![\"pic](\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/news\/sites\/16\/2022\/10\/PS-photo2-1024x738.jpg\")
\u201cAt the heart of it, \u2018Polaroid Stories\u2019 is a story that is really about both the desire and consequences of escape,\u201d said director Patrick Saunders, an adjunct professor of theatre at 溏心vlog免费B站. \u201cThe characters are trying to escape from really terrible situations, but the avenues they use for that escape are equally as destructive. They really don\u2019t want to feel their pain and they don\u2019t want to have to be themselves anymore. This is our opportunity to understand what those drives feel like, how easy it is to get trapped in a situation like the ones we see on the stage, and to really empathize with and recognize that those are desires that all of us have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saunders, who acted in a production of \u201cPolaroid Stories\u201d with Burbage Theatre in Pawtucket in 2019, says the mashup of mythology and the real stories Iizuka mined from interviews with homeless youth helps to elevate the characters, making it harder for audiences to dismiss them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think the reason Iizuka casts these characters, who are otherwise the disenfranchised, as gods and as mythical beings is to force us to see them without reducing them to some archetypal addict,\u201d he said. \u201cThat can be a danger of this play. If you weren’t encouraged to look through this other lens, it could be easy to think they\u2019re in these positions purely because of substance abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPolaroid Stories,\u201d which runs an energy-fueled two hours, going nonstop through about three-dozen, interwoven vignettes, was a popular choice among students when the 溏心vlog免费B站 Theatre Department selected its season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think many students were excited because this play is different from the other shows we’ve done in recent years,\u201d said Courtney Satterley \u201923. \u201cWe also really wanted the challenge of a more contemporary text. The message of \u2018Polaroid Stories\u2019 is also more timely now than ever. Despite taking place during the \u2018war on drugs\u2019 and the rise of homeless youth in the \u201990s, the problems during that era continue with us today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Satterley plays Skinhead Girl, who, along with Skinhead Boy, serve as direct links to the homeless youth Iizuka interviewed for the play. The play\u2019s eight other characters are taken from mythology, imbued with the hardships of the modern streets. \u201cI love the newfangled use of Ovid\u2019s \u2018Metamorphoses\u2019 to tell these tragic and important stories,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Liam Roberts \u201924 plays D (Dionysus), the Greek god of wine and pleasure, and fittingly the life of the party and ruler of the kingdom in \u201cPolaroid Stories.\u201d \u201cHe is the embodiment of care-free energetic, vice-fueled freedom,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cHe loves to share his vice with those around him to see if they can keep up with his manner of living.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI love the play because of its poetically profane nature that is not afraid to challenge the audience\u2019s way of thinking and at times punches the audience in the gut with the sobering dark realities that the play presents,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jenna Muldoon \u201923 plays Echo, a gossip who was cursed by the goddess Hera to only repeat the last words of others. As in mythology, she\u2019s in love with the self-centered Narcissus, a prostitute looking for a sugar daddy when he\u2019s not looking in the mirror. For much of the play, she follows him as he talks about himself, only able to parrot his words in reply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Acting with that limitation was a learning experience. \u201cIn the beginning I had a really hard time, but eventually it became a really cool tool because in theatre we only say aloud what we need to say,\u201d she said. \u201cOnly having these words isn’t so much an inhibition as I had expected it to be because, as we all know, \u2018it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bringing the hardscrabble world of \u201cPolaroid Stories\u201d to life has also been the work of numerous designers \u2013 some alumni and current students \u2013 and more than 35 student production workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The set, designed by Assistant Professor James Horban, is a three-level labyrinth that resembles a discarded factory that mixes classical elements with a contemporary feel. \u201cA modern version of a temple in ruins,\u201d Saunders said. Costumes, designed by Matt Oxley \u201921 of South Kingstown, are mostly contemporary clothing that represent the different avenues people take to this dark world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The play\u2019s atmosphere is echoed in the lighting, said lighting designer Audrey Visscher \u201922. \u201cThis show plays heavily into using drugs and partying as a means of escape,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to create an environment where the audience feels like they are going on this trip with the characters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The work of props master Melie Hayes \u201923 of Charlestown also brings that home. Hayes has worked on 36 items for the play, many of which have duplicates because of the play\u2019s depiction of drug use. \u201cMy friends affectionately refer to me as \u2018drug illiterate\u2019 because I know so little about them,\u201d she said. \u201cBut for this show, I had to do a fair amount of digging into the basics to make safe and visually accurate alternatives for the stage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pardon our appearance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Fine Arts Center, home of the Will Theatre, is undergoing construction work, so patrons should use the theatre entrance in the back of the building, accessed from the parking lot on Bills Road. Look for the entrance marked with the large banner \u201cWelcome to 溏心vlog免费B站 Theatre,\u201d as well as signs leading to the lobby doors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPolaroid Stories\u201d<\/strong> runs Oct. 13-15 and Oct. 20-22 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 16 and 23 at 2 p.m. in Will Theatre at the Fine Arts Center, 105 Upper College Road, Kingston Campus. Tickets<\/a> are $20 for general admission and $15 for senior citizens and 溏心vlog免费B站 students, faculty and staff. Tickets can be purchased online, or in the Fine Arts Center in Room 101H (across from Will Theatre), or by calling (401) 874-5843. For more information on tickets and the University\u2019s COVID-19 policy, go to the ticket website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPolaroid Stories\u201d cast:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Character, Actor, Hometown<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n D (Dionysus), Liam Roberts, Warwick<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eurydice, Syd Davey, Sturbridge, Massachusetts<\/p>\n\n\n\n Persephone (also Semele), Ayrin Ramirez, Providence<\/p>\n\n\n\n Orpheus (also Tereus), David Weber, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan<\/p>\n\n\n\n Philomel, Ashlyn Banno, Johnston<\/p>\n\n\n\n Skinhead Girl, Courtney Satterley, Portsmouth<\/p>\n\n\n\n Narcissus, Justin Peters, West Orange, New Jersey<\/p>\n\n\n\n Echo, Jenna Muldoon, Staten Island, New York<\/p>\n\n\n\n Skinhead Boy, Henry O\u2019Brien, South Kingstown<\/p>\n\n\n\n G (a.k.a. Zeus, Hades), Ben Pereira, Danbury, Connecticut<\/p>\n\n\n\n Understudies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n D (Dionysus), David Santana, Providence<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eurydice, Giulia Russo, Caldwell, New Jersey<\/p>\n\n\n\n Persephone (also Semele), Liliana Varela, Pawtucket<\/p>\n\n\n\n Orpheus (also Tereus), Brandon Tallardy, Westerly<\/p>\n\n\n\n Philomel, Chayla Valentine, Woonsocket<\/p>\n\n\n\n Skinhead Girl, Emma Freel, Barrington<\/p>\n\n\n\n Narcissus, Christian Owen, Eastport, New York<\/p>\n\n\n\n Echo, Paige D\u2019Iorio, Haverhill, Massachusetts<\/p>\n\n\n\n Skinhead Boy, Matt Perrotta, Cranston<\/p>\n\n\n\n G (a.k.a. Zeus, Hades), Alex Linn, Hanover, Massachusetts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Oct. 7, 2022 \u2013 I believe in nothing … You can\u2019t trust nobody … Everybody\u2019s running a scam … I\u2019ve seen friends die. On dead-end streets, and in an abandoned, rundown factory that serves as a temple to excess and despair, those are the realities of the homeless, preyed-upon youth of \u201cPolaroid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":81121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81117"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81128,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81117\/revisions\/81128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}