{"id":13141,"date":"2015-11-09T13:33:21","date_gmt":"2015-11-09T18:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quantumnew.esu.edu\/insider\/?p=13141"},"modified":"2016-06-09T11:41:51","modified_gmt":"2016-06-09T15:41:51","slug":"esu-student-theatre-organization-produces-romantic-comedy-november-19-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/esu-student-theatre-organization-produces-romantic-comedy-november-19-22\/","title":{"rendered":"ESU Student Theatre Organization Produces Romantic Comedy, November 19-22"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"StageOne play, FIVE directors?\u00a0That\u2019s the challenge that Stage II, the student theatre organization at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, set for itself when it selected the full-length romantic comedy Almost, Maine<\/em> by John Cariani for its November 19-22 production.<\/p>\n

Set in the remote, mythical town of Almost, Maine, the comedy is a series of short vignettes that show the residents unexpectedly and hilariously falling into and out of love under the Northern Lights of a midwinter night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe directors got together and divided the scenes according to whether they were romantic, comedic, or dramatic,\u201d said one director, John Lauri, a junior majoring in computer science from Long Pond, Pa.\u00a0\u201cThen we discussed it among ourselves to see who wanted to direct which scenes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauri began exploring his interest in theatre when he came to ESU by taking Introduction to Theatre and then Acting with Stephanie Daventry French, professor of theatre.\u00a0 After writing a play for the 2014 Stage II One-Act Plays and appearing in two ESU productions, he decided to try directing.<\/p>\n

In his scenes, Lauri has been working with the actors to explore the play\u2019s characters. \u201cThis is a very character-driven piece, where each line is significant in understanding what everyone is really saying,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Freshman Kathleen French, a theatre major with concentrations in both acting and directing from Springtown, Pa., became one of production\u2019s directors because she wanted to build on her experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students here know what\u2019s going on with the production and have a high level of commitment to making everything work,\u201d French said. \u201cSome actors are double cast in scenes with different directors, but we\u2019ve worked out all the scheduling conflicts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we are each rehearsing on our own,\u201d added Travis Brewer, \u201cwe do meet frequently to share our observations\u2014with five different directors, it\u2019s even more important that we\u2019re on the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n

After earning an associates degree in theatre from Northampton Community College and serving as the chair of a production company, Brewer, a junior from Nazareth, Pa., is pursuing a theatre major with a concentration in directing.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve directed in classes,\u201d he said, \u201cso I jumped right into this project because I know how much fun directing can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Director David Kunz, a transfer student from Queens, N.Y., came to Almost, Maine<\/em> with professional directing experience with the Bold Choice Theatre Company. \u201cI really wanted to be a director until I discovered sound design\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Now a technical theatre major at ESU, Kunz became part of the project because he wants to be \u201cwell rounded\u201d in theatre. \u201cWorking with a team to create one, cohesive production is new to me,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so far it\u2019s been a great experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEach director is different,\u201d added Luis Feliciano, a junior from Philadelphia, Pa., with majors in both theatre and Spanish, who is also part of the directing collective. \u201cWe all understand each other and we\u2019re feeding off each other by learning to break out of our comfort zones to bring something to life in a unique way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stage II will present Almost, Maine<\/em> November 19-21 at 7 p.m. and November 22 at 2:30 p.m. in the Dale Snow Theatre of ESU Fine and Performing Arts Center, Normal and Marguerite streets, East Stroudsburg.\u00a0The play is recommended for ages 13 and above.<\/p>\n

General admission for the production is $12; $10 for senior citizens, faculty and staff with ID; $7 for students with ID; and $5 for youth.<\/p>\n

Advance purchase of tickets is highly recommended due to limited seating in the Dale Snow Theatre. Tickets may be purchased in advance online with a credit card at esu.edu\\theatretickets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Remaining seats will be available at the box office beginning one hour before the performance. Only cash and checks are accepted at the box office.<\/p>\n

For box office reservations or more information about the production, please email esuarts@esu.edu<\/a> or call 570-422-3483, x.4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ESU Student Theatre Organization Produces Romantic Comedy, November 19-22<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[143,22,42,58,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-facebook","category-news-release","category-slider","category-theater"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13141"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13141"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13171,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13141\/revisions\/13171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}