MacLeod's Juvenilia comes home to Kenyon

It's come full circle. Juvenilia , written by James E. Michael Playwright-in-Residence and Associate Professor of Drama Wendy MacLeod, may have premiered in New York City, but the play--which grew out of an exercise in MacLeod's Introduction to the Theater class--was conceived in Gambier. Now it's being performed here as well. Juvenilia will enjoy a run in the Hill Theater at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday through Sunday, February 23-26.

Taking its title from a Latin term referring to the early, immature works of an artist, Juvenilia is set in a dorm at fictional Jubilee College, a small liberal-arts institution not unlike Kenyon. The school motto, Puberes ex pueris , which translates roughly as "Adults out of children," suggests the arc of the story: in the secure incubator that is college life, the characters each search for emotional balance, juggling emergent sexuality, maturity, and morality.

Or, as MacLeod explained in a November 2003 interview with Tim Sanford, artistic director of Playwrights Horizons, where the play premiered, it's about "the reality of the college experience."

The action centers on four characters: roommates Henry and Brodie; Brodie's girlfriend, Meredith; and Angie, who lives across the hall. It's Friday night, and Henry is alone in his dorm room, pedaling on his exercise bike. Brodie enters; he's just had a fight with Meredith. As the evening wears on, the characters will each find themselves attracted to one or more of the others. But are they willing to risk emotional vulnerability?

MacLeod sees the dorm room as a metaphor for the insularity of college life--but that doesn't make the emotions any less painful. "It seems to me," she said in the 2003 interview, "that the questions college seniors are wrestling with are the big questions, the questions that don't go away: What should I do with my life? What do I believe in? Whom should I be with?"

The production will be directed by Assistant Professor of Drama Daniel Kramer, and senior Samantha Oberstein designed the costumes as part of her Senior Exercise. Visiting Professor of Drama Hugh Lester designed the lighting and scenery. The characters are played by juniors Claire Fort and Pat Shaw and seniors Max Bunzel and Liz Jacobsen.

A Kenyon graduate in the Class of 1981, MacLeod earned an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama and has been teaching at Kenyon since 1990. Author of The Water Children , Sin , Schoolgirl Figure , and Things Being What They Are , MacLeod is a New Dramatist alumna and a member of the Dramatists Guild. Her play The House of Yes was adapted by director Mark Waters into a 1997 film starring Parker Posey, Tori Spelling, and Freddie Prinze, Jr.

MacLeod had always thought she would write a play about college life, but she had expected it to include the entire gamut of faculty, administration, and staff, as well as students. Instead, the play evolved in her mind after an assignment in which she asked students to eavesdrop on conversations around them in order to capture the rhythm and speech patterns of their peers. The "wealth of the dialogue" struck her, she said in the interview. "I wanted to figure out how to write a play that was contemporary, but I also wanted to write a play that captured my college experience, twenty years ago, as well as the current college experience."

Starting work without a definite outline, MacLeod found Juvenilia to be "one of those happy plays that emerged full-blown."

Tickets are $5.00 for general admission; $2.00 for non-Kenyon students, seniors, and children under 12; $2.50 for groups of ten or more with reservations; and $1.00 for Kenyon students. The box office is open from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. from Monday, February 20, through Sunday, February 26, and one hour prior to each performance. For more information or to make reservations, call (740) 427-5531.