"How do I put my soul on a piece of paper?" This is a question every applicant must struggle with when faced with the inevitable doom of college admission essays. No one can honestly claim that he had an easy time choosing his favorite word out of the entire English language or deciding what is the biggest problem facing the world today, and then expressing those major epiphanies within the measly page limitations of a hundred lines or less.
Despite the difficulties that await the average college essayist, the cast of "Voices of the Class 2001" may face an even more excruciating job - how to take these thoughts and portray them accurately and movingly in 10 minutes of performance or less. The actors of the play succeed quite well, creating an engaging and often hilarious account of the issues college students face when writing their essays as well as in life.
Starting over the summer, the cast and staff of "Voices of the Class" read about 150 of the top essays from the first-year class, screened by the Office of Admissions and the director of the production. They then workshopped all of these essays, brainstorming for ways to transform eloquently written accounts into an entirely different medium: the stage. The result of this collaborative effort is a play that is at once both dramatic and yet so real that it almost blurs the line of theater and true life.
For instance, one scene in the production features a young white woman inviting her boyfriend, who is black, to have dinner with her family. Once they arrive, the girl is horrified to realize that her family, in an effort to make her boyfriend more comfortable, is attempting to speak to him in a forced, rap-inspired fashion. This scene certainly provides comedic entertainment, but it also poses a serious question facing the youth of America today: how is black culture changing society as a whole?
The cast manages to pay homage not only to rap music, but also to many other pop culture phenomena, like the Crocodile Hunter and Star Wars, in a light-hearted fashion that is sure to keep the audience laughing.
It is the contrast with these comedic scenes that make the serious scenes, such as ones dealing with domestic violence or questions of identity, even more realistic and moving.
Rob Walker, the show's director, says the goal of "Voices of the Class" is to create a "theater of the community."
"My main focus while directing this play has been on character development," Walker says. "There is a collaborative nature between the writers of these essays, the cast members who acted as playwrights and the general community-at-large. It is important that the audience identify with the characters being portrayed because they are truly representatives of the student body."
Gretchen Downey, a third-year cast member, also agrees that it is the show's realness that impacts the audience. "'Voices' is powerful because it is so personal," Downey says. "Everyone at the University understands the struggle [each voice] underwent to get here and can relate to it. It is also amazing to think that it is your peers who wrote the inspiration for what you are seeing on stage, and [who] are sharing with you what for many of them were vulnerable or frustrating periods of their lives."
The show runs Sept. 7 through 9 in Old Cabell Hall auditorium at 8 p.m. Tickets are $4.
While "Voices" may struggle with the question, "How do I put my soul down on a piece of paper?," its cast members certainly know how to bare their souls on stage.
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