Because the Universe Tends Toward Entropy

Even though Winter Term has drawn to a close, DePauw students involved in the theatre production "Because the Universe Tends Toward Entropy" are continuing to reap the fruits of their Winter Term labor this weekend. Performances are scheduled for Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in Moore Theatre.

"It's going to be a fun, crazy, and hopefully enlightening night," said senior cast member Kevin Bunge.

The entire show consists of four smaller plays: "Desire Caught by the Tail" by Pablo Picasso, "Marriage Proposal" by Anton Chekov, "The Stronger" by August Strindberg and "Dust of the Road" by Kenneth Sawyer Goodman.

Over a year ago, Tim Good, associate professor of communication and theatre, came up with the idea to mix all of these plays together and have the events of the four plays take place on the same day: Christmas Eve in 1870.

Good, who has been involved in DePauw theatre for over eight years said that these are all plays he has been wanting to do for a long time.

"They've never been done this way before," he said.

Good feels that the ample preparation time during Winter Term has allowed the cast and crew to do these plays justice.

"We're able to get in-depth with everything from excellence, to investigation, to understanding that is impossible to do in the semester," Good said.

While it may seem as if these plays were picked at random, the production crew used the title "Because the Universe Tends Toward Entropy" to weave them together.

"The main message is that personal relationships are doomed to blow apart, but humans desperately try to keep them together anyway," Good said.

The production opens with the play "Desire Caught by the Tail," which has the largest cast out of the four acts with a dozen actors. Bunge plays the main character, Bigfoot, in this play.

Bunge has some things in common with Bigfoot.

"I would say that Bigfoot and I are very passionate people," Bunge said. "Sometimes we think with our hearts instead of our heads."

However, Bunge had some challenges in acting out Bigfoot, like speaking the poetic language that his character uses and memorizing a multitude of lines.

Bunge said that the entire cast has worked very well together.

"Everyone seems to be open and on the same page and interested in different ideas," Bunge said. "There is not only one way to do things."

Bunge has especially enjoyed being a part of "Desire Caught by the Tail" because he feels it is very unique.

"'Desire' is going to get the audience broken up and it is going to set the stage the rest of the night because it is out there," Bunge said. "If you can hang with that, you can hang with the rest of the production."

As the production goes on, the separate acts are meant to become more and more relatable for the audience.

"The shows are all really different, so there is something for everyone," said junior Emily Terrell, assistant director of "Entropy."

During the production, the audience may realize that it is only the first week of second semester classes at DePauw and wonder how the theater program pulled off a large production like this in such short time. The answer is, they used their Winter Term wisely.

Students interested in participating in this show auditioned last fall. Many of them then enrolled in a Winter Term on-campus theater class, which committed them to six hours-a-day. They spent half of the time rehearsing and the other half on stage and costume design.

"A lot got done really quickly. I know the crew was really productive," said junior Laura Durham, stage manager of the production. "The cool thing that I think people will notice when they come to the show is that having so many people only doing this show for three weeks really opened up a lot of opportunities."

One such opportunitiy was creating a lobby display. Like most DePauw theater productions, "Entropy" takes place on the stage of Moore Theatre. However, the audience's seats have been moved on stage as well. So, the stage crew decorated the area outside of the stage to create an interesting environment full of things that pertain to the show.

Overall, Durham said the theater students worked very hard and independently throughout Winter Term.

"I think it was beneficial to do a show like this during Winter Term because people were really devoting all of their time to it," Durham said. "I don't know if it would have been so successful without that sort of commitment."

Terrell thinks that Winter Term gives the students real world experience as well.

"This is the closest thing to what it would be like to work in professional theater," Terrell said.

The cost of admission to the performance is $3 dollars for students and $6 dollars for adults. Saturday, the members of the cast will also have a discussion about the production after the show.