5 Things to Know about University Theatre’s “Is This a Room” at Fresno State

October 2, 2026

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Special to TMR by Miguel Gastelum.

Theatre has always examined historical events through dramatization – Shakespeare was particularly fond of this device – but what happens when the historical events are not embellished by the pen of a playwright? What happens when the actual words spoken during an FBI interrogation become the script of the play?

In University Theatre’s production of “Is This a Room” there are no acts, there are no scenes, no dramatized conversations or embellishments. The play is built entirely from the verbatim transcript of the 2017 interrogation of Reality Winner, a former Air Force linguist who leaked classified information about Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential Election.

The production, directed by Michelle Bellaver, opens Friday, Oct. 2 and runs through Oct. 10 in the Dennis and Cheryl Woods Theatre at Fresno State. Here are five things to know about the production:

Courtesy of University Theater, Fresno State

1 – Yes, the script is an actual FBI transcript.

The production was originally conceived and directed by Tina Satter. There is no playwright credit or conventional dialogue for “Is This a Room” the spoken words in the script are word-for-word from the transcript of the interrogation. This unique style of script (verbatim theatre) offers its own sets of challenges for actors.

“It’s very different to perform something that isn’t written as a script,” says actor Sage Rivera. “Because these are real people we have to think of them as a person who we can become as opposed to a character that we can shape. Usually there’s a lot of room for creative interpretation, but with this because it’s real people with their verbatim words, we had to figure out how these moments exactly transpired.”

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2 – It doesn’t take place in an interrogation room.

While the title of the play may lead you to believe that the events take place in a singular interrogation room, the interrogation unfolded inside Winner’s home in Augusta, Georgia. The title comes from the transcript, a mundane and strangely disorienting question that takes on a new meaning as the play unfolds, inviting audiences to reconsider the space they are watching. Rather than recreate Winner’s home, the production uses a black raked stage and a black brick wall, giving director Michelle Bellaver some freedom to approach the unconventional piece in a theatrical way.

“The idea of the space was for it to be flexible and not realistic because how else to deal with multiple parts of a house, and a dog and cat,” says director Michelle Bellaver. “I was intrigued by Reality Winner’s description in her biography of her sense of dread, her fear that she might be taken to a black ops site and disappeared. Being in a black ops site, prisoners often describe the experience as being devoid of sensory information; unrecognizable sound, minimal light, feelings of being confined, an impending sense of doom. Coupled with the knowledge that the espionage act has had a century old life in American society, I was wondering how many stories like this have unfolded, which we are unaware of? How many ‘Reality Winners’ have existed since 1917 that have disappeared into the darkness of our collective unconscious? The idea of a type of black hole that Reality finds herself in during the interrogation seemed to make sense to me as it could be a liminal space that exists across time and space, where metaphorically, these missing stories as well as Ms. Winner’s might be held. And if we created that, a place where all these stories could possibly be told, then maybe there is a structure in the liminal space – an indestructible shiny monolith – that is the keeper of all the stories. The monolith just so happens to be a brick wall to let us know that on any particular night, in the University Theatre, where the audience sees the performance, we are witnessing Reality’s story.”

3 – The mundane becomes suspenseful.

“Is This a Room” was not written by a playwright, so there’s no traditional play structure here. No acts, no scenes, no exposition, no typical arc rising or falling action. But that doesn’t mean the drama, or the suspense, is missing. Instead, audiences become flies on the wall, watching an ordinary event happen in real time that would soon become national news.

“Except for a couple of short snippets, the public does not have access to the actual recording of the FBI Transcript,” says Bellaver. “It is still unavailable. This actually serves us as artists, because we can serve the moment to moment story with our imagination as we discover and lean into the suspense of how it must have felt for each character, for ultimately, we must see them as characters in order to find the thrill of the action that unfolds in front of us.”

Courtesy of University Theater, Fresno State

4 – The questions don’t end when the play does.

Is This a Room doesn’t end with a typical resolution. While a quick internet search would yield plenty of information as to Winner’s story after the events of the play, the production instead leaves audiences to wrestle with topics still relevant nearly a decade after these events transpired. Free speech, government secrecy, election interference, and the ethics of whistleblowing and redactions are all themes explored that still continue to surface in public conversation.

5 – The conversation continues beyond the stage.

Those topics will take center stage at a free pre-show Symposium in partnership with the Fresno State Department of Political Science on October 8^th at 6:00 PM will explore these topics further and will give audiences the opportunity to engage with panelists and continue the conversation well after the stage lights have dimmed. Admission to the symposium is free, but paid admission is required for that evening’s performance of “Is This a Room”.

“Is This a Room”, originally conceived and directed by Tina Satter and directed by Michelle Bellaver runs October 2 – 3 and 6 – 10 at 7:30 PM and October 4 at 2:00 PM in the Dennis and Cheryl Woods Theatre at Fresno State. The production contains mature content and is not suitable for children under 12 years old. Tickets are available online by visiting the department website.