(Pictured above: poster for Marat/Sade, the play in the downspace from 10/16 – 10/19 and the pw logo)
Are you interested in theatre at Brown? Whether you’re a veteran actor or a fresh newbie, you’ve come to the right place – Stage Write! I’m Olivia Cummings, first-year Shakespeare enthusiast (try to find the Shakespeare reference(s) in each blog post!), techie, and budding thespian. I’ll be writing about my experiences in the various facets of theatre life at Brown this year.
I’ve been spending a lot of time at pw (Production Workshop) lately working as an assistant sound designer for the show “The Persecution of John Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates at the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade” or, as we like to call it “Marat/Sade.” The play is essentially a play within a play. The students actors are playing inmates in an insane asylum set in Napoleonic era France. The inmates are then putting on a show that is set fifteen years earlier during the French Revolution. The plot of that play is really just that John Paul Marat (Marcus Sudac), a revolutionary, is assassinated by Charlotte Corday (Chloé Dordan), a seemingly innocent teenage reactionary. The “producer and director” of the inmate’s show, the Marquis de Sade (Amelia Scaramucci), is both in a play within the play but also is not…sometimes. Yeah, it’s pretty complicated.
(Pictured above: two [masterfully] confused pre-frosh…)
So while the show is almost prohibitively ambiguous (which can be kind of fun -#HamletFTW), the theatre itself is thankfully not! I’ll take this blog post to tell you a little about pw and why if you do theatre next year you’ll probably end up there!
pw is the only fully student-led theatre at Brown (see last week’s cover picture for a shot of pw). It has its own space – two theaters in fact. Because it’s completely student-run, the shows they put on are usually a little more avant-garde and occasionally a bit more mature in content than shows put on by the University or by other groups. pw is a little more free in terms of the variety of genres that are produced in the space. This freedom is due mostly to the fact that pw is run by a board of students. They make all decisions for pw and decide what shows will be produced. You can try to join the board by going to a late night “schmooze” and submitting an application.
There are about seven plays put on each year in the downspace. The downspace is pw’s large black box theatre that stage designers can (and do) have a lot of fun with. There is another theatre upstairs called the upspace (creative right…). It’s smaller but there is usually a show in there each week. If you’re a part of a non-pw show (maybe musical forum (mf)), and that group doesn’t have its own space, then you will probably have your show in the upspace.
In terms of acting, as a first-year you will have just as much of a chance to get a big role in a pw production as an upperclass student would, if your skill is at the level necessary of course. Additionally, pw plays are “cast without regard to race, color, or ethnic identity (or anything else for that matter) except when such identity is central to the production’s thematic content.” So maybe try to audition for a role that’s outside of your comfort zone when you get here! [Also – Fun Fact!! There are many notable alumni who worked on pw shows. Both John Krasinski and Emma Watson performed in pw productions when they attended Brown.]
pw is on Perkins, which is the far east side of campus. Many current first-years probably have no idea where it is even now, almost two months into the school year. Despite what you might have heard, Perkins is not too far from the rest of campus. The walk isn’t bad at all if you live near the main green and for those who live in Pembroke (the north side of campus) it’s just a 15 minute walk. The Brown evening shuttle also has a stop right in front of pw, but that only starts at 7PM, which is probably after rehearsal starts for most shows.
Here’s a link if you want more information about the awesome space that is pw: http://pw.brown.edu/
As a potential Immunobiology and/or Public Health concentrator who is pre-med (PLME), I’ll approach theatre as someone who is doing it as a (very time-intensive) hobby. If you have any questions for me or would like to be connected with someone who is looking to pursue theatre after college, email me at olivia_cummings@brown.edu. Looking forward to seeing you all at Brown soon!
The Bruin Club 