April 24, 2008

Seniors Put Their Stamp on the Theater World

CFA students stage their thesis projects

By Kimberly Cornuelle. Photos by Kalman Zabarsky

Click on the slide show above to hear Elisabeth Drake-Studstill (CFA’08) talk about directing Minotaur and see images from a rehearsal.

Skeins of yarn and yards of ribbon surround the entrance and stick to the walls and ceiling of the College of Fine Arts Studio 102 — a design that parallels the interwoven plotline of Minotaur, the senior thesis play written by Stacey Himeon (CFA’08) and directed by Elisabeth Drake-Studstill (CFA’08).

“Minotaur involves a lot of different stories that come together at the end, and the set design is meant to reflect that,” says Drake-Studstill, who worked with Himeon last summer to develop the script. “It’s about the characters’ struggle with fate versus free will.”

Minotaur is part of the S.T.A.M.P (Senior Theatre Arts Majors Present) festival, the senior-thesis showcase for graduating students in CFA’s school of theatre. “We build up to these performances all year,” says Drake-Studstill. “It’ll be a big drop off of a cliff when the show’s over, but at the same time it’s always about working towards the next moment.”

Other S.T.A.M.P. festival entries this weekend are PLAN B, an all-female comedy review playing at Improv Boston, and It’s All Relative, about a woman forced to choose between religious traditions and her family’s survival, at CFA’s Julianne Ethel Leilani Miller Studio Theater, Studio 352. The next round of performances begins May 8.

Minotaur opens tonight, April 24, at 7:30 p.m. in CFA Studio 102, 855 Commonwealth Ave., with performances Friday, April 25, at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., Saturday, April 26, at 9 p.m., and Sunday, April 27, at 2 p.m. PLAN B is being performed Friday, April 25, at 6 p.m., Saturday, April 26, at 6 p.m. and Sunday, April 27, at 6 p.m. at the Cabaret Theater, Improv Boston, 40 Prospect St., Cambridge. It’s All Relative is on Thursday, April 24, at 7:30 p.m., Friday, April 25, at 8 p.m., and Saturday, April 26, at 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in CFA Studio 352, the Julianne Ethel Leilani Miller Studio Theatre. Admission is free to all performances.

For more information, visit the S.T.A.M.P. blog here or the festival’s MySpace page.

Kim Cornuelle can be reached at kcornuel@bu.edu.