Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture

Department of Drama Presents ‘Laura and the Sea’

Tuesday, October 25, 2016, By News Staff
Share

A valuable attribute of theater is its ability to tackle difficult material in surprising and even entertaining ways. Artists, playwrights, directors and actors, as artists, must be willing to reflect life as it is—good and bad—while simultaneously satisfying the need to hold an audience’s attention. The never-before-produced play “Laura and the Sea,” which begins performances in the Department of Drama’s Storch Theatre on Nov. 4, is a prime example.

"Laura and the Sea" posterWritten by Kate Tarker and directed by Department of Drama faculty member Katherine McGerr, “Laura and the Sea” concerns the employees of a small contemporary travel agency and an unsettling event that occurs on a company outing. Throughout, the characters grapple with questions of isolation, mourning and the difficulty of establishing authentic human connections in the digital age.

“The force that propels the play is the struggle to connect in a world that is disconnected,” McGerr explains. “The characters feel deeply but are in an environment where they can’t express what they feel. They are closed off.” At once, they experience the petty and comic ridiculousness of day-to-day living, while struggling with the loss of a respected colleague. The comedy and the pain co-exist, as in the plays of Anton Chekhov and as in life.

“Laura and the Sea” also attempts “to explore how we put the digitized world on stage,” McGerr says. “How, with live performance tools, can we represent that space in which we live so much of our lives?”

To address this question, Tarker envisions a reality that embraces three simultaneously represented and specific locales: the office of the travel agency, a pleasure boat on the water near New York City and a blog dedicated as a memorial to the title character, Laura, whose suicide is the play’s catalytic event and a subject worthy of serious consideration.

“I think it’s always important to remember that as comedic as it is, this play’s core is about the loss of a life to a disease,” McGerr explains. “I think it’s always useful to continue to make [suicide] a topic of conversation, and not one that we gloss over, but rather have a vocabulary of talking about that in our lives is really important.”

The play’s topics of depression and suicide, though sometimes presented in a humorous way, are incredibly serious and affect many people, McGerr says.

Tarker has been working on the play since her days as a graduate student at the Yale School of Drama. Subsequently, she has had opportunities to develop it at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, Salt Lake Acting Company’s Playwrights Lab and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. The Department of Drama’s production, however, represents the first time “Laura and the Sea” will be fully staged for an audience.

Tarker attended Reed College as an undergraduate and Yale School of Drama as a graduate student. In addition to “Laura and the Sea” she has written “THUNDERBODIES” and “An Almanac of Farmers and Lovers in Mexico.” Her works have been nominated for the Arnold Weissberger Award, Kilroys List and the Princess Grace Award. She currently lives in Brooklyn.

“Laura and the Sea” runs Nov. 4-13; opening night is Saturday, Nov. 5. Tickets may be purchased at the Syracuse Stage Box Office from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. or by telephone at 315.443.3275 or at www.SyracuseStage.org/su-drama.php.

  • Author

News Staff

  • Recent
  • Student’s Mobile Upcycled Clothing Business Turns Trash Into Treasures
    Friday, August 22, 2025, By Diane Stirling
  • Q&A for “Will Work for Food,” a new book exploring labor and the food chain
    Friday, August 22, 2025, By Ellen Mbuqe
  • Chaz Barracks Fuses Art, Scholarship and Community in Summer Residency
    Thursday, August 21, 2025, By News Staff
  • Welcome Week 2025: What You Need to Know
    Tuesday, August 19, 2025, By Kathleen Haley
  • How Otto the Orange Spent Their Summer Vacation (Video)
    Tuesday, August 19, 2025, By News Staff

More In Arts & Culture

Syracuse Stage Announces Auditions for 2025-26 Theatre for the Very Young Production ‘Tiny Martians, Big Emotions’

Syracuse Stage is seeking non-equity actors to audition for the Theatre for the Very Young production of “Tiny Martians, Big Emotions,” conceived and directed by Kate Laissle. The show is a touring educational program as part of the company’s 2025-26…

Art Museum Launches Fall 2025 Season With Dynamic, Interdisciplinary Exhibitions

The Syracuse University Art Museum kicks off its fall season on Aug. 26 with four new exhibitions that reflect the museum’s mission to foster diverse and inclusive perspectives and unite students across disciplines with the local and global community. From…

How Artists Are Embracing Artificial Intelligence to Create Works of Art

Artists have always embraced new technologies to push the boundaries of their creations—balancing imagination and authenticity with innovation. Artificial intelligence (AI) is no different, says Rebecca Xu, professor of computer art and animation in the Department of Film and Media…

Art Museum Faculty Fellows Leverage Collections to Enhance Teaching

Four faculty members have been named Syracuse University Art Museum Faculty Fellows for the 2025-26 academic year. The fellows program, now in its fourth year, supports innovative curriculum development and the fuller integration of the museum’s collection in University instruction….

Syracuse Stage Announces Cast and Production Team of Musical ‘The Hello Girls’

Syracuse Stage announced an exciting new cast and creative team for “The Hello Girls,” with music and lyrics by Peter Mills and book by Peter Mills and Cara Reichel. Featuring fresh orchestrations, new staging and reworked material, this new production…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.