Summing up the production she’s directing isn’t easy for Dr. Melanie O’Meara.
“It’s a poetic piece, and it’s different,” said O’Meara of “Metaphysique D’Ephemera,” which is the Augusta University Department of Art and Design and Theatre’s play in rehearsal. It’s set for a March show date, but because of COVID-19 restrictions, the live performance will be restricted to Augusta University students, faculty and staff. O’Meara said there will likely be a recorded version available for the general public.
There are multiple layers to the play, which was written by a colleague when O’Meara was a graduate student at Louisiana State University. The play was part of her dissertation. On one level, it represents 20th-century artist Joseph Cornell, an abstract artist who was known for his collages and memory boxes made of junk and trash.
The main character is a prince who “is stuck in his past,” said O’Meara.
In many ways, the prince is Cornell, a reclusive artist whose work was described as “romantic, poetic, lyrical and surrealistic,” according to his biography at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s website. “Cornell was an imaginative and private man who, mingling fantasy and reality, produced works outstanding not only for their originality and craftsmanship but for their complexity and diversity.”
The prince can’t seem to grasp his current reality. O’Meara said there’s a sense of wandering around in the play as well as a sense of the familiar being strange and different. She likened that to life during the pandemic when the familiar has turned unfamiliar and different.
“That’s definitely what Cornell was up to and the surrealists. It’s a good lens of the time,” she said.
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The play has been performed in a black box setting with limited sets, which makes it easy for O’Meara to transition it to her performance space. “Metaphysique D’Ephemera” will be performed on the Maxwell Theatre’s portico out in front of the building.
O’Meara said her students have braved the winter weather during their rehearsals and come performance time, the audience can be socially-distanced with ease.
“My last production was ‘Grendel’ in the fall of 2019,” O’Meara said. “Even with the restrictions in place, the students are excited to have the opportunity to perform again,” she said.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
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