The LSU Department of Theatre begins its spring season with Caryl Churchill’s “Love and Information.”
Churchill’s play is odd because it doesn’t follow a linear story. There are seven sections with 50 scenes that can be arranged however the director wants. Tara Ahmadinejad, the show’s director, chose to keep the scenes in the order Churchill wrote them.
“I found it pretty compelling in the order it’s in. There is an associative logic we make about why one thing comes after another: a thematic connection, or a word or just a balance,” Ahmadinejad said.
Ahmadinejad said she believes “Love and Info” challenges the director because it’s like a puzzle.
“The opportunity of the play is to work with your team to invent what isn’t [in the script],” Ahmadinejad said. “It’s puzzle solving, riddle work. The author gives clues and we’re obsessively trying to put them together.”
The fact that there’s no narrative plotline is “incredibly frustrating and exciting at the same time,” said theatre studies junior Meg Grey, one of the 10 cast members. “Each night is a little different, and maintaining the energy that this piece demands is refreshingly challenging, as an actor.”
The 10 cast members play different characters in every scene, a challenging feat says theatre studies senior Kelsie Stampley.
“A lot of my challenges were digging into each character, because they change so often,” Stampley said. “I go from being a child in one scene to playing a woman who finds out her husband can’t have children, so it goes from small issues in life to issues that can change your whole life.”
Stampley added that she loves the variety of the show and what each character demands of her as an actor.
The cast members are excited to open the show because they want the energy an audience will bring.
“Everybody’s experience of [the show] will be different because there’s a vast array of human experience,” Grey said.
A moment of the play that sticks out for Grey is a scene in which a man cannot remember his wife.
“That scene sticks out to me because of my grandfather, so I think the audience will take away things they’ve learned throughout their lifetime,” Grey said.
Stampley says she feels everyone will relate to at least one moment in the play. For her, “Love and Information” marks the beginning of the end of her University theatre career.
“This is a great way to wrap up my journey,” Stampley said. “This is just the beginning, and I have a long way to go, but this is a great way to wrap up at LSU.”
“Love and Information” runs Feb. 8-12 and Feb. 14-19 at the Claude L. Shaver Theatre in the LSU Music and Dramatic Arts building. Tickets are $11 for students, $14 for University faculty and staff and $19 for adults.

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Ryan McCarble

The LSU School of Theatre's "Love and Information" will begin performances in the Music and Dramatic Arts Building on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017 through Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017.