Toward the end of Lauren Gunderson's play "I and You," opening this weekend at TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, the character of Caroline says to her popular, BMOC classmate Anthony, "Like, why didn't I know you until now?
"Life is dumb."
FAQ
‘I and You’
WHEN — 7:30 p.m. today; 2 & 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday; again through Oct. 29
WHERE — TheatreSquared at the Nadine Baum Studios, 505 W. Spring St. in Fayetteville
COST — $10-$40
INFO — 443-5600
The comment comes after the two have spent hours in Caroline's room, ostensibly working on a homework project together, but actually having the kind of intimate, deeply meaningful conversation that, if one is lucky, one might have once or twice in a lifetime with a stranger. The kind of conversation that makes you regret every second you've spent without this person in your life up until now.
"It's surprisingly theatrical, which, as a director, I loved," says University of Arkansas drama professor Michael Landman, the director. "It made me laugh and cry, so it was a complete winner.
"When the play starts, [the characters] are strangers, and it really becomes a play that explores things we have in common. And given that the young lady is white and the young man is black, and how much divisiveness we're experiencing in our country right now, politically and racially, my experience of the piece was that it was both life affirming and healing."
Actress Alexis Di Gregorio, who plays the part of Caroline, agrees.
"I think the world is in a position where we could use a little healing," she says. "And through this project that Anthony and Caroline work on together, you see them coming to terms with some things in their lives and learning to heal together. They learn to live and work and eventually love together. It's really a beautiful thing. And I think the country and the world would do themselves a good service to see this show."
"A major theme in the play is, 'How do strangers who live opposite lives from different backgrounds find common ground?'" says Jelani Alladin, who plays Anthony. "As a black man living in the America that exists today, and, let me be clear, that has always existed, I found it absolutely necessary for me to be a part of this production that celebrates, unabashedly, the beauty and complexity of this wildly gifted, brilliant young man."
The play is set in Caroline's room and relies on just two actors to tell the story.
"What I'm loving about this process is, we're all there, all the time, so the collaboration is one of respect and openness and willingness to try anything," says Landman. "It makes it a more intimate, meaningful process, because we're getting to know each other by working together so intensely."
"I think the rehearsal process has been incredibly intimate, so it's practically impossible to hide if you disagree on a particular theme of the show, or a direction given to you, or a choice an actor makes that either motivates you, or not," says Di Gregorio. "We are super lucky that the process has been so collaborative, and ideas and thoughts are coming from all."
The play takes its title from Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself," and the two high school students have been tasked with studying the poet's use of pronouns.
"I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable/I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world," quotes Anthony to Caroline, in what is surely one of the most apt Whitman quotes for the teenage set, and the quote is enough to hook Caroline and draw her nearer to the task of finishing their project. At a recent rehearsal, the two actors are achingly sincere on stage: Alladin is full of winning charm, and Di Gregorio is all noise and bluster, which is later revealed to be a defense mechanism to cover Caroline's fear and isolation. Their onstage connection is real and moving.
"You will laugh, you will cry, you will hate, and you will love," Di Gregorio predicts of "I and You" audiences. "And you will leave the show a better person than you were before."
NAN What's Up on 10/14/2016