Trade Trade Love

An Emergence of The Experience

10.20.18

by Kayla Dewees

Playwright Yi Hsuan Tseng

Directed by Katie Farrell

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Photographed by Kayla Dewees

The life of performance is a very mystical, profound, and misleading one. It is fact that the most important part of the performance is what the audience takes away from the experience, but many of those who view theatre, or even films for that matter, aren’t aware of the hard-earned layers that stack into the final passion product which gleams in shining lights. The production is usually seamless, emotionally engaging and when done correctly, reels you as an audience member into a different world. We leave the space thinking about these particular aspects as a whole, but not HOW these aspects necessarily got there to begin with.

Tori Gaines, Molly Bishop, and Ausette Anderies Photographed by Kayla Dewees

"Fate and Destiny derives in our love, regardless of your past."

-Katie Farrell

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“Trade Trade Love” is a story about love and how the essence of love carries through dimensions of purpose and existence. The process simply starts with rehearsals. Whether it begins with a table read or jumping right into the piece physically, is up to the director. These rehearsals for “Trade Trade Love” over the course of a month and a half added up to almost 200 hours of hard work and growth. Growth is an important highlight when it comes to theatre because there’s really no option but to illuminate and discover the magnificent things you can do, no matter what contribution you make. Not only is rehearsal a key element in forming an inexistent concept into a universe of possibility, but the people that join together to create it. 

Molly Bishop, Ausette Anderies, and Tori Gaines Photographed by Kayla Dewees

"By giving someone everything you are and everything you love, that can be your legacy."

-Katie Farrell

When experiencing a performance, we typically only see the actors, but what we don’t realize is everything that got the actors onto the stage. There’s the playwright, the gifted person who wrote the play, providing something for the actors to perform in the first place. The playwright of “Trade Trade Love,” Yi Hsuan Tseng, rewrote the play over the course of two years and still continues to do so. There’s the director, Katie Farrell, who influences a vision of the show to all who take part in it, and she particularly worked on this show for over year. There’s the stage manager and assistant stage manager who keep all things in check at all times. There’s the lighting designers, scenic designers, sound designers, media designers, costume designers, makeup designer, stagehands, and many others. Without all of these truly amazing people coming together, creating, and collaborating, the art and precision of theatre/performance wouldn’t carry its magic. Then we have the actors/cast who take in all these vital aspects of the entirety of the piece and give the story a pulse in which flows to the audience, who is also one of the most important elements of theatre itself. 

Sarah Tan getting her hair done for the show by the amazing stagehand Haylee Woodruff Photographed by Kayla Dewees

"Without incompletions, we can't complete each other."

-Ausette Anderies

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When it comes to a college or community performance, after the last show, the cast and crew traditionally take part in what is called “striking the set.” This is when the entire show/set is taken apart, recycled in storage or thrown away. Whether you’re in a film, on Broadway, in community theatre, college, or high school productions there will always be an end. And sometimes, when you’re losing your head in the midst of the blood, sweat, tears, and stress of the process, you never truly realize that there will be an end. After taking down the set is what declares the official “end.” And with this final moment of bittersweet solidarity, I recognize the space as its parts are reset to the very beginning and know that we all left a little piece of ourselves with it. 

Playwright: Yi Hsuan Tseng

Director: Katie Farrell

Choreographer: Rebekah Dawn

Scenic Designer: Tiana Torilhon

Assistant Scenic Designer: Robert Andrews

Costume Designer: Emily Hasty

Hair/Makeup Designer: Kesia Smith Torres

Lighting Designer: Megan James

Sound Designer: Dakota Erikson

Assistant Sound Designer: Neaco Fox

Media Designer: Muneera Batool 

Stage Manager: Dylan Prentis

Assistant Stage Manager: Lucy Primiano

Cast: Corey Reynolds, Ausette Anderies, Evan Welsh, Molly Bishop, Tori Gaines, Kayla Dewees, Diego Sutcliffe, Jordan Mattson, Sarah Tan