'Brilliant Traces' set for TASI

Two kerosene lamps light the "shell" that is Henry Harry's home. Seeking seclusion, the young recluse occupies a one-room shack that sits alone in the middle of Alaska.

It's freezing. It's the middle of a snowstorm. And he's about to be trapped inside with a woman he doesn't know.

"Stage Left," a new and evolving theater company created to bring experimental theater to Southeast Texas, will present Cindy Lou Johnson's "Brilliant Traces" at The Art Studio, Inc., Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The one-scene show begins with Rosannah DeLuce, a woman who has "recently gone through life-altering events," walking into Harry's shack in a wedding dress.

"She just walks in the door, giving this full-out monologue — basically letting out emotions," Steven E. Hoffman Jr., the play's director, said. "My hope is that the audience will be engrossed by the fact that she just comes in in this wedding dress in the middle of Alaska, and that is what I believe holds the audience — to find out why she's here."

Bonnie Dupuis, who plays DeLuce, struggled to describe her character without giving away any spoilers.

"Have you ever felt like you're outside an event that's happening?" Dupuis asked. "The event is happening to you — but somehow you're outside of the event — and you're not quite sure what that is? And you're no longer yourself, and you're becoming this erratic-ness?

"(Rosannah's) life-altering events have been some type of thing of that nature, and it's an entire show of doing that, being that, coming in and out of that. She's trying to process a lot of what is happening (and) how it's happening."

Harry pressures DeLuce to find out why she is in Alaska, and DeLuce pressures Harry to find out why he lives in the middle of nowhere, Hoffman said.

"He's a younger man, but he's experienced so much hardship in his life, that at this age he's already become a recluse and a hermit," Joe Whitaker, who plays Harry, said. "He's had some really past traumatic events in his life, and his escape is to go to Alaska. I think that says a lot about his character in itself. It's a cold, remote place, and I think that's how he wants to feel. He wants to feel secluded."

"Brilliant Traces" consists of abstract dialogue and experimental method acting, which lend themselves to building a strong audience connection.

"I want the audience to see what (the characters) have gone through — what they are going through — during the course of this play and take something home from it," Hoffman said. "Whether they take home, 'What the hell was that?' or whether they take home, 'I can do something about the problems in my life. I can change the problems I have in my life — just by recognizing them.' Because that's what (the characters) go through. Throughout the course of the play, they bring to the surface their problems and what's driven them to this point."

"Stage Left" is an actors'-based company that is committed to "bringing the unusual or giving opportunity to new, inventive works," Dupuis said.

"Brilliant Traces" will be the company's second show. Their first production, "Ash," took place in June.

"Bonnie and I  started talking about theater and our ideas in theater, and we decided that it was time for us to expand beyond Lamar and start doing shows that we found interesting, that we wanted to do, that we thought people might be interested in seeing," Whitaker said. "And so we took it into our own hands, and this is what we're doing now."

Whitaker said that he and Dupuis, as well as the other actors they invite to work with them, want to encompass every role, including writing.

"The actors do more than just acting," Dupuis said. "They design or direct. Whatever the show lends them to do, that might be what they're doing in the show at that time. So you might not act in every show, but you're available to expand your artistry."

A traveling company, the group likes to use different locations that aren't often used for theater.

"We really like this place for the show, because it's a shell of a place," Whitaker said. "It's not really a house, it doesn't look like a house. It's a shell — there's no floor, there's no ceiling, and I think that adds to..."

"...the guts of the emotion, of the people, of the show itself — it's just pieces of something," Dupuis finished.

Harry's shack has no electricity, and TASI has no heater. The chill will help transport audience members to the middle of Alaska, but they are welcome to bring coats and blankets, Hoffman said.

Dupuis and Whitaker have created an intimate seating arrangement in order to develop a strong connection with the audience. The audience will line, and become, the walls — an approach they experimented with in "Ash."

"We wanted the audience to feel like they were the walls of the play, and we got a lot of feedback from it," Whitaker said. "We really enjoy the space, how intimate it is with the audience. This show is a very intimate show, and we thought that the seating arrangement would benefit the production.

"We've heard about some experimental theater happening in Chicago and places where the theater is happening in people's apartments…"

"... It's happening in their living rooms with 5 to 10 people — what can come that night and fit," Dupuis interrupted. "It's very interesting to us.

"As close as we can be to the audience, the more we like it. I feel like that is something you will see in the future — having such an intimate atmosphere in our company."

Dupuis said that this intimate approach allows the audience to become a part of the theater.

"We literally are feeling how they're reacting to us at the same time," she said. "That fuels an actor to continue, or it gives momentum to a play, unlike a film. How you react doesn't change the film. The film's going to be the same. Even though, if you're like me, you still go (gasps)..."