With a unique, innovative stage design on display, in the shape of a pool of water, the Theater and Performance Program at Georgia Southern University will make a splash tomorrow at the Black Box Theatre with their performance of Mary Zimmerman’s “Metamorphoses,” directed by Lisa Abbott.

Yes, you’ve heard correctly, a pool of water has been incorporated into their performance, mixing up the usual theater antics with something drastically different.

“As a theatrical event, which fits Metamorphoses more than a ‘play,’ it adds an element of magic in the production. The cast has been amazing – the process of building the show has been peppered with ‘wait till we add water,’ and once we did we discovered where we needed to make changes due to safety reasons, practical issues, etc.,” Abbott said.

Metamorphoses is a stylized play and a modern exploration of Greek myths, with stories emphasizing the theme of transformation.

“These stories look at people, at our most basic impulses and desires, and work to kind of explore and poke fun at them. They range from tragedy, to comedy, to romance, and back again,” Rebecca Frost, junior theater major, said.

“The text is so applicable to life that the actors have clearly seen into the stories and have been able to bring out the human emotion that goes with them,” Abbott said.

Members of the cast who’ve had no prior dance experience, literally and figuratively got their feet wet during rehearsals, in order to learn the physically demanding aspects of the play’s choreography, which was heavily embedded with dance movements.

“Over winter break I went to the gym every day, mainly working on cardio and core. Learning the dances was the most challenging part of this play for me considering I had never danced a day in my life before rehearsals began,” Casey Sowers, junior theater major, said.

“The choreography is a combination of ballet and modern and has been a real challenge to our dance chorus to learn. It forced them to stretch as dancers in a very positive manner. Then we added water and had to examine where that forced us to change things for the safety of the actors/dancers,” Abbott said.

Since the beginning of this semester, the cast have committed themselves to their rigorous training, meeting six days out of each week and having 30 minute workout sessions during rehearsals.

“The dancing has been my personal beast, both mentally and physically, this whole time. The best I could do before learning our choreography was try to get into shape, so I started doing yoga for an hour or two every day to make myself more flexible and as much cardio as I could stand to build up my endurance,” Frost said. “I’ve had to cross a lot of bridges internally, had to get over some of my own insecurities about doing it right and looking beautiful for my director, and learn to just feel my body in the moment.”

Cast members, like senior theater majors, Tsiambwom Akuchu and Chryssie Lewis expressed admiration and pride with Metamorphoses being their last Georgia Southern production.

“To end my school tenure with a bang, is my goal. Thus being a part of a show that requires me to push my limits, learn my talents and be comfortable to express them in front of an audience has made this experience memorable,” Lewis said.

“Not many productions try to pull something like this off and do it relatively well. I’m excited that this gets to be my last mainstage production at Southern,” Akuchu said.

With Metamorphoses debuting tomorrow at 7:30 p.m., the cast and crew are excited for audiences to witness the sweat, tears and hard work that they invested in this spring.

Frost said, “You have no idea how much effort has gone into producing this show. Honestly, I don’t think that I even have a full understanding of the amount of thought the design team has put into creating the world we get to play on. The pool alone has been a mind boggling endeavor for everyone, from actually filling it with water to making last minute changes to keep everyone involved safe, and it’s hard to believe the determination and creativity it’s taken to make this thing actually happen.”

WHEN, WHERE, & PRICE

The Center for Art & Theatre’s Black Box Theatre.

The show will run from March 4 to March 11.

Performances start at 7:30pm with Sunday matinees at 2:00pm.

Student and youth tickets are $5; Faculty, staff and community tickets are $10.