 "Photo: Riannon Rowley")
“Sex, Money and the Corporate Ladder,” a drama written, directed and performed entirely by students, will hit the stage in Texas Tech’s Charles E. Maedgen Jr. Lab Theatre tonight.
Following the stories of three coworkers whose struggles intertwine them, the performance presents topics such as sexual harassment, disabilities and family feuds.
“I wrote a play a few years ago called ‘Red Tape’ about the most annoying aspects of bureaucracy,” said Rodney Donahue, the play’s author. “The three characters going through problems in this play come from that one, but they were static and didn’t change. I decided to write their backstory and what led them to the way they were in that story.”
This performance is deeply concerned about the separation of the Stone Brothers, Rudy and Kevin, who appear in “Red Tape” as very estranged, said Donahue, a doctoral student in fine arts from St. Louis. The central motif to his play is no matter what the problem is, it can be sorted out.
Mandi Tapia will perform as Corporate Ladder’s president, Lauren Tops. She said the play has been fun to work on, even though it hosts very serious topics.
“Any of my scenes with Rudy in particular are a lot of fun,” said Tapia, a second-year doctoral student in acting and directing and history, theory and criticism from LaMarque.
“They are the most difficult for me, because they rely on a lot of physicalization of the character and throwing things. What makes this character hard for me is toeing the line between making the character a stereotypical woman and trying to find where I can actually make her human.”
The story revolves around a special ladder, developed after one Stone Brother fell and severed his spinal cord. Having made the company, the Corporate Ladder, the characters are now going through their journey to find the importance in life and are learning to balance their executive and personal responsibilities, said Meagan Bailey, a first-year performance and pedagogy master’s degree student from Lubbock.
Jessica, the Corporate Ladder’s counselor, tries to keep everyone mentally stable, said Bailey with a laugh.
“Its a very intimate cast and setting so the audience will get a ‘slice of life’ look into these characters and the corporation,” she said. “It’s not just entertainment. It provokes you to think about aspects of your own life, and the audience needs to be prepared to go there. All four characters are dynamic and play a role that interferes with every other role.”
Under the direction of Amber Ward, a third-year performance and pedagogy master’s degree student from Lubbock, “Sex, Money and the Corporate Ladder” will be presented to the public tonight through 8 p.m. Saturday. The final performance will be 2 p.m. Sunday. Adult tickets are $10 and student tickets are $5.
“Every playwright wants to see their work come to life on the stage. This is a full production. It’s not just a stage reading,” said Donahue, smiling. “The designers and director have been working on this play for months. The cast’s been working on it for six weeks. They are very professional, and it’s been a wonderful experience here at Tech.”
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