By George Basler
Envoy, an intense play about the terrifying ordeal of American college students held hostage in a Third World country, will open Thursday (Oct. 12) at Binghamton University.
“It’s a magnificently layered work,” filled “with theatrical moments you can’t wait for audiences to see,” said Brandon A. Wright, assistant professor of acting and directing at BU. Wright is directing the production, which will run two weekends in Studio A in the Fine Arts Building.
The play was written by Belinda Bremner, a Chicago-based actress and playwright, specifically to be performed by young actors in training. It premiered in 2007 at the Echo Theatre in Chicago.
In the play, the characters are forced to confront questions not normally associated with young people, Wright said. The questions include how to face mortality, what marks have they left in the world and what dreams have been unfulfilled.
“What I love about the show is that it happens in real time. There are no transitions and no breaks,” said Wright, who performed in a production of the play 10 years ago.
A unique feature is that Envoy’s ending varies from performance to performance. Bremner has given the cast several interpretive options, and at each show, a different actor makes an unscripted choice that determines the ending.
“The choice could go several different ways,” meaning different audiences will see different endings, Wright said.
The 12-person cast features 10 BU student actors and two guest artists: Keenan Laurino, a locally based actor, and Alex Givens, a New York City-based actor. Laurino has appeared in multiple television series and feature films. Givens recently toured in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s North America tour of A Soldier’s Play.
The students in Envoy are taken hostage by rebel guerrillas while on a philanthropic service mission. “What comes to life (in the play) is how American students are perceived in different parts of the world,” Wright said, adding the play definitely “takes off rose-colored glasses.”
While Bremner’s play does not name a specific country where the action takes place, Wright and the BU cast picked Sudan, which is currently enmeshed in a civil war while facing a humanitarian disaster.
The BU production will take place on a minimal set in a small, intimate theater of up to 140 seats. The play is “a celebration of the power of theater to transport and captivate us without bells and whistles, which are wonderful, but not always necessary,” Wright said.
IF YOU GO: Envoy will be performed Oct. 12-15 and Oct. 27-29 in Studio A in the Fine Arts Building at Binghamton University. Times are as follows: 8 p.m. Oct. 12-14 and Oct. 27-28, 2 p.m. Oct. 14-15 and Oct. 28-29. Tickets at $20 ($15 for veterans and BU alumni; $10 for students) can be ordered on the Anderson Center website, www.binghamton.edu/anderson-center; click on upcoming events. Note: This play is not recommended for persons under age 12.
