Thanksgiving is coming up soon, and that means the annual dreading of family dinners over the holidays. Here at Wright, professor Christopher Leonard has chosen the school’s fall play to be about just that. He chose the play "The Humans" “because the script is amazing. When I first read the play, I was struck by how relatable it is not only to me, but to how it might be relatable to a much wider audience.”
Leonard, who is directing the play, goes on to explain that “On the surface, ["The Humans"] is about a family Thanksgiving dinner, but it is also about fear. The Blake family is having a holiday gathering in a place that is completely out of their element. Their youngest daughter, Brigid, [played by Maribella Arguello], has just moved with her boyfriend, Richard, [played by Jude Johnson], from Scranton, PA to New York City. In fact, the moving truck hasn't even arrived yet. Despite these obstacles, the family tries their best to carry on with their family's holiday traditions. Brigid's family includes her father Erik [who's played by Thomas Velisaris], mother Deirdre [played by Wendy Acosta], sister Amie [played by Max Rue], and grandmother Momo [played by Leiana Carrasco]." Soraya Ledesma and Logan Gonzalez are understudies.
The play was adapted into a film in 2021, and can be streamed at home currently. Leonard chose this play as Wright College's first play since Covid-19 suspended all productions. He has been working together with professor Patrick Ham, the lead set designer who’s stagecraft students are helping create the set. Ham explained, “We have been in production since the beginning of the semester. [Leonard] and I started talking back in the spring, finalized things over the summer.
“All of the production staff members have their role but the show doesn’t happen unless we are all on the same page. That is why it is so important for the director and I to start talking about it before the show is cast. We are in constant communication with what is ready for the cast to use in rehearsal.”
Ham also described how much work goes into this production, saying he “designed the set and got [Leonard] a Ground-plan right around the time the play was cast. A Ground plan is an overhead view of the stage so [Leonard] and the actors can begin blocking the play.”
The students from the stage design class taught by Professor Ham get to learn first hand how to create a set by working on the set for the play. In the case of this show, "'The Humans' has a pretty big set. Luckily I was able to modify and use some parts from our ill-fated 2020 show "The Addams Family" and modify them to make them work for this show. Everything is built from wood, we do not typically build anything out of steel here at Wright, but there is always a chance depending on what the show calls for.”
For most of the cast, they were all in the same theater class together, and when the opportunity to audition for the first play back since covid, they all took the chance.
Acosta explained that she had taken some theater classes prior to this play, but it was not fulfilling, so she wanted to audition for the play to get a deeper theater experience.
Arguello has taken theater and acting classes in the past and has always been interested in acting but never had opportunities and since there were no plays during covid, she decided to jump into it once the chance opened up. She also explained how she is normally a pretty shy person, but acting has really helped her open up.
Gonzalez says he's always loved acting ever since he was a kid. He’s starred in "The Lorax", and played the role of the cowardly lion in "The Wizard of Oz" as a kid. In highschool he became more anxious about joining plays however, and then covid hit so he had to stop joining plays for a while. Now that there was a new chance to join the school play, he jumped at the opportunity.
Tickets for the play are only $5 for students and $10 for non-students. Show times are on Nov. 11, 12, 18 and 19, all at 7:30 p.m. There will be a Matinee show on Nov. 17 at 2:00 p.m. They are looking for volunteers who can fill roles for tech, ushers, backstage people, makeup, costumes, wigs, lights, and more. Volunteers receive free admission for the play. If you are interested, email stagemanagerwright@gmail.com for more details.
For anyone interested in becoming involved with Wright’s theater program, Stage Wright – the student theater club – holds biweekly Tuesday meetings at 2:30 p.m. or 3:00 p.m. They can also email Ham at pham@ccc.edu if they would like to volunteer to be on the crew or be an usher for the show. Ham added that “If anyone is interested in auditioning for a Stage Wright show, we will be having auditions for our Spring 2023 show in the first classes in Spring 2023.”
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