Fall Studio Productions

NORTHAMPTON, MA — The Smith College Department of Theatre presents the Fall Studio Productions, student directed one-act plays that focus on the director/actor relationship. This year there are four plays presented in two programs: Program 1 on December 7 and 9 features Trifles by Susan Glaspell, directed by Annie Grace Cumings Ledbetter and Cowboy Mouth by Sam Shepard and Patti Smith, directed by Katherine Heyman. Program 2 on December 8 and 10 features The Yalta Game  by Brian Friel, directed by Zoe Koeninger and The Actor’s Nightmare by Christopher Durang, directed by Claire Trivax. All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre. Tickets are free but reservations are recommended.

Trifles by Susan Glaspell

Directed by Annie Grace Cumings Ledbetter

Three men go to a farmhouse to investigate a man's murder while his wife was in the house. However, while the men search upstairs, the two women who came with them begin to suspect things are not all as they seem. Susan Glaspell's one-act play, written in 1916, is loosely based on true events. As a young reporter, Glaspell covered a murder case in a small town in Iowa. Trifles was inspired by her experiences and observations. Written during the first wave feminist movement, the play contrasts how women act in public and in private as well as how they perform in front of other women versus how they perform in front of men. Director Annie Grace Cumings Ledbetter ’24 has been a fan of the play since first reading it. “As someone who spent part of my childhood in the rural south, the farmhouse of the play feels very familiar to me regardless of the disparity in time.”  Content warnings: themes of domestic violence, references to murder and animal abuse.

Cowboy Mouth by Sam Shepard & Patti Smith

Directed by Katherine Heyman

Two beat-to-shit, could-be-rockstars haunt a wrecked apartment together. Despite violent pasts and uncertain futures, they love each other more than anything. But how long can each of them be what the other one needs? Cowboy Mouth was first produced in 1971 with Sam Shepard and Patti Smith performing the two lead roles. “It's a beautiful, and simultaneously deeply strange, piece. Two people love each other deeply in spite of the fact that one kidnapped the other off the street,” observes director Katherine Heyman ’24J, “Rock and Roll is explicitly a kind of religion. And there is a life-sized, food-delivering Lobster Man as the only indicator that life exists outside the insular world the two main characters have built for themselves.” Content warnings: discussions of suicide, portrayal of attempted suicide, prop gun, staged intimacy, strong language.

The Yalta Game by Brian Friel

Directed by Zoe Koeninger

At an end-of-season resort on the shore of the Black Sea, a pair of strangers play “The Yalta game”: divining the lives of other holiday-makers or investing the lives of others with an imagined life. These companions in adventure seek an end to their loneliness by throwing themselves into the game and by almost convincing each other that ‘’disappointments are only the postponement of the complete happiness which has to come.” The play is based on a Chekhov short story, Lady with Lap Dog, which piqued the interest of director Zoe Koeninger ’24 who is a Russian Literature and Theatre double major. “I am very excited to apply my very specific knowledge of 19th-century Russian literature and gender dynamics to a theatrical setting,” she explains. Content warnings: implied sexual content and infidelity.

The Actor’s Nightmare by Christopher Durang

Directed by Claire Trivax

A befuddled George, who may or may not be just an accountant, wanders on stage moments before a performance is about to begin. He has been told that he’ll be going on for the absent lead for tonight’s performance. The only problem: he doesn’t remember agreeing to be an understudy, attending a single rehearsal, or even how he got there! Will George rise to the challenge and be able to perform with his fellow thespians: Meg, Sarah, Ellen, and Henry? Or will he fall short and lose his head?  “I really like that this play takes a little bit from many different genres of theatre. From the parlor room drama of Private Lives to a taste of Shakespeare, adding a dash of absurdist theatre with Beckett, and rounding out our journey with an English historical drama,” says director Claire Trivax, in her second year of the M.F.A. playwriting program, “there is something different and exciting to work on in each scene.”  Content Warnings: brief camera flashes, outdated cultural stereotypes, and a brief mention of suicide.