Fall 2012 – Ruth Weiner directed a newly-commissioned play by Michael Elyanow. “Split Seconds” was a play about a group of students living off-campus at Stanford University during the 2008 Presidential election during which Proposition 8 was up for vote in California. The play focused on the close relationship between characters and choices they face.
The winter 2013 production, the first one directed by new Associate Professor of Theater Roger Bechtel, was “Attempts on Her Life.” In a review by Andrew Haydon of the National Theatre (Lyttelton) London, he wrote, “Written ten years ago, Martin Crimp’s Attempts on Her Life represents one of the high points of experimental theatre, of any theatre, written in the last quarter-century. As the play’s subtitle – Seventeen Scenarios For Theatre – suggests, Attempts… is not a linear narrative. The ‘scenarios’ take various implied forms, from monologues, adverts and pop lyrics through to numerous negotiations between unnamed speakers in unspecified locations, all trying to pin down the nature of an unseen central character: ‘Anne’. This ‘Anne’ or Anny, or Anushka, appears variously to be a suicidal singles-holiday hostess, an international terrorist, a porn actress, a suicidal modern artist, a refugee and a make of car, among other things. Like I said, it’s non-linear.”
For the third production of 2012-13, in spring term, a collaborative effort between the Flying Foot Forum and Carleton Players yielded “Alice in Wonderland” directed by Joe Chvala of Flying Foot Forum from the Twin Cities. The show began in the Commons of the Weitz Center for Creativity and moved into the theater where audience members became participants.