If you go
› What: “The Morning After.”› When: 8 p.m. today and Friday, March 31-April 1, and 2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 2.› Where: Sanderson Auditorium, Covenant College, 14049 Scenic Highway, Lookout Mountain, Ga.› Admission: Free, though seats may be reserved.› Phone: 706-419-1051.› Email: boxoffice@covenant.edu.
A production presented this weekend by Covenant College Theatre will summon the often taboo topic of sexuality. Through a collection of scenes and musical scores, “The Morning After” exposes the intense joy and pain that result from human relationships, romantic and otherwise, according to producers.
Senior Emma Shope has compiled the relevant pieces, is directing the show and is a member of the cast. In a news release, she says each piece contributes to “a discussion about sexual brokenness and then what it looks like to see redeemed brokenness.”
The first half of the “The Morning After” meditates on the effects of shattered relationships, selfish desires and tragic mistakes, she explains. The second gradually unveils the goodness that can result from faithful and persistent love on both sides.
Despite the wide range of sources used, Shope has carefully woven each scene and song together to create a cohesive story and compelling dialogue. The result, producers say, is a minimalistic, yet immensely moving performance.
While wounds revealed in the first act begin to mend in the second, Shope says the show will not conclude with “just a clean-slate happy ending.”
“There’s a lot of work involved [in the healing process],” she says. “There’s a lot of process that goes on for a long time that’s not over overnight.”
Those involved in the production say theater is the ideal medium to take on a sexuality discussion because of its capability to present even the most unthinkable scenarios in a tangible, meaningful manner.
As actor Matthew Mindeman explains, “It’s hard for us to talk about this sort of thing if we are just having a conversation with each other, but putting it in the art form of theater helps us experience what this is like for some people and how these things work. Then we can enter into a conversation from that jumping-off point.”
It is Shope’s hope that the performance leads to future conversations, encouragement and empathy.
“I just want them to think,” she says of audiences. “To walk away talking, whether it is about the performance itself, about theater as a means of discussion or about sexual brokenness. I want them to enjoy it, but I want them to come with a mind and a heart to learn, to explore.”
“The Morning After” will be presented in three performances today through Saturday, March 31-April 2, in Sanderson Auditorium on the Lookout Mountain, Ga., campus. Admission is free, but seats may be reserved.