Passage by Christopher Chen

Performed in the Margo Jones Theatre as part of SMU Theatre’s Rep Season 2024

Director’s Note: Directing Passage was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life. I don’t think I really understood the way a human being’s mind worked until I read this play. And then read it again. And then read it 10 more times. I was first drawn to Passage because it offers a unique theatrical experience through its flexibility in gender and race-based casting. This enables infinite combinations, all of which explore different societal structures, and each night the audience is immersed in just one of these combinations. While many might refer to this play as an “adaptation” of E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India, I would suggest that Chen uses Forster’s novel as a prompt to delve deeper into contemporary issues. What does it mean to be oppressed? What does an oppressor look like? By stripping away the names of these characters to letters of the alphabet, Chen removes whatever biases we might have as to how these characters should appear and gives us the freedom to see this story simply through the lens of the colonizer versus the colonized. The universality of these issues lies in Chen’s investigation of the responsibilities we all bear in either dismantling or upholding social paradigms built into our daily lives. Furthermore, Passage is not a culmination of arguments nor a conclusion to the injustice that we see happening around us all the time. Rather, it serves as a starting point for an open-ended discussion. So…you know. Discuss!

Blame It On the Burnt Chapati by Vinita Dixit

Performed in the Kathy Bates Theatre as part of SMU Student Theatre’s Spring Season 2023