Southern Theatre’s latest production taught actors how to do more than tango.

A play within a play, Saved or Destroyed, concentrates on the lives of the actors each with their own set of problems. For mature audiences only, the show, directed by Jade Leggot, senior theatre major, contains some violence, language and sexually explicit scenes including an elaborate tango sequence at the end.

“My choreographer Kaye Lewis is amazing,” Leggot said. “Our first dance rehearsal she taught it to the actors and they practiced it constantly.

“After they had a pretty good grasp on the dance I blocked some transitional and moments in the dance and tweaked some movements. We pretty much just all worked really hard on it and spent a lot of time making it the cool dance that it is now.”

While getting so personal with fellow actors could be awkward, Kyle Maloney, junior theatre major, who plays Ivan, said the closeness wasn’t the hardest part.

“I’m not a dancer,” he said. “I’m quite awful, actually. But we drilled those steps over and over again, and eventually we nailed it. It’s also the most explicit part of the show, so you can imagine how being completely in character is crucial for it.”

Though the audience may find the sequence surprising, the cast has grown comfortable with a scene that is to actor Brett Hecksher, junior communications major, “what we had to do.”

“Now, to us, it’s just a dance. A dance on the bed, yeah, but a dance none the less,” he said.

Performed in the Black Box Theatre, actors venture past the stage line, sometimes interacting with the spectators.

“My favorite parts of the show are when Ivan unleashes his malice on his co-actors, and even sometimes the audience,” Maloney said. “He’s really quite brutal the way he does it. He’s just not afraid to tell you what he thinks.”

Saved or Destroyed opened Jan. 20 with the last showing at 7:30, Jan. 24 in the Black Box Theatre.

For more information, please call the box office at 625-3190.