Posted by essinec on Monday, March 18, 2019 in Blog posts.

On Wednesday, February 27th, a full read-through of the play Bowling for Beginners was put on for the public in Neely Auditorium. The play, written by Diana Grisanti, told the story of Vanderbilt’s National Champion Women’s Bowling team and their place on Vanderbilt’s campus. The script was based off ethnographic interviews done by Dr. Christin Essin’s Fundamentals of Theatre class in the fall of 2018. The bare stage consisted of only a white board, chairs, and the actors themselves. The narrator sat off to the side and dictated the flow of the reading as the actors performed their lines accompanied by simple choreographed movements outlined in the script. The audience consisted mainly of Vanderbilt students accompanied by the the playwright herself and a few of Dr. Christin Essin’s theater colleagues from neighboring SEC universities. The reading was followed by a short panel session to facilitate discussion on the strengths and other possible improvements of the play. To discuss this performance, Maggie Feyrer, Brigid Brennan and Eric Cho met in the Rand Dining Center, at the high top tables, on a Wednesday night. The time was 7:35 pm and the discussion started amidst the bustling of busy students on a school night.

 

Maggie Feyrer is a sophomore majoring in Child Development and Human and Organizational Development. She currently works as a nanny to a local Nashville family and plans to pursue a career in the music industry upon graduation.

 

Eric Cho is a junior pursuing majors in Cognitive Studies and Cello Performance and a minor in Quantitative Methods. He is planning to attend medical school once graduating from Vanderbilt. In his free time he loves to work out and find new places to eat.

 

Brigid Brennan is a sophomore majoring in Human and Organizational Development with minors in Economics and Business. She is excited to be working in Nashville for the summer and having more time to explore the city and become more “southern” (she’s from Chicago).

 

BB: Ok, so, here we go. I guess how we can start it off is with some first impressions. What did you guys think when you sat down in the theatre for this formerly untitled reading?

 

MF: I kind of didn’t know what to expect. I’ve never actually seen a reading before, so I was a little thrown off when the actors were just sitting in chairs waiting to speak. I think that aspect of the performance made the production that much more interesting just because we were listening more to what they were saying and how they were saying it and not necessarily what they were doing with their bodies.

 

EC: I kind of came into this class not knowing much about theatre, but I have a music background and we do something similar to a read-through, called a dress rehearsal. I found that there are a lot of similarities, once being that everyone looks very casual. Also, it is really important to have a read-through, much like a dress rehearsal because performers need to have that audience aspect. You need to have that practice being on the stage where you are going to perform. I feel as though doing the reading is a very good idea because it is a very new play, and it is an essential part to the development of it because, obviously, it is not a final draft, so I thought that even being part of the reading process before it goes out to the public was an honor.

 

BB: Yeah, I agree. I was honestly shocked to see just how truly bare-bones it was of a production. I really had no idea what to expect, as I haven’t been to a reading before, but walking in and just seeing all the chairs lined up and a whiteboard as their only actual prop was quite surprising. I was immediately curious to see if and how they would be able to keep me engaged in just people speaking for over an hour. But, I did find myself actually getting into the play based on the performers’ excitement and energy because they were obviously looking forward to showing what they’ve been working really hard on it for a long time.

 

MF: I thought it was really essential to have the audience there, like you mentioned, Eric, because it is a new play and it helped the performers see what the audience responded. As we discussed in class, the audience has a lot of influence on performances, so the performers would be able to learn from these responses and maybe make any necessary edits to the play based on what the audience liked or did not mesh as well with. I remember there were some jokes that some of us really laughed at, and there were some jokes that ended up being missed by the audience. That is an example of something that can easily be adjusted as they move forward with the play.

 

EC: Right, and I think that’s really important. I really enjoyed the whole minimalism of the performance because it allowed the audience to really focus on the script and how the actors interact with each other. I think this is essential because when you go to a play that has all the bells and whistles going on, the audience tends to get lost in the whole environment and sometimes it’s important to focus just on the story, especially for something that is just in the developmental stages like Bowling for Beginners. So, like you said Maggie, when they tell jokes or something may just go over the audience’s head, I think that is even more important and not having all the distractions around becomes a really important part of what a reading is.

 

BB: Yeah, I agree. It was really fun to watch the entire audience react to this play where no one knew exactly what to expect, as it is an original play. What I found the most enjoyable was seeing the entire bowling team sitting with the audience watching themselves being portrayed in such an intimate way. What did you guys think about when you observed the bowlers?

 

MF: I thought it was funny because, from my seat, I could clearly see where the bowling team was sitting so I found my eyes moving back and forth between the stage and the team. I ended up basing my responses on their reactions to the reading, just because it is a play about them and I thought there were some interesting storylines that I wasn’t sure was completely based on the team, like the romance. It would be such an interesting experience to have a romantic relationship like that revealed to the public and analyzed by so many different people that I didn’t even know. I found myself by watching the people performing play the performers, almost putting myself in the bowlers’ shoes and considering what I would feel like to have my life put on the stage.

 

BB: During the romance scene, I couldn’t help but keep glancing at the bowlers and hoping to maybe see their reactions and piece together who was being portrayed by whom on the stage. Especially during the scenes that were very emotional and intense, it was very entertaining to watch the bowlers’ reactions and excitement to the play.

 

EC: In that moment, I thought it would have been really cool to be a bowler. That’s all I really thought.

 

BB: Right, and that’s probably exactly what they wanted to leave the audience with. Making the women’s sports teams here much more relevant than they are at the moment was an important takeaway from this performance. Title IX, even though it was created to help women, ends up being a sort of challenge for them to deal with in the end.

 

MF: I thought it was interesting with the reading versus the actual performance seeing how the audience was engaged in the performance because of its relation to Title IX..

 

BB: I was shocked to see how they were able to grab my attention without the setting. All their movements were were standing up when they were talking and sitting back down and a few other movements. The one that was glaring in my mind was during one of the final scenes when the two girls were laying down next to each other and were chatting. If I am remembering correctly that was the biggest movement that there was the whole time. It was interesting that their words were powerful enough to keep the audience engaged without having the props and the lighting and the music to back it up.

 

EC: I think an element of the engagement I realized was that the scenes were very short. So someone like me that has a really short attention span would be able to watch that for an hour, an hour and a half, however long it ran. So going from one story to another story that’s completely different then going back to it later on. Even though it might be confusing at first it has a really good effect of being like ‘yeah let’s go go go’ and keeping the audience interested.

 

MF: With that, I thought it was also interesting how they developed the story line from the ethnographic process. Remembering when we in class did the ethnography where we said something we were good at and added movement to it, I wonder how they put together their ethnographic interviews into that performance. I think it would be an interesting process to look at. I wondered during the play how they were able to see and intersection between all the different interviews or if they had to make up that intersection. How much of the story line was true versus made up?

 

EC: And they actually had scenes were there were interviewers and interviewees so it was kind of like trippy I guess. It was like seeing something it was based off of occur in the story, it’s kind of hard to explain.

 

BB: Yeah, and what’s the difference? Why were those specific scenes chosen to be the interview scenes when there was definitely lots more information gathered in the interviews? I guess that is what makes the ethnographic process both so engaging and difficult to conduct. They must have had to sift through hours of interviews in order to pull together this cohesive story. Though this was lots of hard work, it was essential to making this piece both engaging and accurate.

 

MF: Another thing I thought was interesting is I went in thinking the play was going to be simply a collection of interviews. After watching Anna Deveare Smith’s Notes from the Field for class, I came to the reading expecting it to be an experience more similar to the movie. It almost made it seem fictional the way they portrayed it. I expected a lot of monologues of the interviews they experienced. It was interesting to see how it varied quite far from Smith’s movie, even though they both used the same process to achieve their goals. The ethnographic process is one that is clearly very dynamic.

 

BB: I wonder how accurate the play was to real life and how much they had to change the stories, if at all, in order to make these interviews into a cohesive story. Obviously they are telling the stories of these bowlers, but how were they able to come up with a whole story based solely on conversations about so many different experiences?

 

MF: I didn’t expect it to be as long as it was. It was, what, almost two hours long? I loved that because we got to see the whole story, the whole development and it was impressive how much information they were able to put in there from these ethnographic interviews.

 

BB: Yeah, it makes you wonder how many interviews they conducted, how many hours of work they put in to make this play. This is especially relevant to us, as we are working on our own ethnographic studies. It seems like they were able to pull it off successfully from lots of hard work, which really showed on the stage.

 

EC: Going off of that and how it was based on interviews, what do you think makes this play different from a lot of the other plays that Vanderbilt Theatre puts on, since these interviews were conducted by Vandy students? And, since they interviewed Vandy athletes as well, what do you think this means for Vandy’s community as a whole?

 

[pause]

 

MF: I think that Vanderbilt students watching it and seeing the issues they address will hit a lot closer to home. No matter what, even if Vanderbilt Theatre tries to put on a play that they think relates to what Vanderbilt students experience and issues that are common on our campus, there is nothing that relates as much to our lives as something that is actually happening on this campus. It would be interesting to see the conversations it brings up between Vanderbilt students, like we are having right now, about campus culture and campus life just because it does hit so close to home.

 

BB: Yeah, it’s just a lot more relevant to Vanderbilt students. The only other play I have seen here is Twelfth Night which is such a stark contrast to this play, which was in plain English, not difficult to follow like Shakespearean language, so Bowling for Beginners felt a lot easier to follow and more relevant to my life. And that also helped to keep me more engaged, where a reading of Twelfth Night probably would have been a lot more difficult to hang on to. I think it definitely has the potential to have big repercussions if they are able to pull it off on stage and get people to come and to understand on a deeper level the messages they are trying to get across. This play has the potential to affect the perceptions of athletes on campus, so I think that it is a powerful opportunity and a good message that they are putting across.

 

MF: I think it would be interesting to see how it affects the minds of the students that do come and see this play and how they perceive athletes, especially women athletes. It’s also important to look at the different women’s sports themselves. For example, for lacrosse, since lacrosse is so popular, they get a lot more recognition than the bowlers do. As they mentioned in the play, bowling is not a spectator sport, so it’s even that much more difficult to get people to come to games or have a deep understanding of the game. So if this play is repeated again and many more people on this campus see it, it would be interesting to see how the perception of certain women athletes will keep changing.

 

EC: It’s kind of funny to say this, but I would like to say that I knew the Vanderbilt bowling team before they were cool.

 

[Everyone laughs]

 

EC: When I was a freshman I went to the rec and as I bowled there I saw that there were cubbies for these athletes, so I assumed there must be athletes that bowled for Vandy. And so knowing about them, seeing that they won a national tournament, and hearing that there is going to be a play written about them, I was like, “of course I knew about the sport” even though most people didn’t. It was kind of cool how seeing something that not a lot of people knew about being blown up. Like, yes, this is Vandy and we have this team that’s extremely talented.

 

MF: For me, watching the play almost felt like we were being called out about something that we were supposed to do and hadn’t been. I feel that Vanderbilt students will also feel called out for not paying as much attention to the bowling team and women’s sports in general. Because of the Vanderbilt culture, I think that we will try to put forward the effort to change ourselves on what we are being called out for.

 

BB: So you think that being called out is a good thing?

 

MF: Yeah. I think that it hold students accountable. It doesn’t necessarily feel good to be called out, but it will help them realize that there are sports here other than men’s football and basketball that are impressive and important.

 

EC: Plus, winning a national championship is not a small deal and students should know about that. There is kind of a fault on the student’s side because we should be interested in our campus to a certain degree, so it is kind of an eye opener. I guess it is necessary.

 

BB: I quickly couldn’t help but think about how I haven’t gone to a single women’s event and, further, I have only been to maybe one basketball game and two football games. It is really sad because I grew up watching Notre Dame football, because my dad went to Notre Dame, and going to those games and seeing how starkly different they are to even Vanderbilt’s men’s games. We are even having trouble getting people to attend men’s football and basketball games, so I couldn’t imagine being a female athlete here and barely having anyone come to your games.

 

MF: And especially a school like Vanderbilt, an SEC school, which isn’t even a Division III school where you don’t necessarily expect people to come. We have such a competitive atmosphere and so little people go when it is so hyped up. Like, it’s SEC sports!

 

BB: Also, bowling looks hard!

 

[The group’s eyes light up and everyone exclaims their agreement]

 

I’m so glad that they had that explanation scene. I had no idea about the finesse and the hard work that went into bowling. The scene with the spares test and several other parts where they explained the time commitment and hard work the team required baffled me. I couldn’t believe that they were working so hard: lifting and traveling and more. We didn’t have a bowling team in my high school so I didn’t know what it takes to become a competitive bowler. Those girls are working incredibly hard and I’m glad that they have this platform to get recognized for all the work that they’ve been putting in on top of their rigorous courses.

 

MF: I agree.

 

EC: I think we have a lot of ideas, so do you guys have any leaving comments?

 

BB: Off of what I said, I am glad that these girls are getting recognized for the work that they are putting in and excited to see where it goes from here. This is a piece that is definitely relevant to Vanderbilt now and will continue to be relevant until people start getting the message. Bowling for Beginners is clearly trying to get that message to the student body in an exciting new way that will hopefully take hold. I would like to see the final production and how they will translate all their ideas onto the stage. Everything from the costumes to the lighting, music, and props will be extremely important to the success of the production. I am excited to see where they go from here, and really enjoyed my time at the performance.

 

MF: I agree, it will be really cool to see what happens with it. Also, I’m happy that we were able to understand this issue in its beginning stages, so we can see how it develops.

 

EC: I think I am definitely going to see the final product. We were kind of in the process of making the play so I feel like we’re obligated to see the play.

 

BB: Which is really cool and I’m excited to be a part of that.

 

MF: Me too, and I guess I’ll see you guys there!

 

EC: Yay!