“We’re always trying to broaden our repertoire past the ubiquitous group of old, dead, white male playwrights, and were delighted to find Miss Iizuka’s acclaimed script,” said William Taylor, CSUN’s theater department manager.
Taylor said that among the reasons for its choice was the parity of male/female roles, its modern setting on today’s fringe, the postmodern parallels to ancient literature, and the actors’ challenge of performing contemporary language that is at once edgy, profane and poetic.
“Polaroid Stories conveys a whirlwind of psychic disturbance, confusion and longing,” said Taylor. “Like their mythic counterparts, these modern-day mortals are engulfed by needs that burn and consume. Polaroid Stories takes place on the outermost edge of a city, a way stop for dreamers, dealers and desperadoes, a no-man’s land where runaways seek camaraderie, refuge and escape,” he said.
According to Taylor, the language of the play mixes poetry and profanity, imbuing the play with lyricism and great theatrical force.
Theater Department Chair and producer of the play, Peter Grego, describes “Polaroid Stories” as a contemporary adaption of the classic play, Metamorphoses.
“Eurydice, Persephone, Orpheus, and Semele are re-casting gritty, profane, and thoroughly ‘street’ characters who are also personal and human,” he said.
Grego said the play was suggested by a faculty member and submitted to the season selection committee as a possibility for a touring production to local high schools.
“The committee approved the play as part of the season but had to exchange it for Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors for the tour because the Los Angeles Unified School District would not approve the language,” he said.
“Polaroid Stories” will take place in the Studio Theater Lab in Nordhoff Hall 113. Current times for the play are 7:30 p.m. except Sundays at 2 p.m.
Student’s can purchase their tickets before opening day for $8 and the Student Union Box office. After that, students are $13 and general audiences are $16.
After seeing CSUN’s “Street Scenes” last October, Joshua Black, 20, looks forward to seeing “Polaroid Stories.”
“I know I’m in for a good show,” said the communication studies major. “The theater department never lets me down.”
For additional information about the play or ticket information, visit www.csun.edu/theatre/PlaysPOLAROID.html.
