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Why Godot?  Why here?  Why now?

A NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR:

            This week the Principles of Directing students pitched their choices of titles for their April One-Act productions.  In doing so, they were asked why their choice of title would be a benefit to the college and community; why it was a worthwhile production for this audience at this time.  In the interest of education, I turn the question on myself.  Why Waiting for Godot?  Why here? Why now?

            The answer, fittingly, has been slow to reveal itself.  Working on this production has stirred a myriad of emotion from the cast and crew.  Rehearsals were filled with laughter as we connected with the hilarity of the absurd words and actions of the characters.  After all, Nell, one of Beckett’s characters from Endgame, states “Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that.”  Perhaps this production would point up the humor in the human struggle to feel viable?

            After the laughter subsided, the cast and crew were left to face the bitter truths behind Beckett’s characters.  They watched as the characters questioned their faith, their hope and their humanity.  They struggled with the bitterness of the character’s gloom and despair of not truly knowing what the future will hold.  They connected with the metaphorical stumbling and flailing of the individual in the grand scope of time.  It is here that we found our answer. 

            What better location than a college campus for a production that highlights the very human feelings of bewilderment and anxiety of an often inexplicable universe?  What better location than a college campus for a production filled with characters that want so desperately to DO something, anything, but are not sure exactly what to do or how to go about it?  What better location than a college campus filled with hopeful students who are in the continuous struggle to determine who they are and what exactly they’re going to do with their time?

            I believe we concluded that it is this hope which draws us back, day after day, to our own struggle.  It is this hope that makes us viable.  It is for those who hope that we present Waiting for Godot.

                                                             - Janeve West
                                                                February 27, 2008

                                                        “That wasn’t such a bad little canter, now.  Was it?”