It’s not easy bein’ green

For the past two months, I’ve been leaping inside the mind and body of Leslie the Lizard from Edward Albee’s “Seascape.”

This production is completely run by students. Tara did all the set construction. Greta did the lighting design. Jo did the brilliant costumes. Colby got the sound. Bri and Alex shouted out our lines when we screw them up (which manages to happen ALL the time, but that’s how live theatre goes). Rebekah managed to hone in on what’s going on and why the characters are saying what they’re saying. I’m astounded by this process. And for three nights, at about 100 minutes each time, all of those elements swirl together for the story.

It’s also funny because there are just four of us on stage. Heck, the lizards don’t even show up until the final half.

Diving into what Seascape is about gets kind of tricky. Maybe I’ll explain more once the production is over. But this is a dense show. It’s a dramatic comedy. I mean, the humor is inherent because two human-sized lizards are on stage. But what Albee explores is the rocky terrain of human emotion, interaction, and communication. That communication that distinguishes people from any other living thing in the world. You can’t run away from it either. No matter what age you are, no matter how jaded you can get, you have to keep going. Leslie is on the verge of quitting, but his wife, Sarah swims and crawls right by his side. Seascape shows two couples teetering on a balance beam in their relationships.

I wish I had pictures to help show this. They’ll probably pop up next week.

This definitely isn’t Shakespeare. There was a steady rhythm to Shakespeare that is less forgiving than Albee. With Shakespeare, I had the iambic pentameter to rely on. Absolutely NO words could be paraphrased. In actuality, you can’t paraphrase anyone’s words, but Albee does tend to be a bit “naturalistic.” Unfortunately, that ends up being more difficult to memorize. When you have one-word lines like “what?” or “well” or “all right” or “hmm” or “uh-huhhhh” it can be rather tricky. The fun is making them count and making them be the ONLY possible option for the character to say.

Well, I think I’m going to take a nap somewhere on campus.

Need to get rested up before the second night! It takes 90 minutes to get my makeup and costume on (a whole lotta green, let me tell you), and I promise to get some pictures up. Maybe I’ll take some step-by-step transformation photos.