In Bare Bodkin's upcoming spring major "Just Press Play," the intersecting lives of a Hoover customer service assistant, a comic book writer, his feminist fiancé and a couple of overbearing mothers are thrown together to create a play that is comedic but simultaneously takes on real−life problems.
"Just Press Play" is an original script written by junior Joanna Hausmann and is directed by junior Jeewon Kim.
In writing the play, Hausmann said she wanted to pick a topic that students could relate to. The play is a sort of "Woody Allen−esque type of comedy," Hausmann said. With the theme of therapy always just beneath the surface of the story, the comparison holds fast. Hausmann said the play portrays "big things a little lighter."
One of the characters whom the story follows is Fernando Levi (sophomore Kevin McDonald), the vacuum cleaner customer service assistant who struggles with an unsuccessful career as a writer. His worried Jewish mother (junior Eliana Sigel−Epstein) decides that the best way to fix her son's life is to send him to therapy. In the psychiatrist's office Fernando collides with the unhappily engaged Ana Cutt (senior Emily Code) and Don Salcedo (senior Sam Dunn), who are seeking couple's therapy before they are even married.
The story continues as the lives of the characters overlap in multiple ways, leaving them fired from their jobs, avoiding their mothers and stranded in elevators as they are forced in some cases to reflect and in others to move on.
The focus of the play is the characters' relationships with one another or, in the case of Fernando, the lack thereof. His life is paused in a dead−end job, with no romantic relationships and a failed venture as a novelist. As a writer he is unsuccessful because he has no interactions with other people; he relies on recording strangers' dialogues as a source of inspiration.
The metaphor for the play's title comes from Fernando's static and isolated lifestyle and ties in the fact that he always has a voice recorder on hand. To just press play is the advice that Fernando desperately needs.
He finally learns that lesson when he becomes stuck in a broken elevator with the bickering Ana and Don, forcing him to confront the human emotions that he has been avoiding.
Keeping in sync with the metaphor of the voice recorder, flashbacks allow for Ana and Don to rewind and examine their relationship. The two have been living their lives in a constant mode of fast−forward, and before they move on to the 20 or so children that Don's mother (senior Amanda Billoch Vazquez) predicts they will have, they need to stop and reflect on the reasons they are together.
One of the benefits of putting on a play written by a student is the flexibility of the script and characters and the accessibility of the playwright. Watching the play come to life has been a positive experience for Hausmann, who said, "The cast brought a new view to the story and characters."
In directing, Kim stressed the reinterpretation of the characters in rehearsals. Kim said that he told the cast members that they "should approach all these roles as giving some of themselves to the characters."
Kim's method consciously parallels that of Woody Allen's, who takes the background and personalities of his actors seriously when casting them. Kim in fact adopted a little bit of Allen's approach when directing his cast. He said that he asked his cast to "interpret their character based on their own baggage."
The script intersperses contemporary cultural references throughout the fluid storylines of the characters. Dr. Phil and Philip Roth are just a couple of the names that are casually dropped in a rapidfire way that would make "Gilmore Girls" (2000−2007) proud. It also makes the humor accessible to Tufts students, as Hausmann intended. "Just Press Play" is full of jokes and references specifically geared toward its expected college audience, as well as anyone who enjoys a little black comedy.
The comedy is not the only aspect of the play Hausmann hopes students will connect with. "I feel that everybody sitting in the audience will find something to relate to with at least one of the characters," Hausmann said.
The problems facing the characters and their personalities might be universal, but "Just Press Play" hopes to present them in a unique and memorable way, giving the story a little bit of originality.
Performances of "Just Press Play" are on Sunday April 11 at 8 p.m. and Monday April 12 at 9 p.m. in Cabot Auditorium. The show is free and no tickets are required.
