{"id":18724,"date":"2013-12-05T07:55:37","date_gmt":"2013-12-05T12:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=18724"},"modified":"2013-12-09T10:04:59","modified_gmt":"2013-12-09T15:04:59","slug":"student-writes-unflinching-play-now-staged-about-17-year-old-dying-of-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2013\/student-writes-unflinching-play-now-staged-about-17-year-old-dying-of-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Student writes unflinching play, now staged, about 17-year-old dying of cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two weeks before his senior thesis project due date, Eastern Mennonite University senior theater<\/a> and writing studies<\/a> major Michael Bodner decided on a path he\u2019d never tread: He wanted to write a tragedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve written a lot of comedy, satire and even horror, but I\u2019ve never written a cancer play,\u201d explained Bodner, an aspiring playwright.<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided I was going to start interviewing people who had their lives affected by cancer \u2014 patient, doctor, nurse, family member \u2014 and try to create a fictional story based off the interviews I had with them,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

More than 150 pages later, Bodner settled on an idea. He would write a play centered on the life of a 50-year-old man stricken with Grade Three anaplastic astrocytoma, a type of brain cancer.<\/p>\n

After more consideration, Bodner changed course again.<\/p>\n

\u201cOriginally, [the play] was going to be about a 50-year-old man, then I decided that was horrible. I had never been a 50-year-old man,\u201d said Bodner. \u201cSo, I wrote from the perspective of a high schooler instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe original script that I had is very different from the one [I ended up with].\u201d<\/p>\n

Hence the final installment of his idea, \u201cThe Crowleys of Tobias,\u201d a student-oriented Laboratory Production, which will run Dec. 5-7 in EMU\u2019s Lee Eshleman Studio Theater.<\/p>\n

The play follows 17-year-old Tobias in his final moments battling brain cancer, which fully develops in his temporal lobe. Throughout the drama, the audience witnesses the development of Tobias\u2019 relationships with his mother, Lydia, his friends, Blake and Zoe, and the hallucinogenic manifestation known as Crowley, which helps Tobias cope with dying.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe theme is still very much the same, but a lot of the plot structure itself has changed because it\u2019s not a 50-year-old man,\u201d said Bodner. \u201cThe dynamic changes from \u2018What I could have done\u2019 to \u2018What I\u2019ll never be able to do.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

To help Bodner bring his lines to life, co-director Amanda Chandler sought to display the realism she found throughout the script.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see Tobias as a normal 17-year-old,\u201d explained the senior theater and history<\/a> major. \u201cI wanted to highlight [his] relationships and juxtapose them with the outrageous behavior of Crowley and the dream world he orchestrates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bodner explains Crowley\u2019s relationship with Tobias.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the idea of having the wickedest man in the world running around in your head causing all sorts of ruckus,\u201d Bodner elaborated. \u201cCrowley, to me, represents a cruel reality of love within death, a weird, twisted, morbid form of love. But it in that grotesqueness you find something beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Associate professor of EMU\u2019s theater department Heidi Winters Vogel oversaw the creative process behind the presentation and commends Bodner for his script.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael is a very good writer,\u201d said Vogel. \u201cHe did a lot of interviewing with hospice workers and Astrocytoma patients \u2014 most of them who are no longer alive \u2014 because it does have a very high mortality rate. He\u2019s been really honest to their experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe journey I took comes out in the play,\u201d concludes Bodner.<\/p>\n

The play stages at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5 and 6; and 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. Dec. 7.<\/p>\n

Tickets are $5 for general admission and $2 for EMU students. Contact the EMU theater department at 540-432-4360 for more information and age appropriateness.<\/p>\n

Courtesy Daily News Record, Dec. 5, 2013<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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