A performer walks into a performance — unrehearsed and with no source of direction — is handed a script in front of an audience, and told to perform it to the best of their ability.  

Produced by Scott Forster, ArtSci ’16, and Andreea Ionescu, ConEd ’17, Transference is an experimental show that explores the inherent personal characteristics a performer brings to the stage.  

Forster spearheaded the project in 2015 as part of an ongoing thesis analyzing the convoluted relationship between the audience, performer and writer. 

“This capstone project, Transference, has become ‘can we get the actors to do the playwrights work justice with bringing just themselves, in the rawest form,’” Forster said. 

No stranger to the Queen’s drama scene, Forster has worked in multiple productions and is the current president of the Queen’s Students on Broadway production company. He’s watched countless students bring to life characters on stage and enact new personas. 

But, what if you scratch all the rehearsals and direction away? A brilliant and unique experience. 

According to Forster, performers are told to do nothing but perform. There will be no rehearsal process or direction. The motto of the production is “go for it.”  In other words, take the bull by the horns and run with it. 

“Essentially, the audience is watching them do an audition,” Ionescu said about the performers. 

In addition to the brave actors, a team of four writers have been contracted to draw up scripts in secrecy, only to be revealed and read for the first time on show night. 

Not even Forster or Ionescu will have a hand in the writing process. Forster and Ionescu call their production a “network of secrecy,” really pushing to bring raw un-interrupted talent to Queen’s theatre. 

Together with Ionescu, Forster hopes to break down the fourth wall and understand how the writer, actor and audience are receptive to a piece of theatre. 

“[Students can] expect to see something very different than anything they’ve ever seen at Queen’s before,” Forster said. 

“Every single night will be different, and, on top of that, every person will take it differently. So you could see the show three times and never see the same script, read by maybe three different people, and every night that would be drastically different based off of whatever that actors basic instinct is,” Ionescu added. 

“It’s the kind of show that you would want to come to every show as opposed to you just come and see it once — you want to be there at all of them” Forster said.

The show runs from February 30 to March 2.