“It’s just a stretchy sheet, you could stick your face in it though” said Director John Bezark, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’13. Moments later, a light fell to the ground behind a curtain playing the role of a wall in the White Box Studio during preparations for the production of “39 of 70 Scenes of Halloween.”

“It looks really good though,” Bezark said, “that’s kind of how things happen.” Immediately after this, the crew began experimenting with the curtain, awed by how the newly discovered lighting options, and stretchiness of the fabric create exactly the monstrous looks they were hoping to find.

“Since studio shows are entirely student-run, you end up feeling not only a lot more proud of your work; you have a lot more fun with it because you can work with the people around you more,” Aiden Meyer, FCLC ’13 and sound designer said. “You also feel a lot more like helping them out because your excited about it and excited about everyone getting obsessed with what they’re doing.”

Studio shows take place in a much smaller room than main-stage shows and are entirely student run. This allows for student directors like Bezark to take the lead for a camaraderie which comes out in every aspect of their preparation, and presumably just as well in the performance.

Jeffrey Jones’s play is “funny and tragic and beautiful and mysterious and scary,” Bezark said. The play is written in a rather odd manner in that it gives the director the opportunity to organize the 70 scenes in any sequence they see fit. “We’re trying to create a very strict story structure” Bezark said, “a structure for the play that gets the audience to appreciate the way the play is written in and of itself.”

Bezark wasn’t willing to give any specific hints at how that story structure might look, so viewers really won’t be able to guess the plot until they see it. What we do know is that the play is about the relationships between the cryptically named characters; Actress 1/ Joan, played by Dana Walsh, FCLC ’13, Actor 1/ Jeff, played by Johnny Pozzi, FCLC ’15, Actor 2/The Beast, played by Yaron Lotan, FCLC ’15, and Actress 2/The Witch, played by Erin Reitz, FCLC ’13.

The show takes place entirely within the living room of Joan and Jeff as they sit on their sofa watching TV and waiting for trick-or-treaters to stop at their small suburban house. This perfectly average Halloween setting transforms into something much more fantastical as their house is invaded with visions of the Beast and the Witch. From there, everything is up to the ordering of the scenes and the imaginations of the cast and crew.

IF YOU GO

39 of 70 Scenes of Halloween
When: Nov. 2-4
Where: White Box Studio Theater
Price: Free
More Info: [email protected] for reservations