The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s very own Hicklin Studio Theatre in the Greenhill Center of the Arts hosts French philosopher and playwright Jean-Paul Sartre’s “No Exit,” an approximately hour-and-15 minute show with no intermission. This is UW-W’s first time producing and showing “No Exit” and is directed by one of UW-W’s newest faculty members, Robyn Accetta, an assistant professor of acting in the Department of Theatre and Dance.
“It is set in a single, windowless room in the afterlife, where three characters arrive expecting the traditional idea of Hell but instead find each other,” said Accetta. “The play’s most famous line, ‘Hell is other people,’ captures Sartre’s belief that we define ourselves through the gaze of others.”
Within UW-W staging, they resemble the important theme of Hell as a kind of technological purgatory, a hypermodern space that demonstrates our dependence on phones and our curated personas of social media.
“The preparation for ‘No Exit’ has been intense and focused, much like the play itself.
The result is a production that is both intimate and unsettling,” said Accetta.
The design and production team has been vital for this performance in particular and within this team, there are two seniors with an outlasting impact on the Theatre program as a whole, Alexis Gunderson and Trevor Brilhart.
Gunderson is a senior majoring in theatre BFA and the “No Exit” technical director. She has been the technical director since winter break of 2025 and is utilizing the opportunity as her senior project. Her role has included various tasks such as budgeting, planning out what the drawings entail, budget meetings and tech plates (designer drawings in blueprint form, bones of what the designer designed).
“I think about myself when I joined the UW-W theatre program and I never would have thought I’d be the technical director,” said Gunderson. “As well, I have learned to be secure in what I don’t know and it’s not a character flaw, it’s an opportunity to learn more.”
Directly after graduation, she is working at a summer stock theatre (opening May and closing August) where she has worked for the past three years and will be job searching all summer.
“I am really hoping to find a job in high school to some capacity because that’s where I found my love for theatre and I still think fondly of that,” said Gunderson.
Brilhart is a senior majoring in theatre BA with a French minor and is the ‘No Exit’ lighting designer. He was co-designer for DanceScapes ‘21 and was head designer on his first show in the fall of 2022. Within “No Exit” itself, Brilhart has asked himself a familiar question: “How can lighting contribute to telling the story of these characters?”
His role has included various tasks such as thinking about concepts and ideas, speaking with the director about the approach they are going for, drafting up all the lighting positions, paperwork for shop hours so students can hang all the lights and programming the show and tech starters.
“I want this show to be a showcase of my work especially as not being a BFA major without a senior project,” said Brilhart. “With it being a smaller show I can hone in on the small details to create something I can be really proud of before I leave.”
After graduation he plans to continue lighting design in general, and currently works for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage for Milwaukee while he reaches out to designers he can hopefully work for.
The play will be running until closing night on May 3 at 2 p.m., times vary. The play stars Estelle: Annie Montenegro Espinosa, Inez: Core Miller, Cradeau: Caleb Jozwiak, The BellBoy: Michael Miller, the Female Understudy: Keira Stanley, and the Male Understudy: Brenden Neilsen.
“For students and audiences alike, this play is an opportunity to engage with a foundational text of modern drama,” said Accetta, “to grapple with timeless questions, and to experience a play that sits just as uncomfortably in 2025 as it did in 1944.”
