By Stephanie Peters

The first installment of an on-going series chronicling the production of “Stop Kiss” by the NU Theatre Department.

On Thursday evening, Ryder Hall was nearly empty, except for the third floor — home to the Theater Department.

In a large, bare acting classroom with wood floors and full-length windows that peer out onto the building’s spiral staircase, junior theatre majors Stacy Payne and Carly Assael lay sprawled out in the center of the room, propped up on their elbows, carrying on what could have been a normal, everyday conversation.

It wasn’t until Anne Marie Chouinard, stage manager for the Theatre Department’s second production of the spring, “Stop Kiss,” alerted them they had missed a line that it became clear it wasn’t just two friends chatting.

Minutes later, “Stop Kiss” director Thomas Keating, a comfortably-dressed man in his 30s with dark hair, glasses and a slight Southern drawl, entered in time to catch the end of his actresses’ impromptu rehearsal and offer some advice.

“We’re totally on track,” Keating said. “We’re actually ahead of schedule.”

Full-speed ahead

Although Thursday night marked only a week since “Stop Kiss” went into rehearsals, the cast has already blocked the play’s 23 scenes, and the actors are beginning to rehearse their lines off-book, or without their scripts.

This is due largely to the play’s intimate cast, which comprises seven characters and short, fast-paced scenes that include three characters each at most.

“Stop Kiss” is the story of two 20-somethings, Callie and Sara. The play alternates between the past and the present, chronicling the events before and after a violent attack that leaves Sara hospitalized.

A typical “Stop Kiss” rehearsal is often limited to two or three actors a night or is divided into different call times, when all of the scenes involving those particular actors are rehearsed. Thursday night’s rehearsal was one of many limited to Payne and Assael, cast as Callie and Sara, respectively.

In a play that features 23 scenes, nearly half are conversations between the characters Callie and Sara, and Callie is involved in all but one of the play’s other scenes. It is only one of the ways in which “Stop Kiss” presents a unique challenge to its main actors, but it is something Payne began preparing for shortly after being cast.

“The casting happened way back when and then we had a month before we started rehearsals last week,” Payne said. “So for that full month [Assael] and I were going over lines and scenes. By the time we got here we were really good and set [on our lines], and now we’re just blocking sets.”

For both Payne and Assael, their roles in “Stop Kiss” are their largest yet. Assael appeared in Northeastern’s production of “The Vagina Monologues” the previous two years, as well as three other NU productions during her time here. However, the character of Callie is not only Payne’s first major role, but the first she has been cast in at Northeastern. Although she auditioned for both “Stop Kiss” and “Lower Depths,” Callie was the role she hoped to land.

“The first time I read the play I thought ‘OK,’ and I took it at that but I wasn’t overwhelmed by it,” Payne said. “But now that we’ve been going over the scenes and rehearsing, I just love it. I think you need to get more into it to understand exactly what is going on and begin to think, ‘wow, that’s a genius idea [for a play].'”

An unexpected direction

In his first directing role outside of his graduate school days at Columbia University, Keating chose a play that presents several hurdles. “Stop Kiss” is a subtle, emotion-driven play written with the unique format of converging timelines, chronicling the relationship between Callie and Sara before and after a life-changing event, but in alternating scenes. However, for all its difficulty, Keating isn’t fazed.

“I think at first read it comes off straightforward, but I think at times the emotion and the circumstances and the subject matter are difficult to get at. I identified with it in some ways when I first read it so I feel close to it, and it becomes easier,” Keating said of the play that was first introduced to him by students in the Acting I class he taught at Northeastern last year.

Although he joked with his actresses and stage manager throughout rehearsal Thursday night, Keating was clearly anxious, and with good reason. His wife was scheduled to give birth to their second child, a girl named Ella Victoria, Friday morning.

“Right now the play is stressful in that [I have a daughter about to be born] but otherwise I look forward to every rehearsal,” Keating said.

With rehearsals suspended until Monday to accommodate Keating, Thursday’s rehearsal was spent running through each scene between Callie and Sara.

As Payne and Assael moved from one scene to the next, Keating perched against a wood block, back against one of the many support columns in the room. According to his actresses, Keating didn’t tell them how to interpret their characters, but occasionally he will raise certain questions about their characters’ feelings or motivations.

Mid-scene Thursday night he stopped Payne.

“What does that mean?” Keating asked Payne.

“My line? ‘I know sometimes I swerve but lately I feel like there’s something worth winning,'” Payne said. “It means that Sara’s worth winning.”

“Right.”

By 7 p.m., the night’s schedule had been covered, and actresses, stage manager and director parted pleased with the night’s improvements. Although “Stop Kiss” is progressing, there is a lot left to accomplish with only one full week of rehearsals left before Spring Break.

“That will be the next new level when we finally get all the [props] in here that you have to play with,” Assael said. “But right now we’re just working on perfecting it and really getting into it, that’s the biggest part now.”