The studio space at Village Players Theater continues with its second show Savage in Limbo that opened Jan. 23. Unlike the theaters main stage series, which focuses on American classic plays, the studio series changes its theme yearly. This season, VPT has been producing shows incorporating the theme of women on the cutting edge and also gives the audience a unique chance to experience different playwrights and shows with a more progressive feel than the main stage fare.
The five person play is one of John Patrick Shanleys lesser known works. He is best known for his Academy Award winning screenplay Moonstruck and Pulitzer Prize-winning play Doubt that was made into the 2008 movie starring Meryl Streep and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
Set in the Bronx, the shows main character, Denise Savage, is stuck, like a caged animal tying to get out, and unhappy with the direction her life is going, said Chicago-based director Jacque Lueken. The 32-year-old virgin is all alone without a clue how to find someone or make a change.
It is the universal search for self and a better way of life that originally attracted Lueken to the show.
I am constantly searching for the way to make an impact on the world, and how you use your time on earth in a way that isnt a waste that isnt day in and day out, Lueken said. It is easy to grow up and get a degree and get a job, but how do you make an impact on more than just your immediate circle? I am always trying to figure that out.
Lueken also hopes to find the boundaries within the text and push them further to get to the truth of the piece.
These character are just spinning, she said. Their existence doesn’t mean anything and if you do find that meaning is it too late? Can you make a difference if your life, up until this point, has been a blank. And how do you find out how to do it?
Shows with minimal cast and provocative punch like Savage in Love work best performed on a smaller stage. Unlike the main stage theatre, which seats about 180 patrons, the studio theatre, with its 50 seats, makes it the perfect, intimate space to watch Shanleys story unfold.
And giving audiences access to both a main stage space and a studio space also allows for greater artistic programming, which benefits both the patrons and the artists, said Artistic Director DanTaube.
We try to make what we do in each space very specific, but we offer quality material at the same level of the main stage, Taube said.
Savage in Limbo will take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and at 2:30 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 21. For more information, go to www.village-players.org.
By Elizabeth Vassolo | Triblocal.com reporter
