Have you ever wondered about the secret lives of your professors? Who are they beyond the boundaries of the classroom? What happens when they stop lecturing and morph into real people?
A.R. Gurney's The Love Course - this semester's first minor production from student organization Pen, Paint, and Pretzels - explores this very phenomenon within the context of a course on the literature of love. The cast of four is comprised of two professors and two students who become immersed in the worlds of Tristan and Isolde and Wuthering Heights to the point of redefining the limits of public and private life, as well as the meaning of love.
"This play explores a part of class that you'd never think about," says director Jennifer Bien, a junior whose involvement with 3Ps includes last fall's Wait Until Dark. "It makes you wonder about what goes on behind the scenes." The audience witnesses outbursts between both the professors and the two students - clearly lovers - that one would not normally expect within the classroom. References to literature are merely veiled expressions of raw emotion, achieving a dramatic yet comical effect that forms the core of this play.
According to Bien, the ultimate goal of 3Ps is "to put on theatre for the sake of theatre," an objective that is clearly achieved with The Love Course. Despite a limited budget and various time constraints, the cast succeeds in putting on a play that makes the audience think a little deeper about love and its manifestations without forsaking any of the humor that is inevitably involved in matters of the heart.
Three of the four actors in The Love Course are freshmen - and talented freshmen at that. Chris Tadros plays Professor Burgess, a lecturer who is giving up his love for the Renaissance for a cushy administrative position at the university. His counterpart, Professor Carroway (Sarah Hecht), has been denied tenure and forced into accepting a position lecturing at Mount Holyoke College. They are both the epitome of academic, bookish professors who have become just a little too interested in their scholarly specialties. Unpredictable and animated both as lecturers and lovers, Tadros and Hecht are the perfect pair, playing off each other's idiosyncrasies for the entire length of the play. Their incessant banter is humorous and insightful, making them a pleasure to watch.
Jessica Schauer plays Sally, the perfect student who reads every book cover to cover and idolizes her professors. Like Professors Burgess and Carroway, she is also guilty of becoming overly involved in the literature. She unfalteringly bears her romantic soul to both the audience and her lover Mike, played by sophomore Drew Shelton. Initially "expendable," Mike becomes an integral part of the development of Sally's character, and an indispensable member of the class.
The Love Course is well worth the walk to the Balch Arena Theatre. It's the perfect study break, falling right in the midst of the rush before finals. It's thirty free minutes of literature, love, and laughs that are bound to make you appreciate 3Ps in a whole new way.
