This semester, there is a wide variety of theater in store for the Wesleyan community, including the department production of “Everybody” by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins; senior thesis productions by Sarah Shapiro ’23, Ryan Natcharian ’23, Michayla Robertson-Pine ’23, and Malaika Fernandes ’23; and four shows produced by Spike Tape, a new student theater organization which debuted in the spring. 

This exciting season follows a packed spring semester, in which theater on campus saw deep, thought-provoking original works like “Nothing Comes to Mim” by Will Blumberg ’22, “To Play or Not To Play” by Abby Meyers ’22, and “The Book of Chrysanthemum” by Laia Comas ’22. In addition, Spike Tape’s inaugural season included a musical showcase featuring several student performances and a production of “Horse Girls,” directed by Hadassa Garfein ’24 and Vincent Langan ’24.

The faculty department show, “Everybody,” directed by Assistant Professor of Theater Katie Pearl with Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater Erica Wray, is based on the 15th-century play titled “Everyman,” in which the main character has been summoned by Death to die and in the process must give a presentation to God about their life and how they spent it. Throughout the show, they try to get people in their life to accompany them to death.

Something truly exciting about this performance is that, in this production, there will be five actors sharing the role of “Everybody,” the main character, and at the start of each performance they’ll spin a wheel to decide which one gets to play Everybody for that show. This means that these five actors will each have to memorize the entire script! The show will play in the CFA Theater from Nov. 10 through 12.

“The joy of taking risks and staying absolutely in the moment,” Pearl wrote in an email to The Argus. “The cast must trust each other deeply so they can leap into the unknown together, while inviting our audiences to join them on the ride.”

Apart from the department show, there are many senior theater theses in the works. 

First up, we have “Antigonick” by Anne Carson, directed by Shapiro. It follows Sophocles’ ancient Greek tragedy “Antigone.” The titular Antigone defies law and tradition by giving her brother a proper burial. In doing so, she questions whether respecting the law is more important than honoring your loved ones.

“I am using my production of ‘Antigonick’ at Wesleyan as a part of this exploration, and a large part of my creative process will be thinking about how this production might serve as a ritual for the Wesleyan community,” Shapiro wrote in an email to The Argus.

See this production Dec. 7 through 9 in Theater Studios!

Another production in the works is “One Night in the Tavern,” an original show written and directed by Natcharian. The play is inspired by Dungeons & Dragons and tells the story of a bard attempting to share a story of a mighty hero with an unruly group of patrons in a local tavern. Hilarity ensues as the bard must fend off accusations that their story is false.

“Our goal with this project is to explore, discuss, and celebrate transness in the context of both tabletop roleplaying games and the fantasy genre as a whole, with an emphasis on perceptions and transformations,” Natcharian wrote in an email to The Argus.

Stay tuned for location and performance dates!

Next up is “Classroom Wonders” by Robertson-Pine. This will be an immersive theater experience and adventure, presented at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School in Meriden, CT, which will feature the participation of first-graders at the school. Over a period of time, the students will discover that something magical is happening inside their classroom and go on a mission to save the day.

“I hope to explore the ways that theater can be used as a teaching tool to highlight students’ creativity and imagination,” Robertson-Pine wrote in an email to The Argus. “I hope that the students will finish the experience with the belief that their school is a magical place and that they have agency in their own learning.” 

This interactive experience will be staged exclusively for this first-grade audience in November.

Lastly, “Mulaqat” by Fernandes is a multilingual play about a young woman who finds herself alone in the United States during her pregnancy. Her Marathi-speaking mother and Urdu-speaking mother-in-law come over to help her and, in the process, learn to communicate with each other as they await the birth of the child.

“I’m hoping to explore the way we communicate through language, especially when there’s a language barrier,” Fernandes wrote in an email to The Argus. “There’s so much linguistic diversity in the South Asian diaspora; what happens when we’re listening to a language we don’t understand?” 

A staged reading of Fernandes’ thesis will go up on Dec. 9—location to be determined at a later date.

Outside of department-sponsored theater productions, the new student theater organization Spike Tape is producing the 1990 Stephen Sondheim musical “Assassins,” directed by Sadie Goldstein ’24 and Miranda Simon ’24; “The Boys in the Tower,” written by Jaydie Halperin ’23 and directed by Sabrina Ladiwala ’24, “The Masquerade,” written and directed by Liv Snow ’25 and directed by Owen Wiley ’25, and an untitled Christmas special written and stage managed by Luka Netzel ’24 and written and directed by Vincent Langan ’24.

These shows are tentatively going up between the middle of November through the end of the semester; stay tuned for more updates from Spike Tape and individual productions.

It’s going to be an exciting semester. I can’t wait to buy my tickets!
Sabrina Ladiwala can be reached at sladiwala@wesleyan.edu.