Wheaton and Tibbets say fast friendships build community that’s a “Sure Thing”

Q: What is your play about?

Riley Wheaton: It’s about two people who happen to meet in a restaurant and strike up a conversation.  This happens hundreds of times every day but most of the time the two people are pulled apart by coincidence.  Someone says the wrong thing or trips and falls and runs away and the two may never meet again.  In Sure Thing when something happens that’d pull them apart forever a bell dings and they get a redo.  It’s a show about the could have beens and the never weres.  It’s about a beautiful world of reclaimed opportunities.And maybe some discovered romance.

Q: Why did you decide to do this play?

Wheaton: My co director and I read it last year as part of our creative writing class and one of our assignments was to create a staging for it.  It stuck with me and I secretly wanted to do it, so when I asked her to core direct and she mentioned it right away before I had a chance to, I was over the moon.

Q: What has been the most difficult part about directing?

Wheaton: Cast members are to directors as students are to teachers, and like students cast members mirror whatever energy level they see in their director.  That’s the hardest part.  Giving even more energy than I demand from them, and appearing to have a plan so they’ll follow along faithfully.

Q: What has been the most rewarding part?

Wheaton: There was a moment last week when we sent them out into the hall to run some bits and I stepped out a couple minutes later to check on them and found them all chatting and laughing together.  The thought crossed my mind, these people didn’t even know one another a week and a half ago and now they’re behaving like they’ve been friends all their lives.  That building of community and, really, family is the most rewarding part for me.  I

Q: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Wheaton: It’s exciting to be the first generation to direct one acts in the Huss Center. We’re pushing the envelope in terms of what we can do with lighting in a compressed context. Doing a show composed of really short bits requires a different acting style than anything we’ve ever done before and it’s tough to teach because it’s so out of the ordinary.  But the ability to instantly grab the audience’s attention will be useful in longer form theater in the years to come.