“The Strange Attractor” by Jesse Cramer
May 16-25; Act 3 Productions
Tickets: $10-$23 at the box office, 6285-R Roswell Road, Sandy Springs; 770-241-1905; www.act3productions.org.
As an undergraduate at Penn State, Jesse Cramer spent two years studying math. But it wasn’t the numbers and the logic of it that he found most appealing.
“I studied chaos theory, and thought it was great,” said Cramer, who lives in Marietta. “I was a math major for two years before I switched to English because I also loved writing, but I really wanted to use math to explain human interaction, and writing allowed me to explore those kinds of themes.”
Cramer recently finished writing his first full-length play that pulls elements from his two passions into one story. “The Strange Attractor” actually takes its title from a math term associated with chaos theory. But don’t be put off by the idea of math on stage: This is not a tale by-the-numbers, Cramer insists.
“It’s about two married couples who both experience a tragedy and who come together after not having seen each other for eight years,” he explained. “They have dinner and wind up entangled in each other’s lives. It’s very much about control, what lengths we go to control our circumstances and the world around us.”
It’s also not a play about grief, although Cramer reveals that the shared tragedy involves two children’s deaths. “Clearly, grief is not a topic you can’t avoid, but the play is not about exploring that. It’s also funny; there are many moments of levity and quite a lot of comedy.”
Cramer also assures that the play has no root in personal experience. At 25, his own encounters with grief have been few. After graduating three years ago, he decided to move to Atlanta without a plan. But he’d worked in improv and theater in college, and a quick online search showed that Atlanta was a land of opportunity.
“I literally had nothing to go on; I just hopped in my car and came down here,” he said. “I had visited a few times and liked Atlanta, so I decided to start from scratch in a new city.”
The first thing Cramer did was to knock on the doors of the now-defunct Relapse Theatre and signed up for a class. Within a few weeks, he was working as a stage manager. Since then, he’s been part of the crew and a producer’s assistant for feature films being shot in the metro area.
“I hit the ground running,” said Cramer with a grin. “I’ve been busy.”
Much of the last year has been devoted to getting “Attractor” onto the stage. Instead of working alone with a computer, Cramer opted to have some improv friends work through the scenes to create the storyline.
“I had the idea while I was in college, but it got going about a year ago,” he said. “I met with the other actors for four weeks in a row and gave them ideas and a character to work with. We developed it as we went along. Then I took the ideas and wrote the script.”
Cramer’s work makes its professional debut May 16 and runs through May 25 at Act 3 Productions in Sandy Springs. Cramer will be behind the scenes as producer as well as playwright.
“This is really different for Act 3 - they do not do small dramas,” said Cramer “With just four
people, it’s probably the smallest thing they’ve ever done. I’m very happy they took a chance on me.”
Every other Wednesday, H.M. Cauley brings you positive stories from our community. To suggest a story idea, e-mail hm_cauley@yahoo.com.
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