Three days before Friday’s scheduled opening for Mask and Bauble’s “All in the Timing”, the mysterious process of assembling a theatrical production was underway in Poulton Hall. A girl walked by carrying a ladder and called to someone across the hall, “Oh, don’t worry, we found a bucket of chains.” The cast lounged around, putting on and taking off costumes, telling complicated stories about making out with the lights off. Tyler Spalding (SFS ‘08), the producer of this whole venture, wasn’t there yet, and it seemed he was the only one who knew what was going on.
Believe it or not, this freewheeling disorganization is actually intentional. “All in the Timing” is in the traditional “workshop” slot in M&B’s schedule, the production interrupted by Thanksgiving that usually gets a lower budget and more rushed rehearsal time. This year, the idea is to make the most of that by staging the show—or shows. “All in the Timing” is actually a collection of ten one-act plays—including “Variations on the Death of Trotsky,” “Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread,” “Foreplay, or The Art of the Fugue”—by super-clever New York playwright David Ives, written to be performed separately or together. Each one is directed by a separate student (or two), mostly first-time directors, and the cast of twenty or so actors all perform in multiple plays.
“It’s great for the club,” Donald Burke (COL ‘10), Publicity Director of Mask and Bauble said, of the more people, less time format. “It’s crucial to get new directors in an army of artistic vision for the future. It gives people experience they wouldn’t get on a full-scale show.”
Georgetown theater veteran Sarah Taurchini (COL ’08) is directing for the first time, doing the one act “Words, Words, Words.” For her, this production offered a chance to look at the other side of a play, which she feels is important for her as an actress.
“This is a taste of direction, but by no means the full experience,” she said. “Its good for younger people … that’s what a workshop is.”
And “All in the Timing” lends itself to a more unvarnished execution. Everyone stressed that it’s a play that could get dampened and lose its flow if “over rehearsed,” and the individual segments meant that people could rehearse separately before pulling it all together (though overlapping actors and space constraints made scheduling rehearsals a nightmare for the stage managers).
The plays are related in their use of wordplay and their cleverness (and their constant New Yawkiness—Cleveland is the worst thing that can happen to you, apartments are important, movies and communists are referenced constantly), but each stands on its own. The overall result is surprisingly streamlined, despite the many people contributing from all sides and the varying styles and abilities of these novice directors. And funny. It’s all funny, in a hyper-literate, occasionally pretentious, ultimately very collegiate way.
“I wish they’d done something like this when I was a freshman,” said Jameison Baker (SFS ‘08), the Artistic Director and de facto mentor for the directors, citing it as an opportunity for people to try out new roles and “see if they like it.” Joe Brown, a freshman in the MSB with little acting experience at Georgetown, agreed. He gave the whole experience an “Awesome,” and added that, “I took a lot of it, and want to take that into more Georgetown theater.”
Proof once again that, as all college students know, the best results come from the messiest of places.
