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| ‘Pieces of She’
to combine female-submitted works on stage |
Justin
Boulmay
Multicultural Beat |
The department
of theatre and dance will perform its annual program “Pieces
of She” April 15-17 at 8 p.m. in the I.G. Greer Arena Theatre.
The show is a conglomeration of performances based on poetry, prose,
art and other works submitted by female students at Appalachian
State University, assistant director and senior theatre education
major Melinda M. Loughhead of Charlotte said Monday.
“People submit material, and it goes through a selection process,”
she said. Only submissions by women are selected.
“The material they submit can be about anything,” Loughhead
said. “Anything that … they feel passionately about.”
The majority of the works submitted this year were poetry, Loughhead
said.
After the pieces were chosen, each director signed up for whatever
work she wanted to put to the stage.
Rehearsal times and the cast for each different performance were
organized and chosen by the directors.
Students who submit their works are usually not involved in the
actual performances. This year, however, one student had requested
that she be a part of the actual stage performance.
The exception is Ashley C. Kirby, a senior English major from Boone.
Kirby wrote and submitted two pieces for the show and is an assistant
director and an actor in two of the performances.
Kirby said the topics she chose to write about were lost love and
bitterness.
“I feel really honored that they chose my work,” she said
Monday. “It’s a really cool thing.”
Kirby is directing “Demons,” a piece focusing on the “ghosts”
in a person’s life that keep them from truly living happily.
“[Directing] is really tough,” Kirby said. “I’m
taking a really artistic … visual approach to it. That’s
the easiest way I thought I could approach it … and still make
it beautiful.”
Loughhead is directing a piece titled “Sugar and Spice,”
based on a poem written by fellow student Sabriya D. Miller, a sophomore
English major from Philadelphia.
“I think it’s great,” Miller said. “I’m
really excited to see how it comes out.”
Loughhead said a common misconception about the show among students
is that it is a night of “male bashing.” She admitted
the subject does come up since the program is based on pieces written
by women.
“It is women, and it is their feelings,” Loughhead said.
Regardless, the attendance has seen a good mixture of men and women
in previous years, she said.
Admission is free and donations for O.A.S.I.S., an organization
dedicated to helping women who have suffered domestic abuse, will
be accepted. |
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