Written by Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Marguiles, Time Stands Still will be staged in the Lee E. Eshleman Studio Theater at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 14-15, and 21-22.

The play follows its main character, Sarah Goodwin, as she returns to Brooklyn, New York, after being badly injured by a roadside bomb. The drama explores the relationship between Sarah and her boyfriend James Dodd 鈥� also a journalist 鈥� and the moral ambiguity of earning one’s living from documenting the suffering of others.

“The war and the politics informs their situation, as it does for our post-9/11 society, but the heart of the story lies in how they learn to cope together and how they relate to each other,” says Chandler.

In the New York Times on Aug. 23, 2013, theater critic Sylviane Gold gave an outstanding review to a Hartford, Ct., production of this play, calling it Marguiles’ “finest work to date.”

“Like [his] earlier plays, it asks us to ponder the intricacies of love and friendship and the emotional perils of professional success…. ” wrote Gold. “[It] goes beyond the personal to explore the moral ambiguities of journalism, a subject that both producers and consumers of the news media tend to avoid.”

Performances run approximately two hours with an intermission.

General admission tickets are $5, or $2 for EMU Students, and are available through the EMU theater department. For more information and answers about age appropriateness, contact the theater department at 540-432-4674; theater@emu.edu.

Cast:

Nicolas Custalow, a senior from Charlottesville, Va.

Chris Parks, a junior from Philadelphia, Pa.

Lauren Wengerd, a senior from Dundee, Ohio

Rebekah York, a sophomore from Bucharest, Romania

鈥淚鈥檝e written a lot of comedy, satire and even horror, but I鈥檝e never written a cancer play,鈥� explained Bodner, an aspiring playwright.

鈥淚 decided I was going to start interviewing people who had their lives affected by cancer 鈥� patient, doctor, nurse, family member 鈥� and try to create a fictional story based off the interviews I had with them,鈥� he continued.

More than 150 pages later, Bodner settled on an idea. He would write a play centered on the life of a 50-year-old man stricken with Grade Three anaplastic astrocytoma, a type of brain cancer.

After more consideration, Bodner changed course again.

鈥淥riginally, [the play] was going to be about a 50-year-old man, then I decided that was horrible. I had never been a 50-year-old man,鈥� said Bodner. 鈥淪o, I wrote from the perspective of a high schooler instead.

鈥淭he original script that I had is very different from the one [I ended up with].鈥�

Hence the final installment of his idea, 鈥淭he Crowleys of Tobias,鈥� a student-oriented Laboratory Production, which will run Dec. 5-7 in EMU鈥檚 Lee Eshleman Studio Theater.

The play follows 17-year-old Tobias in his final moments battling brain cancer, which fully develops in his temporal lobe. Throughout the drama, the audience witnesses the development of Tobias鈥� relationships with his mother, Lydia, his friends, Blake and Zoe, and the hallucinogenic manifestation known as Crowley, which helps Tobias cope with dying.

鈥淭he theme is still very much the same, but a lot of the plot structure itself has changed because it鈥檚 not a 50-year-old man,鈥� said Bodner. 鈥淭he dynamic changes from 鈥榃hat I could have done鈥� to 鈥榃hat I鈥檒l never be able to do.鈥� 鈥�

To help Bodner bring his lines to life, co-director Amanda Chandler sought to display the realism she found throughout the script.

鈥淲e see Tobias as a normal 17-year-old,鈥� explained the senior theater and major. 鈥淚 wanted to highlight [his] relationships and juxtapose them with the outrageous behavior of Crowley and the dream world he orchestrates.鈥�

Bodner explains Crowley鈥檚 relationship with Tobias.

鈥淚t鈥檚 the idea of having the wickedest man in the world running around in your head causing all sorts of ruckus,鈥� Bodner elaborated. 鈥淐rowley, to me, represents a cruel reality of love within death, a weird, twisted, morbid form of love. But it in that grotesqueness you find something beautiful.鈥�

Associate professor of EMU鈥檚 theater department Heidi Winters Vogel oversaw the creative process behind the presentation and commends Bodner for his script.

鈥淢ichael is a very good writer,鈥� said Vogel. 鈥淗e did a lot of interviewing with hospice workers and Astrocytoma patients 鈥� most of them who are no longer alive 鈥� because it does have a very high mortality rate. He鈥檚 been really honest to their experience.鈥�

鈥淭he journey I took comes out in the play,鈥� concludes Bodner.

The play stages at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5 and 6; and 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. Dec. 7.

Tickets are $5 for general admission and $2 for EMU students. Contact the EMU theater department at 540-432-4360 for more information and age appropriateness.

Courtesy Daily News Record, Dec. 5, 2013

Written and directed by Elizabeth Gannaway, performances for Silenced Auction are scheduled in the Lee E. Eshleman Studio Theater at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 30, Dec. 1, 7 and 8.

“The central story to be shared 鈥� is one that I have written from information gained through my travels and research of the horrors of human trafficking and the sex trade, specifically in India,” said Gannaway.

“The main character, Natya, is a 13-year-old Indian girl who has been tricked into joining and forced into staying in the sex trade. Natya鈥檚 story, though technically fictional, exemplifies very similar stories of the 27 million people trapped in slavery today.”

Performances run approximately two hours, with a 10-minute intermission.

General admission tickets are $5, or $2 for EMU Students and are available through . Call 540-432-4674 or email: theater@emu.edu.

Cast:

Michael Bodner, a senior from Millersville, Pa.

Gabriel Brunk, an EMU alumnus from Harrisonburg, Va.

Laura Glick, a junior from Smoketown, Pa.

Elisha Keener, a sophomore from Mount Joy, Pa.

Thomas Millary, a sophomore from Dillsburg, Pa.

Hannah Miller, a senior from Belleville, Pa.

Holly Solomon, a junior from Harleysville, Pa.

Performances are Friday, Dec. 2, and Saturday, Dec. 3, at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 7 p.m., Friday, Dec. 9, at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 10, at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Alisha Huber, who directs the Archibald MacLeish play, said J.B. reflects the biblical book of Job. “Job rejects easy answers; it trashes the gospel of wealth; it destroys our rational universe,” said Huber. “As we’ve worked on J.B., all of us have examined our own experiences with trauma and found the deep truth in the play…It avoids cliches about death and suffering, choosing an intense and human honesty instead.”

Published in 1958, J.B. tells the story of a twentieth-century American banker who God allows to be stripped of his family and wealth but who refuses to turn his back on God. MacLeish weaves humor and tragedy together, setting the entire action inside of a circus and taking all the world’s stage literally, according to Huber.

“The emotions in J.B. are profoundly mixed, but MacLeish knows-as Shakespeare knew- that the way to make a tragedy work is to make it fun and funny in places, there is a real joy in this play and real suffering,” said Huber.

Admission

General admission tickets are $5, or $2 for EMU students, and are available through the . Performances run 90 minutes with a 10-minute intermission.

Call 540-432-4674 or email theater@emu.edu.

Performances of “Stop Kiss,” by Diana Son, will be presented 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 2; 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4; 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 10 and 10 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11. The play runs approximately 90 minutes without intermission.

About the performers

Megan Hillary, director of “My Name Is Rachel Corrie” seen at EMU in 2009, and who has worked as a designer, choreographer and installation art builder in professional theater, is directing “Stop Kiss.” The play is described by Variety as “a poignant and funny play about the ways, both sudden and slow, that lives can change irrevocably.”

Leah Ott, Harpers Ferry, W.Va., as Callie and Kayla Sasser of Maurertown, Va., as Sara head a seven-member EMU student cast.

Show and ticket info

This production contains language and subject matter intended for a mature audience. Each performance will be followed by a talkback discussion.

General admission tickets are $5 and are available through EMU’s theater office at 540-432-4674 or email: theater@emu.edu.

About the new theater space

The Lee E. Eshleman Studio Theater, part of the phase II University Commons capital improvement project, is named in memory of Lee Eshleman, a 1986 art graduate of EMU who died in 2007. Eshleman was a playwright-actor for 20 years, working with colleague Ted Swartz as the comedy duo Ted & Lee.