Love and Information: This Fall’s Senior Play

Over the weekend of November 11 and 12, more than 40 actors brought to life the ideas and emotions, conversations and relationships comprising playwright Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information, Roxbury Latin’s fall Senior Play.

Love and Information is a compilation of 49 short scenes within seven sections, each scene ranging in length from less than a minute to a few minutes long. The seven sections of the play—simply numbered one through seven—must be performed in order, however the many vignettes within each section can be included in whatever order the director chooses. Each scene has a short title, denoting topics as diverse and far reaching as Climate or Dinner, Mother or Spies, God or Dream. The play includes more than 100 characters, however none of the characters are named or gendered, and any can be double cast—as was the case in RL’s production. The script includes very few stage directions, and the scenes can be ordered in any way that the director wishes, allowing for various sequences, structures, or foci. All of this combines to provide a broad scope of creativity for any director or company.

As the play’s director, Derek Nelson, noted in the show’s program: “Scene by scene, and even moment by moment, Churchill drops us into the middle of a multiplicity of contexts involving, among others: friends, lovers, ex-couples, scientists, interrogators, therapists, fans, censors, doctors, journalists—and even a recluse! And what I think she is asking us to think about is: Does our ‘insatiable appetite for information’ diminish our ‘capacity for love’?”

View the gallery of production photos, taken by Mike Pojman.

ONE
SECRET:  Christina Monroe, Tarini Dasari
CENSUS:  Michael Thomas, Bobby Zabin
FAN: Maggie McDonald, Ariana Shokrollahi
TORTURE: John Austin, Nick Martin
LAB: Thomas Savage, Marc Quintanar
SLEEP : Lucas Numa, Lucas Connors
REMOTE: Oliver van den Bosch, Beatrix Picotte

TWO
IRRATIONAL: Jack Sweet, Akhilsai Damera
AFFAIR: Aidan d’Alessandro, Oliver Cook
MOTHER: Christina Monroe, Zach Heaton
FIRED: Thomas Silva, Leo Bene
MESSAGE: Matt Hoover, Nahum Workalemahu
GRASS: Tarini Dasari, Lucas vander Elst
TERMINAL: Christo Velikin, Jack Sweet

THREE
SCHIZOPHRENIC: Marc Quintanar, Thomas Savage
SPIES: Michael Thomas, Bobby Zabin
DREAM: Lucas Connors, Lucas vander Elst
RECLUSE: Ryan Peterson, John Austin, Nick Martin
GOD’S VOICE: Harry Lonergan, Thomas Connolly
THE CHILD WHO DIDN’T KNOW FEAR: Tommy Reichard
STAR: Akhilsai Damera, Dennis Jin

FOUR
WEDDING VIDEO: Tommy Reichard, Brendan Reichard, Michael Allen
SAVANT: Emmanuel Nwodo, Mathias Why
EX: Will Grossman, Christina Monroe
MEMORY HOUSE: James McCurley, Akshay Kumar
DINNER: Gia Bharadwaj, Nahum Workalemahu
PIANO: Dennis Jin, Beatrix Picotte, Michael Allen
FLASHBACK: Tarini Dasari, Matt Hoover

FIVE
LINGUIST: Lucas Connors, John Austin
MATHS: Michael Thomas, Beatrix Picotte
SEX: Marc Quintanar, Tarini Dasari
GOD: Thomas Savage, Nick Martin
RASH: Maggie McDonald, Ariana Shokrollahi
CHILDREN: Lucas Numa, Oliver van den Bosch
SHRINK: Christina Monroe, Bobby Zabin

SIX
THE CHILD WHO DIDN’T KNOW SORRY: Ariana Shokrollahi, Maggie McDonald
CLIMATE: Zach Heaton, Oliver Cook
CENSOR: Jack Sweet, Christo Velikin
WIFE: Beatrix Picotte, Lucas vander Elst
DECISION: Nahum Workalemahu, Matt Hoover
THE CHILD WHO DIDN’T KNOW PAIN: Thomas Silva, Leo Bene
EARTHQUAKE: Aidan d’Alessandro, Akhilsai Damera

SEVEN
CHINESE POETRY: Bobby Zabin, Lucas vander Elst
MANIC: Nick Martin, Akhilsai Damera
FATE: Harry Lonergan, Thomas Connolly
STONE: John Austin, Tommy Reichard
VIRTUAL: Michael Thomas, Thomas Savage
SMALL THING: Bobby Zabin, Lucas vander Elst
FACTS: Lucas Connors, Ryan Peterson

Tech Crew
Tech Director: Ms. Korotkin
Costume Designer: Joy Adams
Costume Assistant: Cass Martyn-Seidl
Tech Assistant: James Allan
Stage Manager: Cass Martyn-Seidl
Assistant Stage Manager: Joshua Hua
Lighting: Owen Butler, Evren Uluer, Ms. Korotkin
Light Board Operators: Owen Butler, Evren Uluer
Sound Design: James Allan
Recorded Music: Violin Concerto II by Philip Glass
Sound Board Operators: Matt O’Connor, Chris Vlahos
Set Crew: James McCurley, Alejandro Rincon, Ryan Peterson, Dominic Landry, Nitin Muniappan, Jed Dougherty, Aydin Hodjat, Jaden Barrack-Anidi, Lincoln Hyatt, Dennis Jin, Mark McGuire, Ryan Lin, Dylan Pan, Chris Vlahos, Tom Pogorelec
Running Crew: Benji Macharia, Miles Baumal-Bardy, Navid Hodjat, Nitin Muniappan
Production Photos: Mr. Pojman