UTSA Lyric Theatre presents a captivating night premiering “Women on the Line” and “La Voix Humaine.” The performance, held at the UTSA Arts Cube on March 5, enthralled audiences and tangled them in their silence. The show commenced with the premiere of “Women on the Line,” composed by Events Manager Wesley S. Uchiyama Penix and directed by Associate Professor Jourdan Laine Howell. The performance highlighted major U.S. historical events through music in twenty-year intervals.
In 1920s New York, Madeleine Phipps portrays a hopeful Louise Homer during a repressed era of women’s suffrage. Phipps brings the scene to life when executing Homer’s conversation with her mother when she sings, “We did it, Mama, we did it. We got the right to vote!”
The scenery then transitions to the 1940s and focuses on a friendship between two women during World War II. With Johanna Kitchen as Marilyn Larratt and Ana Mariñelarena as Betty Chappell, the act beautifully displays the duo’s unyielding support to one another while their loved ones are away at war.
In the 1960s, with the advent of the environmental movement, Rachel Carson played by Emily Densmore was showcased as a pivotal figure during this time. Carson — an author, biologist and zoologist — researched the harmful effects of pesticides such as DDT on humans and animals. Densmore illustrates Carson’s tenacity to protect nature when reciting, “I need to get back to the sea, back to me.” Standing nearby, R.W. Hines, played by Abraham Gomez, is moved by Carson’s declaration and joins in with her singing.
The 1980s act focuses on headlines from the New York Times relating to problems within the city. Rachel Freeman Hines, played by Jessica Morales, sings to her parents Emily and Abraham through the telephone about the daily news. The scene wonderfully portrays the telephone’s success at maintaining the intimacy of the familial relationship amidst the distance separating them.
The 2000s bit focuses on the evolution of the telephone into a pocket computer with an endless sea of information. Radia Perlman, known as the “Mother of the Internet,” was a network engineer who helped pave this advancement. Deeana Jaini-Malave as Angelina Johnson wonderfully transports the audience into this era when singing the line “I can know all, and more to come!”
The final scene, taking place in the 2020s, recaptures themes from the past time periods sung by the women living now. All the singers came together as a collective and proudly proclaimed who they are now because of those which came before.
Following the performance of “Women on the Line” was “La Voix Humaine.” Directed by Howell, the show centers around a woman and her ex-lover in which their conversation keeps getting dropped due to an unreliable French telephone system.
With La Voix sung by Taylor Malcolm and the score played by Anna Hakobyan, they masterfully create two interdependent forces in a state of flux. Their intricate intermingling gives rise to what is being said and felt. However, it is the silent moments where the play comes most alive. In subtle moments, where no words are necessary, every emotion is brightened, and the audience is left in perturbation forced to discern what is being revealed to them.
“Women on the Line” and “La Voix Humaine” were a testament to UTSA Lyric Theatre’s immense talent and creative brilliance. It was truly a night like no other as the audience’s hearts and minds were opened.
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