USD Theatre Department puts on spooky, funny show

When the lights finally hit the stage for the University of South Dakota’s production, “Dead Man’s Cell Phone,” the audience should expect a “humorous, awkward journey full of life and love,” according to student director Callie Hisek.

Beginning Oct. 31 at 7 p.m., Nov. 1-3 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 4 at 2 p.m., students will take on the characters of the play and wrap audience members into a surrealist fantasy in the Warren M. Lee Center for the Fine Arts.

The show, written by Sarah Ruhl, opens in a café and Jean, played by senior Brooke Grassby, is seen sitting by herself while a man’s phone keeps ringing at a nearby table. Jean ventures over only to realize the man, played by senior Brian Muldoon, is dead. Feeling some obligation to the dead man and to his family, Jean goes on a journey immortalizing the dead man, Gordon Gottlieb, through his cell phone. She becomes enveloped in the life and lies that Gordon led in this satirical comedy, and by the play’s end, audience members will have been on that journey, from phone call to phone call, with her.

Hisek said as a director, she really wanted to create a world where the characters embellished life.

“When I first read the play I wasn’t really sure about it,” she said. “I kept reading it and the humor just started coming, and things just became entertaining. I was really intrigued by the language and the stillness that are felt. We explore those possibilities a lot.”

Hisek also said the cast took the play in very interesting directions.

“They’ve created moments that I didn’t even think about,” she said.

Supporting actors and actresses include senior Lizzy Wetering, who plays Mrs. Gottlieb—the elegant, pampered mother of Gordon and Dwight Gottlieb; sophomore Caleb Olson as Dwight Gottlieb—the brother of Gordon and a loveable nerd; senior Jamie Fields as Hermia Gottlieb—the highly sexual widow of Gordon; and the multiple-personalities of the Stranger and Other Woman of Gordon Gottlieb is played by junior Emily Dorsett.

“I truly hope that when the audience comes to see this, they can enjoy themselves and laugh at the absurd situation, but still walk away seeing the humanity of these characters, and walk away with a connection to the characters, and seeing themselves in them,” Hisek said.

“I’m excited to just bring the audience into our world that we’ve created and immerse them in the story that we have,” cast member Fields said.

Tickets will be available, starting Wednesday, Oct. 24, from noon-5 p.m. every weekday. Tickets are also available online at USD’s Theatre Department website.