Solo shows a personal journey

It only takes one person to break down the barrier between a stage and an audience.

“Solo Takes On: 2,” a festival of three one-actor performances running through this weekend, shows the genre’s power to connect a crowd to a performer — a power which other dramatic works often lack.

The second year of the Department of Communications Studies’ festival kicked off Jan. 25 and will run through Sunday. Each of its three actors present a work created from their personal experiences and ideas.

“The festival is first of all looking at the art of the one-person show, but it’s also celebrating the way one can express with an audience issues of identity and culture,” said Joseph Megel, an artist in residence in the communications studies department and the coordinator for “Solo Takes On: 2.”

The festival’s return was inspired by last year’s successful performances and an enthusiasm among professionals and students to create and perform one-person pieces, Megel said.

This year’s collection features a diverse set of topics, male and female actors and both student and professional performers. But all three shows aim to capture an audience’s attention by asking it to join the person on stage in a personal, emotional journey.

Graduate student Gretchen Fox Klobucar’s “G(rape)” explores the role of repetition in dealing with traumatic memories such as sexual assault. Sean McKeithan’s “On Breathing in the Barrel” blends his observations on sexuality, southern culture and the masculinity of bourbon. And visiting artist Carlos Manuel tells the human story hidden behind the issue of illegal immigration in “La Vida Loca.”

Klobucar said the process of writing and memorizing her performance presented risks and challenges at every stage. Those same difficulties pushed her to keep going until the piece was ready to debut Tuesday.

“Being in a solo performance is its own beast,” she said. “You depend on the crowd in more ways than most traditional theater. There’s an interesting relationship between yourself, the stage and the audience.”

Klobucar said she first developed the idea for “G(rape)” in a class taught by Megel. McKeithan, who also took the class before graduating in 2009, said Megel helped him develop and direct “On Breathing in the Barrel.”

He spent the summer adding to the original script he made in class and rehearsing as often as he could.

“I would take a day off from work each week and would dedicate eight or nine hours to writing,” McKeithan said. “I would wake up first thing in the morning and get to work. I had to figure out how to structure the story from a bunch of different material I wanted to use.”

He said the rehearsal schedule intensified during the fall, and he and Megel even met in New York during winter break to rehearse in an apartment in Chelsea.

“The rehearsal process is exhausting,” McKeithan said. “A one-man show is like a marathon and a sprint. You have to hit it with a lot of energy and keep it up for a while.”

Megel and the two students involved in this year’s festival agree that the intimacy that develops between a solo performer and his or her audience sets the one-person show apart from other types of theater. Klobucar said she felt this relationship Tuesday night during her first sharing of “G(rape)” with a crowd.

“There was a two-directional energy flow,” she said.

“There were times when laughter would break the tension and remind me that people were watching this.”

Contact the Arts Editor at arts@dailytarheel.com.