Here Comes the Sonne

There will be a world premiere this Memorial Day weekend, when Theater Arts at Caltech (TACIT) presents Sonne, an original play by senior Nicholas Rupprecht.

The plot concerns two hikers, clearly (although not explicitly) Caltech alums of recent vintage. These two wind up in a twilit land where the sun has not shone in living memory and whose inhabitants await the day when they are found worthy of its return. “It’s the story of two people who come into this community, and what effect they have on it,” says Rupprecht, adding that the play “explores the difference between religion and fanaticism, the questions of the nature of courage and what morality means to a god.”

A mathematics major, Rupprecht wrote his first full-length play the summer before he came to Caltech and has continued writing at a rate of about one per year ever since. He is a founding member of the Caltech Filmmaking Club and was behind last spring’s Shakespeare Read-A-Thon event. TACIT has organized readings of several of Rupprecht’s scripts, but this is the first to be performed.

Rupprecht is also directing the show—“I’m just a starring role away from a vanity project,” he says with a laugh—which was not his original intent. For an undergraduate, the time commitment tends to be prohibitive. Graduate students are less fettered by course schedules, and several have successfully directed over the years.

“I haven’t had an undergrad who I could trust to do this for ages, but Nick has not missed a play since he’s been here,” says Shirley Marneus, the head of Caltech’s theater arts program. “He’s been in everything, and that gives him an edge. He is using his time very judiciously.” It’s something Rupprecht takes in stride.

“I’m not flaming out,” he says, “so I must be doing all right.”

The premiere of Sonne is scheduled Friday, May 27, at 8 p.m. in Ramo Auditorium. Subsequent performances will take place on May 28 at 7 p.m., and on May 29 and May 30 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $5 for the general public and $3 for students with I.D. Veterans and Caltech students will be admitted free to the May 30 show. A discussion session with the author and cast will follow each performance.

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