The staged readings of a play written by a drama major will be offered Feb. 6-9 by the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Department of Theatre and Dance.
"The Six-Fingered Woman," written by senior Sophie McIntosh of Sun Prairie, will be read by student actors at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 6, at UW-Stevens Point at Wausau Black Box Theater, Center for Civic Engagement Room 214, 625 Stewart Ave, Wausau.
It will also be read at the Stevens Point campus at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 7-8, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 9, in Noel Fine Arts Center Room 221, 1800 Portage St., Stevens Point. The show is suitable for mature audiences.
Each show will close with an optional talkback with the director, writer and actors, allowing the audience to share their feedback.
This is the first time a student play has been offered through a staged reading as part of the season, said show director Professor Tyler Marchant, theatre and dance. He leads a playwriting course and has been a mentor to McIntosh as she developed drafts of the play, which won the Full-length Play Award at the Region 3 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in Madison last year.
Partially inspired by 1980s horror movies such as "Friday the 13th," "The Six-Fingered Woman" highlights the relationships among three women: a Hollywood makeup artist, the young woman she is using as a model for a horror movie and the woman's daughter. The play relates the difficult moments in their lives and confronts issues of self-harm, suicide and substance abuse, and audiences should be aware of that content, said Marchant.
"I've been impressed with Sophie's work," he said. "She has great potential as a playwright."
"This is a culmination of all the work I've done at UW-Stevens Point," said McIntosh, who graduates in May. "Readings are valuable because they give the playwright a chance to hear how others interpret their words. A play sounds different in the mouths of the actors than it does when you're reading it in your head."
While there are no sets, costumes or props, readings require the actors to convey the emotions and interactions of their characters with only two weeks of rehearsals. This is an important skill in the world of professional theater, where staged readings are common, Marchant said.
McIntosh hopes to earn a master's degree in playwriting and someday work as a theatre professor. "I have loved the experiences I've had at UW-Stevens Point and I hope I can give that back to my own students in the future," she said.
Tickets for "The Six-Fingered Woman" are $10 for general admission or $7 for UW-Stevens Point students with I.D. the day of the show. Tickets are available at the UW-Stevens Point Information and Tickets Office in the Dreyfus University Center concourse, by calling 715-346-4100 or at http://tickets.uwsp.edu.
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