Stop Kiss

Mark Christie’s Senior Directing Thesis, written by Diana Son

Mark Christie’s senior Directing Thesis, Stop Kiss by Diana Son, opened in Tawes Theatre and ran for two days. Stop Kiss, set in 1998 New York City, follows the story of Callie, a confrontation-avoidant traffic reporter, and Sara, an ambitious school teacher as they meet, fall in love, and share a life-changing kiss. Alternating back and forth in time before and after the kiss, the play examines how the relationship affects the women and those close to them, and is affected by the social climate of the time. Stop Kiss explores the complexities of human compassion and emotion, especially in the face of hatred and bigotry.

Christie chose the play because of its “beautiful message [that] I think people our age need to see …. [T]hings go wrong, but with positive energy it’ll still all go your way, and you see that in Stop Kiss.” He greatly enjoyed working on the SCE, and said, “The process was awesome, I had an amazing cast, great leads, and positive energy the entire way. .…It was everything I ever hoped for … I couldn’t have been more proud of my cast [and] my crew. Everything was straight out of the best dream ever.” Christie said his favorite part of the process was watching how everything worked together; “Seeing all the aspects of design, and all the actors knowing their lines and [making] an actual play. The best was seeing that the message was there, seeing that the audience understood what was happening.”

Olivia Libowitz ’18, was familiar with the show before she auditioned, and enthusiastic about portraying her character, Sara. She said her favorite part of working on the show was “probably working with my main co-lead [Mary Sprague ’20], … because it was fun getting to… create a fun, authentic dynamic with someone I was in every single scene with…” Libowitz is proud of the show, and said, “I think we put on a really good piece. I think it was super authentic and … very earnest telling of an actual, real-life coming together of two people.” Stop Kiss was Libowtiz’s last acting role Washington College. “It was a nice show to go out on…. Acting [here] has been … a really fun time across the four years. I can pretty confidently say I was in a very wide gambit of shows I got to be in.”

Stage Manager Julia Lado’s ’19 interest in the play stemmed from its queer love story. She said, “as a member of the LGBT Community, when I first heard that they were doing a play about two women who fell in love, I was very interested in it.” Lado said working with Christie “was very exciting, because I always admired him as someone in the theatre department.” She found the process entirely enjoyable, despite worries about Stage Managing for the first time. “We had an awesome cast… an awesome design team. …. All in all it was just a very … smooth process. This was my first time stage managing [and] I absolutely loved it. … [B]eing able to work with Mark and reach out to professors and my other friends who have stage managed before for help and advice really made everything a lot [easier] and now having that experience, I feel much more confident in being a stage manager.”

Audience member Natchy Pinyotamanotai ’20 especially enjoyed the show’s emotion, loving both the funny and heartbreaking moments. She said, “I like[d] how all the actors really got into their characters, especially the main ones. …[They] made the audience feel it, …it touche[d] us …. [like] the scene [where Callie] pulls up the blanket for Sara the first time … I [was] like ‘Oh, god, I’m gonna cry!’”

Cast List

Callie – Mary Sprague ’20

Sarah – Olivia Libowitz ’18

George – Patrick Huff ’19

Detective Cole – Royce Foreman ’21 // John Leslie ’19 (Understudy)

Mrs. Winsley, Nurse – Megan McPherson ’19

Peter – Jake DiPaola ’21

Creative Team

Director – Mark Christie ’18

Dramaturg – Jackie Glenn ’19

Scenic Designer – Garrett Wissel ’19

Costume Designer – Victoria Gill ’21