(Brian Brenize -- The Beacon)
By Sarah Hansell, Staff Writer -- hansell14@up.edu
Tonight the UP Drama Department will bring to life the humorous and heartbreaking "Our Town," a three-act play about the day-to-day experiences of the inhabitants of a small New Hampshire village called Grover's Corners.
Professor Andrew Golla is directing Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize winning play "Our Town," which he thinks is his ninth or 10th play at UP.
"This is probably the most performed American play," Golla said. "It's a really beautiful play about the basic human experience."
"Our Town" is a play about the life of the townspeople — the doctor, the farmer, the constable, the newspaper editor, the town drunk, the housewives and the schoolchildren. Their daily realities may seem inconsequential, but their living, loving and dying present a greater message to which anyone can relate.
"It's a very difficult play not to connect with," Golla said.
The minimalistic set allows audience members to interpret the play in their own ways.
"For this play, there's very little set," Golla said. "A lot of it is the audience imagining."
The stage for "Our Town" is a little different from what UP theatergoers have seen in the past. The stage is extended farther forward and the first few rows of seating moved to the sides. The audience surrounds the stage, bringing the actors closer to the audience.
"It's a shared experience," Golla said. "It also makes it more intimate."
The diverse cast of "Our Town" ranges from freshmen to seniors, from drama majors and minors to those who simply enjoy acting.
"We had a lot of freshmen in the cast, which was really nice, to introduce them to UP theater," senior Sammi Boyd, who plays one of the stage managers, said.
This play is the first of the year in which freshmen could be cast, and the cast of "Our Town" includes seven.
"It's been amazing to work with people who actually have training and will just throw themselves into their character," freshman Emma Irwin, who plays Sam Craig, said.
Golla split the role of the stage manager, who narrates and occasionally participates, into two characters, played by Boyd and senior Philip Orazio. This duo introduces the characters and explains the background of Grover's Corners.
"It was a challenge and it was a lot of playing around, seeing what worked, but it was really fun, and Phil is the best," Boyd said.
The stage manager is a unique role in that this character interacts directly with the audience. However, turning the one character into two separate characters was not Golla's original plan.
"It was more of an inspiration than a plan," Golla said. "I didn't want to cast one and not the other."
Junior Katy Portell and senior Conor Eifler play the couple at the center of the story through whom the audience learns the message of the play.
"The play is so different in that it has such a purposeful message," Portell said.
In the weeks leading up to the dress rehearsals and performances, the cast bonded and became very close.
"Everyone is really welcoming and makes you feel like you're part of the group," senior Sydney Syverson, who plays Mrs. Gibbs, said.
"The cast has been a blast to work with and are very, very focused," Portell said.
"Our Town" opens in Mago Hunt Theater at 7:30 p.m., and after weeks of work, the actors will finally be performing, some for the very first time at UP. Viewers will have a chance to see this play brought to life in a new way by the UP Drama Department.
"There are a lot of unusual aspects about the play, which make it interesting," Golla said. "Even when (viewers) have seen it before, I think they'll see it with a new look."
(Brian Brenize -- The Beacon)
