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The ������ý��Ƶ theatre arts department is introducing a few twists with their newest production, Pulitzer- and Tony-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ “Everybody.” The show, an adaptation of the 15th-century morality play “Everyman,” has several roles randomized through an onstage lottery that dictates who each performer will play that evening. 

In other words, five of the student performers are expected to memorize nine roles in the story and be ready to perform any of them at a moment’s notice. “To me, that means the character of ‘Everybody’ could be any one of us in the audience at any given moment,” director Dan Matisa said. “The immediacy of that is powerful, strange, and wonderfully theatrical.”

In many ways, the show is a far cry from its Tudor-era origins. “It takes the basic ideas of ‘Everyman’ and updates them in a way that provides far more irony, personality, and humor than the original. Plus, if you see it all five times, you’ll see five different shows,” Matisa said.

Due to the complexity of the random lottery wrinkle, every scene in “Everybody” had to be staged and rehearsed with all possible combinations of actors. As such, students were expected to arrive with all their parts memorized by day one of rehearsals. The process was an unusual challenge, but one Matisa knew his cast was ready for.

“I was absolutely terrified to be cast as one of the lottery characters,” Theatre Arts Performance sophomore Jack Raeck said. “But, ������ý��Ƶ theatre arts is one of the most supportive and inspiring environments I’ve ever been in. We all have such a genuine love for the craft and for each other. I have grown so much by learning and working with these people.”

Raeck wasn’t the only one with trepidations that would be tempered. For sophomore Theatre Arts Performance major Jalyn Landrum, a decade of performances had left them feeling stuck in a rut. Though they aren’t part of the lottery, playing multiple characters in “Everybody” still helped Landrum gain some well-needed momentum.

“With help from our director, I actually feel the differences between my three characters,” Landrum said. “He helped me try different things and not feel so constricted in my choices.”

Senior Psychology major and lottery participant Joshua Timmons said, “The more time we spent talking about it and working with each other, the more excited we got to share this play with the ������ý��Ƶ community. The freedom to learn, fail, and have fun with expression granted by our wonderful director has helped make this process extremely rewarding for me as a young actor.”

Timmons, like many ������ý��Ƶ students, is approaching this particular challenge with an interdisciplinary mindset. 

“In the theatre space, my experience studying psychology and sociology allows me to take what I’ve learned about how humans perceive and interact with the world and reverse-engineer the psychological/sociological processes I’ve been taught to create a character,” they said.

Timmons also draws upon lessons and skills picked up through the ������ý��Ƶ Speech Team. “I’ve competed in most of the different events involved in speech, but all of them involved acting, argumentation, improvisation, and public speaking in some way,” they said. “This has significantly bolstered my ability to make bold acting choices, back them up with the text, and feel confident performing in front of audiences of any size.”

At only 90 minutes long with no intermission, Matisa and his cast and crew have put together something really special. “You will laugh. You will be moved. You will talk about it for a long time afterwards,” Matisa said. “We’ve never produced anything like this, and you’re not likely to see anything like it ever again.”

Get your tickets for “Everybody” .

 

–Jenevieve Rowley-Davis