Senior directing project auditions

Keene State Theater and Dance (TAD) Department seniors Tyler Nash and Skye Robicheau held auditions for their directing projects Sunday, Feb. 12 in the Mabel Brown Room.

Robicheau’s directing project is titled “A Gaggle of Saints,” one of three acts in Neil LaBute’s “Bash.”

“The play itself is about a young Mormon couple who separately recount the night of their anniversary weekend in New York City,” Robicheau said. “The play really questions morality and how we justify violence using our beliefs.”

Robicheau added, “Our religious beliefs sometimes justify violent actions and [the play] portrays the complexity of evil in everyday life, it’s raw which I love about it.”

Even though the play is based around the couple’s relationship, they are never seen speaking to each other. “They don’t ever talk to each other, they talk separately… cause they get separated at one point,” Robicheau said.

Nash’s directing project is titled “Mind Games,” which is a one-act drama by Paul Elliot. “Essentially it’s a story about a psychiatrist who deals with patients ranging from schizophrenia and other mental disorders,” Nash said. “He gets maybe too invested in this one specific patient who took his own advice and kind of ran with it and comes to believe that he is God essentially, or the creator of all, and everything that he sees is all that exists.”

Nash added, “It delves into this idea of man, if he’s not here what happens to me? On the doctor’s part, do I even exist? So it deals with big themes like existence, what is existence?”
At the audition itself, actor will have “a monologue prepared, 60 to 90 seconds… we’re gonna call certain people back and have them group up and give them material from our pieces,” Nash said. Robicheau said that she was looking for actors that can freely express themselves.

“I’m really looking for people who step out of their comfort zone… I would love to see the actor behind the piece, so making sure the actor has a connection to what they’re doing.”

Nicole Dumont can be contacted
at ndumont@kscequinox.com