At Hedgerow, ‘Tuesday,’ a play with no words about an ordinary day

A play with no words — none. That’s the most extraordinary aspect of playwright Jewel Walker’s Tuesday, which celebrates the ordinary without a syllable of spoken dialogue.

“It’s hard to describe,” said Stephen Patrick Smith, an associate professor of drama at Delaware County Community College who directs Tuesday at Hedgerow Theatre. The show, which begins on Thursday, April 21, features a cast of seven DCCC students silently playing 40 to 50 roles.

“It’s like the way a meme works,” Smith explained. “It’s just an image. You laugh or you cry, and you can relate to it, because you’ve been there yourself. This is a series of live, moving memes, that, on a visceral level, we can really relate to.

“It takes the audience a few moments to realize that this is action and not dialogue,” he said. “Then, there are big smiles from ear to ear from the audience as they are watching.

“It celebrates our common humanity.”

Fans of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood might remember playwright Jewel Walker as the Mime Walker in the show. Walker also led the acting department at the University of Delaware, where Tuesday was first staged. A master teacher, he was known for his embrace of movement as an acting tool. Smith studied with Walker, became a lasting fan, and has passed Walker’s legacy on to his students.

“The first thing I teach is the concept of 7 — 38 — 55,” Smith said. Smith is drawing on the oft-quoted (and often misquoted) work of behavioral psychologist Dr. Albert Mehrabian, professor emeritus at the University of California in Los Angeles who opined that 7% of meaning comes from words, 38% from tone of voice and 55% from body language. If that were true, words would be virtually useless. However, what Mehrabian meant was that when words don’t ring true in certain emotional situations, tone and body language may be more revealing.

Either way, there’s no discounting the importance of movement on stage. In directing Tuesday, Smith said he almost works as a choreographer.

“In the written word, we are getting the information one sentence at a time,” he said. In movement, it’s one gesture at a time. “It’s like learning a dance, like choreography. Each one of those movements is its own step. You have to break it up very precisely so the audience can process the information and get the story.

“What happens to people’s bodies when they are happy, sad, drunk, or scolded? We imitate them and then, in a sense, exaggerate them,” Smith said.

Why Tuesday? Walker named his play after most ordinary day in the week — not Hump Day, not Monday, not TGIF, Smith said. The play takes the audience through an ordinary Tuesday on an ordinary street in America circa 1975 . In 2005, Tuesday earned Walker, who died in 2020, a Barrymore Award in Philadelphia.

The DCCC cast performed Tuesday on campus March 30 through April 9. Moving to the Hedgerow gives the students a chance to work with the theater company’s professional technical crew, Smith said.

April 21 through May 1, Hedgerow Theatre, 64 Rose Valley Rd., Media. Hedgerowtheatre.org or 610-565-4211.

Early in her acting career, Jennie Eisenhower, a Philadelphia favorite and the winner of many Barrymore Awards, played Sister Amnesia in the riotous Nunsense at The Media Theatre. That was 2001. Now, she’s back in Media again with a promotion, to Mother Superior in Sister Act. Several cast members come to the Media production from national and international tours — among them costar Dené Hill, who plays a disco diva hiding in protective custody in a convent. The story’s a fun one, complete with gospel music, disco, and dance. Of course, the diva livens up convent life but blows her cover in the process. From there, it’s the nuns versus the mobsters. Believe me, the mobsters don’t have a prayer.

April 20 through June 5, The Media Theatre, 104 E. State St., Media. Mediatheatre.org or 610-891-0100. Masks optional. No vaccination proof necessary.

Down by the railroad tracks in rural Georgia, a progressive white matriarch and her mixed-race grandson live together in a ramshackle shack. They love each other, but when the matriarch’s mind begins to fade with dementia, her violent past in the segregated South torments her and tests her grandson’s ability to love his grandmother. That’s the plot of Terminus, by Gabriel Jason Dean, with its regional premiere at South Camden Theatre Co. Directed by Connie Norwood.

April 22 through May 8, The Waterfront South Theatre, 400 Jasper St., Camden. 866-811-4111 or southcamdentheatre.org. $5 discounted tickets for Camden residents. Vaccination proof required. Masks optional.

Mere mortals that we are, how do we conceive of God? And what do we do when the God we’ve constructed in our minds somehow isn’t enough in times of crisis? Those are the questions that Jeff, Steve, Brock, and Joe ask themselves in No Graven Image, performed by Philadelphia veteran actor Anthony Lawton, a master of the one-man show.

One performance only, April 22, 7:30 p.m. at the FringeArts building, 140 N. Christopher Columbus Blvd., Philadelphia. Pay what you wish. https://www.sidebarstories.org/no-gravenimage. Proof of vaccination required. Mask requirements subject to change.

Amanda Pasquini directs Urinetown: The Musical, which satirizes everything, including municipal politics and corporate mismanagement. Presented by the Players Club of Swarthmore, April 22 through May 7 at the Players Club, 614 Fairview Rd., Swarthmore. 610-328-4271 or pcstheater.org. Vaccination proof required; masks optional. The Fantasticks, the musical about a boy, a girl, and the wall that separates them, is presented by the Old Academy Players, 3544 Indian Queen Lane, Philadelphia, April 22 through May 8. 215-843-1109 or oldacademyplayers.org Proof of vaccination and masks required.