By Kelsey Rogers, Asst. Living & Arts Editor
The theatre department will put on a production of “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” on Thurs- day, Sept. 21 at 7:30 p.m. in Degenstein Center Theater.
“Dead Man’s Cell Phone” originally premiered in 2007 and was nominated for seven Helen Hayes Awards.
Written by Pulitzer Prize finalist Sarah Ruhl, the comedy tells the story of Jean, a woman who gets frustrated at a cell phone that is ringing endlessly at a table next to her in a cafe. She soon realizes that the phone isn’t being answered because the man sitting at the table is dead.
Panicked, Jean waits for the ambulance to arrive and answers phone calls intended for the dead man, who the audience learns is named Gordon.
Quickly caught in a string of lies, Jean’s actions take the audience through an emotional whirl-wind as they begin to reconsider how to properly remember the dead and the high demand to constantly stay connected in such a technological age.
Directed by visiting assistant professor of theatre Laura Dougherty, the cast features seniors Rebekah Krumenacker, Katherine Cardenas and Abby Conway, juniors Daniel Reynolds and Matt Lucero,
sophomores Katy Trunz, Madison Niness and Nick Cardillo and first-year Erin Markham.
Krumenacker, who plays the role of Jean, says that one of the challenges of the role is the amount of time she spends on stage speaking into a phone.
“It’s hard since I have to take my cues from the imaginary conversation I’m having in my head and make sure that the audience can understand,” Krumenacker said. “I also only leave the stage for about five minutes, so I have to keep my energy up for the whole show.”
Trunz, who plays the role of Gordon’s mother, highlighted the characters’ relationships with one another and how the actors portray those relationships on the stage.
“I find all the relationships very deep and interesting [with] how they affect the way a line is said or a movement is done,” Trunz said.
Trunz continued with examples of how her character interacts with others.
“[Gordon’s mother] is strong, powerful, a little scary and doesn’t have any personal boundaries,” Trunz said. “This makes for some funny interactions with other characters.”
Krumenacker continued to say that she enjoys being able to have a one-on-one scene with each member of the cast.
“I try to soak up every moment I can with the people around me, and this show has given me that opportunity,” Krumenacker said.
Krumenacker also emphasized the closeness of the cast during this production.
“It’s a very small group, so we take the time to joke around and hang out when we aren’t having rehearsal,” Krumenacker said.
“We even have a group chat where we send memes,” Krumenacker continued. “We’ve got a lot of running jokes. It keeps our long rehearsals enjoyable and our chemistry on stage strong.”
Truz agreed that this cast is one of the closest that she has ever worked with.
“Our director has us start rehearsal each night by doing in-sync [exercises] to get us focused on each other and sending our energy through each other to make for better connections during scenes and set changes,” Trunz said. “I find the more we do this in rehearsal, the closer we all get as individuals outside of the rehearsal space, which is just a bonus with doing this show.”
“[Dougherty] has made this process very hands-on for the actors by having us do ‘view points’ every night, which is essentially having us walk around the playing space, doing different gestures and interact- ing with each other and focus- ing on our spatial relationships with each other,” Trunz continued. “So if I’m close to someone, how does that affect my physicality and if I’m far away, how does that affect it.”
“It has been very cool to work with everyone like this and is definitely an idea I’ll take into other productions I am in,” Trunz said.
Niness, who will play two characters during the production, also attributed the group exercises to the closeness of the cast and praised Dougherty’s work as director.
“This is [Dougherty’s] first production at SU and I have adored working with her,” Niness said. “[Dougherty is] professional and really helped me think about my characters during rehearsals, which I am very appreciative for.”
“The cast has gotten very close over the past two weeks, which is crazy because two weeks feels like no time at all to be putting this production together,” Niness continued. “[Dougherty] has the cast do ensemble work, which is what I think has brought us together so quickly.”
“That and that we have been together in a small space almost every day for two weeks!” Niness added.
One of the characters Niness will be play is called “The Other Woman.”
“She is this glamorous sort of femme fatale who was one of the dead man’s mistresses,” Niness said. “The other character I play is ‘The Stranger.’ She is one of Gordon’s business associates who is trying to continue his work now that he’s dead. And she is this super cool almost villain who can totally kick butt.”
“Dead Man’s Cell Phone” is the first SU theater production of the school year.
Other productions planned for this season include “She Loves Me,” “The Mineola Twins,” “Blue Stockings,” “Saudi Scenes,” “She Kills Monsters” and “Top dog/Underdog,” among other performances.
Tickets for “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” will be $10 for adults and $8 for non-SU students and senior citizens.
