Trading roles with a teacher is perhaps every child's fantasy in elementary school. For Hannah Chase '06, that dream is being acted out in her theater honors thesis: The cast of her play, "A Number," includes professor James Rice, senior lecturer in theater studies.
As a cast member, the acting and voice instructor takes his direction from Chase. "I get a chance to act as a colleague and not be a leader," he said. "It's exciting for me to get outside the classroom."
When asked about directing a professor, Chase said, "It was originally something I was anxious about, but it hasn't been a problem at all. James is great at not making me feel inferior. It's been invaluable to have someone with so much experience. Ultimately, I am still a student, and it's great to have someone to learn from."
Rice agreed. "It's good for me, as an actor, and it's good for them to work with someone with experience [who is] not coming in [to rehearsal] with a high status," he said. "We worked together to solve problems [during the rehearsal process]."
The play itself, written by British playwright Caryl Churchill, addresses the mentor/tutor relationship in the form of a father and his three sons.
"It's about a normal father who, over the course of the play, has secrets about his past revealed that jeopardizes his relationship with his sons," said Chase. "[It's] about how we form our identities, and the idea of starting over."
Bud Simis '08, the only member in the cast besides Rice, plays all three of Rice's sons. "[It's] challenging," Simis said, when asked about playing three roles in one production. "You focus on what each character is trying to do, [and] start with action. When characters are related, your body is enough to tell the story."
"What really distinguishes [the three sons are] their relationships to their father," Chase said.
"And how they go about getting what they want from him," Simis quickly added.
Chase believes the set and seating arrangement, designed by Katherine Akiko Day '07, fit the play well. The audience sits "in the round" on the stage of the Moore Theater, surrounded by windows that "create" the living room in which Rice and Simis perform. She said that the size of the stage area -- which has a diameter of only 13 feet -- adds to the intimacy of the play.
"This play thrives on the ability of the audience to look really carefully at the characters. The seating arrangement serves very well because the audience is the going on a journey with the characters," she said.
Chase chose the play last summer. "I was initially attracted to the language and rhythm. It's very circuitous. The play is never direct," she said.
Reading it again, Chase became increasingly intrigued by the piece. "The themes seemed really exciting. It's a very simple yet very complex play," she said.
Chase and her cast devoted significant time during the rehearsal process to discussing and understanding those themes. "[It's about] the patriarchy, how men can really hurt and be hurt, and how they can hurt those they most deeply love as a result of their pain," Rice said.
"[The play tells you that] you can't escape your past. It's very karmic in that way," he added.
After reading the play "many times" during Fall term, Chase used the Winter term to put together a director's casebook and to talk to her potential cast members. This proved somewhat stressful in the case of Rice.
"We met, and James sort of grilled me about my idea. He looked like he was going to say no, and there was a long pause," she said, "but he said yes."
Rice admits he was only giving Chase a hard time and said that he would have committed to the play as early as the Fall term, had she asked then.
Chase and the cast hope the play will facilitate discussion between audience members. "Just when you get comfortable with the play and get its moral lines straight," Rice said, "Churchill turns on you and makes you question what is normal. She yanks the carpet out from under you."
"There's not a neat ending," Chase added.
Overall, flipping the roles of professor and student to create a play about the roles of father and son seems to have benefited everyone involved. "It's been fun. I'm working as hard as I can," said Rice. "Working with these guys has demonstrated to me how exceptionally well-trained they are."
"A Number" runs this Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Moore Theater.
