Love and identity unravels in BSC production of "Stop Kiss

"Stop Kiss," written by Diana Son, was one of the two plays that were part of the student festival BAM! this past week. In the style of a Beebo Brinker novel this play first appeared off-Broadway in 1998. It is about the lives of two women in New York. Callie (Kacie Dietrich) has lived in New York for eleven years, she is a news traffic reporter and the only exciting thing about her job is she gets to ride in a helicopter. The second woman, Sara (Erin Nicole Draper), moved from St. Louis because she won a contest for a fellowship to teach third grade in the Bronx.

The need to get away from the small town motivated Sara to go somewhere where she knew she could make a difference in people's lives. She is a friend of a friend of Callie's and they meet when Callie agrees to watch Sara's cat, Caesar.

The play starts to develop the budding relationship between these two main characters. Then it begins to start to look like something more than friendship. The sexual tensions in the looks, gestures, and the hugs that were held too long are obvious, but Callie seems to refuse to want to talk about it with Sara.

Sara tries to hint at these emotions but Callie either pretends not to notice or fumbles around with the hints. One night when they go out to a club though, Callie decides to show Sara how she feels about her by kissing her. This leads to Sara ending up in the hospital.

Sara's ex-boyfriend, Peter (John Dooley), comes to New York to tell Callie that Sara's parents are taking her back to St. Louis. Callie isn't happy about this and she visits Sara everyday.

The nurse (Shannon Dwyer, who also plays the dual role of Mrs. Winsley) shows Callie how to take care of Sara. Callie goes to her ex-boyfriend, George (Marc Ferrante), for help. She tells him it was all her fault that Sara was in the hospital because she had to tell Sara how she felt.

Detective Cole (Timm McIntosh) has the job of trying to find out the whole story about what had happened in the park the night of the attack. At first Callie does not tell him the whole truth about the kiss because she is afraid to tell people about it. After Detective Cole talks to Mrs. Winsley, the woman who called the police when she saw the attack, he finds out about the kiss and questions Callie again.

The music in between scenes set the tone of the play. Set design was done by Al Forgione and it was a simple and intimate set that made the audience feel like they were actually in a New York apartment. Mollie McGrory, a Bridgewater State College student, said "It was beautifully directed" by Amy Lefort. There was wonderful chemistry connecting the two main actors. You could tell that they were in love even though they never really said it. Light design was done by Nicholas Simpson and costumes were done by Kelly Baker and Shayna Curran.

"I loved it," said high school teacher Megan Massaro. "I wish my students could have come to see it too.