Play follows girl trying to find sense in a crazy world

The Ohio University School of Theater is hosting its second production of the season with an imaginative performance of "œThe Wonderful World of Dissocia," which runs tonight through Saturday and Nov. 11-14 in Kantner Hall's Elizabeth Evans Baker Theater.

Written by Anthony Neilson, "œThe Wonderful World of Dissocia" shows what can happen when our lives lose control and we go looking for the time we lost among the chaos.

"The Wonderful World of Dissocia" follows Lisa Summerscales (played by Lisa Jones *) on her journey through the land of Dissocia to find her lost hour. Along the way she encounters an unpredictable group of inhabitants in the Dissocia ranging from comical to brutal, including insecurity guards (played by Michael Davis and Carmen Carfagna), a scapegoat (played by Jake Moushey), and a singing polar bear. However, Lisa soon finds that not everyone in Dissocia is helpful, and some will do anything to keep her from finding her hour. (* Correction: The original version of this story flip-flopped the names, saying Jones was the character rather than the actress.)

Elenna Mosoff, director of "The Wonderful World of Dissocia," said that choosing the production as part of her MFA thesis production was a "no brainer" because she did not believe anyone in Athens had ever seen anything like it. She said she was drawn to the play because she appreciated the theme of "seeking order in the chaos."

Though the show is filled with fantastic characters and an Alice in Wonderland-like plot, Mosoff said he thinks students will be able to relate to the overarching theme.

"The whole play is about seeking balance. I think as students it's a huge struggle coming to university, figuring out how to navigate being in school and staying healthy and social life and family," she said. "Learning how to balance yourself as an individual away from your family is a challenge."

Mosoff said that a huge amount of preparation went into the technical aspects of the production, which features a green screen that she collaborated on with OU's School of Film.

"We started the design process spring quarter of last year. We've sunk probably over 200 hours into the video work alone," Mosoff said. She added that scheduling film work and sound recordings in with rehearsals has been "a lot of work."

Besides finding time to fine-tune the extravagant technical features of the play, she said, one of the biggest challenges has been making sure the complex story stands out amid the technical aspects of the production. Yet, she said she believes they have achieved this.

"The Wonderful World of Dissocia" is divided into two distinct halves. Mosoff stated that the difficulty of the play is finding the contrast between act one and act two. The challenge is that the cast must "really sell Dissocia as a country. It has to be a country with real people who are a little off the wall."

The production opens tonight in the Baker Theater in Kantner Hall. It runs through Saturday and Nov. 11-14 with all performances beginning at 8 p.m.

"I hope people walk away thinking they never knew theater could be like this," Mosoff said. "I'm not sure there has been a show like this here."