The surprise of falling in love
"Stop Kiss," on stage at FGCU
BY NANCY _STETSON Florida Weekly Correspondent

COURTESY PHOTO Megan Pugh, left, and Rebecca Ormiston in the lead roles of Sara and Callie in FGCU's Theatre Lab production of "Stop Kiss". Written by Diana Son and directed by FGCU Professor Michelle Hayford.

Falling in love can be an exhilarating, scary, confusing, liberating experience.

For the two main characters in "Stop Kiss," Callie (Rebecca Ormiston) and Sara (Megan Pugh), it's all of the above, but magnified to the nth degree: the two women are falling for each other, and not sure what to do with their feelings.

Sara has an ex-boyfriend back in St. Louis, and Callie's in-between steady boyfriends, but has "a friend with benefits," George (Jonathan Brickman).

In this Obie Award-winning play by Diana Son, nothing is how it initially appears on the surface. The script pingpongs back and forth in time, jumping from the women's initial meeting to the aftermath of being brutally attacked on the street in a gay bashing. The play's timeline is as fluid and unpredictable as the women's sexuality.

"Stop Kiss," performed by Florida Gulf Coast University students at the school's Theatre Lab, is a valiant production. Much of its charm comes from the powerful, layered acting of Ormiston, who captures the audience from the very start, dancing to music as she cleans up her apartment.

Ormiston, a senior, is a marvel of movement, fully embodying her character. She's a natural, very much at ease on stage, and her riveting performance makes this play worth seeing. Remarkably, this is her stage debut at the Theatre Lab.

Sara, the woman Callie finds herself falling for, is much more of a cipher. Though the two banter and grow more comfortable with each other's company, we never get to know Sara as well as we know Callie. Perhaps Pugh has done this deliberately: her character is from the Midwest, so maybe she's stressing her character's pragmatism: what you see is what you get. But I couldn't help wishing for more depth from her character. I was also looking for the romantic spark, the chemistry that would make this relationship different than other friendships between two women.

Both boyfriends - or exes - are featured in the play. Brickman plays George as a slacker, content to drift through life and bed whatever girls are willing. Joey "Lux" R. Yazvac plays Peter, Sara's ex from St. Louis. Yazvac's portrayal is powerful as he tries to make sense of the brutal crime and sits by Sara's hospital bed, reading to her and talking. Yazvac hits the right town of drama and bittersweetness, yet is careful not to overplay the role. The anguish, anger and confusion are all there, just under the surface.

Blake Levine plays a city detective whose interrogations grow more hostile when he learns the two women had been kissing just prior to the attack. And Miriam Anna Schroetter does double duty as a nurse and a high-strung neighbor who heard the screams and called the police.

"Stop Kiss" is a series of very short scenes which bounce around in time; it's a marathon for the actors who have to race into the wings to change costumes every few minutes. Incidental music, provided by James Hayford, helps make the interims between scene interesting, not tedious.

The audience is seated on three sides of the stage, which means sometimes, no matter where you're sitting, you'll occasionally get an actor's back. And during early scenes on opening night, the actors tended to rush their lines, speaking in that rapid/half-swallowed way of talking some teens or twentysomethings are prone to. Unfortunately, some lines of dialogue were lost in that manner.

I was also confused by some of the staging, specifically, where the stage ends and the wings begin. Director Michelle Hayford has pushed some of the action into two corners, past where the audience is seated. But that led to some confusion. During one scene, Sara stands outside Callie's apartment, ringing her doorbell - with a line of boys standing right behind her. I thought they were part of the action - maybe other tenants in the elevator or in the hall. But they turned out not connected to the play at all; they were guys waiting for the scene to end so they could move the props. Seeing them was disconcerting, as they were lit and clearly visible, not hidden in the shadows.

Ultimately, "Stop Kiss" at FGCU's Theatre Lab is a funny and moving play about love, and how sometimes it comes into our lives in ways we may not expect.

l If you go

>>What: "Stop Kiss" >>When: through Oct. 28 >>Where: Theatre Lab at Florida Gulf Coast University, Estero >>Cost: $10 ($5 for students, faculty and staff) >>Information: Call 590-7268.