Mercedes Blankenship

Heartstring Landscape was a piece about two pairs of friends, sitting at tables at an Italian restaurant. At both tables, Friend 1 confessed that they had romantic feelings for Friend 2. At Table A, those feelings were reciprocated; at Table B, they were not. In the middle of each table was a call bell — at any point, any of the characters could ding the bell and it would rewind the conversation, allowing them to change the last thing that was said. But regardless of the bell, the outcome of the conversation was always the same.

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This piece had a number of different inspirations — chief among them were the plays Sure Thing by David Ives and Constellations by Nick Payne, the GenEd class I had taken about multiverse theories during junior year, and several of my own personal romantic failures. The script itself was created in collaboration with 4 of my classmates. The process of putting this together and performing it was equal parts cathartic and terrifying; I enjoyed it, but I also hated it. I was pleasantly surprised, though, by several people (both friends and strangers) who said it was one of their favorite pieces in the production. I take it as a lesson in the value of outside perspectives, and how we tend to be our own worst critics.

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As a bonus: I was interviewed for an article about this production in The Eagle (AU's student newspaper), which can be found here: Theater students ponder the universe in capstone performance “Eight Minutes”