Everybody is going to die.
That much is clear from the very beginning of “Everybody.” But the play doesn’t promise tears; instead, it welcomes curiosity.
What happens when Everybody – the show’s protagonist – dies? Will anyone join them? Wasn’t there a fridge over there in the last scene?
In addition to thought-provoking concepts and captivating set movements, “Everybody” offers spontaneity, ensuring no one night between April 8-12 in the Hartmann Center’s Meyer Jacobs Theatre will look the same.
This is when the play will be open to the public after months of work from the cast and crew.
“One of the main concepts of the show is that five of the 10 actors are cast by random lottery every night,” director Dan Matisa said. “The staging, acting and all design elements are always wholly original to our specific production at Bradley. In other words, our production of ‘Everybody’ will not be like any other production that has ever been done of it.”
With the revolving door of new actors every night, another question arises: if the cast is different, won’t the characters change?
That’s what the production is counting on.
“[The characters] are concepts. They’re not actually humans,” Gabe Nye, a junior majoring in theater performance, explained. “It’s more or less our experiences with those [concepts]. My experience with my best friend is going to be different than someone else’s. So it’s kind of the experiences that live through each person, and that’s how we portray them.”
“Everybody,” being a modern rendition by Pulitzer finalist screenwriter Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, takes that aspect from the original “Everyman,” but the adaptation makes some key changes.
“The original version is very religion-heavy,” Jalyn Landrum, a sophomore theater performance major, said. “And then this version of the script … makes it more comedic, but also keeps the focal points of religion and kind of takes religion into self-acceptance and being true to oneself.”
The cast of characters, which includes Everybody, Death, Cousin, Stuff and many others, not only represent aspects of our lives very blatantly, but they are also embedded subtly in the music.
According to visiting designer Isaac Mandel, different tracks throughout the score will be layered on top of each other. Similarly, the set will refuse to stay quiet.
“It’s very different, because the show is so abstract. So playing with a typical box set and just having a house on stage sort of flips that expectation,” Erin Hensley, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering and entertainment engineering, said. “This set slowly deteriorates throughout the course of the show, and it just sort of mixes it up in a way that’s really fun. It’s not a static set in the way that a lot of shows happened in the past.”
This unique choice, along with others made during production, stems from a behind-the-scenes dynamic: the students are in charge. For the first time in years, Bradley put a student at the helm of scenic design by bringing in Jaret Turner, a senior theater production major.
Turner isn’t alone, working alongside students like junior theater production major Nancy DeZoma, who has focused on problem-solving and adding whimsical features as the head of the shop.
“The really fun part has been the fridge, because someone comes through it,” DeZoma said. “So we had a few challenges … we have to work with the actors to make sure that they’re not going to scrape their backs or their heads against the window and can stand in the fridge.”
Despite complex music and set choices, Jasmyn Camille, a cast member and senior theater performance major, drew a line at an aspect they weren’t going to overthink.
“We are trying to keep it to where it is very real to us,” Camille said. “So the looks that you’re going to see us in are actually looks that people have seen us on campus in, and they’re our looks that we’re kind of known for. It’s just to show and describe that it could be anybody, and it could be at any day and it could be at any time.”
The lottery and the freedom for actors to wear their own clothes all reflect one idea the cast and crew hopes to show – everybody could be Everybody.
“You’ve likely sat right next to students who’ve been involved in our theatre productions, and probably not even have known it,” Matisa noted. “See your fellow schoolmates’ designs, builds and performances. If you’re about to graduate, and you haven’t come to a show at Bradley yet, now’s the time.”
With the semester coming to a close in a month, “Everybody” is an opportunity open to students from April 8-12 with tickets available here.
