From Oct. 16-18 in the White Box Theatre, Fordham’s Theatre Program will kick off the studio season of the year with the Oscar-winning director and screenwriter John Patrick Shanley’s “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea.”

Shanley tells the story of two strangers on the verge of rupture who wake up in bed together after meeting in a seedy bar in the Bronx the night before. Danny and Roberta decide to take a chance on each other, intrigued by the possibility of a relationship and maybe even love. Both bearing the weight of anguish and guilt, they attempt to use each other to heal. However, this healing does not come easy.  Through many trials, they find out that they are capable of giving and receiving love.

Director of “Danny and the Deep blue Sea,” Zachary Hodges, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’15, describes both Danny and Roberta as being volatile in their emotions. “Both characters are battered physically and their soul have been shattered by the world around them as well as themselves both being very destructive people,” he said.

Furthermore, Hodges explains that “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea” explores the idea of fighting for love. “The play does not explain so much what love is, but asks the question: Am I deserving of it? How does love fit into my life when I don’t think I am worthy of being love. What it feels like to have forgotten the feeling of loving someone else.”

With only two characters, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea has an inherent intimacy that allows the audience to getter a better sense of the two charged and passionate outsiders. According to the actor who plays Danny, Dylan Ungaretta, FCLC ’15, “We’re only two characters, we only have each other, and once we meet, we’re never alone. And as actors, we have to thus devote ourselves completely to the actions – physical and emotional – of the play, and to our partner, 100 percent of the time.”

Ungaretta describes the process of embracing Danny’s characters as visiting an an old friend–one he gets to know better with each visit or rehearsal. “In the end, it’s about becoming the simple vessel for someone else’s humanity, and allowing them to grow, be touched, and touch the other character.  We’re all great actors at the start of life–it’s about trust in common humanity and cutting away at all the gunk that makes us insecure and hyper-critical later in life. No matter how challenging any of it is, I have to love the work.”

“Danny and the Deep Blue” has served as a learning process for both the actors and the director. Hodges explains how this has been one of his greatest learning experiences while in the theatre program at Fordham. “I’ve learned more about what acting might be through directing than I have consciously through acting because it’s being generated by you and not set upon you.”

IF YOU GO
Where: White Box Studio Theater, FCLC
When: Thursday, Oct. 16-18
Time: 7:30 p.m.
RSVP: Admission is free, but reservation required. Please email [email protected] with Name, Date, and # of Tickets reserved.