The theater department will be performing the play “Love, Loss and What I Wore” March 22 and March 23 at 7 p.m at Avila University’s Goppert Theater  

“The whole point of the play is that everyone who is female can relate in some way to the content of the show,” Arts Director Elizabeth Mulkey said. “It is about how being a female is multi-faceted and complicated.”

Instead of being a classical play with action and dialogue, the play is a mixture of monologues and vignettes, where each of the cast members comments on a common theme. This play was chosen to contrast with last year’s more classical play, “The Odd Couple,”  according to Mulkey.

“I’m very intentional about trying to alternate classics with more contemporary, so I try to balance that,” Mulkey said. “This show is very modern and very unique.”

To go along with the style of the play, the cast members don’t wear costumes and wear completely black outfits. Instead of there being a traditional set, senior Safa Khan drew sketches that hang on a clothesline on the back of the stage. As each of the characters tells their story, the stage is filled with drawings.

“I thought it would be really unique to add the clotheslines, what they call the vignettes to the set,” Mulkey said. “It is a neat way to have a visual of the clothes they’re remembering.”

In addition to the sketches she drew ahead of time, Khan also does three live drawings during the performances. Khan said she decided to participate in the performance after being a part of crew her sophomore year in the musical “Sister Act.” It also gave her an opportunity to work on her art during school, since she has not been able to take any art classes. To read more about Khan’s art, click here.

“I thought that since it is my senior year I might as well do some more art since I haven’t really taken any art classes and I really like art,” Khan said. “Since I don’t always do it, it’s fun to have an excuse to do art.”

The play centers on women’s experiences and specifically what the women were wearing during those experiences. It discusses issues from sexual assault to first bra stories. Since the play features an all-female cast, there was no need to invite actors from other schools to participate and could hopefully be relevant to the student body, according to cast member senior Tess Prusa.

“Every single woman has a different experience and a different reality of what it means to be a woman,” Prusa said. “I think the play brings a lot of different perspectives and ways of looking at things which allows you to look at it from a different point of view, even though we all have in common that we are women.”

The cast wrote two scenes to add to the play and took input from the student body to write another scene about school picture day. Mulkey said that this made the play more relatable to the students and hopefully would also encourage students to attend the play. During the intermission of each performance, audience members will also be invited to share their experiences with bathing suits that cast members will incorporate into a scene during the second act.

“I wanted to give a personal connection for people involved,” Mulkey said. “We’re an all-girl school, surely we can all relate to that, but I bet everybody has a unique story to share.”

Students can receive a free ticket to the play at this link, by using their school email as the coupon code.