Alum Directs 'Gruesome' Play

The air was thick with anticipation. The Quad-City Theatre Workshop's small but engaged audience sweat with excitement for the play – and also due to the broken air conditioner. The stage was set for the Workshop's production of Gruesome Playground Injuries with a bare stage in front of a plain brick wall.

Gruesome Playground Injuries by Rajiv Joseph is a two-person script following the lives of Doug (Tristan Odenkirk) and Kayleen (Joanna Mills). Both actors were making their Workshop debut. Odenkirk has also begun work on the Workshop's production of The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? by Edward Albee, which will open in late October. The production will also feature St. Ambrose University theatre professor Dr. Corinne Johnson.

This production of Gruesome was directed by SAU alum Max Moline '17. Gruesome Playground Injuries is a script that brings several unique challenges, including the script's non-chronological nature.

"The relationship between Doug and Kayleen grows naturally, but the audience doesn't get to see the full extent of their growth until the end," Moline said. "So every scene, we had to make sure we knew exactly where both characters were at and translate that to the audiences."

Since the script goes through time, every scene features the same characters but at different ages. The audience sees these lifelong friends as children up until their late 30s. Mills and Odenkirk were tasked with realistically portraying six-year-olds in one scene and then characters in their mid-20s the next. This was a particular challenge for Moline.

"We worked the show in chronological order instead of as written. This allowed us to get into physicalities and mental states of both characters and naturally age them up as the scenes went by," Moline said.

Since the script required the actors to change costumes between every scene, Moline had to be creative in how he handled this. Moline decided to include short, additional voice recordings over the costume changes to give the audience a distraction.

Gruesome Playground Injuries ran for three weekends before the space was quickly revamped for The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?, which will run every weekend from October 25-November 3.