The Denisonian

Issue date: 11/10/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: Coral Breuer Student cast members of Departures, the up-and-coming play by Peter Pauze of the Denison Theatre Department, run through a non-dress rehearsal. Final improvements will be made to the set and production before the show opens on Thurs., Nov. 12 at 8 p.m.

After a successful production of Inherit the Wind, the Denison Theatre department is hard at work at a very different but nonetheless intriguing play, Peter Pauze's Departures. Pauze wrote the play with the help of a Denison R.C. Good Fellowship, which gave him a full-year sabbatical to work on various projects.

The production takes place at an airport departure gate on New Year's Eve. The entirety of the play focuses on the 15-minute period from 11:45 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. This period is examined several times over, with each period focusing on a different group of people waiting at the terminal. As the play progresses in this manner, the audience gains knowledge about the different characters and their relationships with one another.

The structure of Departures stands out from most other plays. Rather than having a definite beginning and end, the play uses what playwright Peter Pauze calls "an unusual 'jigsaw puzzle' format that plays with time." Freshman Keith Mullens Jr., who also acted in Inherit the Wind, plays the character of Martin.

"The rehearsal process of Departures is really different from Inherit the Wind because we rehearse it in different parts, and only a few characters have dialogue at one time," Mullens said.

Although Pauze said that this atypical structure was what initially prompted him to write the play, it turned out to explore much deeper emotions.

"The play ended up being a somewhat sardonic exploration of how we all cope, or fail to cope, with change," Pauze said. "Human beings seem to have a love-hate relationship with change: we seldom want things to stay the way they are, but we also fear change and try to avoid it. I find this paradox interesting."

The production of a play is very much a group effort, and Departures is no exception. The director, Jon Putnam, is always engaged with the cast. When describing his role in the rehearsal process, Putnam said, "It's my job to make sure the actors have explored the many different ways each moment onstage can be played and then to shape it into a whole. Theatre is very much a collaboration, and it's my job to make the piece a coherent production."

Continued...

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