Play by Rachel Axler
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Director | Kyle Stoffers
Lighting Design | Stuart Wilson
Costume Coordinator | Kodey Farlow
Sound Design | Brandon Reed
Pram Design | Brent Eickhoff
Properties Design | Krista Cloud
Production Manager | Lauren Volz
Stage Manager | Kelsey Reinhart
Assistant Director | Brent Eickhoff
Run Crew | John Banes, Maddie Deeken, Anthony Engle
Featuring | Jeff Pierpoint, Monica Ramirez, Jordan Rowe
Director’s Note
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”Parenthood is hard. Of course, I don’t know this firsthand, but from my experience with mothers and fathers, having had them myself, I can deduce that it is, indeed, hard. Not in the ways that one would generally think, though. Sure, there’s the whole no sleep thing for days on end, the cleaning up spit up, changing diapers, etc.; but there’s a psychological aspect to it as well and how a caring for a whole new, beautiful entity can effect the relationships of the people who existed in the world before it. Smudge examines what happens when two well-adjusted young adults bring a child into their lives. At its core, the play strikes at new parenthood’s effects on parents’ psyches, as it is unclear if their child loves them or truly responds to them. And what happens when the child loves one parent more than the other? Or is born with a deformity? Is it fair to hate your newborn child? Rachel Axler asks audiences to rethink their Technicolor views of parenthood and to realize that we are not all perfect and that it is simply important that we try, no matter how hard the task may seem.”
Spring 2013
Ball State University
