One-act plays explore past, future
"Icarus's Mother," "Action," set on Fourth of July, Christmas
Emily Butler
Issue date: 2/20/09 Section: Trinity Life
The Trinity University Department of Speech and Drama is putting on two one-act plays, "Icarus's Mother" and "Action," by Sam Shepard. Kyle Gillette, assistant professor of speech and drama, is directing the plays. "Icarus's Mother" takes place on a Fourth of July in the past, and Action takes place on a Christmas in the future. Both plays reflect Shepard's mysterious and unique interpretation of the world in which we live - one increasingly driven by materialism, consumerism, and conformity. Shepard's plays do not follow a clear plot line, but instead simply convey a message, or messages, which is ambiguous and left partly up to the audience to decipher.
"Icarus's Mother," reminiscent of Camus' "The Stranger" combined with Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury, opens with a scene of several adolescents picnicking on the beach, awaiting a local fireworks show for the Fourth of July. The characters, brightly dressed, become bizarrely fixated on seemingly mundane events, such as a jet plane flying overhead and an anticipation for the fireworks. The tension continues to build throughout the play and leaves the audience wondering when and what, out of all of the confusion and strange events, the climax will be.
"Action" seems to parallel the confusion, yet contrast the overly bright and synthetic appearances presented in "Icarus's Mother". It opens to a scene of several characters, drably dressed and apparently living in poverty, sitting around a table. They appear to be living in some post-apocalyptic world, dealing with the confusion of broken identities and communities. Equally, if not more, tense and disturbing than "Icarus's Mother," "Action" also leaves the interpretation of the play to the audience.
Senior Vicky Apodaca, majoring in drama and communication, is the assistant director and props manager of both plays. Apodaca said that she was very grateful for this experience because, often times, assistant directors end up running coffee for the director, but working with Gillette, she was able to actually direct and work with the actors. It benefits the actors, said Apodaca, to have someone step back and objectively look at their performances, in order to help them improve.
"Icarus's Mother," reminiscent of Camus' "The Stranger" combined with Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury, opens with a scene of several adolescents picnicking on the beach, awaiting a local fireworks show for the Fourth of July. The characters, brightly dressed, become bizarrely fixated on seemingly mundane events, such as a jet plane flying overhead and an anticipation for the fireworks. The tension continues to build throughout the play and leaves the audience wondering when and what, out of all of the confusion and strange events, the climax will be.
"Action" seems to parallel the confusion, yet contrast the overly bright and synthetic appearances presented in "Icarus's Mother". It opens to a scene of several characters, drably dressed and apparently living in poverty, sitting around a table. They appear to be living in some post-apocalyptic world, dealing with the confusion of broken identities and communities. Equally, if not more, tense and disturbing than "Icarus's Mother," "Action" also leaves the interpretation of the play to the audience.
Senior Vicky Apodaca, majoring in drama and communication, is the assistant director and props manager of both plays. Apodaca said that she was very grateful for this experience because, often times, assistant directors end up running coffee for the director, but working with Gillette, she was able to actually direct and work with the actors. It benefits the actors, said Apodaca, to have someone step back and objectively look at their performances, in order to help them improve.
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