Creative and Performing Arts Department to present "No Exit"

Senior Charlie Roppolo directs play to be staged March 9-10
A student-led production of “No Exit” by Jean-Paul Sartre will be presented at 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, March 9-10, in the Black Box located in the Center for Performance and Technology located on the campus of LSMSA.

Charlie Roppolo, a senior from Denham Springs, chose to direct “No Exit” because during his junior year Jeff Thomakos, former director of theater at LSMSA, staged an absurdist play.

“Thomakos spent a while talking about the differences between absurdism and existentialism,” said Roppolo. “He said that ‘No Exit’ was an amazing representation of existentialism.

“Ever since then, I have been extremely interested in the play. I read it a few times and it just really clicked with me. It gives a good message to readers and audience members. The message being – actions have consequences and we make our own fate. I am really excited on how it is going to turn out.”

“No Exit” is a 1944 existentialist French play. It begins with three characters who find themselves waiting in a mysterious room. It is a depiction of the afterlife in which three deceased characters are punished by being locked into a room together for eternity. It is the source of Sartre’s especially famous and often misinterpreted quotation “Hell is other people,” a reference to Sartre’s ideas about the look and the perpetual ontological struggle of being caused to see oneself as an object from the view of another consciousness.

Members of the cast include Camren Hohn, a junior from Iowa – Joseph Garcin; Hannah Miller, a senior from Baton Rouge – Estelle Rigault; Elizabeth LaPonsie, a sophomore from Pollock – Inez Serrano; Christopher Comeaux, a junior from Covington – Valet; Edouard Ferrell, a senior from Natchitoches – dance crew; Abigail LeBlanc, a junior from Fordoche – dance crew; Samantha Wright, a senior from Crowley – dance crew; Gabrielle Blanchard, a senior from Houma – dance crew; Sean Lane, a senior from Hammond – dance crew; and Colby Alexander, a junior from Franklin – dance crew.

Technical crew members include Charlie Roppolo, a senior from Denham Springs – director; Ruby Kharod, a senior from Opelousas – stage manager; Casey Tonnies, a junior from Bossier City – assistant stage manager/sound designer; Caitlin Foster, a senior from LaPlace – technical director/light designer; Edouard Ferrell, a senior from Natchitoches – choreography/head costumer; Emma Millisor, a senior from Anacoco – assistant costumer; Autumn Downen, a senior from Choudrant – assistant costumer; and Kayla Kay, a junior from Lake Charles – props master.
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