Article from Towson University newspaper

The Towerlight

Play to depict realities of war
Performances begin Friday of contemporary play revolving around the trials of war

by Samantha Margolis and Allison Barger
Photos by Lisa Johnson
October 10, 2002

Humor, tragedy and lust take center stage for the next two weeks in "Alchemy of Desire/Dead Man's Blues," a story of love, desire and the trials of war. The story will be played out in the Center for the Arts Mainstage Theatre.

The six-member cast will deliver seven performances over two weeks, combining both comic and tragic elements, accompanied by song.

"Alchemy of Desire" is the story of a widow, Simone, who grieves the loss of her husband to an unnamed war. The play takes its audience on a spiritual journey through the struggle of a community to save Simone's soul and bring her back to the land of the living with love, song and buckets of fried chicken.

"[The play] takes you on [Simone's] journey of dealing with [the loss of her husband] and how she grieves," said senior theatre major Heidi Eurich, who plays Simone. "A lot of it is denial; a lot of it is heavy lust; a lot of it is determination to get him back, to want to be with him."

As a contemporary play revolving around the trials of war, "Alchemy of Desire" illustrates the truth and reality of modern issues.

Senior electronic media and film major Shaun Russell, the only male in the cast, plays Jamie, Simone's late husband. A current officer in the Army Reserves, Shaun said he feels a special connection with his character.

"The death of war is an actual state," he said. "Listening to the other characters and how they deal with the facts of war and looking at the people they've lost in war makes me have a connection to my family and makes me feel stronger about what I'm doing."

Director Juanita Rockwell, who is also the coordinator for the Master of Fine Arts Program, is proud of her fifth Towson production. This year, the cast had the opportunity to work with the playwright, Caradid Svich.

"In my time here, I have done a lot of mostly new works and, in at least a couple of the cases, the playwrights have been here," Rockwell said. "I think that having the playwright is very special. Just having the playwright at the rehearsal brought things into focus so much for the actors and for me and for the process. To be able to see a production in which the playwright is living is very exciting."

The burned-out bayou in which the play takes place is hardly a sight of extreme physical action. With the exception of the occasional swatting at flies and washing of clothes, the majority of the action takes the form of sweeping dialogue and passionate soliloquies that overflow with imagery.

With the haunting of Simone's dead husband, however, chaos sweeps over the unnamed bayou, creating "a big roller coaster ride," Eurich said.

"You're going to laugh at one moment; cry the next," Eurich said of the pangs of grief Simone experiences, as well as the humor and irony of everyday life.

The show opens with a scene in which the grieving widow is surrounded by buckets of fried chicken, and it does not take long to recognize the tragic comedy that embodies "Alchemy of Desire."

"The play is a poem," Rockwell said. "It's written just the way a poem is written. It isn't written in mundane language. It's written in a very powerful, poetic form, and yet at the same time it's humorous. The first speech juxtaposes the images of fried chicken and a dead body."

Each of the six actors brings a different perspective to the play. The characters range in age from mid-20s to late-60s and are all played by actors in their 20s. In order to add to the diversity, Rockwell avoided typecasting and making the cast predominantly of one nationality.

"I wanted a really international and multicultural cast because I didn't want this to be about a particular group of people who belong to one culture losing against some other culture," she said. "There's white; there's African American; there's Moroccan; there's Haitian."

The cast includes, along with Russell and Eurich, seniors Candice Jean-Jacques, a theater major from Haiti, Faith Evans, a mass communication major in her first play at Towson, Cindy Madden, a theater major, and junior Salima Chadly, a theater major from France.

"It's a great cast, and we love working with each other," Chadly said. "[The play] is very magical."

Rockwell said audiences will appreciate "Alchemy" because it is more than just a play that entertains; it also nurses emotional wounds.

"In a way, the play is also a recipe for healing and what we can do to help heal ourselves and the Earth from the ongoing indignities that happen," Rockwell said. "We get to be a part of a healing process in the course of this play, and I find that very moving."

"Alchemy of Desire/Dead Man's Blues" runs Oct. 11 and 12 at 8 p.m., Oct. 13 at 2 p.m. and Oct. 16 through 19 at 8 p.m. in the Center for the Arts Mainstage Theatre.

Tickets are $10 for general admission and $5 for students and seniors and are on sale at the Center for the Arts Box Office in the main lobby, or by calling 410-704-2728.

For more information about the play or the cast, visit www.towson.edu/theatre/alchemy