Not only is WAVE Productions' A Room Embodied a love story like you've never seen before, it is also Shanley indoor plumbing like you've never seen it before.
For six months the play's adapter/director, Communication senior Atley Loughridge, has been crafting just how to create a stage "river," almost the same amount of time she spent tweaking her adaptation of Virginia Woolf's 1929 novel, A Room of One's Own. Her vision for creating a play from the novel has gone through many phases, but she says the river was one of the first things she knew it had to have. And the waterworks came together quite well - a metallic basin runs around and splits the small stage, creating a shiny twist on an otherwise drab stage.
The flowing water is the perfect embodiment of the play's themes: embracing creative powers and gender ideas. But let's back up.
A Room of One's Own is based on the premise that in order for a woman to write fiction, she must have 500 pounds and a room of her own -to focus and hone her thoughts as an art form, instead of self-expression.
Loughridge's adaptation plays on this idea, featuring the main character from the novel, Mary, as the narrator, as well as the author, Virginia Woolf - with scenes of her as an adult and child. The twist: The entire play takes place in Virginia Woolf's imagination, culminating in a love affair between Mary and Virginia. "It all works toward a synthesis of the two worlds," Loughridge says. "It is a love affair between two sides of the mind. It's a love story of ideas."
The complexities of the show are testament to the challenges and constraints women faced in Woolf's time. "This play is all about how physical strains on the body translate as strains on the mind," Loughridge says.
Watching the play promises to be a unique experience, and apparently, so was being part of the cast - which munches on an open box of Lucky Charms during downtime at their rehearsal, scattering around the trench that is soon to be filled with water.
Be the first to comment on this story