Tabetha Xavier '10 one of three winners of the Eleanor Frost and Rush & Loring Dodd Annual Playwriting Festival will present the story of a man so crippled by the loss of love that he is unable to physically move at the Frost & Dodd Play Festival this weekend. Her play, entitled "Sit-In," explores the "messiness" of love and the impossibility of a perfect marriage, Xavier said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
"Sit-In" follows Ronnie, a businessman who experiences a full-blown personal crisis after his wife leaves him, according to Xavier. Ronnie, who barricades himself in his house and refuses to stand up until his wife returns, spends the duration of the play on the floor, attempting to restore his lost love.
The play ultimately addresses the consequences of feelings and deals with the realization that love often leads to unavoidable pain, Xavier said.
"Hopefully the play will be universal enough that people will feel a wide range of things," Xavier said. "Hopefully it will touch the nerves of everyone in the audience, and for every person that nerve might be a little bit different."
Xavier described Ronnie as a "hopeless romantic" who commits himself to "waiting for love."
"I feel like waiting is the most exhausting thing you can do emotionally," Xavier said.
Another primary theme of the play is that people communally owe each other much more than they seem to give each other, Xavier said.
The play is "full of surprises," and features four characters other than Ronnie, she added.
Xavier, who has written several short films and screenplays over the past two years, said that all her plays are based on reality and that her own experiences strongly influence her work.
"Every single play I write is genuine I just pluck moments out of my life and embellish them," Xavier said.
Xavier won this same contest last year with her first work "Fold the Close," an "explosive" play about a young girl whose imaginary friend was murdered.
While "Fold the Close" was a violent and emotional story that dealt with the serious issue of child abuse, Xavier's play this year takes a different approach.
"When I decided to write for this contest again I wanted to head to the opposite end of the spectrum and write something a little more lighthearted," Xavier said. "Last year's play was violent and terrifying. This is a sentimental piece."
Xavier was a theater major modified with government and is also pre-med. She took her first playwriting class at the end of her sophomore year before declaring her major midway through her junior year. Prior to Dartmouth, Xavier had no experience with creative writing, she said.
She has since decided to consider a career as a professional playwright. One of Xavier's plays will open at a New York fringe festival in September and she said she hopes to work on several short films once she moves to New York City in the fall.
Xavier said she believes that it is important for everyone to find a way to share their own stories.
"First and foremost I'm a human being and I'm a person who has developed a wide spectrum of emotions," Xavier said. "The fact that I can communicate through plays is very secondary to that."
