By Mitch Holt, Copy Editor
The Theatre Department combines student and faculty actors in the department’s comical fall dinner theatre production, Brighton Beach Memoirs, by Neil Simon, which opened Aug. 24 after less than a month of rehearsal. The last two shows of the production are Friday and Saturday.
Adam Hester, director of the production and chair of the Theatre Department, said planners were looking for a comedic play that would allow students to share the stage with faculty members.
“It allows us an opportunity for students to work alongside their mentors, to actually see some of their teachers doing some of the same things they’ve been teaching them,” Hester said. “And it allows our faculty to stay current and on their toes, and it keeps them working so that we are able to do what we teach.”
The play was cast in April so actors and actresses could plan their summers accordingly, Hester said.
Hester said he was to see last year’s seniors leave, but the department has a good group of actors coming up who have stepped in and done a great job with Brighton Beach Memoirs.
The production takes place in 1937 during World War II and is about a boy named Eugene, a 15-year-old obsessed with the Yankees, growing up with his Jewish family in Brooklyn, N.Y. Two families are forced to live together because of the death of a father in one of the families. The sibling rivalries that take place because of the close quarters of the two families provide comic relief to the play, Hester said.
Hester said behind the brilliant humor in the play, serious themes of war, survival and family unity emerge.
“The play is really a great play about family, about the hardships of earning a wage in 1937, about the beginnings of World War II and those great Neil Simon one-liners,” he said.
Jay Reese, actor who plays the main role of Eugene and junior theatre major from Abilene, said this is a poignant play about forgiveness and reconciliation, and he’s glad he got to share the experience with a diverse group.
“My favorite thing about this play is the collaboration that went into the production,” Reese said. “Everyone had something to bring to this show, whether it was the designers, the director or my fellow actors. It has easily been among my favorite shows to work on.”
