The Playshop Theatre began its run of “This Random World” on Thursday, March 20 at 8 p.m. in the Gladys Mullenix Black Theatre.
Promotional materials for the show describe it as “a bittersweet and tender play about interconnected lives, happenstance, and the tragi-comic potential of near-misses. Steven Dietz, one of the nation’s most prolific and widely produced playwrights, invites an audience to consider the ways in which all of us are ultimately interlinked–often in ways we’re unaware.”
Mark Cosdon, professor of theatre and performance studies, has directed over 25 shows since starting at Allegheny College in 2002. Because the Playshop is not reliant on ticket sales, allowing for Cosdon and the Playshop faculty and staff to consider productions that can push audiences to think about how theatrical art can be made and productions that fit the needs of the students.
“We’ll have extensive conversations,” Cosdon said, “beginning a year or so before a production actually opens.”
Costume Designer & Shop Manager Uriel Gomez, ’12, has been at Allegheny College professionally since 2022 and has been a part of choosing what productions the Playshop will put on.
“I know what’s going to happen next semester and the following year so that we can make that happen,” Gomez said. “So I know how to kind of plan my shop, and how many workers I’ll need.”
Before coming back to Allegheny, Gomez worked in Milwaukee and Chicago where time for shows ranged from as much as four months to as little as just four weeks. Regardless of the timeframe for any given contract, he was never consulted on the production selection process.
The work for students doesn’t start as early as it does for Cosdon and other faculty involved in the Playshop.
“Auditions were held in early January, right after everybody came back for the spring semester,” Cosdon said. “We’ve been rehearsing for the better part of six and a half to seven weeks.”
Grace Kegel, ’27, making her third appearance for the Playshop, plays Beth as a member of the ensemble cast. Making a production requires a significant commitment from cast members, according to Kegel.
“We spend about four to six hours a week in the early process of it,” Kegel said. “By week three and four you’re there maybe two hours a night, and then we’re kind of at week five and six, which is like three hours a night.”
Cosdon recognized that students “are first and foremost students” and that they may have other obligations in their lives, which is why he attempts to make the production process work best for them.
“My professional colleagues and I, we started thinking about the design, the production concept, how this show would look, what it would like, how it would move. We started thinking about that in September, October of this past year,” Cosdon said. “It’s never accidental, it’s never on the fly, we’re very intentional in the work that we do and really try to model the absolute best rehearsal process and rehearsal experiences for our students that we possibly can.”
For Kegel, life as a student and as a member of the production involves a fragile balance.
“You’re kind of walking on a tightrope,” Kegel said. “‘Well if I do one more thing, or if I say I’m going to do this or that,’ then you’re going to fall off when it comes to juggling all of that.”
In order to aid in that balance, Cosdon has implemented a reprieve system for students.
“Mark has this special thing called ‘international night of homework,’ he gives us a night off maybe once a month,” Kegel said. “We get to rest, and reset and relax.”
When it came to deciding on “This Random World,” the relationship between the students who work on the production and the audience that will watch it was of importance to Cosdon.
“The challenges of what this particular play has to say really inspired me,” Cosdon said. “Thinking about our Allegheny audiences and those students who will build and have been rehearsing this show, I thought it would be something that we would produce and ultimately present for Allegheny audiences particularly well.”
Kegel thinks audience members will relate to the play’s characters and situations.
“This play is realism,” Kegel said. “This play is regular people, it’s people dressed in street clothes and experiencing very human emotions, and some miraculous things happen to them”
Kegel said the play will be a “cathartic experience” and resides in between being a “harsh reflection of reality” and “heartwarming.”
Lukas Deemer, ’28, is portraying Tim Ward in the production, which is his first appearance for the Playshop, and spoke about the realistic style of the play.
“For me personally, I prefer whenever things are written more realistically,” Deemer said, “I feel in a way you can have a deeper actor to audience connection.”
Gomez described the costume aspect of the show as being very different from recent productions. Because of the realistic nature of the production, the costume shop isn’t building the clothes from scratch as they would do for other more stylized productions.
That’s not to say realism doesn’t have its own set of challenges. Because the costumes should reflect everyday clothes, it becomes easier for audiences to know if the costumes fit the production or not.
“It’s more apparent when it’s not right, so finding the right garments to put on and finding the right color palette and story that you’re telling to the costumes is a lot harder, because everyone can relate to that.” Gomez said. “And when you do it wrong, it’s very apparent.”
If it takes a village to raise a child, a production such as this is no different.
“This show will have approximately 30 to 35 Allegheny students working directly or indirectly on the show,” Cosdon said. “As ushers, in our costume shop, as carpenters in our scenic shop, or as performers on our stage, as technicians who will ensure that show runs smoothly and will never be seen but are backstage working the show, in addition to our stage managers and the folks who will work the soundboard and our lightboard.”
Deemer hopes audience members will leave the show with something to remember.
“The audience should leave with the want to stay in contact with their family members,” Deemer said, “because time is precious and we don’t live forever.”
The remaining shows are March 21-22 at 8 p.m. and March 23 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 for the general public, $8 for Allegheny college employees, senior citizens and non-Allegheny students. For Allegheny students and alumni, admission is free. Reservations may be made online at the Playshop box office: https://allegheny.booktix.com/dept/main/e/TRW or by phoning (814) 332-3414.
