What USC’s theater department is performing this season

If you would rather be cozy at a performance rather than be an spectator in a distant audience, the University of South Carolina’s theater department has a couple of options.

USC’s Lab Theatre and Center for Performance Experiment offers plays on smaller stages, making for more intimate settings.

“There are really only two kinds of theater,” says Robert Richmond, chair of USC’s Department of Theatre and Dance. “There is the kind where the audience is looking at a story from a portal, and the kind of theater that happens in the same room where you are sitting.”

The latter is kind of theater presented on the smaller stages, that gives the audience a “bigger sense of shared experience,” Richmond says.

The smaller settings make for a more intimate setting, bringing the actors so close you can see every stitch in their costumes and the settings near enough to see every brush stroke.

“For the actors, it requires a truth and an honesty that other stages don't often require,” Richmond says.

The Lab Theatre recently finished a production of “The Pavilion,” which broke a box office record.

“People are craving these types of performances,” Richmond says.

People will have several more opportunities this fall to see small stage plays. Here are the plays scheduled this semester:

Lab Theatre

‘The White Liars’ and ‘Black Comedy’

When: 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, through Tuesday, Sept. 26.

Credits: Written by Peter Shaffer; directed by Curtis Smoak and Lane Christopher.

Two clever one-act plays share the bill for an evening of outrageous farce. In “The White Liars,” a down-and-out fortune teller is visited by two new clients, each hoping to use her wiles to manipulate the other.

In “Black Comedy,” a young artist tries to impress both his fiance’s father and a haughty art dealer by “borrowing” his antique-collecting neighbor’s expensive furnishings. When the neighbor shows up unexpectedly in the midst of a power outage, the hero frantically attempts to return the stolen goods and keep his ruse under wraps.

‘Speech & Debate’

When: 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9, through Sunday, Nov. 12.

Credits: Written by Stephen Karam; directed by Marybeth Gorman Craig

Three high school misfits connect as they plot to expose a teacher who preys on his male students. In the process, they must contend with their own secrets and insecurities to discover the power of their voices. (Contains adult themes and is not appropriate for children.)

Center for Performance Experiment

‘The Water Station’ (‘Mizu no Eki’)

When: 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21, and Friday, Sept. 22; 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22, and Saturday, Sept. 23.

Credits: Written by Shogo Ohta; directed by Steven Pearson.

Ohta’s poetic masterwork, “The Water Station (Mizu no Eki)” utilizes his revolutionary style of slow tempo and silence to explore human relationships with the elements and one another. Through riveting slow movement and only the actors’ silent expressions, the play depicts the dramatic stories of travelers, displaced by an unspecified atrocity, making their way to a public water spigot.

“Top Girls”

When: 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26, through Sunday, Oct. 29, and Tuesday, Oct. 31, through Saturday, Nov. 4.

Credits: Written by Caryl Churchill; directed by Lindsay Rae Taylor.

“Top Girls” is a witty and thought-provoking look at the sacrifices women make to achieve success in a male-dominated world. It begins with a surreal dinner party at which a young businesswoman, Marlene, celebrates her recent work promotion with a group of barrier-breaking females from across the ages. Once the party ends, however, we’re witness to the devastating personal cost of Marlene’s ascension up the corporate ladder, both to her family and herself.

CPE Fall Rep featuring ‘Silent Sky’ and ‘10 x 3’

When: 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30, through Sunday, Dec. 3.

Credits: “Silent Sky” was written by Lauren Gunderson and will be directed by Steven Pearson. “10 x 3” will be directed by Stan Brown.

The CPE presents two theater events, performed in alternating repertory.

“Silent Sky” tells the true story of pioneering 19th-century astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, played out against a landscape of fierce sisterly love, early feminism, universe-revealing science, and a time when humans were called “computers.”

“10 x 3” features three actors performing a collection of 10-minute plays.

This story was originally published September 21, 2017 at 11:09 AM with the headline "What USC’s theater department is performing this season."