The University Of Lethbridge explores love, sex, technology and the future in four short plays  directed by four different directors including by Gail Hanrahan who will be retiring soon.

 TomorrowLove runs March 14-18

“This production will be my last show at the University of Lethbridge as a faculty member before my retirement,” said Hanrahan in a press release.

 “I’m really enjoying this process where our emerging directors are leading the processes more. And certainly, this entire production is about the students,” she continued.

“TomorrowLove” is a selection of four short plays written by Rosamund Small about love, sex, technology and the future. Audiences are immersed in four possible futures where technology and humans connect and collide.
”When director and Drama Department faculty member Gail Hanrahan began reading the collection of plays contained within TomorrowLove, she was drawn to the possibilities and challenges that putting on the production would present.

“I thought this would be very interesting for our students because each play has just two characters. The actors would be challenged to develop their characters on a much deeper level,” Hanrahan said. 

“The playwright created characters she said could be any gender, which would really open up possibilities and opportunities for our directors and actors to explore each script.” 

Hanrahan selected four plays from the collection, choosing to direct “Evidence”, and invited student and alumni directors to direct the other three short plays. 

“It was really important to me to work with these emerging directors, who have already been doing excellent work in our theatre community,” says Hanrahan.
Alumni Anastasia Siceac (BFA ’20), director of “Reality Hurts”, along with Jordyn Nixon (BFA ’21), director of “Eight Legs Two Hearts” return to their ULethbridge theatre roots. Current student, Kacie Hall, director of “Perfect” and intimacy director of “Evidence” caps off her student experience directing a Mainstage show before she graduates this spring. 

“ Tomorrowlove is actually a bigger collection of plays than what we’re doing. They’re all by Rosamund Small. They all focus on the idea of human relationships and the impact of technology. So we’re looking at the impacts of technology that has on on human connection  and on human nature. So the ones we picked delve primarily on romantic relationships. Though we do have one about a set of strangers who are brought together by technology,” said  Hall  in provided footage. She directs the third play in the series “ Perfect” 

“So I’ve really been thoroughly enjoying it just because it’s really nice to think that connection doesn’t have to change just  because technology does. That humans a lot of times will stay the same. And there’s things  that I relate to  with every single one of these characters because of that,” Hall continued.

“I’ve been truly fortunate to have really wonderful actors and I’ve told them time and time again that they’ve  really bring this story to life. And this story is really near and dear to my heart. it’s very special. I won’t give too much away, but there’s really nice representation in it that doesn’t often get to be seen in media in general let alone live performance. And my actors have done such a fantastic job in taking so much care and consideration and compassion with this story. I’m just really excited for people to seem them bring these characters to life,” she said. 

“I’m the director of  one of the four pieces.Perfect, which is the third one in the show. So that whole shebang is all down to me. And I’m the intimacy director of the fourth one, Evidence, which is directed by Gail Hanrahan. My job is to go in and essentially choreograph any moments of intimacy between thew actors and provide them with lots of consent work and boundary work and make sure  that they’re safe and know what they’re doing and just to make it look good,” said  Hall.

Actor Logan  Hockley, who plays Jordan in Evidence is enjoying the exploration of technology in the play.

“Tomorrow Love as a whole is a collection of plays written by the same person about the future relationships whether it’s intimate relationships or professional or anything else . But they’re all two handers which makes them really interesting. But they‘re all stories that apply to modern day life, but  they also bring a piece of technology from the future into it and asks the question of what that will do because some of those future things aren’t really that far off. Some of them are kind of real  today. Which gives it a whole new meaning to that,” he said.

“ It’s been really interesting because we have four different directors and four different designers and have a very split up cast but  at the same time we could also rehearse together working on the bits that we are in together. So it’s been really interesting that we go our separate ways and then come back in to make sure we‘re all on the same page and we’ve influenced each other’s pieces. So it’s been really cool,” he continued.

“ I think the coolest thing you can look forward to is you can see four shows for the price of one with even bonus content in between. But I think all the technical aspects are something to really come to see. There’s black light that’s being used and rotating that’s being used. There’s a lot of stuff you aren”t going to be able to see too often a because it doesn’t get used used too often  but it fits the show really nice,” he said.

The production allowed collaboration with emerging artists and long-time colleagues and friends including sound designer Kelly Roberts. 

Julia Wasilewski, designer, and Drama Department faculty member led a cohort of  Production Design students  to create the settings for each of the shows of TomorrowLove. 

“It’s been so exciting to be working collaboratively with students, alumni, and faculty to put this production together,” Wasilewski said in a press release.

“The student designers have created these sterile, shiny environments that are unique but also cohesive and clean. They are making bold design choices, and we are able to help them bring their ideas to the stage.” 

Tickets for TomorrowLove are available at the University Box Office (Level 6, University Centre for the Arts) or by phone 403-329-2616. 

Tickets are $18 regular, $13 alumni and senior, $12 students. University of Lethbridge students are eligible for one complimentary ticket for TomorrowLove at the Box Office with their student ID. Seating is limited. 

— By Richard Amery, L.A. beat Editor