By KAYLEE HARRIS
Staff Reporter
The Northwestern Theatre Program will present a play written and directed by Jordan Lyles.
“Blow Me Up Jesus”, will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 19 and 20 and 2 p.m. Feb. 21 in Herod Hall auditorium. Doors open to the public 30 minutes before each performance. Admission is $7 for the general public, $5 for faculty and staff and $3 for students with a student I.D.
“Blow Me Up Jesus” is about a man whose life is stuck in a constant cycle of boozing and womanizing, punctuated by periods of anti-socialness. When his brother and his niece come to live with him after his brother’s wife leaves him, his life is drastically changed and tensions flair. The play focuses on one question: Will this man continue on this road of self-destruction. or can he repair years of damage with his family?
Lyles, a Sapulpa senior, will direct her original play for her senior showcase.
“Comic book fans will have a lot to look forward to,” Lyles said. The main character is a comic book junkie, and much of his extensive comic book collection will come from the director, Lyles.
The set also is unique. Lyles and her team have extended the stage 6 feet closer to the audience, and a complex-looking apartment scene has been crafted on stage. “All my actors and the people working on the crew for my show have put a lot of love into this show, and it is turning out better than I had envisioned it,” Lyles said.
And that’s not the only personal touch she has given this play. Among the cast is her 11-year-old sister, Madelyn DeGraffenreid. It would seem that Madelyn shares Lyles’ talent and love for the theatre; even though she is so young, she has managed to impress with skill and personality, said Lyles. As for how the girl feels about sharing in her sister’s triumph, “She’s over the moon!” says Lyles. Also among the cast are two Northwestern faculty members, mass communications instructor Tom Pantera, and assistant professor of psychology Karen Linstrum.
Lyles said she knew when she was a freshman here at Northwestern that she wanted to write her own play for her senior showcase. “Since my freshman year, I’ve always been a writer,” she said. “I thought it would be really interesting to write a play, because I’d never done that before.” After years of brainstorming and writing exercises, a piece caught her eye. It looked like a monologue, and from there, the story took shape, said Lyles. She began writing this play the summer of her junior year, but Lyles said she didn’t really sit down and write it until this past summer.
After she graduates, Lyles hopes to take the many skills she has learned from the Northwestern Theater Program to Tulsa, where there is a strong theatre community. Her broad knowledge of every aspect of theatre will allow her to have a diverse career. “I love it all,” Lyles said, “if you asked me to specialize, I couldn’t.”
For more information on the Northwestern Theatre Program, contact Kimberly Weast, professor of theatre arts, at kkweast@nwosu.edu or 580-327-8462.