Putting It Together

A Photo Essay

Photographs of Our Theater Department Students Producing a Play

After documenting the college’s theater productions for the past five years, our photographer Craig Stokle proposed following one play from its inception to its final rehearsal. He chose Radium Now, written by Obie Award–winner Kate Benson ’14 and directed by Christina Roussos ’16, a Clubbed Thumb directing fellow and associate producer at All For One Theater. Stokle would follow 54 undergraduate and graduate students—actors; stage, lighting, and costume designers; and production technicians—as they went through the varying phases of bringing the play to life. The project took more than seven months and resulted in almost 4,000 photographs.

“The idea was to explore the inner workings of how the Theater Department creates a full stage production,” Stokle said. “I was constantly striving to remain in the background, to observe and capture the students developing their skills,”

Actors, designers, and technicians go through an exacting audition process that takes place a semester in advance. The final decisions are based as much on students’ academic progress as their talent.

“For the department, it’s all about the individual and seeing where he or she is in developing his or her main strengths, whether the student will learn from the production under consideration,” said Professor Mary Beth Easley, artistic director of the theater program. The department, known for its rigorous academic and professional standards, values mentoring and engages students in the kinds of communal relationships that will prove important to their later career success. It also ensures students receive real-world experience, from their first year to graduation, by mounting six to nine full productions a year.

Stokle watched for those transformative moments when a student’s initial steps turn into assured artistry, and a company of strangers unifies into a single purpose of realizing the playwright’s vision. “I was taken by the level of communication and time the playwright, director, and professors provided the students, even up to the final moment before opening night. Somewhere along the way, they formed a strong collaborative backbone that brought the play seamlessly alive on stage.”

The Play

Radium Now explores the importance of work in our lives by contrasting the intense passion Marie Curie brought to her discovery of radium with the struggle of a modern-day office—with all its technical and social interruptions—to simply stay focused on one simple project. Curie and her husband, Pierre, observe the staff’s fractured dysfunction as they question the nature of work and its impact on personal and public lives.