AU Players put on bizarre meta-comedy '[title of show]'

"[title of show]" deals in the theater of the absurd.

A post-modern comic musical, "[title of show]" tells the story of two slacking New Yorkers, Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen (played by College of Arts and Sciences freshman Emmett Patterson and CAS junior Ryan Burke, respectively), who seek to enter the New York Music Festival. With their encyclopedic knowledge of Broadway shows, they hope to gain accolades and hopefully bring their own show down to the Great White Way.

Along Hunter and Jeff's journey, they enlist the help of their friends, Susan and Heidi (played by CAS junior Sarah King and School of Public Affairs senior Sammy Oakes), to create a show about the process of making a show. All the while, a piano player chimes in (played by musical director, CAS freshman, Paige Austin).

This ambitious and dizzying little show, with its threadbare set allowing for maximum space for the actors to perform in the Katzen Studio Theatre, manages to evoke some surreal images and dialogue not common to Broadway theater productions.

"[title of show]" can be endlessly digressive. It absolutely shatters the fourth wall, and it can be irreverently funny, with scores of quotable puns and musical numbers bandied about during the production.

CAS junior Allie Glickman, who is directing her first large-scale production with "[title of show]," said that this production in particular was close to her heart.

"This has been one of my favorite shows since I was probably a freshman in high school," Glickman said. "It's essentially just a love letter to musical theater and the arts and says everything I love about theater and why I do it."

School of Communication and CAS junior Dorothy Trigg, the choreographer for "[title of show]," also said that it was her first experience with choreographing despite her 15 years as a dancer.

"I've never choreographed for a musical before. I've choreographed solos for myself, but never in kind of a broader context," Trigg said. "So that was a really big challenge, but really fun to get involved in the show and really think about how the characters would move instead of just how to put the dance steps to the song."

Glickman's direction manages to capture the nuances in every character. Since the show dealt with a small cast, it gave her a chance to explore the characters, how they interact with the audience and how they deliver their comedy.

"I think when you're trying to play for laughs, you lose the laugh. And what's so great about these scenes and the show in general is that these are just conversations between real people," Glickman said. "I wanted the audience to kind of feel like they're sitting in the living room with these friends."

The development of the show coalesced during a collaborative workshop of ideas, direction, musical training and choreography. Trigg said that the choreography became enraptured in the collaborative process.

"They were really good at picking up on what I did and watching me doing it, so it was really helpful. And I was never taught choreography so that was interesting," Trigg said.

Glickman said she wants audience members to get out of the show the same feeling of creative energy that gave her the impetus to direct the musical from the beginning.

"I think it's so much about our desire to make our mark, whether it be artistic or otherwise. It's about our journeys and how we get from point A to point B and the people we do it with," Glickman said. "Because I know '[title of show]' has taught me more about what I want to be as an artist...If it doesn't give them the answer of what they want to do, then I hope it motivates them and inspires them to figure that out and work towards it."

"[title of show]" will play in the Katzen Studio Theatre March 28-30 at 8 p.m. Tickets will be sold at the door for $5.

dkahenkashi@theeagleonline.com