For the past three years, senior Christopher Swader has been a scenic designer with his twin brother, Justin. Together they designed the sets for "Circus in Winter," "Angels of America" and "God's Ear." Together they decided to come to Ball State; together they wanted to major in theatre design and technology and theatre production and directing; and together they won a national award for their design in "Angels of America."
Directing "The Receptionist" is Christopher Swader's first theater project without his brother.
For Swader, this will wrap up the past two years he has worked on the play. Two years ago was the first time he read the script for "The Receptionist" by Adam Bock. After reading the script, Swader and his brother went to an office building for one of the designs they were working on.
"We went to the receptionist desk and she said, ‘Have a seat, I'll be right with you,'" Swader said. "I felt like a whole little performance happened before us."
As the poor woman juggled her coworker, the phone, spilled coffee and the mailman, Swader found inspiration.
"I feel like for so many people, they walk past this, and they don't normally stop and see how much of life is really a performance in itself," Swader said.
He saw "The Receptionist" as a way to open people's eyes to the small moments in life.
The plot is a mundane look into four people's everyday lives as they work in an office. Their conversations range from ordering a birthday cake to talking about their teacup collection, until the play takes a sharp turn and suddenly these characters are not who they seem.
"Let's just say it's the perfect blend of the office and the twilight zone," Swader said.
With a complicated plot, Swader began reading and researching the script over the summer, so that when his cast asked him questions regarding their character, he had an answer.
"Christopher is a great help as a director because he will find something that maybe I don't see, and he'll say ‘Oh that's totally that character,'" said Megan Gorman, senior acting major who plays receptionist Beverly. "There are moments that I'm not sure how this woman will handle it; I'll just play around, and he'll let me know what's cohesive with the rest of the character."
The cast consists of four actors, so many of the beginning rehearsals became about forming positive relationships with each other.
"In rehearsal, we all just help each other and we are never in bad moods," Katie Stofko, junior acting major, said. "We let each other know that we are there for each other."
Although it is his first time directing at Ball State, Swader said he feels that he has managed to seamlessly transfer from design to directing.
"I have kind of designed it in a way," Swader said. "I'm more involved in the production, and I have more say in the overall picture. For this, it has been a collaborative process. The way I work is I give [the actors] the skeleton and they fill in the picture."
Because he is a student director, Stofko feels like Swader can relate well to the cast, she said. But the cast still sees him as someone to look up to, she said.
"We see him as another director, and we really depend on him for advice," Stofko said. "And he has been so helpful and really knows what he is talking about."
For Swader, the past two years have been about more than putting on "The Receptionist." It has been a process of finding out more about himself, he said.
"It's been nice for me to find my own voice," Swader said.
"The Receptionist"
When: Nov. 15-19 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 19-20 at 2:30 p.m.
Where: Cave Theatre (Arts and Communications Building room 007)
Cost: $6
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