U of A theater production shines spotlight on new degree program

The UA School of Theatre, Film & Television‘s new production features 14 actors playing 105 characters through seven sections, each with eight scenes over the span of one hour and 12 minutes.

None of the characters in Caryl Churchill’s “Love and Information” have names or descriptions; you never know their race or gender. And no character is recurring.

Scenes can be as short as 30 seconds or no longer than three minutes and Churchill gives no stage directions guiding any sense of time or place. Scenes can be reorganized, although the sections are set in stone.

Sounds kind of dizzying.

For University of Arizona Associate Professor Greg Pierotti, it sounds like the perfect directorial challenge.

And the perfect opportunity to introduce Tucson to the UA’s fledgling live and screen performance degree program.

“One of the reasons I wanted to do this play is because, apart from the fact that it’s challenging to direct, it also gives the director a lot of latitude in terms of the types of people that I can cast,” said Pierotti.

“You can cast any age, any gender, any race, any level of ability in acting training. It’s just a very, very freewheeling play in that way, which is a great opportunity for the Live and Screened Performance degree, where there’s so many different types of people who are engaging the theater degree in so many different ways.”

“Love and Information,” which runs through Dec. 7, is the first time TFTV will feature film and live theater on the same stage, although they tiptoed into the idea with the 2023 production of ”The Laramie Project.” That show featured live video feed in some parts.

“But this is taking it even a step further,” said Pierotti, who was part of the New York City developmental Tectonic Theater Project that created “The Laramie Project,” chronicling the heinous murder of Matthew Shepard, the 21-year-old gay Wyoming student killed in 1998.

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Pierotti said he got permission from Churchill to add the film element. Student teams that included actors, directors, editors and cinematographers filmed the scenes over two sessions Oct. 15 and 24.

One scene from each section has been made into a film that will be shown during the performance, explained Pierotti.

UATFTV started offering a bachelor’s degree in Live and Screened Performance in 2024, a year after the College of Fine Arts cut its Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program in musical theater. The school will graduate the last class of musical theater majors in the spring, although students can still minor in musical theater. TFTV also plans to continue programming musical theater productions in its subscription seasons. 

The move was part of a broader reboot of the school’s curriculum to offer students "integrated training in both live theater and filmed performance," school officials said. 

Pierotti said Churchill’s play explores the modern state of human connections amidst the ever-increasing onslaught of information delivered in soundbites. That made it the perfect vehicle for collaboration between TFTV’s film and theater disciplines, he said.

“One of the goals ... is to actually find these interdisciplinary connections between film, television and live theater,” he said, noting that this is the first time in a subscription season production that the school has fully incorporated film. “The play lends itself to this really well because there’s so many little scenes. It’s kind of just a stream of scenes.”

This is TFTV’s first show since three UA students, including TFTV senior Josiah Santos, 22, were killed Oct. 30 in a hit-and-run while crossing the street at East Second Street and North Euclid Avenue. Psychology and Spanish major Sophia Troetel, 21, and Katya Castillo-Mendoza, a 21-year-old business and finance major, also were killed.

TFTV is dedicating “Love and Information” to their memory and holding a food drive for the UA Campus Pantry at the request of Santos’ mother, Hope. Donations of cereal boxes, canned food, peanut butter, baking mix and other items can be left at bins in the lobby of Tornabene Theatre.

Campus Pantry offers free food for students, faculty and staff.

“Love and Information” is the second Churchill play to come to a Tucson stage this fall.

Rogue Theatre is mounting the playwright’s gender-bending feminist comedy through Sunday, Nov. 23, at its theater, 300 E. University Blvd. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22; and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets and details at theroguetheatre.com.