The final production of the UMass Department of Theater’s Mainstage 2017-2018 season represents not one, but four graduate student theses! Third year graduate students Jen Onopa (Director), Gaven Trinidad (Dramaturg, Choreographer), Christina Beam (Costume Designer), and Tamara Harris (Lighting Designer) all have the unique opportunity to collaborate on The Lily’s Revenge, by queer performance artist Taylor Mac*, for their Masters thesis projects.
So what makes this show so worthy of this level of academic and artistic commitment of four of our graduate students? Why is this piece relevant for our UMass and greater Pioneer Valley community? What makes the Department of Theater at UMass Amherst the ideal site for the university premier of this production? I will be interviewing all four graduate students about their passion and process for The Lily’s Revenge to find the answers to those exact questions. Tune in throughout the rehearsal and performance process to hear the shifting perspectives of Jen, Gaven, Christina, and Tamara.
*Taylor Mac uses the pronoun “judy” in honor of Judy Garland.
Jen Onopa directs an epic undertaking
Director Jen Onopa, an MFA candidate in directing, proposed The Lily’s Revenge to the department’s Selection Committee for a multitude of reasons: she wanted to direct a show that specifically aimed to “embrace community after the most recent presidential elections,” she wanted to “involve as many people as possible,” and she wanted to be “challenged by a show that was more stylized theatrically” than she had ever worked on before.
The ability to include over thirty cast members – Jen’s cast has 31 performers – initially elevated Taylor Mac’s piece. Furthermore, The Lily’s Revenge runs just under four hours long and moves between several spaces and genres over the course of its five acts, making it the perfect choice to explore different modes of theatrical storytelling. However, Jen’s most prominent reason for selecting The Lily’s Revenge was that, as she explained, “in our theater community we have many students who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community, and their voices are sometimes represented on this stage but not always centered in the story, so I thought this play provided opportunities for a variety of identities to be more fully expressed.” And that is exactly what makes Jen so excited about bringing this show to life.
Taylor Mac is a MacArthur Fellow, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama, and the recipient of many other prestigious awards for judy’s* work as a playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, and director. Taylor Mac is a prominent queer performance artist who centers judy’s work around queer theory, voices, and identities.
The Lily’s Revenge first premiered in 2009 at the HERE Arts Center in New York and the production follows the story of the Lily who fights to destroy the oppressive narrative of the Great Longing Deity – the stage curtain – and win the love of Bride. And its performance in April at UMass will mark the first time this production has ever been done by a university.
Jen is eager to share this production with the Department of Theater and its community. “The humor in this piece allows people to engage with some complex issues of gender identity,” Jen said, adding that it “gives the audience a way to enter in to what can sometimes be the complex discourse around gender.”
However, she also recognizes that The Lily’s Revenge “is not just a story for and about the LGBTQ community. “I think folks from many kinds of identities can find relevance…The thing with queer performance that I’ve learned is that it’s a very inclusive form” she said. “And it’s kind of pointing at this traditional heteronormative narrative and exploding the possibilities…and I think that’s something that could be accessible to anyone.” Furthermore, at the very heart of the show, and throughout all five acts, is the theme of self love and self acceptance, which are messages we can all relate to in Jen’s opinion.
However, to get to a place where that inclusive message can be communicated artistically, Jen has a lot of work in front of her. A little over a month into rehearsals, Jen has focused mostly on staging. She must make sure all of Taylor Mac’s storytelling is clear through the blocking before the initial design run, which is fast approaching. However, she also must devote segments of rehearsal time to the dramaturg team and the assistant directing team to have group discussions on the themes of the production, so that all cast members understand the references that Taylor Mac is making and the traditions judy is incorporating, as well as ensuring that all cast members feel comfortable with the range of performance styles that the play asks for. For example, in seconds, actors must transition between scenes that are very silly to ones that can be incredibly traumatic. Fortunately, because queer performance emphasizes and creates community, Jen, her assistant directors, and the dramaturgy team have worked to amplify the show’s messages about community to create a safe, inclusive, and productive environment for all cast and production team members. The rehearsal room is therefore a space that empowers actors to experiment and take risks.
to the Lily's Revenge company during
rehearsal. (Photo by Jessi Dimmock)
At this point in the process, Jen has been focused primarily on blocking the show. However, some of her favorite moments have been watching each actor quite literally blossom into their characters. Though both Jen and Julie Nelson have been working with the performers on blocking and heightened language techniques, time for detailed character work has been minimal. Jen is so “excited to see that each actor is experimenting and discovering their characters on their own,” especially the Flower Girls who are developing their own individual clown characters, even though they are written as an ensemble. Seeing the “performers grow into their roles and deepen their understanding” of their characters and the show is something that Jen is most looking forward to witnessing after Spring break.
Thus, only a month into the rehearsal process, there is still much to be curious about and challenged by. “The original production involved five directors,” Jen said, and with multiple spaces, transitioning an audience and actors between them is not going to be easy. Moreover, with a show that is just under four hours long, Jen knows that one of her main challenges will be engaging an audience for the entire piece. The Lily’s Revenge is the largest theatrical endeavor Jen has ever taken on. It’s a bigger cast than she’s ever worked with, and a longer and more stylized than any show she has directed, so it is fully engaging and further developing the skills she has accumulated over her past two and a half years as a graduate student. She is both curious and excited to see how each act begins to fit together into a cohesive whole through the introduction of design and detailed character work.
theater | MFA | graduate program | directing | theatre