Finding their voice in ‘Missing Pauses’

photo by Jessica Valerio

The hands of senior Samantha Kern are shaping her senior thesis. “Missing Pauses,” is a production she has written after a book titled “ The Performers Guide to the Collaborative Process,” by Sheila Kerrigan. Performers are Stephanie Barraco, Margaret Tipton, Brianna Roth and Rhiannon Cuddy. Kern says, “This rehearsal is to improve work in improvisation and to explore dialogue in order to develop action in the language.” “Missing Pauses,” will be performed May 23, 24 and 25 in Dailey Theater at 7:30 p.m.

by Melissa Betsy Lau
Editorial Director

The house lights of the Cabaret Theatre cast a golden glow on the mosaics lining a small portion of the theatre floor. In close proximity, the real mosaics of the play are situated comfortably in various positions while they rehearse their lines for Samantha Kern’s senior project “Missing Pauses.”

The story is based in a post-apocalyptic town, but focuses on one particular family who lives in a bomb shelter. The family has based their sense of religion and time on an old grandfather clock that had survived the nuclear war.

The actresses in the play created the script. They began this process by exploring various themes and emotions. To help evoke these emotions, Kern and her cast met in January.

During one of these meetings, the girls were given rolls of toilet paper to wrap themselves in and roll in. During other meetings, the actresses pretended they were under water, performed improvisation, wrote and drew ideas on an outstretched sheet of paper across main stage and did movement and dance exercises. Reactions and feelings they wrote down from these exercises are scattered throughout the script of the play.

They constructed the script in a month by collaborating with each other on scenes. They then figured out a plot and a general sense of time, Kern said.

“I’ve never been involved in writing a piece,” said senior theater major Stephanie Barraco, who plays Helen and the timekeeper. “I wasn’t looking forward to it, honestly, but it was a good learning experience, and it helped me see a play in a different perspective. I see the play from a playwright’s perspective.”

Freshman theater major Rhiannon Cuddy, who plays Cassie, said she gained confidence in her creative writing abilities.

“I’ve learned how to generate ideas without driving myself crazy, I mean not obsessing about it,” she said.

During rehearsals, the actresses were allowed to alter their lines and tailored them to what they wanted.

“It’s the loveliness of having written your own script,” stage manager Tirzah Rodgers said. Rodgers also attended Guildford last year.

The all-female cast of senior theater major Samantha Kern’s senior project was allowed much freedom through this project.

“We have a say in what goes on. We get to put as much input into it as we want,” Cuddy said. “We get to develop our own character based on what we wrote. There’s actually a part of us in that character.”

Cuddy described her character as a strong-minded girl who knows what she wants and knows what needs to be done, but she afraid to take it too far.

“She’s sarcastic as hell; she’s got a mouth on her,” Cuddy said.

Barraco plays two characters: the timekeeper and Helen.

“She (the timekeeper) runs the town,” said Barraco. “She’s sort of a religious and political figure in one. She has control over everyone. Everything is ruled by time, and she makes sure everybody follows time.”

Barraco’s other character, Helen, is the best friend of the main character. Barraco described her as a silly girl who changes her mind easily.

Barraco and Kern attended the Guildford School of Acting in England last year. Barraco said her experience at Guildford allowed her to try new techniques and exercises.

“It’s like living in theater,” she said. “It’s becoming really comfortable with the creative atmosphere and trying new things.”

Also acting in the play are senior theater major Margaret Tipton, alumna April Shenkman and sophomore theater major Brianna Roth.

Since her sophomore year, Kern envisioned what route she wanted to take her senior project in. Because Kern wants to start her own theater company after she graduates, she wanted to write a play and have it performed. In fact, Kern did write a play her sophomore year called the Noise Box. However, it was performed that same year. So she decided to start from scratch.

When she went to the ROOTS festival, she brought back a book called “The Performer’s Guide to the Collaborative Process” by Sheila Kerrigan. The book aided Kern in writing and performing original material. There are a bout 20 exercises she and the actresses went through to develop ideas.

“I didn’t know what was going to come out of it,” Kern said.

They arrived at a style in which a narrator is telling the story.

“I want to do my own work and my own ideas, and having people telling me what theater is, made me want to make my own,” Kern said.

Kern said the process was challenging because everyone in the group has a different set of morals, so the ideas had to stay broad. Kern chose the actors in her project because she respected previous work she had seen them do.

“We didn’t set out to be controversial. We set out to come together on a similar topic,” Kern said.

Kern’s aim was to present power struggles and the way people can be manipulated, brainwashed and how they cannot think for themselves. It is about taking action.

She also received feedback that the play was anti-Catholicism. However, she denies that this is the case. Kern mentioned that she was Catholic and that the parts of the play that deal with religion are based mainly on a Catholic perspective because that was the most background she had to go on.

“These people live in a world where civil religion reigns,” Kern said.

“There is no time for missing pauses, and with the clock always going, there’s never a second to stop and think or question or have a response,” she said.

She said that we invented time, and if we were to get rid of it, everything would be chaos.

“This play is a good example of being able to use theater to get across any story that you want,” Barraco said.

The play will run in the Cabaret Theatre at 7:30 p.m. on May 23, 24 and 25. Admission is $3 for students and $5 for general. For more information or to make reservations call Ext. 4386.