What if, one evening, you got to decide what happened next? Are you tired of tyrannical playwrights and directors dictating how the play you’re watching is going to end? Finally a play worthy of a democracy: please join Professor Dilexi as he presents his Dramatis Personae of the Apocryphal Menagerie at this year’s New York International Fringe Festival.
What’s that? You’ve never seen a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure play before? Professor Dilexi is astonished. Enclosed you will find information about our show and an endearing book that you may use as a guide, if you like, on how to proceed.
But beware. Do not let the colorful set and beguiling clown fool you. Professor Dilexi Presents Dramatis Personae of the Apocryphal Menagerie panders to the voyeuristic and childish desires of the adult mind (yes, yours). It is an unadulterated and unapologetic look at the relationships between four adults. You hold their fates in your hand, and it is no easy responsibility.
Professor Dilexi Presents
Dramatis Personae of the Apocryphal Menagerie
a choose-your-own-adventure play
Written and Directed by Rebecca Fullan
New York Fringe Cast
(in order of appearance)
ThinkandJump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Crista Fuentes
Professor Dilexi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Lilah Rahn-Lee
Wilma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chelsea Phillips
Frank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Rachel Hochberg
Annie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Amy Sullivan
Ian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charlotte Rahn-Lee
Clara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .Amy Sullivan
Philadelphia Fringe Cast
(in order of appearance)
ThinkandJump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Julia Niedzwiecki
Professor Dilexi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rebecca Fullan
Wilma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alex Solomon
Frank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Rachel Hochberg
Annie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Elizabeth Hanson
Ian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Maddie von Baeyer
Clara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Elizabeth Hanson
The show runs 90 minutes, with no intermission.
Please be advised that there may be strobe lights used during the course of this production. If you are prone to seizures you would do well to choose wisely.
If you have any questions, please keep them to yourself, or write them down to ask when you have moved on to your next plane of existence. However, if you do feel compelled, please remember that yes-or-no questions are much more attractively and pleasantly formatted than any other kind.
Production Team
Set construction: Chelsea Phillips, Charlotte Rahn-Lee, Lilah Rahn-Lee, Julia Niedzwiecki
Set costumer: Amy Sullivan
Footlight covers by Cherry Rahn
Costumes: Rachel Hochberg, Liz Tucker
Stage manager: Becky Fullan
Lighting design: Elizabeth Hanson
NY Tech: Julia Niedzwiecki, Alex Solomon
Philly Tech: Shannon Friday, Caitlin Cotter, Meg Reber, Clotilde Ghiselli, Mariel Rosati
The Uncut Pages Theater Company would like to thank the following people:
Hiroshi Iwasaki, Philadelphia’s theater-tech genius
The Orphanage, an artists’ collective, inc.
Forms In Motion, Chicago’s circus wizards
Glenn Hochberg, our set-moving savior
David and Da Vinci Art Alliance, for being so accommodating
Rachel Citrino and all the artists, for adding art to our show and allowing us to share the space
Johanna and John from Drexel University’s Newman Center
Home Valu (where you don’t have to pay for the “e”)
Cherry and Steven, for a basement, a garage, and everything else
Pat Collins, for years of encouragement and some gaffer’s tape
The Rutledge Family, for all their help
Shannon, Caitlin, Muriel, Clo, Meg, and all the others who did numerous things for us just because you love us and believe in what we are doing
All our wonderful members and donors!
In the Press
PROFESSOR DILEXI IS LEAVING IT ALL IT UP TO YOU
The audience is the boss in the latest production by Uncut Pages, a theater company composed entirely of Bryn Mawr students and recent graduates. Fresh from a triumphant run at New York’s Fringe Festival in August, the troupe will stage Professor Dilexi Presents Dramatis Personae of the Apocryphal Menagerie at the Philly Fringe in seven shows running from Thursday, Sept. 8, to Saturday, Sept. 19.
Written by Rebecca Fullan ‘04, the play offers theatergoers the chance, at seven critical plot junctures, to choose the direction the narrative will take.
The seductive Professor Dilexi, assisted by a clown named Think and Jump, runs the show, says troupe member Madelynn von Bayer ‘05. “Professor Dilexi exists on a different plane, but he isn’t omnipotent,” von Baeyer explains. “There are still rules that govern his actions. Periodically, he stops the show by shouting, ‘Hold!’ and asks the audience what should happen, offering two choices. He decides which choice has gotten more applause, and that determines the plot until the next pause.”
The company was especially pleased that the show was accepted into New York Fringe, von Baeyer says. The Philly Fringe, which is complemented by the invited performances in the Live Arts Festival, is open to all performers who can raise money to fund the production and secure performance space. Aspirants to the New York Fringe face stiff competition for places.
Because there are so many options for viewers, the company had to learn and rehearse the equivalent of several plays, and New York audiences put the Pages through their paces, creating five very different permutations at the five performances at the Connelly Theater on East Fourth Street. But all the audiences were oddly consonant on one point, von Baeyer reports.
“There’s one point at which a character will either leave her husband or get pregnant,” von Baeyer says. “I don’t know why, but the New York audiences never chose the pregnancy. We’re looking forward to seeing whether Philly audiences will respond the same way.”
The New York cast included Rachel Hochberg ‘04, Chelsea Phillips ‘05, Charlotte Rahn-Lee ‘05, Lilah Rahn-Lee ‘05 and Amy Sullivan ‘05. Only Hochberg returns for the Philly engagement, joined by Fullan, Elizabeth Hanson ‘06, Julia Niedzwiecki ‘06, Alex Solomon ‘08 and von Baeyer; Fullan, the playwright, directs.
Tickets are on sale for $10 at the door or through the Fringe Box Office. Bryn Mawr students, however, can buy tickets for $5 by e-mailing tickets@uncutpages.org before noon the day before curtain. To get the discount, students must pay cash; tickets will be delivered to Bryn Mawr post-office boxes.
http://www.brynmawr.edu/news/2005-09-08/dilexi.shtml