Katalin Vecsey, senior lecturer in theater, directs “Closer.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College presents Patrick Marber’s Closer, a British play described by New York Magazine as “a sad, savvy, often funny play that casts a steely, unblinking gaze at the world of relationships,” in performances at 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday, March 27-29, in Gannett Theater, Pettigrew Hall, 305 College St.

Admission is free. For more information, please call 207-786-6161.

The director is Kati Vecsey, senior lecturer in the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ theater department. Closer is performed by a rotating cast of 12 students from Vecsey’s Advanced Voice and Speech class. While four students perform, the other eight manage the backstage work, props and lighting.

Premiered in 1997 and perhaps best-known from its 2004 film adaptation, starring Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Clive Owen and Natalie Portman, Closer is set in London and examines human relationships through a raw yet humorous portrayal of a love quadrangle. The play focuses on the complex relationships among four lovers — Dan, Larry, Anna and Alice — as they swap partners over a period of years.

Written during a period in British drama referred to as “in yer face” theater, the play features blunt, explicit language.

As a director, Vecsey says, “I’m interested in the human psyche and personal relationships because that is what life is about. It’s about how we relate to people.”

Vecsey, who is the vocal director for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ theater department productions, picked the play as an exercise for the voice and speech class because the key to the characters lies in the language. She notes how every character has a one-on-one scene with every other character, thereby revealing personalities in depth.

“Each character has his or her own personal background, own demeanor and disposition, own personal rhythm,” says Lydia O’Brien, a senior from Washington, D.C., who is one of the three actors playing Anna. “These are factors that influence voice in unexpected ways.

“During read-throughs, we’ve talked with Kati a lot about characterization and what our characters reveal about themselves through certain lines, and this comes out even more when we work on our character biographies out of class. We think about how our characters’ personal habits and quirks affect voice.”

Here are the three casts:

• Performing on Friday, March 27, are four sophomores: Alex Eaton of Lake Oswego, Ore., as Dan; Brennen Malone of Philadelphia as Larry; Christina Felonis of Athens, Greece, as Anna; and Tara Khanmalek Yazdi of Arlington, Va., as Alice.
• March 28: Gunnar Manchester, a senior from Rehoboth, Mass. (Dan); Colin McIntire, a junior from Darien, Conn. (Larry); O’Brien; Audrey Burns, a sophomore from Topsham, Maine (Alice).
• March 29: Juniors Jonah Greenawalt of Wayland, Mass. (Dan), and Sam Myers of Riverton, Wyo. (Larry); and seniors Abby Zwetchkenbaum of Providence, R.I. (Anna), and Hanna Allerton of New York City (Alice).

An essential part of the learning process for Vecsey’s voice-and-speech students is to narrow in on their characters’ motivations and desires. This begins with a close analysis of the script. Vecsey notes that it’s important that her students approach characterization without passing judgment.

“We always say in theater that acting is reacting,” she says. “So you have to like the character. You have to understand that character’s thoughts and actions. And I think that if you understand that through your own emotions, you will be able to deliver a voice, and express emotions through that voice, that are true.”

O’Brien agrees. “Anna seems to have good values at first, but she goes on to cheat within her relationships and lie about it, as do the others.

“But if you judge your character right off the bat, you’re never going to be able to look past what they’re doing to understand why they’re doing it. You can’t focus on the appearance of what they’re doing — you have to get beneath the surface of their actions so you can embody what they’re really going through.

Incorporating the lovers’ exchanges online as well as face to face, Closer comments on the advent of contemporary communications technology and how it has transformed our interactions. Vecsey believes that the play represents a specific political and economic moment in English society.

At the same time, though, its themes are universal. “There are moments in the play that probably happened to you,” Vecsey explains. “Like when people lie to each other, or betray each other, and how somebody reacts to that, or how someone reacts to kindness, or being cared for, or being loved or not being loved.

“I think it’s very realistic and very relevant still.”

Senior lecturer in theater Katalin Vecsey. (Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen)

Exemplifying the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College principle of extraordinary academics backed by constructive support, Katalin Vecsey has received the college’s 2012 Ruth M. and Robert H. Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Vecsey lives in Lewiston with her husband, John Painter, and their son, Kelen. A senior lecturer in theater, she is expert in both the mechanics of the voice and the aesthetics of speech in performance.

In addition to teaching courses exploring voice, speech and gender, Vecsey works with students in every ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ theatrical production and also directs plays, including a forthcoming production of Alan Ball’s Five Women Wearing the Same Dress March 16-18.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students and recent graduates nominate faculty for the Kroepsch Award, and a committee of previous faculty Kroepsch recipients selects the honoree.

For the Kroepsch Lecture, Vecsey offers the talk The Different Voices of Meryl Streep at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 12, in the Keck Classroom, Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk). For more information, please call 207-786-6066.

“Kati inspires and demands exceptional effort from her students in a way that is purely passionate and from a place of true caring and respect,” says Michelle Schloss, a senior from Farmington, Conn. A theater minor, Schloss is executive director of the Robinson Players, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ student theater company, which Vecsey advises.

“Students know that when they work with Kati, she will change not only the way they approach the world of theater, but also how they operate in the world at large,” says Schloss.

“Students adore her. Students respect her. They work hard because she works hard,” says Travis Jones, a junior from Ithaca, N.Y., double-majoring in theater and in visual art and culture.

A native of Budapest, Hungary, Vecsey was that nation’s first voice and speech teacher to be trained at the Hungarian Academy of Drama and Film (now the University of Drama and Film), completing her training in 1991. She came to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in 1996 and was promoted from lecturer to senior lecturer in 2011.

Lecturer Katalin Vecsey (standing, second from left) teaches her voice and speech course on the stage of Schaeffer Theatre. (Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen)

Unusual in academic theater programs, Vecsey’s role as director of voice and speech encompasses both the physiology and the expressive potential of the voice. Attending every rehearsal of every production and also working one-on-one, she helps student actors develop characterizations that support the director’s vision for a play.

First, she says, “I ask them to write a character biography. They truly have to figure out who they are on stage, and lend their own body to that character. Voice is a personality issue — so if you know who you are on stage, that biography is the first step to find the character’s voice.”

Science enters the picture when it comes to using the voice properly, in terms of both achieving a desired effect and avoiding vocal injury. Noticing one student performer with vocal trouble, Vecsey urged her to see a doctor, which ultimately led to a diagnosis of nodules that required surgery.

“It was important to point that out so she didn’t damage her voice further. She came back after the surgery and was able to do more voice work — and she ended up as a music major, singing in a rock band.”

As for her approach to teaching at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, Vecsey shares a philosophy with renowned stage director and theater teacher Anne Bogart. “You cannot create results, you can only create an environment where something might happen,” Vecsey says. “The most important principle is to create an environment where it’s safe for the students to learn and experiment.”

“She’s my mentor and I feel comfortable going to her for all different kinds of advice,” says senior theater major Jennifer Flanagan of Sherborn, Mass. “She helped me decide what classes to take, get through my stressful thesis process, prepare for outside theater auditions — and she has listened to me debate what I want to do after college and where I want to go.

“She gives ‘answers’ to your problems in such a way that you end up answering them for yourself.”

With Dana Professor of Theater Martin Andrucki, Vecsey co-leads the Short Term course “Central European Theater and Film,” which brings ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students to Budapest and Prague.

In addition to writing many papers and journal articles, Vecsey wrote, directed and presented the instructional Voice Workout Video for Professional Voice Users (In Hungarian) in 2000. She is also an independent voice consultant with a specialty in working with male-to-female transsexuals.

Vecsey received her doctorate in developmental and educational psychology at Eötvös Lóránd University, Budapest, and the equivalent of master’s and bachelor’s degrees in speech and language pathology and special education at Bárczi Gusztáv College, also in Budapest. She is frequently invited back to Bárczi Gusztáv College to teach master classes.

Promoted to senior lecturer in theater in May 2011, Katalin Vecsey teaches courses in voice and speech, and voice and gender. With Dana Professor of Theater Martin Andrucki, Vecsey co-leads the Short Term course “Central European Theater and Film,” which brings ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students to Budapest and Prague.

Now in her 16th year at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, Vecsey has adapted numerous plays, poems, short stories and other texts for stage performance by her voice and speech students. She serves as vocal director for mainstage and student-directed theater productions, has directed 10 other productions, and advises student performance groups. She is also an independent voice consultant with a specialty in working with male-to-female transsexuals.

Vecsey is a native of Hungary. In addition to writing many conference papers and journal articles, she wrote, directed and presented the instructional piece Voice Workout Video for Professional Voice Users (In Hungarian) in 2000. She received her doctorate in developmental and educational psychology at Eötvös Lóránd University, Budapest, and the equivalent of master’s and bachelor’s degrees in speech and language pathology and special education at Bárczi Gusztáv College, also in Budapest. She is frequently invited back to Bárczi Gusztáv College to teach master classes.