Features Reporter
Photo by: Millie Schreibman
With the Northern Lights overhead, nine different couples, all at different points in their relationships, display their lives for 600 eager audience members. The couples cause the audience to laugh, cheer and cry when something goes wrong.
This image comes from the play “Almost, Maine,” which is just one of four plays that will be performed this year by the CMU Theatre department.
This semester they will perform two plays, “Rent” and “Almost, Maine.”
“Rent was chosen because it is similar kinds of things to students lives,”head of theatre arts Timothy Pinnow said.
“Rent” is a musical about a group of friends trying to survive in New York City while having to deal with crippling problems like poverty, drug abuse, love, sexuality, AIDS, and death. The rock opera encompasses one full year in the lives of these individuals.
“Rent is not a safe or traditional musical,” theatre major Hazel Gibson said. “Audiences won’t get what they expect, it will open people’s eyes demonstrating all the kinds of love there are.”
Usually controversial plays or musicals are reserved for the smaller Mesa Experimental Theatre, but “Rent” has such “obtainable human values,” that it was scheduled for the William S. Robinson Theatre. “Rent” will be performed from Sept 27–Oct 6.
The other piece that will be performed this semester is “Almost, Maine,” which is a play that focuses on the comic aspect of relationships. It is set in the fictional town of Almost, Maine. Throughout this play, the characters experience a relationship in some form.
“You should be able to relate to it no matter what,” Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts, Jeanine Howe said. “For, us, oldsters it will bring back so many memories, and the youngsters will be able to relate and identify with each character. People will say, ‘Ah, I know what they are going through.”
The simplicity of this play allowed Howe to cast some actors who have not been able to perform on the stage at CMU yet. Even though the play is simple, many of the actors have been intentionally cast for two, diametrically opposed roles. In other words, a single actor would be cast for two characters who contrast each other.
“The actors will have to know why they were written that way,” Howe said. “They will all be completely different types of experiences.”
The other major difficulty that the production of this play presents is the creation of the Northern Lights. The ever-changing spectacle of the Northern Lights will be recreated on stage for the audience to see. “Almost, Maine” will be performed November 14-17.
“We put the needs of the students first and foremost,” Pinnow said.
This semester will be a challenge for the students producing these pieces, but as Howe said, “There is something for all the ages to enjoy.”
For more information, visit the Colorado Mesa University Theater department homepage at: http://www.coloradomesa.edu/theatre/index.html, or call 970.248.1233.
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