Twice a year, once in November and once in April, our first-year MFA directing students are given the opportunity to direct one act plays within a course called Theatre 520. Our Theatre Design and Production students are paired with the productions chosen by the MFA directors and lighting, sound, costume designers, stage managers, and 3^rd and 4^th year BFA actors bring these pieces to life.

Unfortunately, this year, our April showing was cancelled due to COVID-19 closures but the directors had done their research and script analysis, the designs were handed in to professors, and production meetings with staff had ensued. As so much work had been done on the 520’s, we’d like to celebrate their endeavours by letting you in on some of the work that had been done.

Constellations by Nick Payne

Darci Carrier, Set Designer, Constellations

Notes from MFA Director
Omar Muñoz

A Play About Theoretical Physics and Bees

Can you recall a moment where your life took a different direction as a result of a decision? Have you ever thought about what would’ve happened if you had made a different choice?

Our existence is filled with crucial moments that shape our reality. What if: “every choice, every decision you’ve ever and never made exists in an unimaginably vast ensemble of parallel universes”? *

If that were the case, then why would making decisions even matter? What would be the meaning of our lives?

Through the performance of different stages in the relationship between Marianne, a physicist, and Roland, a beekeeper, Nick Payne’s Constellations, explores the possibilities of a multiverse and the transcendence of decision-making. Scene repetitions with slight (and sometimes big), but important differences; a fairly non-linear and clever structure; and dialogue filled with the intimacy and the complexity of daily life interaction, are some of the means that the playwright uses to tell the story.

This is a play about contrasts and opposites colliding; we simultaneously get a sense of the general broad multiverse and the intimate human experience within it. Constellations serves as a reminder of what really matters in life, and since, in the end, we only have this universe, it is worth living, making decisions, and above all, caring about our interactions with other beings and with our surroundings.

* Quote from Constellations by Nick Payne.

Darci Carrier, Set Designer, Constellations and A Provincial Lady
https://www.darcicarrier.com

John Tolton, Lighting Designer, Constellations and A Provincial Lady
https://www.darcicarrier.com
https://johnjohntoltondesign.com

Owen Marmorek, Sound Designer, Constellations and A Provincial Lady
Owen created a video for the original house music track design for Constellations.
Soundcloud: https://bit.ly/3cwB7FO
You Tube link: https://bit.ly/2VlJoXk
http://owenmarmorek.com

A Provincial Lady

Amber Smith, Costume Designer, A Provincial Lady

Notes from MFA Director
Laura DiCicco

A Provincial Lady

A Provincial Lady by Ivan Turgenev came to me just by chance. I knew after one read of it that it was the play I wanted to do for my second One-Act production.

The biggest reason for my choosing this play was because, not only was the central character a woman, she was also a strong woman. That is important to me in selecting plays: giving voice and strength to women in theatre.

However, it was not only the fact that the central character, Darya, was a strong woman, but she was a strong woman in 1850’s Russia. That was something quite unique for the time-period, both in life and in literature. I feel that Turgenev (1818-1883) was a writer who was ahead of his time, and I am impressed that he wrote strong roles for women. Darya was a “master manipulator”, hell-bent on securing a better life for herself and for her family. With that in mind, I wanted to express the play in the form of a puppet show, wherein Darya was the puppet-master, and all the men her puppets.

The play also provided me with other exciting challenges. There were elements of farce/commedia del arte/satire, and yes, even music, while at the same time providing realistic elements and commentary on the mores of the day. This play bundled a whole lot of fabric from which to work; it would have been a great challenge for me and also a challenge for the actors and designers. It was a great “warm-up” act for my thesis project in my second and final year, since A Provincial Lady had a cast of seven, and gave me the opportunity to work with several actors at a time.

I only wish that it could have been realized.

Darci Carrier, Set Designer, A Provincial Lady and Constellations 
https://www.darcicarrier.com

John Tolton, Lighting Designer, A Provincial Lady and Constellations 
https://www.darcicarrier.com
https://johnjohntoltondesign.com

Owen Marmorek, Sound Designer, A Provincial Lady and Constellations 
Owen created a video for the original house music track design for Constellations.
Soundcloud: https://bit.ly/3cwB7FO
You Tube link: https://bit.ly/2VlJoXk
http://owenmarmorek.com

Amber Smith, Costume Designer, A Provincial Lady
https://ambrsmth.weebly.com

Antony Knight UBC School of Music composer, (double major in Composition and Opera).
Antony provided music for the words that were in the script.
Soundcloud: https://bit.ly/2VpivC8