From killer maids to murderous playwrights, “Slice of Death” brings three student-directed scenes to the Classic Theatre stage at the Getz Theatre Center on campus from Tuesday, Dec. 2, through Thursday, Dec. 4.
“Slice of Death” is a performance of scenes chosen by three theatre directing students for professor of instruction Stephanie Shaw’s “Directing 2” class, where classmates learn how to effectively direct actors and how to tell a story.
The title of the event was chosen as a sort of tongue-in-cheek commentary on the content of the plays and is a sibling event to the first round of “Directing 2” presentations, “Slice of Life,” which took place from Nov. 18 to Nov. 20.
This new collection of plays, in varying degrees, features stories about death.
The performances are presented in succession, starting with a scene from “Death Trap,” a play about playwrights betraying each other and their loved ones for fame and success. It is directed by junior theatre directing major and illustration minor, Sam Surma.
Surma chose the play due to its complex nature, as well as its presentation of queer relationships that the director decided to lean more into than in prior performances.
“I think, for me, there’s a substantial lack of people who do it and actually do anything with the gay text because it’s not subtext. There’s a lot of people who are like, ‘oh, he’ll say the line, I love you,’ but there have been a very small amount of people making it clearly gay and dramatic,” he said.
Following “Death Trap” is “Feathers and Teeth,” directed by senior theatre directing major Kreechur Moghaddam. The play, while as chaotic and comedic as “Death Trap,” challenges itself, and the audience, with a strange tenderness.
“My actors are fantastic. I think they really understood the serious undercurrent and the tragic nature of everything that has happened and is happening during this story, like just in this scene, what we’re seeing is really sad. You’re seeing this girl being literally ignored to her face by her father screaming for his attention,” they said.
Moghaddam credited much of what they have learned through “Directing 2” to Shaw, who urged her students to not worry about perfection but instead how to passionately tell a story.
“She said something that I keep thinking about,” they said. “She was like, ‘I hate the word perfectionist. Perfectionists are cowards.’ She’s like, ‘just finish the work.’”
The presentation ends with “The Maids,” directed by senior theatre directing major Aurora Lowther, who looked to inspirations broader than the play itself to bring to life the story of two disgruntled maids who plan to murder their boss.
“One thing that I’ve been telling my actors is, we’re not grounding this in theatre, ground this in professional wrestling, because it’s just so out there,” Lowther said. “It’s a lot to play because they’re trying to maintain their composure and be normal around their madam while trying to poison her. It’s just weird, and it’s also the funniest scene to me.”
All three directors brought their own, very specific influences into their pieces: Lowther looked to professional wrestling, Surma brought a sense of larger-than-life reality inspired by their illustration work and Moghaddam looked to the complicated nature of camp to create a shocking story.
“I think that the script is campy. I think my take on it is very campy and over the top, and that in itself can be really shocking,” said Moghaddam.
Production manager and senior theatre stage management major Bar Schaffer said the showcase highlights the value of smaller, student-led productions.
“I think we’re forgetting that there’s more than one type of theatre. And I think these shows really lean into that and you see something you usually wouldn’t see and different perspectives on different shows and I think that’s what’s so great about these. Everything’s smaller, everything’s more intimate,” she said.
“Slice of Death” will be performed at 8 p.m. in The Classic Theatre stage in the Columbia Theatre Center at 72 E. 11th St. from Dec. 2, to Dec. 4. Free tickets are available on Eventbrite.
Copy edited by Manuel Nocera
