Collegiate Times

Three guys are in a bar. Two of them have to convince the third guy he should go through with his wedding.

This writing prompt inspired master of fine arts in playwriting Alice Shen's piece, "The Conversation About the Keys."

Shen wrote the first act of the play in 72 hours and said it was the first time she wrote about her own life. The play draws influences from the post undergraduate experiences she has had.

"I call this the quarter-life crisis. The quarter-life crisis is when you're tired, but you're not sleepy. You're tired, but you don't want to go to sleep yet," Shen said. "Even though they are personal, I think they'll appeal to other people who are going through this quarter-life crisis."

"The Conversation About the Keys" is a companion play - it has two parts that can be performed in any order, together or separately. The first act, "Tim Without Thalia," features Tim, the lead male character, as he recounts the various stages of his relationship with Thalia.

Shen described act two, "Thalia With Someone Else," as an aftermath play of how Tim deals with his breakup with Thalia a year later and how he handles Thalia getting married to someone else.

Shen is not directing the play, but she has attended many of the rehearsals and is permitted to say whatever she would like to the actors. She said her presence is beneficial because she can clear up confusions the cast may have about her work. However, she is careful not to restrict the actors.

"A playwright wants to do things one way, but that's not conducive to the collaborative process," Shen said. "These actors that we're working with, they're so vivacious, and they take these words, and they become other things."

Freshman theatre arts major Alex Beard portrays Albert, one of the two friends of the lead male character in the play. He provides comic relief and said having the playwright in rehearsal has added depth to the process.

"I was worried it was going to be limiting, but she was really open to different ideas," Beard said of Shen.

Beard's character works closely with Rob Talbert, a master's student in creative writing, who portrays Greg, Tim's other friend.

"The best way to describe us: We are the douche bag friends," Beard said. "That's the way we are described over and over again - the way we come up in his monologues."

His fellow cast member, Talbert, agrees with his analysis but said their emphasized their familial relationship.

"It's a tough love kind of thing," Talbert said. "Whenever we slam him with stuff, it's not because we honestly want to hurt his feelings. We think we've got him figured out. I think we try to take on the older brother role."

Tim's friends are the reason why he meets Thalia at a bar after finding Thalia's keys.

"The reason why we force him to go talk to her, before any of this started, is because we have his back, and we have his back so much, we're going to pick him up and put him in front of a girl because we want him to score," Talbert said.

By the end of the first act, Tim and Thalia have broken up after a few years of dating. Shen said one of the major themes of the play deals with falling in and out of contact with people.

"How do you fall apart with people, with anybody, without any major thing happening? Do you just get bored with the person? Is it a natural growing apart?" Shen said. "You lose things in your life all the time. Whether it be friends or lovers or jobs, or even your idea of where you are in the world."

Another theme explored includes how marriage is viewed in a modern lens. Shen said fewer people are getting married, and more people are in long term, committed relationships. She questioned whether marriage means more than simply getting a piece of paper and going to a big party.

As a major aspect of the play is the quarter life crisis, Shen wanted to explore the idea of what life post college is all about.

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