you were dead and could go back to any day in your life, what would it be, and how would your perspective change? If youth is wasted on the young, is life wasted on the living? Do any of us really appreciate life while we’re in the moments that stack upon other moments until it’s all over? According to the Stage Manager, "No. Saints and poets maybe...they do some.”

Most of it is frightfully simple and boring, as are most of our lives. And that’s kind of the point. If Our Town wasn’t written in this simplistic style and with so few things that actually happen, we wouldn’t be as able to empathize with the characters as we are. We can see ourselves in them...not in those exciting, electric moments that we wait for, but in the spaces in between when we’re cooking dinner, running errands, or just chatting with a friend. This is who we are.

This production of Our Town features a new crop of MFA students, as well as a few undergrads. Dietze and Cavender are naively pleasant enough as Emily and George. I enjoyed the easy and comfortable dynamic between Dr. and Mrs. Gibbs (Josh Jeffers and Candace Thomas), which was perhaps the most subtly touching and believable relationship in this production. The Stage Manager is usually cast as a male, but features a female actor, Carin Bendas, in this production. It’s a difficult role, as it isn’t really so much a character as it is a time-warping deliverer of exposition. Bendas comes off as off-puttingly smug at times, but still delivers some of the best lines of the show with empathy and compassion. All of the actors do an impressive job at miming props, and manage to deliver decent New Hampshire accents.

I was impressed by how visually interesting the “not really a set” set was. Neda Spalajkovic adhered to Wilder’s desires as much as she could, while still giving the audience something interesting to look at that establishes location and time changes. And even if you don’t care very much for this sort of show, you’ll be impressed with how she has worked with lighting designer Ashley Pittman to create a visually stunning final tableau.

The plot is slow. The language is plain. But then you get lines like this that jump out at you and stir something inside of you:

“We all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars . . . everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being.”

And this is why Our Town remains an American theatre classic.

~ Jillian Owens

Show times for Our Town are 8pm Wednesdays through Saturdays, with additional 3pm matinees on Sunday, November 16 and Saturday, November 22.  Tickets for the production are $12 for students, $16 for USC faculty/staff, military personnel and seniors 60+, and $18 for the general public.  Tickets can be purchased by calling 803-777-2551 or by visiting the Longstreet Theatre box office, which is open Monday-Friday, 12:30pm-5:30pm, beginning Friday, November 7.  Longstreet Theatre is located at 1300 Greene St.

Theatre SC Opens Charming Chekhov Classic Three Sisters November 15

Theatre South Carolina  will present the Chekhov classic Three Sisters at the University of SC’s historic Longstreet Theatre November 15 – 23.

Show times for Three Sisters are 8pm Wednesdays-Fridays, 7pm Saturdays and 3pm on the first Sunday.  There is an additional half-price late night performance on the final Saturday, November 23.  Tickets for the production are $12 for students, $16 for USC faculty/staff, military personnel and seniors 60+, and $18 for the general public. Tickets can be purchased in advance by calling 803-777-2551 or by visiting the Longstreet Theatre box office, which is open Monday-Friday, 12:30pm-5:30pm, beginning Friday, November 8. Longstreet Theatre is located at 1300 Greene St.

A vibrantly modern story, the titular characters in Three Sisters, first performed in 1901, live together in their family home, settled in a provincial Russian town.  They feel trapped by their conventional existence, however, and long to return to the sophisticated world of Moscow, which they were forced to leave years before.   Anton Chekhov's poignant story is at once full of charm and anguish as the sisters are haunted by an impending future beyond their control and recollections of a happier past that keep them from truly living in the present.

University theatre professor Steven Pearson is directing the play, which he describes as “a breath of fresh air” and emblematic of Chekhov’s timeless appeal.   “Chekhov’s plays have lasted because they’re about the human condition,” he says.  “His work has a big heart for humanity and is loving about the difficulties of being alive and the magnificence that can exist in small events.”

Pearson has extensive experience with the work of Chekhov, both as a director and scholar.  Additionally, three of his original works (Balance, Gravity, and Flight, produced through his company Pacific Performance Project/east) are billed as “riffs” on themes present in Chekhov’s works, The Seagull, The Cherry Orchard and Three Sisters.

The director says he is working to bring Chekhov’s intended sense of lightness to the play, which is commonly produced with a more somber tone.  “Chekhov’s approach to things is not much different than, say, Charlie Chaplin’s approach,” Pearson says. “In [Chaplin’s] City Lights, for instance, The Tramp will get to a place that’s almost sentimental, where there is feeling and sadness and so on, and then – poof! – he gets water thrown in his face and we laugh.  Chekhov actually uses that structure a lot.  It gets kind of sad and then there’s something wacky that happens, just like in real life.  There’s essentially a very human, smiling person that is watching this comedy of us going through our lives.”

All eight of the theatre program’s Master of Fine Arts in Acting candidates will appear in the production, including, as the sisters, Melissa Reed (Olga), Kate Dzvonik  (Masha) and Laurie Roberts (Irina).  Several professional guest actors will also appear in the production, including two longtime favorites of Theatre SC stages, Bob Hungerford (Chebutykin) and recently retired professor Richard Jennings (Ferapont/Anfisa).  NYC-based actor/director Michael Place will take the role of Solyony.

A mix of period-realism and impressionism makes up the production’s scenic design, created by MFA scenic design candidate Meredith Hart.  Guest artist Andy Smith, a Seattle-based professional lighting designer, will enhance the design’s impressionistic elements with evocative lighting textures.  Detailed, period-specific costuming is being created by MFA costume design candidate Vera DuBose.  Director Steven Pearson will also double as the show’s sound designer.

Pearson sums up the emotional resonance of the show by pointing to Chekhov’s mastery at portraying the reality of living.

“It's not like we go through our lives and suddenly something magnificent happens and that's the only meaning there is,” he explains.  “Real life is much bigger than that, and we have to get sensitive to what's going around us.  It's a magical thing to be alive, even the difficult parts, and I think that Chekov got his finger on that.”

For more information about Three Sisters or the theatre program at the University of South Carolina, contact Kevin Bush by phone at 803-777-9353 or via email at bushk@mailbox.sc.edu.