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Since arriving in Syracuse nearly 15 years ago, director Celia Madeoy has waited to direct the play of her dreams, her “labor of love.” When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she asked herself what performing arts meant to each of Syracuse University’s Department of Drama students and how to keep it alive. Their answers resulted in the musical, “The Droll (Or, a Stage-Play about the END of Theatre).”

“What we do is important,” Madeoy said. “It means something. And to have a story that captured that at a time when we were all doubting and asking, ‘What am I worth, and why am I fighting this good fight?’ So, that’s why I pitched it.”

SU Department of Drama closed its 2023-24 year with a showing of playwright Meg Miroshnik’s “The Droll” from April 19 to 28. The play features an entirely student-run cast and crew. Madeoy said the play not only combines a love of passion and 1980s rock, but its actors also find themselves stuck in a 17th-century existence. She said the actors represent the experiences of the characters and are brought to life in a way that viewers feel for both the characters and themselves.

“What was really important for me, (was) to find a play that upholds my values as an artist and that this is live theater. It’s different from film. You’ve got to bring more of yourself to the game to fill a 400-seat auditorium and to rise to the level of those words,” Madeoy said.

Students starring in the play have endured a long road, Madeoy said. The actors learned determination during the seven-week rehearsal process of “The Droll.” Junior acting and English and textual studies major, Sarah Cummings, played “Doll Cutpurse” in “The Droll.” She auditioned for the production because of her interest in meaningful text, and she resonated with the show having come back from studying abroad in London.

“What really drew me was that it had contemporary sensibilities about a time that was very artistically rich, which, with a regular Shakespeare play, you aren’t going to be able to get the nuance of a modern perspective unless you actually put that on as a director adaptation,” Cummings said.

Finding himself incredibly attached to the message of the show, Zach Asnis, a senior acting major, studied in London earlier this fall and was quite taken with the similarities between London’s characteristics and the staging of the play.

Asnis, as the show’s assistant director, was drawn to the play for reasons behind the curtain. He was a fan of Madeoy long before the show was pitched, both as a professor and mentor, so he jumped at the opportunity to reach out to her about working on the show.

Asnis plans to take what he learned during the production with him as he prepares to graduate this spring. “The Droll” simply would not have been possible without building the connections with the rest of the crew, Asnis said.

“(Madeoy) gave me such creative freedom to leave my fingerprints all over the production,” Asnis said. “This production has also opened so many doors for me in the directing world and has reignited my creative spark and interest for directing.”

Asnis had no previous experience directing before “The Droll” only experimenting with his interest in acting. Yet this production gave him the chance to explore his directing ability. He feels at liberty to continue fostering unique bonds through his directorship that presents both the cast and crews’ equal passions for productions like “The Droll.”

“Ending the 2023–24 season with ‘The Droll’ has sent me going into the summer to continue using my creative brain and to not be afraid to express my true artistic self,” Asnis said.

Published on April 28, 2024 at 11:30 pm