New Works, New Wonders: Rewritten Stories

Nora Peñuela ‘29

Promotional poster for New Works, via sarahlawrence.edu

From April 9-11, the Theatre Program presented their two New Works performances: Doe!, written by Sarah Luczak ‘26 and directed by Rowen Fisher ‘26, and Burial of Hyacinth, written by Viktor Nicole ‘26 and directed by Madeleine Bohn ‘27. According to Tristan Friedman, stage manager of Burial of Hyacinth, New Works pieces are typically 45 minutes in length, and both these plays were around an hour. Not only that, Friedman commented that both shows cut down significantly — with Doe! cutting full scenes from the original script, and Burial of Hyacinth cutting a major monologue and a bit of dialogue. These pieces, although different in historic context and plotline, both touched on themes of love and loss, as well as differences in treatment between varying kinds of people. Most notably, both plays focused on the theme of  how stories that are told can be altered from within. 

At 7:06 pm on Saturday April 11, SLC students and families sat in the seats of the Canon Theatre, some on the main floor facing the stage, and others on the balconies above it. 

For Doe!, the stage was set up in a rustic living room setting, fit with a dining table plus a full meal, a couch, a makeshift fireplace and DIY stag heads mounted on the “walls” of this house the set design created. The show itself began with an eerie overhead green light that shifted to yellow, creating a warm and comfortable atmosphere. In this play there were four main characters: Dana — played by Ellie Levy ‘27 — the devoted and high-strung mother of Sander and Jessa. Clark — played by Jamie Clark ‘26 — the deer-hunting father who is definitely sexist. Jessa — played by Stella Gunn ‘27 — the somewhat glass child who is dealing with the anger of not being acknowledged by her father and a boy that she had been dating for a while. And finally, Sander — played by Kate Coryn ‘27 — the young teenage boy who is about to turn 16 years old and go on his first solo deer hunt. 

This play and its performers did a great job creating a story that shifts from an innocent, old fashioned home story to a dark almost supernatural tale with biblical undertones. Sander, a young boy who some audience members suspected was an autistic character, is coming to terms with having to kill a deer on his upcoming solo hunt. His biggest fear is killing a doe: a female deer. His father has instilled in the  family the idea that the men of the house are responsible for protecting the women, and that this deer hunt is Sander’s first rite of manhood. One night, Sander stays up and is getting the feel for his fathers gun — mentally coming to grips with the fact that he will have to take a life — when his sister sneaks back in through their dining room window. Jessa is angry and full of resentment for a boy that has just dumped her after she had given him so much of herself. She tells Sander that all men are pigs, threatening to kill Sander if she ever hears him tell a girl that she is beautiful and that he loves her. Jessa, although not the main character, was a very interesting one. The actress — Stella Gunn — portrayed Jessa’s anger very well; showing the rage that has built inside of her from being mistreated not only by this boy but also her father, in his sexist neglect of her hunting skills. She storms off and Sander continues with the gun when a woman opens their window and steps inside their house. He shoots her just as she calls out his name. And the scene goes to black. 

The rest of the play shows the aftermath of this death and its impact on the family. A white blanket is tossed over where the woman’s body lay. It is shown to the audience that it is Clark who cleaned up the body and buried it far away, covering his son’s “mistake.” Dana has a hard time accepting what her “baby boy” has done, having a monologue about how she misses when it was just her and him, ending with her on the floor at his feet begging him to tell her that it was all an accident. She idealizes Sander, seeing him as her perfect little boy. Although the play already shows the family’s devotion to Christianity, this was the scene in which the biblical aspect really came into light. For the past two scenes Sander has been outside of their house, on the other side of the set’s makeshift window, and he has been reading a book — the Bible. In this scene, Sander sits on his mother’s lap in order to comfort her through her memorializing of his childhood. He asks her to read to him the Genesis story that he has been reading, the one in which God instructs Abraham to kill his son, Issac, to prove his faith. The ending of the story, in which Isaac is saved when God repeals his demand, is scratched out by Sander. This foreshadows the later events of the piece, and as it continues the family is thrown into insanity as Sander starts to see the Woman he killed, as she tells him that he is “born to be above.” The acting of Coryn, Clark, Levy, Gunn, and Madeline Nellis ‘26 — who plays the woman Sander kills — is absolutely incredible. They created a living world for their story that captivated the audience, truly making us believe that they were slowly being driven to insanity. This show was raw and bursting with intense emotion, which manifested as violent, loud aggression while the piece also had moments of quiet sadness and calm, almost terrifying certainty. This certainty mainly came from Sander, who by the end of the piece was convinced of his role as a savior, and decided to change the story of Abraham and Issac, as he killed his father. 

Overall, Doe! was an incredible piece matched with talented actors that created a world within the Canon Theatre; a world that makes us think about the way that religion, and patriarchy with its differential treatment of men and women, can impact the lives of a family.  

Burial of Hyacinth began at around 8:30 pm, and there was a vast difference in set design and atmosphere. As opposed to Doe!, which began with warm colored light, Burial began with an overhead blue light, which created a cool, tranquil atmosphere. There was a small rectangular platform, with stairs on all sides, in the middle of the stage. In the middle were fake patches of grass and dirt, as well as a mini rake. The rest of the stage was adorned with faux vines with hyacinth flowers, and there was even a fake greek column. A light blue sheet was tossed onto the balcony and fell onto the stage floor to represent a stream. 

The show began with the chorus, a four person group with one chorus leader, who all wore simple clothes and flower masks, but no shoes or socks. They introduced the Festival of the Hyacinth, in which the god Apollo would make an appearance. Then the chorus carried Hyacinthus’ dead body onto stage and placed him onto the square platform. He woke up, confused and in a dazed and weakened state, unaware of where he was or what he was doing there. What was so compelling about this play was that it was told through memories. This show took place in a space in between life and death, a place where Hyacinthus is reliving his memories of how he died, and then immortalized by the Hyacinth flower. 

The play focuses on the choice given to Hyacinthus by Apollo, to live on and be remembered forever, immortalized as a beautiful flower, or to be forgotten. Hyacinthus is pressured from all sides to choose to be immortalized, Apollo — played by Gianna Morin’26 — telling him that he cannot stand to have someone he loves so much to be forgotten. As Hyacinthus is reliving his memories he shows us the story of his death and immortalization — in which Apollo and Hyacinthus fall in love. One day when they are playing discus, Zephyrus the wind god, enraged from Hyacinthus rejecting him, redirects the wind making the discus hit Hyacinthus and kill him. Apollo, broken-hearted and guilty because he thinks that he killed his love, decides to memorialize him as a flower: a Hyacinth. This story and underlying conflicts are revealed to us as the memories continue. Hyacinthus feels it is unfair that he is trapped in this story, forever tortured with his last memories, and on top of that, that the story he finds himself trapped in, is Apollo’s story and not his. As the play continues, it gives more to this idea of differential treatment between gods and people. Apollo, as the god of prophecy, knew that Hyacinthus would die at his hand, but he continued to pursue him despite the consequences it would have on Hyacinthus himself. Anna Yedman’26, who plays Hyacinthus, did such a great job with the different stages of Hyacinthus:  from how he first was to how he was in this limbo state of reliving his memories. Yedman also  does a great job showing his loss of sanity throughout the piece. The end of the play, which was brilliantly executed, ends with Hyacinthus making his decision to change the story and be forgotten, taking off his Hyacinth flower crown, and running off stage and out of the theatre in maniacal laughter. After that the chorus takes off their own flower masks in a daze of shock, and leaves them on the platform steps, making it feel like they were freed from the story too. 

This year’s New Works pieces were incredible, and although both are different in time periods, with a different plot and subject, they deal with similar themes, such as love and loss. As well as differential treatment, whether it's men and women, or god and humans. In both stories there is a hierarchy that is made apparent with the storytelling. Most importantly, there was the theme of changing or rewriting the story, both Sander and Hyacinthus found themselves in these stories, and for better or for worse, decided to rewrite and change them. Both plays are very telling in the way they approach these different themes, and I think the differences in how these themes are approached and interpreted by the writers and actors is what make each piece so incredible. They each have their own spin, perspective, and their own little world in which the audience is immersed in. Congratulations to the writers, directors, stage managers, actors, cast and crew of Doe! And Burial of Hyacinth! Brava!