'Honour' steps onto the stage

Junior Jessica Rothert examined her photo collage carefully and pointed out the last touches she made to the finished project. Crinkled from tape and glue, covered in pictures of broken glass and writing paraphernalia, it looked like it had seen a lot of attention. But this collage was no art class project or dorm room decoration.\n"We made collages to represent our characters," said Rothert, a junior majoring in theater and drama and English, of her assignment. Rothert plays Honor, a poet whose journalist husband, Gus, is divorcing her for a beautiful young journalist.\nAfter months of preparation, Rothert and her fellow cast members take the stage at 7:30 p.m. in the Wells-Metz Theatre for the Department of Theatre and Drama's first play of the semester, "Honour."\n"Honour," a contemporary drama by Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith, examines the lives of four people as they experience one divorce from very different perspectives -- wife, husband, daughter and mistress, according to a release.\n"What's beautiful about this play is that even though Honor is the one who is being divorced, she isn't the victim," Rothert said. "The play looks at the divorce from each point of view and how it affects all of them. It's amazing how realistic it is." \nThe cast of four was chosen in November, and Rothert said she used winter break to delve into the show.\n"I read about women in crisis and did research on divorce. I watched my mom, too," she said. "The scariest thing is that I am 21, and I'm playing someone who has been married for 32 years. There are many things Honor has gone through that I haven't experienced yet."\nIn a department brimming with talented graduate students, "Honour" is the second play this season to feature an undergraduate in the lead female role. \n"I think undergraduates are learning sooner that we have to work harder," Rothert said. "We really have to step up when competing with graduate students." \nDirector Murray McGibbon first saw "Honour" when he was going through a divorce.\n"It's a fantastic play that affected me profoundly," he said. "It knocked me sideways." \nMcGibbon, has won numerous awards for directing and points out that the themes of "Honour" are applicable to the lives of many students.\n"This subject is not often covered in drama, but it has universal appeal," he said. "Divorce is something that a countless number of students have come in contact with." \nHonour (the British spelling of the word honor) is a word or concept often associated with truth and courage, but the play strips it down and simply asks: What does it mean to be honorable?\n"Each character has to define what honor is," Rothert said. "For Gus, that means not to lie. What each character understands honor to be affects why they make these choices." \nMcGibbon agrees. \n"There is this situation of following your heart's desire versus following your head's desire," he said. \nHe said it's about refocusing priorities, making promises to not only love and marry, but to be faithful and honorable -- \nrealizing the severity of commitment.\nTo emphasize the language and interactions between the characters, the set for "Honour" has been kept relatively simple. The stage, however, is surrounded on all four sides by the audience. \n"It's difficult to tell a story, the same story, when the audience is seeing different pictures," McGibbon said.\nThis arena-style set up presented a challenging task for first-year Master of Fine Arts scenic design student Chris Wych. \n"We wanted to keep the audience as close as possible, connected to the characters," Wych said. "It was interesting to figure out how we could push the limit of the space and keep within this box. The stage is like a boxing rink where the arguments take place."\nThe intimacy of the design heightens the tensions between the characters. \nCast next to Jessica Rothert are Jeff Grafton as Gus, Rosalind Rubin as Claudia and Alyson Bloom as Sophie.\n"It's been a happy production about a topic that is devoid of happiness," McGibbon said of the show. \n"This is a good drama, one that really wants to touch the audience. In the theatre, we write in vanishing ink," he said looking onto the empty stage. "We create these sculptures on the edge of the ocean that are then washed away."\nDown on the stage, two cast members moved into position, ready to be the living sculptures and collages essential to create the reality of "Honour"