UT Presents Six Characters in Search of an Author

This October the nature of reality and illusion comes into fierce debate in the UT production of Six Characters in Search of an Author. The show, based on Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello’s 1921 production, features a family of six: a mother and father, son, stepdaughter, and a little girl.

A play within a play, this production is about a theatre company rehearsing a vapid comedy when the entrance of six characters interrupts them and claims their storyline was abandoned. In search of a new author and fulfilling their existence, these characters convince the director their story would be worth continuing, and he agrees. Throughout the production the line between reality and pretense is straddled.

Alex Moffitt, a junior theatre major, will be playing the “Leading Lady” of the theater company. As the six characters are introduced Moffitt’s character feels threatened by their entrance, especially the possibility of being replaced by the beautiful character known as the “Stepdaughter”.

“I was worried no one was going to ask about the play and only about Les Mis. It’s nice to talk about,” Moffitt said.

Les Miserables, the popular nineteenth century musical will also be performed by students this coming November. Unlike Les Mis, Six Characters has not appeared in theatres or featured big name actors and actresses like Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, and Anne Hathaway. In regards to what makes Six Characters stand out from more popular plays, Moffitt said, “It’s a piece that makes you question things and have to think about the action onstage.”

Moffit says that she loves everything about the theater business. “It’s chaotic, invigorating, heartbreaking, terrifying all at the same time, and I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Although auditioning for performances is a requirement for Moffitt’s major, she really enjoyed the script after her initial read, and is excited to work with Director Bob Gonzalez.

Gonzalez is an Associate Professor of speech, theatre, and dance at UT. Gonzalez has directed performances at both UT and USF. Many small and mainstage, these productions include but are not limited to: The Life and Death of Marilyn Monroe and William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which he directed for UT in 2009.Gonzalez also appeared in the April 2014 version of Text and Performance Quarterly where discussed his journey through theatrical studies and performances while acquiring his degrees.

Six Characters in Search of an Author, known in Italian as Sei Personaggi in Cerca D’autore, first premiered at the Teatro Valle in Rome. Due to mixed reviews Pirandello’s play was not a great success until a later showing in Milan. Pirandello’s controversial masterpiece dives into the ideas of staging and real life. He ponders whether life is the equivalence to a theatrical production, meaning actors and actresses put on masks onstage but then take them off as they go about their “real lives.”