Creating Connections

Many thousands of works populate the broad "boy meets girl" canon.

But what about the more elusive "boy meets girl but that relationship is rarely seen" genre? Bathsheba Doran's 2011 play "Kin" occupies the latter territory. And it's that unconventional look at a conventional concept that fascinates University of Arkansas drama professor Amy Herzberg, who directed the upcoming production of the play for University Theatre.

"This is a very unusual play," Herzberg says. "It is boy meets girl. It's the central character that you don't get to see."

The individuals in the central relationship, Anna and Sean, are seen throughout the production, which comes to the University Theatre starting tonight. But more often than they are viewed on stage together, they are captured talking about the relationship to friends and family. In particular, Anna confides in Helena, an unsuccessful actress and Anna's best friend. Sean often calls overseas to talk to his mother, a still-recovering victim of a long-ago tragedy. Those friends and family represent the "Kin" of the play's title, but they don't fully encapsulate the group of characters assembled on stage. There are former lovers, uncles and more.

"It's quite the eclectic group," confirms Jason Shipman, a third-year MFA acting student cast in the role of Sean.

The New York Times, in reviewing the piece's New York opening, said, "Ms. Doran's elliptical collage of interconnected lives coheres to form a piercing portrait of the contemporary social architecture, in which the distance between people can be widened or collapsed with disorienting ease." The newspaper in the same review called the work "simply terrific, perhaps the finest new play of the season to date."

As Herzberg explains it, the play is about connections, both those made and those missed. Presented in 20 segments of varying length, that lesson only comes through late in the process.

"Everybody is kin. We're all interconnected. ... It's just fascinating in the way it sneaks up on you," Herzberg says.

Shipman's introduction to the play came courtesy of an entry-level class in his master's program where he and his classmates read a series of new works. He remembered "Kin" distinctly.

"'Wow, what an interesting play. Does it work?'" Shipman said upon finishing this first read.

Now weeks into the rehearsal process, and with the opening night performance just hours way, he's convinced it does. The play serves as an ensemble piece, with each character occupying a specific role and following a well-defined dramatic arc. Sean, for instance, carries the the religious guilt many of his countrymen do. And he feels like he abandoned his mother, even as he establishes a new life as a personal trainer in New York City. That's heavy, heady stuff. But the play carries a strong sense of humor about itself, too, Shipman says, involving as many moments of laughter as it does emotional attachment.

And, always, a moment to connect. But always just a moment.

"We are here with all these opportunities and not a lot of time to do them," Herzberg says.