Audiences have two opportunities to experience Nick Payne’s “Constellations,” performed by the Slippery Rock University Theatre Department for its inaugural second-stage performance, which is the department’s new program to offer smaller productions off the University’s main stage.
Showings will be hosted Nov. 1 in the Stoner East Black Box Theater with a 2 p.m. matinee, followed by a 7:30 p.m. performance. Tickets are $10 for general admission and $5 for students and can be purchased at sru.edu/tickets or in person at the ticket counter up to one hour before each performance.
Written by Payne, a British playwright and screenwriter, “Constellations” starts out as a girl-meets-boy love story between Roland, a beekeeper, and Marianne, a theoretical physicist, but it quickly evolves into something much stranger and more beautiful. Exploring string theory and the multiverse theory, “Constellations” calls audiences to consider the enormous importance of the choices people make.
Director Ricky Osman, a senior acting major from Wilmington, Delaware (Concord HS) was initially drawn to this show by the complexity of the writing.
“It’s not often that you see a show written this way,” Osman said. “Scenes will repeat themselves, but little changes will be made each time to change the scene’s context. There are five distinctive versions of the two characters, Marianne and Roland, that the cast has worked to create, and different pairings of those versions create different outcomes in the scenes.”
These shifting characters, contexts and even timelines reflect the idea that endless possibilities exist all at once, bringing the debate of choice versus destiny into Roland and Marianne’s story.
“What we want people to take away from this show is the importance of living in the moment and connecting with one another,” Osman said. “The show opens conversations about time and the nature of existence and whether we’re ever truly ‘gone,’ and what it all goes back to is the importance of taking advantage of the present.”
According to creative team, it is a rare strength of a play to pose such grand questions while remaining so firm in its commentary. Even amidst its play with time and destiny and the fabric of reality, “Constellations” stands firm in calling the audience to live life to the fullest and to never take a day of this life for granted.
The cast includes:
- Aidan Duez, a senior acting major from Kingwood, Texas (Kingwood HS) as Roland.
- Paja Clark, A sophomore acting major from Haymarket, Virginia (Charles Colgan HS) as Marianne.
The creative team includes:
- Ricky Osman, a senior acting major from Wilmington, Delaware (Concord HS), as director.
- Lee Short, a sophomore acting major from Pikeville, North Carolina (Charles B. Aycock HS), as stage manager.
- Kat May, a junior acting major from Ewa Beach, Hawaii (Wakefield HS), as lighting designer
- Ryan Mounteer, a senior theatre major from Sewickley (North Allegheny HS) as sound designer.
More information about theatre programs at SRU is available on the department’s webpage.
