The Portland State department of theater and film will launch its 2011–12 season Thursday with the play Sight Unseen, directed by master’s candidate Kristin Heller.
The play, written by Donald Margulies, follows expressionist artist Jonathon Waxman at the peak of his career. He travels to London for a national gallery opening after losing his father just as he is about to become a father himself. Feeling that something is missing in his life, he visits a former lover, Patricia, his first muse in college.
“There are a lot of conflicts. Some get resolved, some don’t,” Heller said.
Heller originally entered college to study architecture but found that she missed theater too much. Even so, she struggled with her career choice until she read the script of Sight Unseen.
“I fell in love with it from beginning to end—the emotional journeys and lives of the characters themselves, all of it. The playwright’s writing is just brilliant,” she said. “That actually reaffirmed my belief that this is the job I’m supposed to be doing.”
“The play is all about the relationships between those one knows well and those one does not know well,” said Leigh Mendoza, who plays Patricia. “It’s ultimately about young love, first love, the inevitable break up and how that break up can direct the course of one’s life.”
In the play, Jonathon has not seen Patricia in 15 years. The play’s chronology skips around from the present, with Jonathon at the London gallery, and past events, such as his meeting with Patricia.
“He goes on this journey for that missing link, that thing that will complete him, that thing that he’s lost,” Heller explained.
“Patricia was a vibrant, expressive, passionate young woman in college, and she channels all of this into her relationship with Jonathan,” Mendoza said. “Seeing Jonathan again stirs up old feelings she had buried and never dealt with and allows her to finally move past this painful break up.”
Malia Lindsey, the head stage manager, said the experience of working on this play has been tremendously fruitful.
“I’ve learned a lot about the process of collaboration. The cast and production team have been supportive and cooperative, which has made this an excellent experience,” she said. “We’re able to joke around with each other, yet still maintain a productive work environment.”
This is Lindsey’s first time as the head stage manager. Last year, she was the assistant stage manager for the student opera, Street Scene.
Heller has decided to direct the play in a unique style. After reading some of the Margulies’ work, she realized that the playwright suggests that Jonathon is actually a cubist, and she seeks to reflect that artistic mode in the play.
“I decided that the entire world of the play is from the point of view of Jonathan. That includes what we’ve done with scripts and costumes,” Heller said. “We’ve taken a lot of inspiration from Picasso as well as other cubist painters.”
Bringing Jonathon’s character to life turned out to be a complicated and challenging venture.
Nicholas Babson, who plays Jonathon, is a German major and didn’t know much about art. But the character speaks and thinks like an artist.
“He uses a specific way of speaking that colors everything like a painter would,” Heller said. “Nick did a lot of extra work becoming familiar with the art medium itself.”
Keller has worked and had classes with many of the actors and crew before and said she’s had a wonderful experience directing Sight Unseen.
The cast, comprised of four actors and two understudies, has a mixture of both undergraduate and graduate students.
“These people have brought so much to this show from their own personal experiences and creativity, it’s just amazing what this has become,” Keller said. “There’s beautiful work happening on stage, and I’m really proud to be part of this group of people.”
Sight Unseen will be performed in the Lincoln Hall Studio Theater. Evening performances will run at 7:30 p.m., Oct. 20–22 and Oct. 23–26. A matinee will show at 2 p.m. Oct. 23. Tickets are $6 for general admission, $4 for students and seniors.