Tea time

After last weekend’s double helping of monster-piece theater, I’ve got a nasty hangover and I’m missing a few articles of clothing. But that’s never stopped me from wetting my lips with the nectar of the stage before, has it? So I’ll pick my head up out of the toilet and try to find my other shoe, because although the ’92 is down to a one-drink special this weekend, it’s going to be a real doozy.

This week: “Manuscript” by Paul Grellong.
Directed by Margaux Weisman ’09.

Weisman first came in contact with up-and-coming playwright Paul Grellong’s “Manuscript” at the Cape Cod Repertory in 2002, a production that starred Anna Paquin. Impressed by the script, Weisman initiated a correspondence with the young playwright, which continues to thrive today. In fact, Grellong will be attending Weisman’s production of the play this weekend.

Weisman thinks Wesleyan’s academically ambitious audience will relate to the story.

“At college, there is a tendency to bite off more than you can chew,” Weisman said.

“Manuscript” is about three characters, each blinded by their own self-serving goals, struggling with plagiarism in a modern academic age (how apropos, considering Wesleyan’s new and improved no-brain-stealing policies, no?).

Weisman directed some small productions in high school, but “Manuscript” is her largest-scale theatrical project to date. Going into the process, she decided she would be an actor’s director. Weisman gave full creative liberty to her designers, stipulating only that the set be a traditional box set – a set representative of a room, constructed with three walls.

“Theater is an actor’s medium,” said Weisman. “Unlike film, the director doesn’t need to be blindsided by technicalities, allowing a greater devotion to the actors. It’s what’s important,” she said.

In respect to the directorial experience, Weisman remarked, “This has been a lot more gratifying than anything else I’ve done. You know, when you write something, you put it down and when you come back to it, you’re sort of obligated to hate it. And as an actor, it’s impossible to be objective about the work. Directing, you’re really able to sit back and appreciate the work for what it is.”

She gives credit to her actors for the success of rehearsals.

“It was all them. I didn’t have to do anything.”

Despite a 90-minute three-act script divided between only three actors, “Manuscript” was ready to run in less than a month. This is an impressive feat for a team of more-or-less-first-timers; the entire cast will be making debut performances. Weisman hopes to use “Manuscript” to reach out to members of the Wesleyan community who don’t frequent student theater. Its traditional narrative form and super-hip intellectual elevation of the “whodunit” genre make the show a great theater experience for both those inside and outside the theater community.