This year’s student-written USM Theatre productions, “Ghosting” by Michael Toth and “Goin’ to Graceland” by M. Calien Lewis, play this week at the St. Lawrence Arts and Community Center, 76 Congress St. in Portland. The one-act plays, directed by USM faculty members William Steele and Thomas Power and featuring student actors, explore themes of redemption, renewal and pilgrimage. Both were partly inspired by classic works of English literature.
“Ghosting” tells the story of a group of homeless people who gather in an alley outside a theater during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Its central character, played by Ben Wake, is called the Player King — a former Shakespearean actor whose daughter died in a fire. Unable to cope with this tragedy, he has slipped into homelessness and buried his guilt beneath a stage personality, reciting monologues from Shakespeare plays he remembers from his acting days. In the course of the play, he comes to terms with his past while interacting with the other characters, and he eventually attains redemption.
Other characters in the play include an alcoholic called Stage Manager, played by Brian Walsh; a theater worker, Gabrielle, played by Rachel Stultz; and a streetwalker named Beatrice, played by Anna Gravel. Brian Libby plays Beatrice’s pimp, Cassius.
Toth said he got the initial idea for his play during a lighting practicum given by USM Theatre Department Technical Director Matt Meeds. The term “ghosting” refers to a technique used in theater lighting in the 1920s and 1930s: when a blackout was needed during a production, electricity had to be redirected to other lights kept outside the theater, often in an alley.
When he was explaining the technique to students, Meeds joked that bums in the alley would put on a show when their lights came on. “It just struck a bell as a really interesting idea,” Toth said. A couple days later he started writing the play.
M. Calien Lewis’ play “Goin’ to Graceland” is about six people who meet on a train, all of them headed for the shrine to Elvis Presley mentioned in the title. The play explores the reasons that people want or need to make a pilgrimage, Lewis said. She began writing the play with Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” in mind, but with modern day characters and setting.
Jenny Brown plays Erin, a female-to-male transsexual who seeks acceptance as an Elvis impersonator; Wesley Cianchette plays Sam, a Native/African American jazz musician; Richard Malady plays Charlie, a public defender from Chicago; Ariel Francoeur plays Vicky, a recently widowed woman from Maine; and Andrea Lopez and Nate Amadon play Jayne and Tom, a married couple from Cleveland.
All but one of the characters are middle-aged, posing a challenge for the student actors, most of whom are much younger. But having watched rehearsals during the production of her play, Lewis said she is “very impressed with the way the actors have risen to that challenge.”
Both Toth and Lewis worked on their plays in USM Professor Walter Stump’s one-act playwriting course last spring. Each year, two student plays from that course are chosen by Theatre Dept. faculty for production the following fall. The plays are then adjudicated by the American College Theater Festival, who select the best student plays in each region of the country. Plays of merit have a chance to go on to a regional festival in Providence, RI and then to Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Directors William Steel and Thomas Power have worked with the student playwrights over the past few months, giving feedback and helping with rewrites. Toth and Lewis have also been attending rehearsals of their plays this fall, which they agree has been a great learning experience. Lewis said that seeing her work performed has taught her about the practicalities of theater, like how to use silence and when to fill it. “I’ve learned an amazing amount just watching [the rehearsals],” she said.
Toth valued the chance to revise his play after hearing the rehearsals. “Funny lines that are great on paper just sometimes aren’t so great on stage,” he said. Attending rehearsals also brought to his attention elements that he hadn’t considered when originally writing the play, such as music. He has worked with sound designer Chris Gyngell during production to help choose music to go with the play.
“Ghosting” and “Goin’ to Graceland” are playing back-to-back at the St. Lawrence Arts and Community Center, 76 Congress St. in Portland. Shows begin at 7:30 p.m. every night from Tuesday through Saturday this week. Tickets are $5 for students, $7 for seniors, and $10 for the general public. Call the USM Theatre box office at 780-5151 for reservations and information.
Brian O’Keefe can be contacted at [email protected]