University of North Alabama - Diorama Yearbook (Florence, AL)

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This is one of those plays that does not try to make specta- tors feel they are watching scenes from real life. In fact, if a member of the audience manages to forget he or she is sitting in a theater watching actors perform from a script, not only is the show a failure but that audience member would do well to seek psychi- atric help. I went with my ex-girlfriend to see The Skin of Our Teeth. Just as we were both aware we were watching a performance onstage, we both knew we were acting roles as we sat there in our seats. She and 1 were both pre- tending nothing sour had ever occurred between us. Also, since we both knew most of the cast, in their off- stage roles as drama students and friends, we pretended not to be surprised when mild-mannered, light-hearted Daryl Crittenden or kind, energetic Krissy Warren flared in raw anger or trembled in emotional pain. For a while, she and I pretended to be old friends instead of old loves, and pretended not to know Anna Brooks or Mark Hampton or Annelle Caspers. Cast and audience played their roles with dedication and bril- liance. My ex, Beth, is now a student of drama at the University of Alabama. She has been onstage several times, in a variety of roles. I met her when she per- formed the role of Abigail and 1 played Reverend Hale in The Crucible. Most of the actors in The Skin of Our Teeth had been in the audience during the run of Crucible, just as most of the cast of Crucible found themselves sitting in Norton Auditorium a year later to watch the former audience of our sl|p| perform a show for us. Tit for tat. Quid pro quo. You show me yours, Fll show vmi mine. Etc. ' ]V%|k,mho played the lead role of Antrobus in Skin, llfes Superman, Star Wars and Austin Powers. nous spring, he and 1 were in The Tempest pre-Phantom Menace, and every day he gushe(fnews about the irripending Star Wars flick. As Antrobus, Mark cheated on his wife, attempted to kill his son (who, granted, was also trying to kill him), and repeatedly saved humanity from extinction. Antrobus probably would not like Star Wars or Austin Powers. Everyone likes Superman. Rachael Scanlon made her first appfrafi-ance play as a mammoth. That ' s right — she entered wear- ing a large muppetesque costume. 1 did my first play with Rachael: she was Juliet and I was Paris, the guy Juliet kills herself in order to avoid marrying, in Romeo and Juliet. And Daryl was in RSuJ as well, as was Heather Cannon (Fortuneteller). Rachael made a fine Juliet and she made a fine mammoth. You can ' t say that about everyone. The p toget ce m So Beth and I sat in the audience, aware we were an audience and aware we were not boyfriend girl- friend. She had a new boyfri|ni, in Tuscaloosa, but I was still as single as a slice of cheese. With my social skills, I was also as hermetically sealed as a slice of cheese, but not as orange or as square. ig| bMI I Anyway, audiences share an intimacy not com- in most parts of lives — there are few other places, besides an auditoriuiii. where a group of strangers siFtogeS er quietly S find themselves pro- foundly moved, sometimes to the point of tears. In fact, auditoriums and funeral homes are about the only locations I can think of where people cry in public. Laugliing happens all over the world. Crying hap- pens in only a few sanctioned spots. Beth and 1 sat in 20 the auditorium watching our friends move an entire the audience nearly to tears, to laughter, to reflection, to a hundred other emotions, and somewhere in the last act Beth and 1 were moved to hold hands. After the show, Anna Brooks, whom we had just watched resist floods and famines and other family crises, joined us for a late dinner at IHOP. Anna ' s boyfriend came with us but they broke up a few days later. I hope it was nothing I said. The university ' s production of The Skin of Our

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FACE FULL OF FUN. ron Irons [opposite] wears the result of Spring Fling ' s cake-eating contest . SPRING FLING CHALK THING Organizations test their creative abilities, decorating the Gulliot University ' Center ' s sidewalks. MARK. GET SET. SPITl-poby Eveland leans back to demonstrate the best way to catapult watermel- on seeds. ' !ikni she is. The stage is mine tonight. Look at all these people who came to see me dance. I ' m going to give them a performance that will knock them off their feet. 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... Cluck, cluck, cluck. 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... The guy beside me has my shoe. He ' d better ' give me back that shoe. What on earth does he want with my I shoe? His foot is twice the size of mine. He ' s a thief, that ' s what Ihe is. Well, he ' d better be giving back my shoe, or there are going to be serious consequences. After all the money I paid for those babies. I deserve to get to wear them. 1 ... 2. ... 3 ... Everyone is staring at me again. They ' re S • applauding, and everyone ' s leaving. 1 haven ' t even done any- | thing, have 1? I can ' t remember the last few minutes. Why do 1 have the urge to cluck like a chicken? But here come my o friends; they ' ll clue me in. | They ' re are saying I did all kind of things: playing like a lit- z tie girl, flexing like a bodybuilder, dancing around the stage. They have got to be kidding me. I wasn ' t really hypnotized ... was I? — Lori Tays PULLING FOR THE DELTAS- a Tria Kin, Darcell Jordan put their best foot forward for Sigma Theta in Spring Fling ' s Tug-of-War. ; and Delta 19

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UNA photos by Chandra Dye DON ' T MAKE A MOVE. Mark Hampton prac- tices his assassination technique. Teeth did not let the audience forget it was an audience, and in fact heightened the audience ' s awareness of itself as a group of people sharing an experience. Mark ' s parents sat in front of us and the director of the play, John McCaslin- Doyle, operated a projector that was set up next to my own seat. He watched his young son perform, too, in the dual roles of a tele- graph boy and a defeated presidential can- didate. Anna ' s boyfriend spent his last few moments in that particvilar role sitting on the other side of Beth. All of us watched the play, having our different relationships with each of the actors, our own memories, our own opin- ions, sharing the plot with one another. McCaslin-Doyle says, in the director ' s note in the program for Skin, don ' t expect this play to explain itself. It won ' t. That ' s your job. Which is true — most of the art of performing is letting the audience have their own personal reactions. — Marc Mitchell Cast and Crew: Hercial Austin, Julie Barnhill, David Bishop, Joshua Stanley Bngan. Anna Brooks, Heather Cannon, Anneile Caspers, Natalie Cranston, Daryl Cnttenden, Bnan Davis, Sam Gross, Steven Gross, Mark Spencer Hampton, Chnstina Heline, Daniel Hopkin, Amanda Hughes, Clay Jeffreys, Anthony Joiner, Jeremy Lee, Austin IVlcCaslin-Doyle, Deena Meek, Matt Osborne, Rachel Scanlon, Diane Stracner, Sam Stough, D Evan Tucker, Krissy Warren, l yra Webb, Anne White, Allison Wnght, Danny Wnght. 21