First Utah State Theatre Show of 2022 Fall Semester Opens in the Black Box

LOGAN – Love & Information by Caryl Churchill opens at the Black Box Theatre in USU’s Chase Fine Arts Center on Monday, Oct. 3. The show runs Oct. 3-7 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 8 at 1 and 7:30 p.m.

Someone sneezes. Someone can’t get a signal. Someone won’t answer the door. Someone put an elephant on the stairs. Someone’s not ready to talk. Someone is her brother’s mother. Someone hates irrational numbers. Someone told the police. Someone got a message from the traffic light. Someone’s never felt like this before. In this fast-moving kaleidoscope of a play, more than one hundred characters try to make sense of what they know.

Director of the show Michael Shipley, assistant professor of acting, voice and speech in the Caine College of the Arts, said that there are seven sections with seven scenes each in the play. The playwright dictated that the sections must be acted in the order they were written, but within the sections the scenes can be done in any order. Shipley said there are also random scenes at the end that can be inserted anywhere into the show.

“We have 14 actors, which essentially means everyone is in one scene in each section and no one works with the same partner more than once,” Shipley said. “The playwright specifies that none of the characters in the play are the same person, so all 49 scenes are 49 different groups of people. I let the students come up with relationship, location and history behind each scene based on the language.”

When Shipley took the students into rehearsal for the play, he made it clear to them that he saw this as an opportunity for them to create most of it.

“I didn’t want to come in as the director and spell out everything for the students,” Shipley said. “They’ll have plenty of opportunities for that to happen in their careers, so finding opportunities for them to be creative helps them invest in the show.”

Audiences will take something away from the show related to what they bring to it, Shipley said.

“I see this show as a collage. All the little pieces have individual meaning, and when you see it from a distance, the collective meaning shifts,” Shipley said. “It’s a chance to see young actors working on their craft in a clear way without a big set and music to hide behind.”

Tickets for Love & Information are $10-15 and free for USU students with ID. The movie equivalent rating is R. For more information or tickets, contact the CCA Box Office in room L101 of the Chase Fine Arts Center on USU’s campus, call 435-797-8022, or go online to the Caine College's website..