One part Tufts acting rehearsal and one part 20th-century theatricality at its best, "Six Characters in Search of an Author," written by Luigi Pirandello, is the perfect blend of Jumbo humor and dramatic intensity. Directed by senior Josh Altman, the 3Ps major fall performance is accessible to both thespians and non-theater-goers alike.
"Six Characters" tells the fantastical story of a group of actors who are intruded upon by characters or the non-human creations of an author's imagination.
The audience is never quite sure when the play begins; rather, it feels like more of a rehearsal than a performance. The "rehearsal" is in session once sophomore Eliana Sigel-Epstein walks down the staircase of the Balch Arena Theater, talking on her cell phone. She plays the control-freak director of a production of "Hamlet." Sigel-Epstien and the actors of her show all use their real names, playing exaggerated versions of themselves and cracking jokes about the Tufts theater community and life on the Hill in general.
"It's meant for everybody, but the closer you are [to the theater program], the funnier it is," Altman said.
In his sixth show at Tufts, Altman really went off the page with this project. He wanted the actors to be realistic and the show to be as relatable as possible, so he had the actors create their own lines.
"Robert Brustein from the [American Repertory Theatre] did an adaptation for his company, so we kind of used the spirit of that adaptation." Altman said. "Through improv, we created the opening and end. It ultimately became scripted from improv. I don't normally like to adapt, but to do this play best, it needed to be adapted."
"Six Characters" is divided into two separate casts that act together within the production. The first is the cast of actors; Altman had each actor cast member pick one of their own actual characteristics to exaggerate in the stage version of themselves.
"I'm disorganized," said sophomore Royi Gavrielov, who is the last actor to show up to practice in the show. "During rehearsal I kind of get sidetracked and goofy."
Gavrielov and sophomore Bradley Starr provide wonderful comic relief to the other cast: the cast of characters. The pair is extremely theatrical and sticks feverishly to the script. While the actors complain about the stir-fry line at Carmichael, the characters intrude upon the rehearsal with tales of incest, betrayal and death. Departing from the light-hearted improvised lines spoken by the actors, each character had one profound emotion (such as remorse, sorrow, revenge and contempt) to play throughout the show.
"We kept going back to [the] original script to see what Pirandello gave us," said senior Natalie Buzzeo, who plays the stepdaughter in the cast of characters. "We had to develop these multidimensional characters in the narrow frame of our one emotion."
The two casts did rehearse together, but spent a lot of time apart.
"My roommate was in the [actor] company," said sophomore and character cast member Harrison Stamell. "We would lay awake at night and talk about our rehearsal. It basically sounded like we were in two different shows."
Altman worked hard to create a clashing of these two different companies. "We created meta-theatricality by juxtaposing [one world] with a world from another time and other place," he said. In these two worlds, each audience member will find someone to whom he or she can relate, while enjoying the beauty of these two separate realities.
"Six Characters in Search of an Author" will be performed Nov. 20-22 in the Balch Arena Theater. Tickets can be purchased for $7.
