STAG Nights: The Artist is the Creator of Beautiful Things

Stereo, Renfield Lane
13 – 15th November, 8pm

What do you think is beautiful? STaG Nights is our wonderful society’s largest theatre festival; this year it is being held on the 13th 14th and 15th November, in the club space of Stereo, situated on Renfield Lane in the city centre. Each evening the festival will showcase 3 performances, along with a gallery of artwork and live music from our fantastic band.

Trailer

Programme

Tuesday 13th:

Hatty – Directed by Rosa Barbour and Kate Regan

‘Our own little butterfly. She must flit in and out of the gaudy charade, adding her own faded shades of watercolour beauty to the lives of the men who needed her, to whom she belonged for one night, before her disappearance annihilated them. I will tell you her story, though I skip many evenings; many moons and stars and men.’

Hatty is the story of an isolated young woman struggling to reconcile the lonely beauty of her own world with the harsh glare of reality. We follow her through the course of one starlit evening, as her solitude slowly becomes intertwined with music and love. Yet she is immersed in secrets, and it is something much darker than loneliness that clouds her thoughts and haunts her eyes. Hatty is a dramatised storytelling, its strong narrative brought to life with music and movement. Its surreal and chilling atmosphere is balanced by touches of humour, sensitivity and affection.

The New Body – Directed by Meghan Crosby

Complementary colours Orange and Blue are not an automatic couple. Blue obviously has feelings for his color opposite the wheel, and he performs the most ridiculous and comical tasks just so she will trust him. But Orange has a secret she’s too ashamed to share with anyone. The omniscient Chorus of Rain coaxes Orange along as well, sharing bits of themselves in poetry, prose and dance, in the hopes that Orange will reveal her true color. “The New Body” is an abstracted story of darlings, dread, and daring, and as the play unfolds, each character finds a way to make peace with his or her own body and support each other in their shared experience.

Sea Water – Directed by Colin Loeffler

Sea Water is a series of interconnected monologues that attempt to tell a story. However, the story is non-linear, and at times may appear to not be present at all. The piece explores what happens when different ideas of beauty and love clash. It examines and critiques the hatred that can arise from this clash. It asks if there is any value in beauty, or if it is simply ‘emotion without meaning.’ Sea Water is new age and (hopefully) not what you’d expect for a night at the theatre. If this vague description intrigued you at all, please come along to auditions! You will not be needed for the full two hours.

Wednesday 14th:

Sk(in) – Directed by John May

Tales of first loves and last wishes, Sk is comprised of two fifteen-minute monologues to be performed simultaneously (1M, 1F).

Hilarious, heart-warming and downright dirty, ‘Shy Twink (I think…)’ confronts what it is to be young, confused and sexually bemused. ‘Here, Me’ is the bitter lament of a woman who wishes he’d just finished the job – until then, she’s nothing to do but perfect gruesome self-descriptions. She’s even made a top three. Wanna hear them?

David/Dawn – Directed by Catherine Goldstone

A naturalistic piece with some fancy fourth wall breaking, all for the beautiful STaG Nights Festival.

Are you ready?

“More alcohol is consumed and the truth will probably start to come out, as is always done. Maybe at some point he’ll tell her how he really feels, but not for a few more hours and a few more glasses”

Forced into a night of “being cheered up” Dawn plays host to David, a man who rudely invades her reclusion in a short play about one alcoholic night.

I Never Conquered the Stars – Directed by Tom Pennock and Katalina Watt

As the old Earth becomes uninhabitable, humanity is forced to send thousands of its people on a one-way journey far into space in search of a new place to live. One of the people left behind looks back at the first moon landings of centuries before, and is reminded of an old friend who joined the voyage and left the planet forever.

Thursday 15th:

The Badger and The Star – Directed by Ross Somerville

The Badger and the Star is a play written by my Canadian friend Lisa Aalders and was performed as part of Queen’s University’s Vogt Studio Series ‘A’ 2011.
It won the Saxon Playwright award in March of this year and now following a successful proposal it’s going to making its Scottish /British /European debut at STaG nights 2012!

On the longest night of the year Badge and Rab are taking in the night sky when unexpectedly a star crashes down to earth before them.

What follows is a tale of compassion, conflict and desperation as the men are forced to reconsider the things that they value most.

The play has a solid blend of comic moments and pure drama with an original soundtrack to boot.

Meditations in an Emergency – Directed by Caitlin MacColl

‘It’s like a final chapter no one reads because the plot is over.’

In the crisis following the end of a relationship, a girl tries to find her own purpose and direction. A selection from New York poet, Frank O’Hara’s ‘Meditations in an Emergency’ is interwoven with her search, scattered pages guide her as she breaks through the stasis to find the beginning of her own story.

‘Meditations’ is a monologue which explores our relationship with poetry and stories told with help from Frank O’Hara’s “intimate yell”.

Title TBC – Devised by Dom Di Rollo and Daryl Green

Two clowns exist in a cold, echo-filled space. In this environment, any sound that is made reverberates to an unbearable crescendo and, as a result, our characters are forced to live in a mundane silence. They continually attempt to slake their boredom, but are unable to do so for fear of making any noise. This situation changes upon the discovery of a strange music box.