If you've ever created anything -- a painting, a piece of music, a short story, heck, even a popsicle stick cabin complete with a marshmallow family -- you've got an idea about the artistic process. While it may seem strange to think of polished performances as being about process, after the Drama Department's Fall Festival opening this weekend, you'll have a better idea of what goes into creating theater. Through three diverse plays presented with "a regard for process," the festival will allow audiences to explore the many ways theater gets made and the many goals it can accomplish.
With an acclaimed script by major playwright Caryl Churchill, the cast of Cloud 9 will present a play that assistant director Brin Lukens said has "feminist undertones," but is more than simply a feminist play. Cloud 9's first act takes audiences to Africa in the 1880s (expect beautiful Victorian costumes). Its second act brings us to London, 100 years down the road and shows how gender relationships have -- or haven't --changed. It's "an interesting look at the way society views men and women," Lukens said.
In writing the play, according to Lukens, Churchill observed theater games at the Joint Stock Theater Company in London