The stage is being set for the RSU Theatre Department’s upcoming season.
The first production, “White Rabbit, Red Rabbit” by Nassim Soleimanpour, is a theatrical playful and absurd experiment delving into the big topics of freedom, authority, obedience, responsibility, life, death and everything in between.
Soleimanpour wrote the play while living in his home country of Iran. He was forbidden to leave. He was not allowed a passport because he refused his military service, so instead he traveled through the words of his play. The result is this wild, utterly original play. Both the audience and actors participate and all are in for a surprise. Each night a different actor is presented with a script sealed in an envelope. The play can never be performed by the same actor ever again, a literal interpretation of “one night only.”
“’White Rabbit, Red Rabbit’ is unlike any other play we have produced at RSU,” said David Blakely, RSU Theatre Program director. “It is an actor challenge: they get the script when they get onstage. The audience helps the actor in the production. There will be audience members onstage. The audience members are invited to take notes, keep time, snap posed photos and jump onstage to play designated roles. It is exciting to watch theatre being created/interpreted in front of your eyes.”
Also coming this year will be, “Come Forth into the Light of Things: A Year of Happy Poems,” a variety show in honor of poetry month, devised and created by the cast of the play.
In a time full of discord and difficulties, it is often hard to find even the teeniest of laughs in this world. To help alleviate the stress of contemporary problems, the RSU Theatre Program presents a short evening of “happy poems,” poems that expound on things that are good and kind and wonderful. The poems come in a variety of shapes and sizes and offer the audience a respite from stress and strife.
“The performance in April celebrates poetry month,” Blakely said. “Beyond that, it celebrates good things, happy things, things we’re in sore need of celebrating. The RSU Theatre Program will be creating it during rehearsal.
“The title, ‘Come Forth into the Light of Things,’ comes from a William Wordsworth poem, ‘The Tables Turned,’ which suggests you should leave your books behind and explore the wisdom and truth of the natural world – an odd thing for a writer to suggest and even odder for a university to endorse,” he continued. “The poems should be happy, funny, witty, and exuberant – a variety show of poetry. I have chosen poems to give us a starting point, but the cast will be encouraged to bring in poems – some found, perhaps some written by the cast themselves. Rehearsals will be an act of creation of the script and the shape of the production.”
Showtimes and dates:
“White Rabbit, Red Rabbit” – 7:07 p.m., Nov. 9-12, 2022 in Baird Hall Performance Studio
“Come Forth into the Light of Things: A Year of Happy Poems” – 7:07 p.m., April 20-22, 2023 in the Will Rogers Auditorium
Tickets are $12 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students, faculty and staff. Tickets will be available at the door.
About the RSU Theatre Program
Rogers State University offers a co-curricular program in theatre, which allows communications majors and budding thespians to participate in a variety of productions each year. The theatre program encourages students to become advocates of the arts and to participate in the cultural life of RSU, Claremore and the greater northeastern Oklahoma region.
For more information about RSU’s Theatre Program, visit rsu.edu/theatre.