In doing research for her Director’s Showcase assignment, incoming Master of Fine Arts candidate Candice Andrews audited a psychology class on emotion.

“I learned that the way the two lovers, Matthew and Lisa, lie to each other, is sadly common in many marriages today,” said Andrews, talking about the play that she is directing: Private Eyes, a contemporary comedy about suspicion, deception and broken trust.

“The characters are left with this sense of low-level panic; alone, looking into each other’s eyes, with nowhere left to run. The play’s comic relief is rooted in the ugliness of reality.”

In Steven Dietz’s play, multiple layers reveal a romantic triangle where nothing is ever quite what it seems — leading the audience to question what love and lustful affairs can do to a marriage.

The play revolves around five characters. Matthew’s wife, Lisa, is having an affair with Adrian, a British director, or perhaps Matthew has imagined it all to have something to report to Frank, his therapist.

And then there is Cory, a mysterious woman who seems to shadow everyone.

Is the playwright saying that people, though intimately connected, often lack the courage to look deeply and honestly into each other’s eyes?

Or, do we fill in the gaps of what we do not know with what we believe it to be? The audience is left to sort out the cold, hard facts from fantasy as the plot unwinds.

The five-person cast: Amy Louise Cole (an Actors Equity actress), Brett Duggan and Anne Reeder, all first-year MFA candidates; plus Tommy Anker, an undergraduate who is majoring in genetics, and Yonatan Morag, an undergraduate who is studying physics.

Exploring the human psyche

Andrews said she was drawn to Private Eyes by the psychological puzzle provided in the text.

“I have always been interested in exploring the human psyche. Private Eyes grabbed my attention back in 1999. As I couldn’t wrap my head around it, I continued to explore it” — eventually leading to the psychology class she took last fall.

Andrews comes to UC Davis after working as a traveling drama director and speech and drama teacher in Colorado for four years. She holds a double bachelor’s degree in theater and speech communication from Colorado State University.

With grant funding, she has taught around the world, in the poorest neighborhoods of India, Cuba and Africa, and in futuristic institutes and theaters in Japan and Hong Kong.

She introduced drama curriculum to many schools while touring and researching the infrastructure of theaters that had moved from rags to riches.

She hopes to continue her travels and research as a professional director and professor in speech and drama.

Last fall and winter, as an intern with the Sacramento Theatre Company, she taught in the company’s Young Professionals children’s program and took on the following directing assignments: after-school program Kids Write Plays (co-director); winter dance production Home for the Holidays (director); and La Pastorela (assistant director).

She already has admirers at UC Davis.

Among them is Private Eyes stage manager Julie Friedrichsen, who said a few weeks before opening night that everything was running smoothly.

“We are actually one week ahead of schedule,” said Friedrichsen, a 2008 dramatic art graduate. “I think this is because of the director’s genuine openness to all the creative artists on the team. She has made this an extremely collaborative process.”

Scenic designer and fourth-year dramatic art major Chris Jee agreed: “Candice has fostered a sense of trust and creativity between the design team and herself, permitting me to engage on this production at a higher level than ever before.”

Jee said Wyatt Pavilion, with its small stage that juts into the audience, presented his greatest challenge with Private Eyes.

“The play’s technical flow between scenes and locations is very convoluted,” Jee said. “My goal was to present it on stage in a way that was clear to the audience, with minimal movement of set pieces, while preserving momentum to give the story twists the weight and surprise they need.”

Costume designer Sarah Kendrick, a first-year MFA student, said she also focused on protecting the element of surprise. “My design challenges have been creating characters through my costumes without giving away the story’s mystery, and making the contemporary clothing interesting.”

Rounding out the creative artist team: projections designer James Marchbanks and lighting designer Jake Nelson, both MFA candidates; and properties designer Jason Masino, a undergraduate who is majoring in dramatic art.

Reporting by Janice Bisgaard, publicity manager for the Department of Theatre and Dance.

AT A GLANCE

WHAT: Director’s Showcase: Private Eyes, directed by incoming MFA candidate Candice Andrews

WHEN: 8 p.m. May 28-30 and 2 p.m. May 31

WHERE: Wyatt Pavilion Theatre

TICKETS are available through the Mondavi Center box office: (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787, or www.mondaviarts.org.

ADVISORY: This production contains mature adult content, partial nudity and sudden loud noises.