So, some of you may recall that last year, I and Sarah Trunk were in a little (actually not so little, actually kinda giant and awesome) thing called the Sarah Play at Roundhouse Theatre. Last year it was 'The Giver,' directed by Jessie Klueter. I played the Chief Elder, and Sarah played Lily. It was the 10th anniversary of the Sarah Play, so it was a huge deal, and lots of exciting things happened as a result of it--there was an article in the Gazette, NPR did a piece on it, and the Sarah Play held its very first student matinee, performed during the school day for students of Loiderman Middle School.
The Sarah Play was created in honor of the memory of Sarah Metzger, an active member of the theatre community in her school and at Round House, who was killed in an automobile accident during her freshman year of college. One of the Round House family’s lasting memories of Sarah is that, while still a high school student, she independently mounted a full-scale theatre production. Wishing to expand on the opportunities offered by her high school’s theatre department, Sarah worked to raise funds, secure facilities and a production staff, market and promote her production, and direct a full-length play. After her passing, Sarah’s family worked with Round House to create The Sarah Metzger Memorial Fund as a tribute to the inspiring young woman. Through the generosity of many contributors, the fund provides the financial resources each season for similarly passionate and motivated high school students to create a fully-realized production with a professional theatre company. Every year, the Sarah Play is directed, designed, stage-managed, and performed by high-schoolers, all of whom are mentored by professionals in their area.
This year, I am once again performing in the Sarah Play, entitled 'Murder, Mayhem, and Monkeys...An Evening of David Ives', and directed by Joan Sergay. It's a collection of one-acts, all by David Ives, and linked together through a theme of technology. The four one-acts are:
'The Philadelphia': a girl is stuck in a state of being called a 'Philadelphia' where she can get
anything except what she wants. Hey, we're all got to be somewhere. Performed by Zoe Johnson (Ali), Megan Wirtz (Waitress), and Helen Hanger (Marcy).
'Words, Words, Words': three monkeys in a research lab explore the philosophical idea that monkeys typing into infinity will sooner or later produce Hamlet. Performed by Kenny Hahn (Milton), Everleigh Brenner (Kafka), and Zoe Johnson (Swift).
'Sure Thing': two people, meeting for the first time, have their conversation reset over and over until they get it right. Perfomed by Megan Wirtz (Betty) and Kazz Feliz-Hawver (Bill).
'The Mystery of Twicknam Vicarage': in a classically ridiculous murder mystery, some startling revelations about the relationships between upper-class Brits surface as they try to determine who killed Jeremy Thumpington Fuh-Fuh-Fines. Performed by Everleigh Brenner (Sarah), Kazz Felix-Hawver (Roger), Kenny Hahn (Mona), Helen Hanger (Jeremy), and Zoe Johnson (Inspector Dexter).
The technological theme relates the one-acts through texting, Google searches, and iPhone apps, which connect each one-act to each other and to the audience.
The play opened last Friday night, and, though I say it myself, it was wonderful. The really, really tricky thing about David Ives one-acts is that they are language comedy, and, as Ives' most popular book of plays is entitled, it really is "All in the Timing." As an actor, there have been a lot of challenging aspects of this play--memorizing three one-acts, having three very different characters, going from one character to another quickly, learning how to act like a monkey, developing a Cockney accent--but the most persistent difficulty I and other actors have had with it is getting the timing, rhythm, and energy right. There is a very distinct rhythm to be found in one-acts, and that--combined with the fact that these are comedies (significantly harder than dramas), and language comedies to boot (meaning the audience has to hear and understand everything we say, or else it won't be funny)--makes them supremely difficult to perform. And, although we've been working very hard on this show for three months, and have a terrific fantastic wonderful director, as well as the assistance and guidance of Brianna Letourneau, our acting mentor, and Danisha Crosby, the directing mentor, it's still hard.
On top of that, tech week made me worried. The weekend before the show opened, we had thirteen hours of rehearsal in the black box, just teching the show (putting in lights, sound, etc), and running transitions (quick changes, furniture changes, etc). For most of that time, we were performing at half-energy, as it was a long weekend and we were mostly there to help the designers, anyway. That, combined with all the new elements being integrated, as well as the desire to take our already-done work to a whole new level, made the focus on rhythm intense. Tuesday we had a lot of difficulty, Wednesday we had a great run, Thursday we performed our final dress rehearsal for friends of Roundhouse...and 'Philadelphia' was way too fast, 'Twicknam Vicarage' was too slow. I was scared for Friday. It's a common theatre saying that a bad dress rehearsal makes for a good opening night, but my response to that is always, "What if it doesn't?"
As it turned out, it was a beautiful, beautiful show. The energy was high, the audience was warm, and the fact is, we love theatre, we love performing, and we loved telling this story. Also, the opening night of the Sarah Play is always a really really big deal. As I mentioned above, the reason it's called the Sarah Play is because it's in honor of Sarah Metzger. We are performing in honor of someone's life--someone who, like us, loved theatre. On Thursday, before our final dress, we had a long talk with Brianna and Joan about that: about what a gift it is that we get to do theatre, how the Sarah Play is really about enjoying theatre, and no matter what happens, the fact that we are doing this is special. Because Sarah was special, and theatre is special, and all of us coming together to commemorate that is special. And on the opening night of the Sarah Play, after the show, the Metzgers, Danisha, and various Roundhouse people (including Artistic Director Ryan Rillette, with whom we had an acting workshop earlier this year) speak about Sarah, and the Sarah Play, and what it means to all of us. There were many tears--from the cast, the professionals, and the audience. Everyone cries on opening night. (Incidentally, most of the cast had also cried a lot before the show. Joan had left us each a rose and a note saying how proud of us she was. I knew I would be crying that night anyway--it's an incredibly emotionally charged night--so I took the note and my thoughts to an empty hallway an hour before the show and bawled my eyes out). Before we went onstage, the cast warmed up together, and dedicated the show to Sarah.
Come see the Sarah Play. Really.
March 22nd and 23rd at 8, March 24th at 2. More information at
http://www.roundhousetheatre.org/learn/programs-for-students/the-sarah-play/.
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