Barely There Theatre's “word play,” February 19 through 28

Thursday, February 19, through Saturday, February 28

Black Box Theatre, 1823 Fifth Avenue, Moline IL

With Barely There Theatre's latest presentation landing, as its company originator and playwright says, "just in time to be late for Valentine's Day," busy area-theatre participant (and Reader theatre reviewer) Alexander Richardson brings the world premiere of his first-ever script, word play, to Moline's Black Box Theatre February 19 through 28. Richardson adds that the four-character, nonlinear piece "isn't so much a romance or love story as it is a 'falling out of love story,'" and that his 2015 one-act "has been updated and revised countless times, until it found the right team to bring it to life."

In word play, which is being directed by Emma Wahlmann, performers Sera Calhoun, Shyan DeVoss, Evan Gagliardo, and Keenen Wilson take part in what the show's press release terms "a once-in-a-lifetime collision of souls," as well as "a raw, unscripted exploration of the moment love becomes a memory." Via e-mail, though, Richardson admits that "unscripted" might be "a little misleading. But it sounds exciting, doesn't it?

"The entire script is just dialogue," he clarifies. "There are absolutely no stage directions of any kind, no guiding rails or markers for Emma and the cast to know, 'Oh, this is what the playwright wanted.'” Within the script, Richardson's dialogue also features "chunks of totally blank space" in which conversation is intended but not specified by the author.

"And what's been really cool," says Richardson, "is seeing how the actors fill that space. Even from rehearsal to rehearsal, they're making different choices on what's happening in that silence, and those choices have all been right. Because even when it's totally different from the day prior, it still colors the rest of the interaction for the scene and has a fun cascading effect down through the rest of the text."

Director Wahlmann, also via e-mail, says, "There are definitely elements of comedy, drama, and romance present in word play. It’s always fun to experiment with the highs and lows of a scene to make the audience really feel the roller coaster of emotions that the characters are living through. The cool thing about the play existing in a nonlinear timeline is that the cast knows the chronological emotional arc of their characters, and what that means for the stakes of each scene, but the audience doesn’t get the full scope of the story until they’ve seen the whole show."

Regarding word play's intentional lack of presentational cues – no specified time, no specified place, et cetera – Wahlmann adds, "Not having any stage directions creates a lot of freedom, but it also can be challenging to not have any foundation to really work off. We’ve had the actors try lots of different deliveries of the dialogue to see what feels right. Sometimes we make new and surprising discoveries that help us get to know the characters a little bit better. It’s also been nice to have Alex in the room for rehearsals so that we can occasionally say, 'Hey, Alex, any strong feelings on how this part was meant to go?'"

In additional to the novelty of the script-in-progress, word play will also, per the press release, "feature the debut of a new style of lighting and sound design not seen before in the Quad Cities. Every night the actors go out on stage, their performances are slightly different from the night before. Now, the technical design of the show will mirror the reality of the performances. Each and every night, the lights and sound will be different, responding to both the movement and volume of both the performers and audience. Truly, no two shows will ever be the same in this experimental brand of theatre."

As Richardson says, "I built a custom light and sound program expressly for this show," and "the lights, sound, and performance are all very closely linked and symbiotic in how they behave. The whole show is underscored with music (that I have composed myself). As notes in the music chime, the lights will respond in time and color, painting the scene as it goes. Think of it almost as water colors, with new drops being added with each note.

"As we add the music in," he continues, "this will also guide the actors in terms of beats, and resting in that silence and music, and letting it be a metronome of sorts for them. And for some scenes, the music will be manually cued and instead respond to the pace of the actors, creating a super-cool and dynamic back-and-forth between tech and performance. The final element of change is moving spotlights, which will be continually tracking actors as they move through the space. So while actors have their blocking, they also have freedom to move. No more, 'finding their light,' but now light finding them."

Of course, audiences who only see word play once won't be able to gauge which tech elements (or performance elements, for that matter) were altered from the night before, or will be altered the night after. But as Richardson says, "While I would love for people to see the show many times, that's not exactly what I'm hoping to accomplish with this brand of design.

“Our prior production, What Might Have Been, was much more geared to repeat viewings,” he says. “The goal here is to have a design that keeps up with the actors as they find new beats and changes over the course of the performance's run. Generally speaking, theatrical lights and sound are locked in, and play out the same every night, regardless of what's happening on stage. What I'm hoping to accomplish here is bringing the same kind of flexibility that performers have, to the technical side of things. It's to keep things fresh for us on the team, though any repeat viewers will find something new if they do return."

Wahlmann adds, "We always hope that audience members will want to come back multiple times, because that’s the beauty of live theatre: It is different every time. I know that, personally, I encourage at least two or three groups of people that I know to see different performances of a show so that I can really get a feel for what the audience is experiencing as a whole, not just on any one given night. Hopefully, the experience is akin to seeing a sunset; never exactly the same, but always mesmerizing, all while leaving you in anticipation for the next chance to see one."

Meanwhile, following the run of word play, your next chance to see a Barely There Theatre production might not come until 2027. Richardson's mention of his company's What Might Have Been, which premiered in January and closed its Black Box Theatre engagement on February 7, is a reminder that – with WMHB a collection of three one-acts – Richardson will now have authored four debuting works over the span of less than a month. Just how crazy-making has this schedule been?

"Crazy doesn't even begin to describe it," Richardson says, "especially with how wildly unique each show has been. Every play has had its own challenges, so it's been a whirlwind dealing with four sets of problems! I keep thinking I'm going to wake up from some very long and elaborate dream, as I truly don't believe I get to do this. I was blown away by the response we had to What Might Have Been, and I hope we're able to keep the momentum going for this production, as well. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't have 'deep hibernation' penciled in on my calendar for March 1."

Barely There Theatre's word play runs at Moline's Black Box Theatre February 19 through 28, with performances Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and an added 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday, February 28. Admission is “pay what it's worth” ticket pricing, and more information and reservations are available by visiting Facebook.com/BarelyThereTheatreQC.