Student's MFA thesis features clown, ladder

MFA candidate Stephanie Shade has someone she wants you to meet. It's a ladder. In "CHATTER vs. LADDER (…in a pitter-patter matter…)," her thesis performance for the theater department's Master of Fine Arts program, Shade explores the emotions of fear and desire through a combination of movement, voice and aerial theater. Beginning Thursday and running though Saturday, Shade will perform the 45-minute piece herself, alone on stage but for a ladder - which is sort of a character itself, Shade explained. "It's both a prop and a character, so I interact with it in a lot of different ways," she said. "It's hard to explain. You kinda have to see it to be able to comprehend it." The performance, written by Shade and directed by Michael Todd, centers on a clown named Agnes who interacts with a ladder that "awakens her to some desire," Shade said. Persistent voices in Agnes' head make her feel like everything she does is wrong, representing her inner doubts and fears - the titular "chatter." Agnes needs to battle her conflicting feelings of desire and fear to find her own way, according to Shade. Previously, the title for the performance was "Clown With Ladder (A Still Life)." "'Clown' in theater is a term used for what we would just call 'comedian,'" Shade said, "like Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Steve Martin, Carol Burnett. It's not a P.T. Barnum kind of clown." Although Shade says the comedy is sort of in "cartoonland" and gets "Doctor Seussy" in places, experimenting with language and rhyme - as evidenced by the pun-like title - the show has explicit content and is not for children. "It's some combination of clown and cartoon and adult subject," she said. As an experienced actor and singer, Shade wanted to work on design and writing, using it to create her own edgy and avant-garde show for her thesis. She decided to tackle the subjects of fear and desire in a comedic fashion. "Every comedian has a dark side, and you get comedy out of making fun of things that actually did hurt at the time," Shade said. "I like dealing with things that feel like 'issues,' but not in a serious way, so it's not heavy but lighthearted, and at the same time very real." "CHATTER" evolved out of her investigations into these emotions, starting with her own memories of childhood and growing up. "Anybody who's been through any adolescent angst could relate to this show," Shade said. Shade says she has always had a tendency to have fun doing slightly risky things she probably shouldn't be doing, starting with climbing on top of the refrigerator at the tender age of 2. The ladder in "CHATTER" became representative of doing something fun and a bit dangerous. Incorporating a ladder into her performance was an easy choice for Shade. After taking a class from aerial theater artist Maura Neimanis, Shade became enamored with the concept of aerial performance. "Working in the air off the ground was completely fascinating to me," Shade said. "You're using movement that communicates emotions, the soul of the character…So this ladder started to have meaning to me." Though Shade isn't one to try to sell things, she encourages people to come out and see her thesis performance. "You might have fun, you might think something you've never thought before," Shade said. "Hopefully it's going to be something a little bit bizarre, a little bit different, and a little bit fun." Shade performs her MFA theater thesis performance "CHATTER vs. LADDER (…in a pitter-patter matter…)," directed by Michael Todd, at the Center for the Arts, Dreyer MFA Group Studio (Room 3059), Thursday, Feb. 1 through Saturday, Feb. 3 at 8 p.m. Admission is free.

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