Mason Gross Production is born from 'Creative Process'

A new theater work, devised entirely from the creative imagination of an ensemble of Mason Gross School actors, explores themes of lost innocence, fate and chance.

Kevin Kittle and Danielle Liccardo co-direct Rutgers Theater Company’s original theater piece, titled What’s It Gonna Be? Ensemble Creation 1.0. The performance runs April 5 through 14, at the Philip J. Levin Theater. The cast and artistic staff include New Jersey’s Lindsay Andreanszky from Monroe Township, Andy Do from Colts Neck, Jane Miller Schumacher from Moorestown, Laura Stella Sohn from Paramus, Joshua Fischbein from Edison, Beth Jacksier from Mount Olive, Katie Galaro from Holmdel, and Sarania Hertilus from Bloomfield.

The ensemble, 22 actors from both the first-year BFA and first-year MFA professional actor training program at the Mason Gross School, is devising the entire piece–writing dialogue and formulating movement—through the process of rehearsal. Designers, playwrights, and stage managers round out the ensemble.

“It’s like no other play you’ll ever see. It comes literally from within,” says Kittle.

Each actor has a character, or series of actions, which they are developing via the rehearsal process. Levin Theater will feature several performance areas: The action will happen above, below and in front of the audience.

“This project gives the actors a chance to be creative artists in a world that will ask them largely to be interpretive artists,” says Kittle. “It’s a great place for them to start.”

Kittle also sees the piece as an opportunity to spark conversations outside of the theater.

“I want my audience to be talking about the piece on their way home,” says Kittle. “I want them to be transformed by it.”

What’s It Gonna Be? Ensemble Creation 1.0 runs from Friday, April 5, through Sunday, April 14. Performances are 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $25 for the general public, $20 for Rutgers alumni and employees and seniors and only $15 for students with valid ID. The Philip J. Levin Theater is in the Mason Gross Performing Arts Center, 85 George Street (between Route 18 and Ryders Lane), on the Douglass Campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in New Brunswick. For more information about any Mason Gross event, and to learn more about the 2012-2013 seasonat Mason Gross Performing Arts Center and Galleries, visit www.masongross.rutgers.edu, or call the Mason Gross Performing Arts Center ticket office at 732-932-7511.