Whether traveling through campus by car, foot or bike, the University’s newest theater production will cross students’ paths.
“The White Bicycle,” a HopKins Black Box Theatre production, will run from Wednesday to Sunday in 137 Coates Hall.
Communication studies doctoral candidate Nicole Costantini wrote and directed the play. The New Yorker based it on her dissertation research of ghost bikes and memorials, as well as her own personal narrative.
The idea for the show came when Costantini drove past a ghost bike — a white bicycle usually left immobile at the site where a cyclist was killed or injured — and didn’t know what it meant. As she learned more about the subject and studied various memorials, she wrote a paper on it and decided to produce her first show.
Costantini recognized that ghost bikes are the only type of memorial marker highly specific to this type of death.
“When people see a ghost bike, the people who created it want them to see what’s on the road and what happened there,” she said.
Costantini studies how different communities interact with ghost bikes and said the show is an overall reflection of that. Ultimately, she wants people to pay more attention to what they are doing and the actions of those around them.
The bike serves as a form of installation art, Costantini said, and acts as a form of activism for the cycling community, as well as a memorial.
“I’ve been looking at the ghost bike as that community identity marker and what it means to them,” Costantini said.
For many people, ghost bikes are an unfamiliar concept. Throughout her research, Costantini saw the knowledge, network and community of ghost bikes expand and grow as people have become more aware.
“It started as something small and has now become this big passion project for me,” she said.
The doctoral student began writing “The White Bicycle” last fall, and rehearsals for the show have been underway for a month and a half.
In the play, there are five to six scenes that serve as different encounters within a larger narrative. The show encourages awareness of other’s actions through various vignettes.
“I hope that my research will come in handy with helping people understand the larger issue of cycling rights,” Costantini said.
She asked two of her undergraduate students, communication studies junior Gabrielle Vigueira and communication studies senior Jasmine Alexander, to participate in the production. Both cast members play a series of different roles that represent the community as a whole.
“[It’s] not just being aware of ghost bikes, but that [business} translates into every aspect of your life: being conscious of how you affect other people, and how people affect you,” Vigueira said.
For Alexander, the show carried personal significance after her fiancé was hit by a car while riding his bike two weeks ago.
“That just shows the faults in the infrastructure, bicycle safety and the lack of respect, and the tension of automobile versus bike, so now that’s really important to me,” Alexander said.
Costantini said she hopes guests will be able to take away this important message from the play, so less cases, like those that happened to Alexander and her fiancé, will happen.
“I hope people will look at how we’re using the streets and how we share it with other people,” Costantini said. “If we’re all aware, then people don’t have to put up ghost bikes.”
Admission to the show is free. The play starts at 7:30 p.m. each night, until its final Sunday showing at 2:30 p.m.

Gallery • 10 Photos

Nicholas Martino

Cast members perform "The White Bicycle" which will be running on April 20-24 in the Hopkins Black Box Theater.