The sixth and final show of University Players season is Love and Information by Caryl Churchill, a 2012 play made-up of 57 short vignettes about our attempts to find connection with one another. The play has no character names or genders specified, no stage directions nor scenic descriptions; it is a blank canvas for director Marc Bondy and his cast of thirteen. The first week of rehearsal gives the actors the opportunity to improvise and explore their own interpretations of the text—a text which doesn’t even include punctuation in some scenes—before they are assigned their roles.
At the second rehearsal the atmosphere is a little unsure as the actors still do not know which scenes they will ultimately perform. At the beginning of the rehearsal, Bondy states his objective: to see each scene played out in different ways by different actors. He asks the actors to try to make the scenes their own and ‘be people who need things’, meaning they should make distinct choices about their goals and relationships with each other. He encourages them to play around and take risks, treating the rehearsal as a series of improvised vignettes.
Bondy gives each actor a number that they must remember for the duration of the rehearsal. He explains that he will mix up the actors paired for each scene by calling on two random numbers and giving them only seconds to figure out who they are before starting the scene. Each scene is read multiple times in multiple ways, changing up the power dynamics, genders, and relationships between the characters. Each reading of the scene is followed by a discussion, analyzing the actors’ performance, approach, and choices. This is an open discussion where the actors in the scene, as well as the rest of the cast, are able to provide insight and observations about the characters before Bondy connects the script to his own ideas and original vision for the scene. The cast and crew also discuss the ‘facts’ of the scene—what information Caryl Churchill gives in her writing or what is predetermined in the scene—in order to inform their work.
Bondy and his assistant director Matt Madison create a very organic and collaborative environment throughout the rehearsal. They both take on a facilitating role, prompting the group with questions, making connections to the text, and providing their own opinions while also allowing each actor to explore the scene and their character through discussion and read-throughs. Bondy encourages his cast and creative team with positive comments, using candy as incentive to take risks and making relevant references to pop culture. For example, in one moment, as his actors deliberate about how they will play their scene, he sings the theme song of Jeopardy. Bondy also draws from personal experience to understand and communicate how he interprets the text. His choices to repeat the scenes using different, random pairings makes room for the cast and creative team to make exciting discoveries about the show. These choices completely change the mood of the pieces, representing the variety of relationships we all have with others. In the scene ‘Secret’, for example, cast members Jordan and Melissa read as sisters having a light-hearted conversation, while actors Leah and Sofie read as a couple having a heated, tension-filled argument. The secret is never revealed to the audience, nor is it specified in the text, but it must be determined by each couple before they begin the scene.
The entire rehearsal proceeds in this way, from a reading of the scene, to moving in the space and adding props, but always exploring new possibilities and saying yes to every suggestion. Bondy hopes to carry this approach into performance by allowing his actors to continue experimentation even after the curtain rises. The show promises therefore to be different every night, and their rehearsal process reflects this idea of an ever-changing, ever-evolving show.