Ohio State Theater’s Production ‘Everybody’ Uses Comedy to Help Lighten Up the Heavy Topics of Life

Matt Ratterman
Thu, 23 Feb 2023 00:38:35 +0000
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Maggie Miller, Josh Smith, and Christopher Ryan Quiroz run through a scene in the upcoming Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts’ production of Everybody. Credit: Courtesy of J. Briggs Cormier

The journey of life will be portrayed onstage in a play coming to Ohio State March 1.?

Ohio State’s Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts’ production “Everybody” will dig through difficult life topics in a comical way to find out what makes life special. “Everybody” will run March 1-9, according to the department’s website.?

This production, written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, is a modern take on the 15th-century play “Everyman.” The play follows the character Everybody, played by one actor, as they are summoned by Death to see God and give an account of their life and explain why they chose to live how they lived.?

Everybody must justify the choices they made by demonstrating an aspect of their life to God. These aspects are Kinship, Friendship, Cousin, Stuff, Mind, Five Senses, Understanding and Love, all played by different actors. In the end, they have to figure out which of the different aspects of life will go with them to the afterlife.

Director Kevin McClatchy said the actors are assigned roles around 10 minutes into the play onstage after narration, using a lottery to ensure random selection. The randomness symbolizes the randomness of death.

McClatchy said this random casting assignment brings a unique aspect to the play, as repeating roles are incredibly rare.?

“We are only doing like seven or eight performances, but there’s 120 possible variations any audience can see,” McClatchy said. “Most likely, each audience is going to see a completely different show.”

McClatchy said another key part of the show separating it from most plays is that the actors are not portraying people, but ideas.

“Their characters aren’t named Matt or Kevin, they’re cars, they’re ideas, they’re notions, they’re cultural elements or societal elements? that are now made human, which is part of the humor of it,” McClatchy said.

Ohio State graduate in acting Chris Quiroz said each lead character can insert their perspective into the role.

“You’re getting everything from the Black perspective, a queer perspective, a trans perspective, indigenous perspective and also a white perspective,” Quiroz said. “Anyone watching it, you’re going to get something out of it every single show because it’s always going to be that unique perspective that you just have no idea what it’ll be until the day of.”

Due to the upcoming deconstruction of the Drake Performance Center at the end of the spring semester and the theatre department having to move its equipment, “Everybody” will be run, similar to how “Wilderness” — a play that took place not on a stage, but a ballroom floor and started Feb. 15 — was set up, McClatchy said.

“There are a couple rows of seats on either side of this sort of long playing area,” McClatchy said. “So, the audience is on either side of the actors playing in the middle, so like in an alley, and that means many times during the play, the actors will be in and amongst the audience and talking directly to someone from a couple of feet away.”

Quiroz said audience members may be moved to look into themselves after watching the show.

“Anyone watching can really project themselves onto the main character of Everybody and just a lot of self-reflection, who we are as individuals in this world, but also who we are as society.”

General admission to the show will be $20 and discounted to $15 for students and $18 for staff. They can be bought on Ticketmaster.?