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The concept Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Suzan Lori-Parks dreamt up for “365 Days/365 Plays” is genius: 365 plays were penned in 365 days, then divided among 700 theater groups to be performed worldwide over a year’s span.
The tag team presentation means each week a different theater group performs seven plays coinciding with each play’s “birthday,” and this week Clemson University’s performing arts students got the slap.
“It’s the largest collaborative theater effort in the world and, if nothing else, it’s really cool to be a part of that,” Chris Bellinger, the director of the Clemson shows, said. “It allows you to take it to the audience instead of the audience coming to you.”
The arrangement thrusts the crew into a different operating mode – 582 pages of script materialized from Parks’ imagination, and Clemson students must fully bake seven performances out of a meager 11 pages written for their segment. This equates to about five minutes of stage time per play. It’s a departure on many levels from standard theater, and Bellinger said the first challenge with which the cast contends is “one of interpretation and production.”
“Most shows that are done in a college setting have been done before,” he explained. “There is history of productions. Even if you depart from what’s been done before, you start with an idea of what works and what doesn’t. With a new work, you are flying blind.”
Seeing how the students approach this and other obstacles is half the fun. An abbreviated script precludes elaborate sets and all but the bare necessities in props. Logistical challenges need be addressed deftly.
“With plays that may be no more than a page, you can’t have complicated scene changes,” Bellinger said. “They would last longer than the plays.”
Thematically, the seven plays are related, expressing a discontent with the war in Iraq and its architect, but the scripts are not linked. Multiple characters, therefore, are acted by the same actor, but developed within the span of four to five lines.
Unusual as this may be, Bellinger believes the difficulty of rapidly developing and parting with a character is approached with the same rules as character development through a regular play.
“Basically, it doesn’t matter whether it is one line or a hundred or a thousand,” he said. “The actor has to commit equally regardless of the number of lines or stage time, and the ensemble has to be there for support and to help provide and move focus.”
Cohesiveness among the ensemble is crucial to pulling off quick changes – on more than one level, there is no “I” in “365 Plays/365 Days.”
“It takes a mature actor not to try for center stage the entire time,” Bellinger said. “Ensemble acting is difficult and it doesn’t work when you try to be the center of attention. It is a common mistake for younger actors. These guys definitely show their maturity.”
Clemson students will perform week 20 of Parks’ opus eight times over a seven day period. The play runs several regional paths simultaneously. However, Clemson is one of only two schools in South Carolina partaking in the production. Nationwide, theater groups as large as New York Public Theater and as small as, well, the graduating class of Clemson’s performing arts program are involved.
Despite the challenges, Bellinger expects an excellent show.
“In theory, we have been trained for exactly this type of project,” he said. “It’s a good test of what we’ve learned. I think we’ve proven the value and quality of our training.”
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