The Quinnipiac University Theatre Program overcame many obstacles with “Lydie Breeze Part Two, The Sacredness of the Next Task,” which ran from Nov. 6 through Nov. 9, in Clarice L. Buckman Theatre.
The play opened with music, introducing a world of woe and despair. Sound effects were carried out throughout the story, which took place on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket.
The details in the set and lighting design transformed Buckman Theatre and drew the audience into every scene.
“It provides an evocative environment for the play,” Director Dr. Crystal Brian said about the painting detail and set-up of the stage.
A poetic play written by John Guare, “Lydie Breeze” is very wordy and difficult for actors, and the director.
“Most of the action is subtextual, which means it’s not located in what the characters say, but in their underlying intentions,” said Brian. Brian also mentioned that the characters in “Lydie Breeze” are not easy to understand and are even more difficult to make real.
Assistant Director Nikki Levine believes the actors’ biggest challenge was to find their characters’ emotions. The cast had to put a lot of trust in one another so this could work.
“They dug a lot deeper in themselves and each other,” said Levine.
The multi-talented performers incurred real emotion into the distraught world of death, violence and insanity lived by the characters in “Lydie Breeze.” Intensity echoed from each cry and traveled from the first through the last row of the theatre.
“The emotion played throughout the characters, it was very well developed; each actor brought their part to life,” said junior business management major Mark Tortora. “It seems so realistic.”
Crystal Ryder, a sophomore Physician Assistant major said the play was “very well performed and dramatic.”
Junior business accounting major Jonathan Towle liked the inventor Lucian Rock, played by Matthew Tortora. He “made his part alive,” according to Towle.
The successful outcome of “Lydie Breeze” required tremendous work to discover the psychological needs of each character. Four months of rehearsal with an average of 12 to 15 hours per week was just part of the process.
The next play that the program will perform will be “The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet,” which is set for April 2004 in Clarice L. Buckman Theatre and the Long Wharf Stage II.