Theater students ‘Grace’ stage with faithful message

With both audio and visual elements put in artful contrast, UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television’s newest production “Grace” presents each of its characters’ inevitable need to redefine his or her own meaning
of faith and reflect upon the beliefs that serve to bind individuals together
on a singular path.

“Grace,” which will run Mar. 11-15 in Macgowan Hall’s Little Theater, is the result of a working collaboration between undergraduate and graduate theater students. Written by playwright Craig Wright, the play begins and ends with a tragic act, as it narrates the struggles of a young Christian couple after they move from Florida to Minnesota with ambitions that not only challenge the beliefs of those they interact with, but also their own beliefs.

Lead character Steve (Ian Runge) is a zealous entrepreneur who hopes to start a gospel-themed chain of hotels with his less devout, but hopeful, wife Sara. Steve sees his higher religious purpose, to spread his faith, as the driving force of his business venture.

“His overarching objective is to spread the word of Jesus and get everyone to believe as much as he does,” Runge, a second-year theater student, said. “His whole life is surrounded around his faith in God and he really believes that God has this plan for him to become successful and to spread the word.”

Steve’s all-consuming ambition ultimately has resonant impacts on himself and those around him, but in a very different way from what he envisioned, and such an obsession has consequences.

“This is the first time I’ve played a character like this who kind of loses his sensibility and almost his mind a bit,” Runge said. “It just shows what happens when you put your entire life into this singular faith. You rely completely on your faith to rule your life.”

Meanwhile, Sara struggles to understand faith outside the ideals of her husband. As a result she finds herself searching alongside the couple’s damaged neighbor, Sam, who lost his fiancée and part of his face in a terrible accident.

Karl, a non-believing and disillusioned exterminator, intermittently also enters the lives of Steve and Sara. He challenges Steve’s beliefs by recounting the troubling memories that have formed his own notions of God.

Beyond the actions and words of the four characters and the directorship, set design and sound also create the atmosphere of “Grace.” Noelle Sammour, a third-year theater student with a sound design concentration, said she plays a role in enhancing this atmosphere.

“I pick sound effects, and edit and program them,” Sammour said. “I choose where speakers are placed within the theater. I basically create the sound experience for the audience.”

Sound itself comes largely into play during flashbacks and slow motion sequences – Holocaust-reminiscent recordings and other resounding notes challenge the optimistic facade of the play’s devout couple.

“(Sounds) make you think on a very different level than what is realistically in the play,” Sammour said.

In addition to audible elements, Jairo Weyman, a graduate theater student in scenic design, said the play’s setting creates a believable effect. Though the set features a single apartment, two separate lives are simultaneously acted out within it, unbeknownst to each other.

“It is very interesting because the set is the same and there are two stories happening at the same time,” Weyman said. “It is a very interesting visual play to see how the actors interact.”

Sammour said it is this placing of different lives within one setting that creates a certain juxtaposition of characters. This collaboration between visual and audio elements is partly due to the vision of director Jeff Fan, a graduate student in theater.

“He tends to deconstruct theater and put it on a different level,” Sammour said. “Almost all the choices are done for reason.”

Thematically, the message of “Grace” differs from person to person. Runge drew on his own background to form his own working definition of how his character views grace. He said his characterization of Steve is not only due to the nature of the script itself, but also past personal interactions.

“I drew on my experiences growing up in the church and what that was like and the kind of the people I knew in church,” Runge said. “I used those people as kind of an influence on how (Steve) acts.”

Runge said, as a person who personally struggles with religion and Christianity, he thinks the play puts a really good perspective on faith as a whole because it doesn’t condemn Christianity or Christians. And though religion may be one paramount theme, the dialogue within the script creates multiple elements for interpretation.

“The playwright has some very interesting ways of introducing topics you don’t usually think about,” Sammour said.

Weyman said these topics include the reality behind the relationship and interactions between Sara and Steve.

“The way I see it, it’s not really about the religion. It’s more about a real-life situation and the life of this couple and the problems that they have,” Weyman said. “It’s an eye-opener.”

Runge said that though his character, Steve, ultimately loses his own faith, the resounding message can in fact be uplifting if one reflects upon the journey of the other characters in the play.

“It’s not necessarily a faith in God that they find, but they find an important faith for themselves,” Runge said. “It’s more just about, for me personally, finding what’s good about faith.”