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On the Verge or
The Geography of Yearning by Eric Overmyer Director David M. Maslow Scenic/Lighting Design Delbert Hall Costume Design Pamela Hurley Sound Design Bradley Watkins Cast Regan Cross, Derek P. Miller, Alicia Spain, Chiko Umeweni Produced at East Tennessee State University Photo David M. Maslow Three Victorian explorers venture through place, time (“objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear”) & a dreamscape or 2 in this riotous crowd pleaser. Among the reasons this particular production remains close to my heart is that it helped me develop directorial tools for exploiting the totemic properties of objects on a stage. In this production the characters began on an empty stage; as their trek progressed both they and the set acquired “artifacts” that, over the course of the event, came to serve as mnemonic touchstones of a shared history for both the characters and the audience that could be wordlessly (but meaningfully) referenced as needed. |
Alicia Spain and Chiko Umeweri in ETSU's Production of On the Verge
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La Historia del Panteon
by Pete Medina Director/Scenic Design David M. Maslow Choreographer Cecilia Rivera Lighting Design Stuart Beck Costume Design Erin Howell-Grintsch Sound Design Ralph Barton Cast Tracie Amico, Ay Baccam, Leslie Bartnick, Wes Broulik, Joshua Cobbs, Dana Green, Saffron Henke, Cristina Higareda, Kayla Johnson, Cosimo Mandrillo, Joe Pol, Jeff Ramnani, Luis A. Sierra, Jamie Daniel Siqueiros Produced at University of Iowa Photo by David M. Maslow A then-new piece about gang violence and self-identity at the Mexican-U.S. border. To establish greater context, the playwright, a choreographer and I created a millennia-spanning, movement-based prologue glorifying the history of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. This helped place Pete’s complex tale (that parallels the difficult “heroism” of Pancho Villa with today’s teenagers' search for self-definition in a world ruled by media and narco-terrorism) within the epic sweep of Latin American/LattinX culture. This is an old project, but both the sound and visual metaphor of the human chain-link fence stays with me. |
Luis A. Sierra (as Pancho Villa) and Dana Green in the UI production of La Historia del Panteon
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6 Characters in Search of an Author
by Luigi Pirandello Adapted by Robert Brustein (& Further Adapted by David M. Maslow) Director/Scenic Design David M. Maslow Costume Design Pamela Hurley Sound Design Bradley Watkins Cast (included) Tonya Luster, David M. Maslow, Derek P. Miller, Pamela Poletti, Andrea Shell, Alicia Spain, Clayton Van Huss Produced at East Tennessee State University Photo Pamela Hurley I re-set Robert Brustein’s magic-infused adaptation of this thought-provoking classic to take place at the university; cast well-known theatre majors and staff in the roles of “the actors” (et al) and equally "outside" individuals in the roles of “the characters” to underscore the otherness of these figures. Among my favorite moments in the production came when someone picked up the Little Girl who had “drowned” by laying down on a piece of plastic recently laid out on the stage only to find her soaking wet and dripping water! |
Characters, not actors
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