{"id":23558,"date":"2015-03-11T09:58:01","date_gmt":"2015-03-11T13:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=23558"},"modified":"2015-03-26T15:29:55","modified_gmt":"2015-03-26T19:29:55","slug":"mortal-clocks-ticking-in-emus-hickorydickory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/mortal-clocks-ticking-in-emus-hickorydickory\/","title":{"rendered":"Mortal clocks ticking in EMU\u2019S \u201cHickorydickory\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the play \u201cHickorydickory,\u201d normal people have mortal clocks behind their hearts. But others have clocks in their heads and they can hear the maddening ticking. Worse yet, they know when death will come knocking.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t despair! Owners of a Chicago watch repair shop know how to easily extract those maddening head clocks. That is, if people don\u2019t attempt to prolong life by transferring time to another mortal clock.<\/p>\n

The quirky, but delightful \u201cHickorydickory\u201d opens March 20 in Eastern Mennonite University\u2019s MainStage Theater. The two-hour play, directed by associate professor Heidi Winters Vogel<\/a>, will also run March 21, 26, 27 and 28. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased through the EMU box office at 540-432-4582 or emu.edu\/box-office\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have wanted to do this play since before I came to EMU,\u201d Vogel says, who worked with playwright Marisa Wegrzyn at Washington University in St. Louis. \u201c[I] love her dark and twisted humorous approach to telling life-affirming tales.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wegrzyn, who won the 2009 Wasserstein Prize for \u201cHickorydickory,\u201d will be on campus for a Q&A after the March 28 performance. She\u2019ll also hold a writing workshop for students on creating complex characters in the MainStage Theater at 2 p.m. on March 28.<\/p>\n

Having the playwright watch your performance can be daunting for any actor. Senior Rebekah York, a peacebuilding and development<\/a> major, is admittedly nervous about Wegrzyn liking her portrayal of Cari Lee Bliley, but \u201cthrilled about her coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

To prepare for her role, York began by reading the script several times before focusing on her character\u2019s lines. \u201cI notice words or phrases she repeats, her sentence structure and also try to find where she would put emphasis on certain words,\u201d York says.<\/p>\n

Vogel had each actor create a music playlist their character would choose, an activity that York says helps her enter \u201cmy character zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile listening to the music, I imagine what my character does in her free time, how she interacts at school and what she does with her friends,\u201d York says. \u201cI try to get into her mind and fully embody every aspect of her being,\u201d which includes gestures, a walk and voice different from her own.<\/p>\n

Vogel also has her cast improvise events that are only referred to in the show. \u201cThis has been really useful in deepening the relationships between the characters by having the actors live those experiences, not just imagine,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Prop master Robert Weaver, a sophomore business administration<\/a> major, has had challenges building props for an old watch repair shop, which \u201cisn\u2019t quite the real world.\u201d Finding mechanical and sprung-wound clocks is difficult in this electronic age. And then there are the props containing blood.<\/p>\n

\u201cFiguring out a mechanism that fits into a pocket watch and squirts bloods is definitely an interesting challenge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Even though the play is decidedly wacky, its theme of human connections through love and sacrifice is universal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat lovely theme is in the world of pocket watches that spurt blood, two onstage surgeries and a rude, rebellious teenager who\u2019s been stuck at age 17 for 18 years,\u201d Vogel says. \u201cI hope the audience will recognize themselves in these characters, their willingness to make loving choices even with their very human flaws.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the play \u201cHickorydickory,\u201d normal people have mortal clocks behind their hearts. But others have clocks in their heads and they can hear the maddening ticking. Worse yet, they know ... read more about Mortal clocks ticking in EMU\u2019S \u201cHickorydickory\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":23561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4515,7931,5591,5583,14715,14145,5147,5730,12507],"tags":[9152,16501,10766,15310,15157],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-23558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-arts","category-business-and-leadership","category-campus-community","category-campus-life","category-peacebuilding-and-development","category-theater","category-undergraduate-programs","category-vaca","tag-heidi-winters-vogel","tag-hickorydickory","tag-mainstage-theater","tag-rebekah-york","tag-robert-weaver"],"yoast_head":"\nMortal clocks ticking in EMU\u2019S \u201cHickorydickory\u201d - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/mortal-clocks-ticking-in-emus-hickorydickory\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mortal clocks ticking in EMU\u2019S \u201cHickorydickory\u201d - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the play \u201cHickorydickory,\u201d normal people have mortal clocks behind their hearts. 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