PROFESSOR DILEXI IS LEAVING IT ALL IT UP TO YOU

Professor Dilexi with Think and Jump

The audience is the boss in the latest production by Uncut Pages, a theater company composed entirely of Bryn Mawr students and recent graduates. Fresh from a triumphant run at New York's Fringe Festival in August, the troupe will stage Professor Dilexi Presents Dramatis Personae of the Apocryphal Menagerie at the Philly Fringe in seven shows running from Thursday, Sept. 8, to Saturday, Sept. 19.

Written by Rebecca Fullan '04, the play offers theatergoers the chance, at seven critical plot junctures, to choose the direction the narrative will take.

The seductive Professor Dilexi, assisted by a clown named Think and Jump, runs the show, says troupe member Madelynn von Bayer '05. "Professor Dilexi exists on a different plane, but he isn't omnipotent," von Baeyer explains. "There are still rules that govern his actions. Periodically, he stops the show by shouting, 'Hold!' and asks the audience what should happen, offering two choices. He decides which choice has gotten more applause, and that determines the plot until the next pause."

The company was especially pleased that the show was accepted into New York Fringe, von Baeyer says. The Philly Fringe, which is complemented by the invited performances in the Live Arts Festival, is open to all performers who can raise money to fund the production and secure performance space. Aspirants to the New York Fringe face stiff competition for places.

Because there are so many options for viewers, the company had to learn and rehearse the equivalent of several plays, and New York audiences put the Pages through their paces, creating five very different permutations at the five performances at the Connelly Theater on East Fourth Street. But all the audiences were oddly consonant on one point, von Baeyer reports.

"There's one point at which a character will either leave her husband or get pregnant," von Baeyer says. "I don't know why, but the New York audiences never chose the pregnancy. We're looking forward to seeing whether Philly audiences will respond the same way."

The New York cast included Rachel Hochberg '04, Chelsea Phillips '05, Charlotte Rahn-Lee '05, Lilah Rahn-Lee '05 and Amy Sullivan '05. Only Hochberg returns for the Philly engagement, joined by Fullan, Elizabeth Hanson '06, Julia Niedzwiecki '06, Alex Solomon '08 and von Baeyer; Fullan, the playwright, directs.

Tickets are on sale for $10 at the door or through the Fringe Box Office. Bryn Mawr students, however, can buy tickets for $5 by e-mailing tickets@uncutpages.org before noon the day before curtain. To get the discount, students must pay cash; tickets will be delivered to Bryn Mawr post-office boxes.

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