Six Characters in Search of an Author

October 21 - 23, 7:30 p.m.

Loeb Experimental Theater

Directed by Jesse T. Nee-Vogelman ’13

Produced by Kelly M. Conley ’11

In an environment that specializes in more experimental theater, Harvard undergraduates are blurring the lines between rehearsal and performance. Luigi Pirandello’s “Six Characters in Search of an Author” is already famous for experimenting with metatheater, but the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club’s production will put this classic play in a new context: Harvard.

“Six Characters” takes place at a rehearsal for another play, when suddenly the stage is invaded by unfinished characters who demand an author to complete their story. The Director agrees, leading to an exploration of both the characters’ stories and the nature of art.

“The play is about figuring out where our reality ends and the reality of the show begins,” says director Jesse T. Nee-Vogelman ’13. For an audience of mainly Harvard undergraduates, “our reality” is literal. “It’s set as a group of actors for a Harvard production. There are references to a few groups on the Harvard campus,” says Daniel W. Erickson ’14, who is playing the Father.

These references are in part due to the new translation from the Italian by Brandon J. Ortiz ’12. The language is much more modern, and shies away from the more stylistic literary language used in previous translations.

This production has also taken the work’s play-within-a-play to a whole new level. “Usually when people do this play there is an actor to play the Director and actors to play the Tech Director and Lighting Designer. In this production the actors are actors and the characters are actors, but the Director is also the real director,” says Renée R. Donlon, who plays the Stepdaughter. This device plays with the division between art and reality in a way seldom seen in other productions both of this work and in the general realm of theater.

The Loeb Experimental Theater was created to showcase performances that push conventional boundaries, and this production is in keeping with this philosophy—both of the theater and the man who wrote the play.

—Noah S. Guiney