Philaletheis to stage Woody Allen comedy

Pop words on campus these days include "po-mo," "obvs" and "totes," but the star of the bunch would have to be "meta." Not sure what it means exactly? Neither are most, but Emmaline Keddy-Hector '11 and the Philaletheis show "God," a Woody Allen play written in the '70s, should help to clarify: "Meta-theater" is a production that creates a commentary about its own existence. "God," which is only 50 minutes long, is self-aware and then some, making it a perfect example. It will be staged in Rockefeller Hall 200 Thursday, April 15 at 9 p.m., and April 16 at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.

"God" is Keddy-Hector's first time directing a full-length theatrical piece, but she doesn't plan on playing it safe. From the start, she wanted to do something short and comedic. The script caught her eye particularly because of its deviance. "I really appreciated how it poked fun at theater conventions and beliefs," she explained. "Drama students get so caught up in theater with a capital T and art with a capital A. ‘God' looks at things people assume and says that's silly."

The meta-theatricality of the work is where the humor nests, alongside a sprinkle of puns and slapstick jests, but it is the changing locations, historical settings and characters that propel the comedy forward. As Keddy-Hector explains, the show "plays with the genre and frame of Greek theater…applied to the modern for a comic effect."

"God" opens in ancient Greece with an actor and writer discussing how to end the play they are working on. This play within a play scenario leads to a variety of experiences: The audience is addressed, locations shift from Athens to Rockefeller Hall 200 itself, Woody Allen is put on the phone, and we see such diverse characters as Blanche Dubois and Groucho Marx.

The play is also very New York City-centric, with references to the city and a few to Vassar. "When people ask about plot, I'm not sure what to say," said Keddy-Hector. "Part of the point is that it evolves and devolves and breaks apart and comes back together."
Meta-theater is surprisingly not as new as the "that's so meta!" you might overhear while crossing the Retreat with an unassuming cheeseburger in hand. The term typically denotes a theatrical piece which draws attention to the literal circumstances of its own production, often by breaking the fourth wall or by staging "a play within a play." Such self-referential tactics have been a ploy of dramatists since the time of Shakespeare; "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "The Tempest" both, in fact, utilize "meta" scenarios. In the last century, Tennessee Williams employed the use of meta-theater with "The Two-Character Play," which also uses the same "play within a play" mechanism that "God" does.

Being an actor playing an actor—the job of Dylan Evans '12—epitomizes the joy, difficulty and comedy inherent of the blurry, inside out, Tim O'Brien-type play world. "It has been a process figuring out how to negotiate the role of an actor…with an actual actor," Keddy-Hector said. Evans will be playing Diabetes alongside the other main characters, Doris and the writer Hepatitis, respectively played by Emily Ludolph '12 and Kartik Naram '10.
"One of the recurring themes of the play is this kind of absurd existentialism, so being an actor playing an actor really fits well into the play. Diabetes is a typical actor, and being at Vassar, where art and especially theater is so prominent, it is kind of fun to poke fun at the stereotypical ‘actor,'" Dylan adds.

While creating a comedy may be particularly exciting, Keddy-Hector also reflected with a smile that, "Sometimes directing something funny is harder than directing something serious." Her grin is slightly enigmatic; maybe Keddy-Hector is more meta than most can manage. Either way, "God" will certainly provide an excellent comedic outlet for those suffering under the bipolarity of the weather, or at least another reason to bust out our favorite chirpy two-syllable prefix.