Crimes follows Christie in Hoop Series plays

Crimes of the Heart explores relationship of sisters

The approach of midterm stress has brought with it, as usual, an increased excitement for Spring Break get-aways. Unfortunately, not all students will be able to flee the area. For those of us left behind to weather our "Spring" Break in Ohio, however, there is still hope.

The second play in the Theater and Dance Program's new Hoop Series, Beth Henley's Pulitzer Prize winning drama Crimes of the Heart, will open this Thursday in Little Theater. The first play of the series, Christie in Love, opened Thursday night, also in Little Theater.

The intent of the Hoop Series is to sponsor radical theater by providing performance space for student actors and directors who otherwise may have trouble reserving suitable venues. Because of an extremely limited budget, those participating in the Hoop Series must follow strict guidelines: instead of set constructions, students must use black stock cubes and all set dressings must be small enough to fit through a quilting hoop, hence the name of the series.

A limited budget is often the enemy of performing arts, yet senior Theater major Lauren Greilsheimer, director of Crimes of the Heart, has not allowed herself or her cast to be hindered by the lack of monetary props. In fact, Greilsheimer notes that Crimes of the Heart has been made possible through a lot of support and collaboration, including musicians from the Jazz Studies Department who will be playing live music as the audience enters Little Theater.

As the lights dim to signal the start of the show, the jazz will fade until Little Theater becomes Hazelhurst, Miss. in 1974, a small rural town in which the three Magrath sisters were raised. Although the sisters have scattered themselves both in location and lilfestyle, their lives will reconvene as the play's plot develops and intensifies.

The stories of the Magrath sisters are neither simple nor average. The youngest, Babe, has recently been released from jail for shooting her husband (she didn't like his physical appearance), the middle sister, Meg, has traded Hazlehurst for a singing career in L.A. only to find herself working in a dog food factory, and the oldest sister, Lenny, is the caretaker of them all.

The lives of these sisters bring with them a series of contradictions and struggles as they work to endure the difficulties of everyday life. According to Greilsheimer, "First and foremost, [Crimes] is a play about sisters and what happens when you've had the worst day of your lives."

With the introduction of Crimes into the Oberlin community, as is now planned, Henley's play will hopefully help to curb the amount of bad days among us all. The cast, consisting of senior Lydia Steier (Lenny), junior Eve Udesky (Meg), first-year Samantha Tunis (Babe), sophomore Sheila Donovan (Chick), sophomore Aaron Bonner-Jackson (Doc) and first-year Adam Marvel (Barnett Lloyd), hope to take the show into the community with a showing of scenes at the Oberlin Public Library and perhaps during All-Roads.

Crimes, with its ridiculous plot, is intended as a comedy, but that's not to say that it won't have its dramatical moments. Greilsheimer's hope for the audience is that "[w]hen you sit back in your seats, you can relate in a gutteral level as the characters go from laughing and crying."

Be prepared for both.