Sharon Benge, director of the Texas Woman’s University theater program, had the simplest of answers when asked why she decided to lead her students through another world premiere.

DRC/Lucinda Breeding

Texas Woman’s University graduate student Mary Beth Stickle was among theater students playing with costumes and props in work for the world premiere of The Half Moon Couple.

View larger More photos Photo store

“It’s a lot of fun,” Benge said.

An ensemble of about 18 students will travel to Dublin, Ireland, in December and debut The Half Moon Couple by Irish playwright Martin Maguire. Patrick Sutton, director of the Gaiety School of Acting, will direct.

Sutton said he jumped at the chance to return to Denton for a second world premiere. He first visited several years ago to produce The Long March, also written by Maguire.

“Getting to build a show around the talent — and getting to do it here and Dublin and then in New York — it was amazing,” Sutton said. “It was like squaring the circle. How could you not do it again? But, really, none of this would be possible without the tremendous support for the arts [at TWU]. And I mean from the provost down to the students.”

The play is inspired by the art of modernist painter Marc Chagall — specifically the painting Birthday. Maguire won’t jot a single line of dialogue until Sutton hands over thousands of pictures and hours of video shot during a weeklong workshop.

“The great risk of making great art is going into the unknown and seeing what happens,” Sutton said. “What we’re doing here is exploring a million and one starting points. I’m not so concerned with how this story ends. We know something happened to the half-moon couple, but we don’t know what it was. I want to know how it starts. And that’s what the students are doing.”

Martin Maguire

Students spent about 20 hours in the Redbud Theatre Complex last week, trying to respond to the Irish director as if by reflex. They danced, posed and created stage pictures full of drama and energy but often without speaking. Sutton said he was looking for images that would sock him in the gut.

“A really good image will haunt you. I am unsettling people,” Sutton said. “I’m not unsettling them for the sake of unsettling them, but to get them to a new idea.”

TWU professor Rhonda Gorman is the costume designer for the project. Like the students, she’s used to starting rehearsals knowing which actor is playing which role and what her design goals will be.

“I’m classically trained, and it’s been hard to do this because, with my research approach, I usually know what I’m going to do at this point,” Gorman said. “It’s hard to be doing it this way, not having that control, but it’s funny to look at what the students are doing with these costumes we pulled from our shop. I’m already seeing a color palette come out of it.

“I wouldn’t want to work this way every time, but I wouldn’t mind trying it a few more times.”

Students said they enjoyed the first week of work.

“It’s kind of hard to pinpoint what we’re learning, because we’re learning how to be an ensemble,” said Cassie Henderson, an undergraduate student in the cast. “You’re learning how to work with the people in the room.”

Gerald Young, a TWU senior, said Sutton’s style is noticeably different.

“How do I say this? Patrick is really intense. In Europe, they expect a certain …,” Young said, quickly slapping the back of one hand with the other. “It’s very creative and very organic. And Patrick wants you to go with it. He says, ‘Standby, GO!’ And he means it.”

Patrick Sutton

Crystal M. Bratton, a graduate student in the cast, said she wasn’t expecting to stay energized throughout the rehearsals.

“I thought it would get tedious at some point, but the rehearsals have flown by,” she said. “Usually when you rehearse, you do the same thing over and over and over, and you start just going through the motions. Not on this project. I’m amazed at how incredibly well people are doing.”

Benge said she can see the students making connections — mentally and relationally.

“I’m seeing collaborative work. I’m seeing collaboration. The other night in rehearsal, they each had to contribute three lines, one after the other. I could see that they were really listening to one another and making their own contributions,” she said.

The company will present the U.S. premiere of the play Feb. 18 at the Redbud Theatre Complex on the TWU campus.

“This is the best part to me — the starting points,” Sutton said. “It’s not up to me to figure out where this will all lead. That’s the writer’s problem. That’s the playwright’s job.”

LUCINDA BREEDING can be reached at 940-566-6877. Her e-mail address is cbreeding@dentonrc.com.