On Stage: Performing Arts at our Oneonta Campuses by Rachel Frick Cardelle
‘SNAP’ Pokes Fun at, Challenges the Arts Industry
“SNAP,” a play written by Sarah Burry and directed by Barbara Kahl, will be showing at Hartwick College’s Lab Theatre March 5-8. For one of the students involved, Jas Stuchel, this show serves as their senior thesis, a requirement for Hartwick College theater majors. I had no idea what it meant that the show was someone’s senior thesis, so I sat down with Jas to talk about the production, then I attended a rehearsal.
Both experiences reminded me of the old adage, “the show must go on,” for both were walloped by the flu that’s been going around and yet both were able to move forward. I interviewed Jas on Zoom, as they were too sick to meet in person, and the Friday that I went to the rehearsal was the first time in almost a week that the director had been able to assemble the bulk of the cast for a run-through of the show. Both were fun experiences and amazingly coherent, unlike yours truly when I’ve been struck by the flu.
The rehearsal was a full, fast run-through of the show, meaning lines were said faster than usual and there was no stopping to discuss how something would be said, or how movement might happen, or what was working and what wasn’t. Remembering that the flu hit this production just as the actors were supposed to be off-book (no script in hand, all lines fully memorized), that the stage manager had to read one of the roles because that actor was still sick, and that there was a puppy (guide dog in training) present who showed no interest in the theater arts, the rehearsal went surprisingly smoothly.
The play takes place behind the scenes of a college production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Two of the crew members fall for one another, and their bonding begins from a shared sense of humor about the different “characters” and special setting of the show. (The director has decided to place this production in Atlantis.) As they get closer, though, they discover they also share the experience of having been sexually assaulted during their time in the theater. With this discovery, they find they can’t agree on how best to handle the experience, bringing discord to their new-found romance.
