Dark tales: Murder, adultery the focus of 2 student-directed plays at UAA

Serial killers and adulterers are the subjects of two upcoming University of Alaska Anchorage theater department productions, which take on the task of redeeming the unredeemable.

The three or four major productions at UAA each year usually feature a student cast and crew working under a faculty director. In a twist, the two UAA shows opening in the next couple weeks are being produced and directed by senior theater majors as part of larger thesis projects.

Paitton Reid directs “Betrayal,” by Harold Pinter, a three-sided story of an affair in reverse chronological order. Taran Haynes directs Bryony Lavery’s play “Frozen,” not to be confused with the Disney musical or the 2013 film “The Frozen Ground,” based on the life of Alaska serial killer Robert Hansen. “Frozen” examines grief and forgiveness from the perspective of a mother who has lost a daughter, the serial killer who murdered the girl and a writer studying the killer’s crimes.

Reid said she first decided to pursue directing in her third semester at UAA and after taking directing courses. Tarran Haynes followed a similar path. Both students worked under the guidance of UAA theater professor Brian Cook, who also plays the role of the killer in “Frozen.” He said it’s the first time in his tenure that student-directed productions have been part of the mainstage theater season.

Reid and Haynes both said they were drawn to the complexity of the characters in the small casts called for in both shows.

“The characters (in ‘Betrayal’) seem more influential when it comes to storytelling, and then we add in the other elements and it becomes much bigger than it’s supposed to be,” Reid said.

Haynes added, “What I think is really interesting about a story like (‘Frozen’) ... is that people live this. There are real life Ronas, there are real life Ralphs, there are real-life Nancys … these are real, very relatable human people, and this situation is really extreme and that’s what gives it this sense of darkness, but people live in these real circumstances.”

Haynes said he didn’t want to take “Frozen” at face value. Told from multiple perspectives, the play uses terrible acts to confront the idea of forgiveness.

“(‘Frozen’) intersects grief and trauma and forgiveness and it asks the question of ‘how do we deal with this,’ ‘what happens under these extreme circumstances’ and asks this other question of ‘is forgiveness possible?’ ” Haynes said.

Both shows offer a layered and multifaceted look into some very human truths. “Even under the most terrible circumstances, forgiveness is the way in which you move forward, in fact the only way in which you can move forward,” Haynes said.

If you go:

“Betrayal” shows Friday-Sunday, April 19-21

“Frozen” shows Friday-Sunday, April 26-28

at UAA’s Harper Studio Theater

Tickets: $5-$10, purchase tickets at artsuaa.com