“What makes you happy?”
“Have you ever been close to death?”
“Have you ever witnessed a miracle?”
Armed with voice recorders and SmarTrips, the 2011 senior class of theater majors ventured through the D.C. Metro system and collected over 100 interviews. In teams of two, one person would ask questions about life, happiness and the Metro. The other would take notes on the mannerisms and physicality of their subject. The class then transformed what they found into a live docudrama with over 60 characters played by 12 performers.
“Excuse me, is that your bag?”
The familiar words said from the Metro PA system came through the speakers as the show began: “If you see something, say something.” On a set that made them voyeurs into the intimate lives of D.C. residents the audience watched as strangers revealed the sad, the shocking and the hilarious through their interviews. The best and most fascinating part of the show was that every word spoken by the characters on stage was originally said by a real person on the Metro.
Most students write papers for their capstones and thesis projects, but if you’re a theater major, you make an entire show — from start to finish. Students produced every aspect of the show, entitled “See Something, Say Something.” Assistant professor Javier Rivera supervised the production and gave guidance when needed. Otherwise, he encouraged the students’ own creative process to guide the show.
“See Something, Say Something” also included several original songs with music by Mandee Ferrier Roberts, a first-year graduate student studying Arts Management, and lyrics by cast and crewmembers John Fritz and David W. Pritchard. The songs varied over a range of topics, much like the interviews and the people they came from. There was the soulful funeral hymn sung by Tia Dolet. Then Kelsea Edgerly performed a ditty about escaping into a comic book with Batman. And Katherine Reinert performed a whimsical and philosophical song about dropping acid and your “immediate sensory experience.”
The show was similar to other docudramas such as “The Laramie Project” and works by Anna Deavere Smith in its eerily truthful representation of true people. When the play starts, it’s a little unclear as to who or what we should be focusing on or where this is all going. But very soon, it clicks.
The Metro is a metaphor for life and it’s all too clear that the people we brush by every day have stories that are both heartbreaking and gut-busting.
“OK, so what makes you happy?”
Glynnis Purcell dons a beanie as she portrays a young gentleman.
“Life. Livin’. Vagina. Money — well, money first, then vagina,” Purcell said.
It was so strange to think that people had actually said these things and even stranger that they opened up to students even with their stories of death and failure.
“What gives you hope?”
“You guys give me hope,” one of the Metro-goers said, “just coming down to the Metro, asking people questions.”
thescene@theeagleonline.com
