Written in 1936, Stein\u2019s play is a piece of experimental staged poetry, in which characters laugh, love, philosophize, and struggle heroically to hold onto hope as their prospects dim.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt has these themes of environmental catastrophe and looming disaster,\u201d says Peck, a theater professor at Muhlenberg. \u201cIt asks some questions about the ways in which romance, love, and art matter in the context of a dire planetary situation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Peck has directed Stein before, and has also published articles about her theatrical work. He calls her \u201cone of the most original and important theater thinkers of the 20th century,\u201d and says that he wanted to share the experience of working on her plays with students. <\/span><\/p>\n In a few words, according to Peck, \u201cListen to Me\u201d is arguably, partly, possibly a love story at the end of the world \u2014 but he resists the effort to impose a synopsis. The play is unusual in several ways: it has only a couple of clearly defined characters; most of the text isn\u2019t so much dialog as it is poetry; and its scenes unfold with only the suggestion of a linear course of events. But Peck says that audience members who have the idea that the play is difficult or inaccessible will be quite surprised.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI want people to understand that it\u2019s not just \u2018weird,\u2019\u201d Peck says. \u201cIt\u2019s very deeply felt, it really starts<\/i> from feeling \u2014 that Stein is deeply concerned about how people treat each other and about fairness in human relationships. I want them to know how moving her plays are and how accessible they are once you start to put them on their feet and figure out ways to put the language into actors\u2019 bodies and create stage pictures around the words.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n To that end, the cast of 15 have been collaborating and experimenting their way through the text, finding the moments and phrases that resonate, and exploring ways in which to communicate that resonance to an audience.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a cooperative process,\u201d says Xavier Pacheco, who plays Sweet William, one of the show\u2019s two named characters. \u201cThe only way to rehearse this play is to work consistently through it all together and see where we end up. It\u2019s a brilliant cast. It feels good to be working with people in a way that we\u2019re all in it together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Scenic designer Tim Averill has found a design solution that echoes both the circumstance of the play and the process of its creation. It\u2019s a dock, extending off stage from the top of a sphere \u2014 the earth, perhaps \u2014 on which words and images will be projected. It suggests the last visible piece of a sinking ship, on which the actors perch apprehensively.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a desperate place where people are trying to live,\u201d Averill says. \u201cIt\u2019s about too many people and too much stuff and too much light.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The production also features an original score by Doug Ovens, who also collaborated with Peck on last season\u2019s \u201cUlysses in Nighttown.\u201d Ovens says the score will feature a \u201cvirtual chamber ensemble\u201d of prerecorded woodwinds, percussion, and piano, as well as a \u201ccelestial soprano\u201d derived for samples from recordings of his vocal pieces.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy music revisits Modernist styles while striving to amplify ideas of love as well as confusion, conflict, and, hopefully, survival,\u201d Ovens says.<\/span><\/p>\n Peck says he hopes all these elements will come together in a theatrical experience that feels, on the one hand, cautionary and anxious, and on the other, hopeful and celebratory \u2014 because, in these days, that\u2019s how he feels as an artist and global citizen.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCan we feel love and existential dread at the same time?\u201d he asks. \u201cI think that\u2019s what Stein wants to know. It\u2019s what I want to know. How do those things fit together? I think we can; I think we have to. And that\u2019s what we\u2019ve set out to do.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cListen to Me\u201d plays Feb. 22-26<\/span><\/span>. Showtimes are Wednesday<\/span><\/span> through Saturday<\/span><\/span> at 8 p.m.<\/span><\/span> and Saturday<\/span><\/span> and Sunday<\/span><\/span> at 2 p.m.<\/span><\/span> Regular admission tickets are $15. Tickets for youth and LVAIC students and staff are $8. The production is recommended for mature audiences.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Tickets and information are available online at muhlenberg.edu\/theatre<\/span><\/u><\/a> or by phone at 484-664-3333<\/span><\/u><\/a>. Performances are in the Studio Theatre, Trexler Pavilion for Theatre & Dance, Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew St., Allentown.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Founded in 1848, Muhlenberg College is a highly selective, private, four-year residential college located in Allentown, Pa., approximately 90 miles west of New York City. With an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 2,200 students, Muhlenberg College is dedicated to shaping creative, compassionate, collaborative leaders through rigorous academic programs in the arts, sciences, business, education and public health. A member of the Centennial Conference, Muhlenberg competes in 22 varsity sports. Muhlenberg is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Muhlenberg offers Bachelor of Arts degrees in theater and dance. The Princeton Review ranked Muhlenberg\u2019s theater program in the top twelve in the nation for eight years in a row, and Fiske Guide to Colleges lists both the theater and dance programs among the top small college programs in the United States. Muhlenberg is one of only eight colleges to be listed in Fiske for both theater and dance.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\nInformation provided by:<\/strong>
\n Scott Snyder<\/strong>
\n Marketing Manager<\/strong>
\n Muhlenberg College<\/strong>
\n Department of Theatre & Dance<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
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