The Fever opens tonight as part of Black Box Theater
Actor and playwright Wallace Shawn is probably best known for voicing the T-Rex in ‘Toy Story’ or his role as the master of the poisoned wine in ‘The Princess Bride.’ Yet tonight, an adaptation of Shawn’s play ‘The Fever’ will open as part of the Black Box Players’ 23rd season.
Directed by senior acting major Chris Dall’au, ‘The Fever’ was written as a one-man show centering on character of the Traveler. However, Dall’au adapted the 90-minute show into an ensemble piece featuring 13 Syracuse University students.
‘It’s a 90-minute tour de force type of show,’ said Brody Hessin, a senior musical theater major. ‘It’s a movement-based ensemble piece, so there is no one person that has a lot more than anyone else. I’m just that one main person that all this stuff happens to.’
Hessin takes the role of an upper-class man who struggles to understand how his lifestyle creates a poor, lower class society. Essentially, Hessin said, it’s this man’s struggle of guilt and ethics.
Hessin said that this style of show hasn’t been seen too often at Syracuse. The cast attempts to build images of poverty and other serious world issues using physical imagery with lights and bodies.
‘Hopefully it will leave an impact on them (the audience) that they do have to think about current issues of the world,’ he said. ‘Hopefully it will bring some attention to how our world really functions and it won’t be direct, it will be through those images and lighting. It’s kind of what an ensemble show is all about: the imagery.’
‘The Fever’ is the second Black Box Players show this season.
Black Box Players is one of the longest-lasting theatrical student organizations on campus. All of the shows – including the three others later this year – are directed and performed by students, on sets that are built by students as well.
‘Every day, all of us have rehearsal and we all come in, we leave our day at the door, we do the work,’ Hessin said. ‘Our director is a student also, and he is extremely passionate about this show. He’s really gotten us motivated every day to do our best work.
After tonight’s opening, there are six more performances. All shows are in the Black Box Theater at Syracuse Stage.
Published on November 12, 2008 at 12:00 pm
