An audience crowds into a small, dark room murmuring and flipping through programs. In front, there is no stage, no screen - just a cozy performance area with room enough for a handful of people. This audience will not enjoy a thundering chorus or a booming accompanying band. This audience will experience live theater in a different, more intimate way.
The Cave Theatre, located in the Arts and Communications Building, is a classroom space adapted for student workshop productions.
Karen Kessler, assistant professor of acting and directing and coordinator of Cave shows, said the theater gives students a unique opportunity to work in a laboratory setting instead of a heavily publicized mainstage production.
"It's not about if the world likes what they're doing," she said. "It's about if they are doing something productive and useful."
Theater majors in the production sequence are encouraged to direct a workshop production in the Cave before they graduate.
Students who want to direct Cave shows go through an extensive application process. They submit one to three plays they would like to direct, write thorough analyses of each proposal and interview with theater faculty. Kessler said eight to 20 students applied each year, but only three to six plays were accepted.
These plays receive little technical support, limited faculty input and no budget. The departmental handbook for the Department of Theatre and Dance explained the purpose of these workshop productions was to strengthen the acting-directing process rather than focus on the product.
"It's about how they produce things, not what they produce," Kessler said. "This is a laboratory. If things don't go beautifully, [the students] can deal with that in private."
Sophomore Casie Smith was assistant stage manager for "John and Jen," a Cave show that ran in October. Smith agreed that Cave shows are part of a learning process.
"Everybody's learning together, so you feel more at home if you make mistakes," she said. "It's different if you make mistakes in front of your peers than if you make mistakes in front of your professors."
The small size of the theater, which seats about 40, can be an advantage, Smith said.
"[The Cave] is really intimate," she said. "If it were in a bigger theater, maybe the message wouldn't get across so well. It brings you closer to the story and closer to the characters."
Smith said some scripts call for a closer setting. "John and Jen," for example, had two actors and a simple set.
Senior Tara Branham, who is directing "New Anatomies" by Timberlake Wertenbaker in the Cave, said she enjoyed the challenge of working in the small space.
"The best part about working in the Cave is figuring out how to be more creative because you are working in such a limited space," she said.
In fact, Branham said she would like to bring the audience even closer and create the "inability to escape" by arranging the seats in an oval around the performance area.
"I want [the audience] to watch it, I want them to have an opinion about it and I want them to be involved," she said. "So by putting them that close to the action, with hardly any space between the actor and them, it forces them to stay into it."
Branham applied to direct "New Anatomies" in March. The play was selected, and she began rehearsals with her cast of five students in October. The play opened Tuesday night and runs through Saturday. Branham said the Cave atmosphere adds to the experimental nature of her show, which tells the story of a woman who's trying to find her place in the world.
"It's something everybody can relate to," she said. "She just happens to do it by dressing as a man and traveling with tribes in North Africa."
Kessler said the show was challenging and non-linear; however, she expected the audience to feel a part of it.
"[The students] have had a positive process where they get to the storytelling," she said. "It's fascinating when students are given an opportunity to try something and see what happens. Students will really rise to the occasion and do interesting work."
If all goes as planned, Branham said she hoped the audience would leave feeling connected to the story, and the intimate nature of the Cave could only add to that.
Cave theater
- Theater majors in the production sequence are encouraged to direct a workshop production in the Cave before they graduate.
- Students who want to direct Cave shows go through an extensive application process
- Plays receive little technical support, limited faculty input and no budget
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
