'FreezeFrame' becomes full-length
Dave Goncalves
Issue date: 2/9/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment
After her show in New York, Deborah Yarchun, one of Drexel's most talented playwrights, edited her original one-act play FreezeFrame and wrote a longer, full-length version, which will be presented by the Drexel Players. The play covers the lives of several people from our generation. Several changes and alterations have been made to better the script and mold it to the author's vision since the version shown in New York.
"In this draft, I've merged the best of the original full-length script with some changes I made in the one-act version," Yarchun said. "The director, actors' and designers' interpretation of the play is also dramatically different."
The changes made will move the play away a little from the "New York sex" approach of the original production. They were made to accommodate the different pace now that the play is a full-length.
"This one is somewhat closer to my initial vision," Yarchun said.
The performance should go over well due to the fact that it's mostly targeted at college students.
"I hope it does well with the college crowd, since it's about college students and our generation. I'm not sure how this production will go, since it hasn't had an audience yet, but an earlier version of the full-length script was produced at Wichita State University in Kansas and had a really successful run," Yarchun said.
Because FreezeFrame is a workshop production and not designed for critique or review, Yarchun will be intently listening to the audience's reactions for feedback.
"I have learned a lot about the script just from being involved in the rehearsal process," she said.
One of the attracting points of the play should be the intrigue of the character Aliyah.
"I was inspired by a frozen water bottle," Yarchun said. "During an exercise through the Young Playwrights Conference in New York in the summer of 2004, we each wrote monologues from the perspective of an inanimate object, and I chose a Dasani water bottle. From the water bottle came this really bitter ice-queen girl whose ultimate goal in life is to freeze a man's soul, and that became the inspiration for my character Aliyah. The rest of the play formed around her."
Yarchun's production will be performed in the Living Arts Lounge located next to the Mandell Theatre in the Creese Student Center on Feb. 9 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Admission is free.
"In this draft, I've merged the best of the original full-length script with some changes I made in the one-act version," Yarchun said. "The director, actors' and designers' interpretation of the play is also dramatically different."
The changes made will move the play away a little from the "New York sex" approach of the original production. They were made to accommodate the different pace now that the play is a full-length.
"This one is somewhat closer to my initial vision," Yarchun said.
The performance should go over well due to the fact that it's mostly targeted at college students.
"I hope it does well with the college crowd, since it's about college students and our generation. I'm not sure how this production will go, since it hasn't had an audience yet, but an earlier version of the full-length script was produced at Wichita State University in Kansas and had a really successful run," Yarchun said.
Because FreezeFrame is a workshop production and not designed for critique or review, Yarchun will be intently listening to the audience's reactions for feedback.
"I have learned a lot about the script just from being involved in the rehearsal process," she said.
One of the attracting points of the play should be the intrigue of the character Aliyah.
"I was inspired by a frozen water bottle," Yarchun said. "During an exercise through the Young Playwrights Conference in New York in the summer of 2004, we each wrote monologues from the perspective of an inanimate object, and I chose a Dasani water bottle. From the water bottle came this really bitter ice-queen girl whose ultimate goal in life is to freeze a man's soul, and that became the inspiration for my character Aliyah. The rest of the play formed around her."
Yarchun's production will be performed in the Living Arts Lounge located next to the Mandell Theatre in the Creese Student Center on Feb. 9 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Admission is free.
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