The Brandeis Theater Company's production of The Dream Project, created by an ensemble of graduate actors, straddles the barrier between life and waking life. The show, directed by Jon Lipsky, a professor of acting and playwriting at Boston University, opened Friday and runs through April 29 in Spingold's Laurie Theater. A collection of the graduate acting students' dreams, the play is a personal telescope into the minds of these actors and unlike anything ever performed on a Brandeis stage. The actors play themselves and stage their most absurd fantasies, such as Ramona L. Alexander's unsettling "Monster Dream," and Sara Oliva's (GRAD) romantic excursion in the second act.

"Dreams," says Lipsky, "give us access to a range of experience that includes our mundane life but then goes far beyond it." The Dream Project exceeds anything audiences will imagine with a surreal set, emotional lighting design and abandonment of even the most infallible theatrical conventions.

It is challenging enough to create one's most personal imaginings onstage, and this show managed to accommodate 10 dream scenes. Eliza S. Rankin, a set designer and scenic artist in the M.F.A. program, wowed the audience with a set resembling a wondrous jungle gym. Actors played on the curved lines and jagged corners of the structures. Two walls were added to the space to allow more wing space and to add elevated doors to the set, giving the actors multiple levels on which to perform.

The levels create different spaces for the dreams: Scaffolding and stairs formed a higher platform for the more dramatic and physical action, and a lower level of the stage was used to symbolize enclosed spaces, such as prison cells and bathrooms. An uneven dock on stage right doubled as an indoor space in actor Lindsey McWhorter's dream and later as a wharf in Oliva's.

Other accent pieces-such as two Chinese lanterns hung from the grid above the stage and an Asian-inspired gong on the dock-infused the whole design with an exotic tone. In his director's note, Lipsky states that in dreams, "[an actor] visits places as unusual as Prospero's Island, the forests of Elyria and the castle at Elsinore."

The simple yet thoughtful costuming also employed Oriental elements. Miranda Kau, the costume designer and a third-year graduate student, chose to dress the ensemble in matching costumes for the first act. The men wore tie-dyed blue pajama pants and gray long-sleeved T-shirts, while the women wore pink and coral-colored pajama pants, wrap skirts and T-shirts. Naya Chang, a second-year M.F.A. actor, wore a golden kimono and an Asian-inspired mask, however, throughout different parts of her own dream sequence. The costume suggested the master of all the dreams, rendering her character more ethereal than the ensemble's down-to-Earth costumes.

The costuming in Act I was more realistic; the ensemble dressed as Oliva's family's traditional Italian relatives. The costume designs in both acts were mindful of the needs of each story, and helped transform the audience into participants in each dream.

Mike Jarett's final production as the BTC's lighting designer was illuminated by his masterful technical contributions. In particular moments, such as when Brian Weaver squished a small ant under his skin, the lights on the white scrim at the back of the set bled with deep crimson. And the frightening green cast over the stage during "Monster Dream" evidenced his virtuosity.

The Dream Project employed both Aristotle's convention of a theatrical fourth wall, an invisible separation between audience and stage, as well as a selection of pop-culture references to tickle the audience, like Julia Roberts and Rocky Horror Picture Show's Time Warp dance.

Some actors completely escaped into theatricality, a style in which actors acknowledge to the audience that they are acting. Weaver shocked the audience by calling out to the stage manager, Heather Klein '07, and asking her to bring up the house lights so he could recount a dream about his past roles on the Brandeis stage and speak directly to designers in the audience.

It was unexpected moments like these that made The Dream Project such a brilliant addition to this year's season. To agree with Lipsky, "Dreams, expand our horizons and animate the ordinary. They make us feel the breadth of our desires and the passion we bring to everyday life." As these dreamers enter their second weekend of performances, they will continue to dazzle audiences with imagery from the dark corners of their minds.