Home Is Where The Stage Is

What can you do in front of a dozen people that you couldn't possibly do in front of several hundred? Well, Eric D. Ronis '86 can direct a play--in his North House dorm room.

Ronis's adapted version of I.D. Salinger's short story "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut" opens next Wednesday and will run until next Saturday, for an expected audience of about 12 each evening.

Ronis, who most recently directed "Savage/Love" in the Experimental Theatre of the Loeb Drama Center, said that the idea to perform a play in his fourth-floor single room came when a friend told him the he should direct plays somewhere besides the Ex and make use of the ample "unexploited theater space" around campus.

Ronis said that he responed--jokingly--"What do you want me to do, it out of my room?"

And that is precisely what he decided to do. "When I thought about it, it occurred to me that it would be a very cool things to do," Ronis said.

While it is unusual, Ronis said that he was not the first to do a play somewhere other than a normal stage. Other shows in Harvard history have been performed in places ranging from the Adams House swimming pool to an elevator in Hilles Library.

The action in Ronis' play will take place in two Holmes Hall bedrooms and the hallway between then, and the hallway between them, and the audience will actually move with the cast from one bedroom to the other.

Betty Achmstein '87, who still as a 9-year old girl in "Uncle Wiggly," said she thinks that using alternative stage is a good idea. "We're all students and we're all students and we're all experimenting. I really like idea of taking on new projects and challenging ourselves in new places."

Ronis said that the rehearsals are going smoothly, but that he does have to face several problems that wouldn't exist the were doing the play on a more conventional stage,

I'm worried that the phone will ring at the wrong time." Ronis said, adding that he couldn't disconnect it because the phone is supposed to ring during the play.

"Also, there's a little problem with the other people on the floor." Ronis added "I'm requesting that people don't leave their rooms or go to the bathroom during the half hour that the play runs each evening. It would be distracting to the audience.

Ronis said that his request hasn't disturbed his dormmates greatly, adding. "I guess they view me as a bit eccentric for doing a play in my room, and I suppose I am."

Achinstein agreed, calling Ronis "unconventional in his own way," and added that his doing a play in a dorm room is quite in character.

"Doing it is a dorm room lets the audience be very intimate. It's going to be a challenge because the audience will be aloof away," Achinstein said.

But there is still one more rather aspect to the upcoming play the lead part, a female character, is being played by a male.

Christopher L. Moore '86 will play the lead part, and Achinstein said she was confident he could handle the role, calling him the best actor she's seen at Harvard.

Ronis said that Moore was the best qualified for the part, and because the casting was already not entirely realistic, with a 19-year-old playing a 9-year-old, he decided that "we might as well go all out."