Stressed? ‘Pizza Man’ provides relief

Spring break just a tad too far away? Boyfriend won’t return your phone calls? Midterms have you stressed? No better way to clear your head than by raping your pizza delivery man.

March 5 sees the Shafer Alliance Laboratory Theatre premiere of Darlene Craviotto’s “Pizza Man,” a play about coping with stress-perhaps not so effectively.

“Two women decide they’ve reached the ends of their ropes and in order to get back at the world, the closest thing they can do as close as being as aggressive as a guy is (to) rape,” said “Pizza Man” director and theatre performance major Gabrielle Marie Cauchon.

Preaching the mantra of, “Life sucks . make the most of it,” Cauchon said she has wanted to perform this play on a VCU stage since she presented it for a theatre department showcase.

“I really fell in love with the characters and the struggle that they are having and I like the way it’s presented,” Cauchon said.

While not all people choose to address their issue through such a deplorable act, according to Cauchon, some people simply fall short at dealing with their problems.

“Not everybody decides to rape a guy. It may be a little rash, but I know everybody has been in the same place these two girls have been,” Cauchon said.

According to Sarah Hildreth, who plays Julia Rogers, though the cast contains only three graduating theatre performance majors, the manageable size has enabled them to intimately digest the material.

“It wasn’t a big cast where we had to worry about the 15th person from the right making their entrance. The three of us knew – it was really tight – a good group,” Hildreth said.

Cast mate Ryan Asher, who plays Rogers’ roommate Alice Meyerlink, said while she usually plays the quirkier roles, Meyerlink provided a change of pace that she enjoyed. According to Asher, playing the na’ve, insecure character in such a small cast made it very easy for her to find her role.

“It became like a little family,” Asher said. “It made it so much easier to find the character because we were in such an intimate, comfortable place.”

This intimate, comfortable place Asher spoke of is what Cauchon views as a launch pad into presenting societal views effectively to an audience.

“I think theater is a mirror of society and these characters are very much mirrors of women who are very much trying to fill the void in their lives,” Cauchon said. “I think (Asher and Hildreth) did a very good job of bringing out the real characters and real people that are going through this s***.”

“Pizza Man” premieres Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Shafer Street Playhouse’s Newdick Theatre. The show continues March 6-7 at 7 p.m. Admission is free to the public.