![\"\"](\"http:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Theatre-photo-by-Chris-Mercadante.jpg\" "\\"Theatre")
<\/a>Dr. Givings (Ahmad Atallah) is kissed by Mrs. Givings (Jillian Albert) in this scene from the UT production of \u201cIn the Next Room.\u201d<\/p><\/div>Performances will be at 7:30 p.m., except for Sunday matinees at 2 p.m., in the Center for Performing Arts Center Theatre.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the Next Room\u201d received Tony nominations in 2010 for Best Play, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play, and Best Costume Design of a Play.<\/p>\n
Theatre Lecturer Irene Alby, who is directing the UT production, said the meaning of the play is deeper than its title might suggest. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis play is about the way we label things, according to our subjective cultural context, in order to make them \u2018safe.\u2019 Once we change those labels \u2014 or they are changed for us \u2014 we are forced to either take responsibility for our actions or to run away from that responsibility,\u201d she said. \u201cHence, a vibrator is perfectly acceptable as long as it is used for medical reasons, but if we label the treatment as \u2018sexual,\u2019 it completely changes the way we perceive it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Set in the 1880s at the dawn of the age of electricity and based on the bizarre historical fact that doctors used vibrators to treat \u201chysterical\u201d women (and some men), the play centers on a physician and his wife and how his new therapy affects their household.<\/p>\n
In a seemingly perfect, well-to-do Victorian home, proper gentleman and scientist Dr. Givings has innocently invented an extraordinary new device \u2014 the vibrator \u2014 for treating \u201chysteria\u201d in women and, occasionally, in men. Adjacent to the doctor\u2019s laboratory, his young and energetic wife tries to tend to their newborn daughter \u2014 and wonders exactly what is going on in the next room. When a new \u201chysterical\u201d patient and her husband bring a wet nurse and their own complicated relationship into the physician\u2019s home, Dr. and Mrs. Givings must examine the nature of their own marriage and what it truly means to love someone.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of my goal has been to get across how humans have always tried to understand themselves better by negotiating the relationship between mind and body, sexuality and the soul, our sensual desires and our need for transcendence,\u201d Alby said. \u201cOver the centuries, different societies have found different answers to these questions. In fact, even concepts we take for granted, such as marriage, have been defined differently by different cultures throughout the ages. Through intermezzos created by a chorus of talented actors, we explore these issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
UT students featured in the production are Ahmad \u201cAJ\u201d Atallah as Dr. Givings, Jillian Albert as Catherine Givings, JoEllen Jacob as Sabrina Daldry, Chellsea Cutino as Annie, Dora Manu as Elizabeth and DJ Helmkamp as Mr. Daldry. Jeffrey Burden, a 2004 UT alumnus, plays Leo Irving. And members of the chorus are UT students Caribbea Danko-McGhee, Sean Koogan and Liz Thomas.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the Next Room\u201d will be the premiere UT production for Daniel Thobias, assistant professor of theatre and costume designer, who joined the department this semester.
\nEqually versatile in costume and set design, he has prepared Victorian costume renderings and a dynamic scenic model of a Victorian home with a doctor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
\u201cIrene Alby is a gifted director of farce and comedy. Her directing will be complemented by Daniel Thobias\u2019 outstanding costumes and set design,\u201d said James Hill, professor and chair of the Department of Theatre and Film, and the play\u2019s producer.<\/p>\n