USM Theatre to Debut ALL IN THE TIMING at Tony Shalhoub Theater in February

The USM Department of Theatre will present its first production in the newly-renovated Tony Shalhoub Black Box Theater, All in the TIming, Six One-Act Plays. Thanks to a generous donation from award-winning actor and USM Theatre alum, Tony Shalhoub, ‘77, the department was able to redesign an under-utilized space in Russell Hall (USM Gorham campus) with new lighting and sound equipment, risers, and chairs. The theater will be used to produce smaller shows and student-directed work. 

The witty and absurd All in the Timing, Six One-Act Plays, written by David Ives and directed by local theatre artist Jared Mongeau, is the perfect inaugural production for this intimate, 40-seat theater space. Performed by USM Theatre students, the fast-paced and hilarious shorts explore the questions of what it is to be human and the relationships we have with each other on this strange journey of life. 

Winner of the John Gassner Playwriting Award, the critically-acclaimed comedy explores big questions without taking itself too seriously. Director Jared Mongeau says that despite the show's existential nature, its themes are universal, “While all of the short plays are in a heightened and extremely stylized world, the seeds at the heart of each of the pieces are quite simple and play with issues we have all experienced and can relate to.” 

He says that while the show's style may be new for some theatre students, treating it as a puzzle to be deciphered, untangled, and turned into something that exists in a three-dimentional world keeps the process grounded. ”Given that one of the pieces [Universal Language] is almost completely in a made-up language, I would say it does present some unique challenges! But all these pieces explore things we feel, experience, or interact with every day.” He hopes audiences, in turn, will leave “... with a new curiosity about how they view the world and how they interact with it, and with grace toward themselves and others.”