The University of Mississippi’s theatre department never fails to produce quality entertainment. This Friday, “Clybourne Park” is making its way to Meek Auditorium.
The award-winning play by Bruce Norris will kick off the Ole Miss Theatre’s 2016-17 season.
Rory Ledbetter, director and associate professor of voice and acting, said he is ecstatic about working with not only the talented cast, but also the incredible writing.
“One of the things I’ve loved working with is the writing,” he said. “It’s intelligent, thought provoking, engaging and very electric.”
One of the most interesting aspects about “Clybourne Park” is how the story is told. The play consists of two separate stories over two acts, centered around a single house in a Chicago neighborhood. The first act, set in 1959, finds the middle-class community anxious to prevent the sale of the house to a black family. Act II takes place in 2009, where the now predominantly black neighborhood is in the midst of gentrifying.
“It’s obviously a very unique show, and its uniqueness stems from the fact that the two acts aren’t necessarily part of a continuous story,” junior acting major Riley McManus said. “They’re related, yes, but unlike other shows, the characters in Act I and Act II are not directly linked and obviously are not the same people.”
The fact this production follows two story lines requires dedication from the cast. Many of the actors play multiple roles, such as McManus, who takes on three.
“[In Act I] I play Jim, the preacher friend of Russ and Bev Stoller, and Jim is a too-upbeat Presbyterian preacher,” said McManus. “In Act II, I play Tom, the lawyer hired by the Clybourne Park Homeowners’ Association to stop the construction of the new house being built in the Stollers’ old home.”
In Act II, McManus also plays the character Kenneth during a flashback to life in the Stoller house a few years before the events of the first act.
“Clybourne Park is a show characterized by smart dialogue and hilarious moments tempered by sobering reminders of harsh realities,” McManus said.
Sophomore musical theatre major Kaelee Albritton also takes on two important roles within the play.
“I’m portraying the roles of Bev in Act I and Kathy in Act II,” she said. “Bev is a housewife in 1959 who is married to Russ. She loves displaying a picture-perfect image of herself and her family to the community, even though there is so much more going on underneath the surface in the Stoller residence. Kathy is a real estate lawyer in 2009 who is very much a ‘what you see is what you get’ type of woman. With her stubborn and childlike personality, Kathy adds an interesting dynamic into the group.”
Albritton said responses to the story will vary, but what matters is the audience takes away awareness.
“Theatre isn’t about forcing ideals or opinions of the show onto our audience,” she said. “It’s our job as storytellers to raise questions that the audience can answer for themselves. Everyone is going to respond to this story in different ways. I know what I’ve been taking away from it personally, but even myself and my cast mates have been experiencing something completely different. The only thing I ask the audience to take away from this production is a sense of awareness. This show will hopefully make our audience be honest with themselves and how they treat those around them.”
Although the cast explores different roles, there is only one character who remains stagnant throughout the entire production.
“The one character that never changes is the house… the house is the one constant,” Ledbetter said.
Ledbetter said he hopes the audience members will leave “Clybourne Park” assessing their own personal stances on important issues.
“I would say I want audience members to go away questioning their own beliefs, what their beliefs are and why they hold their beliefs,” Ledbetter said.
Tickets are on sale now at the Ole Miss Box Office. The show will run from Friday, throughout the rest of the month and into October. For specific dates, check the Ole Miss Theatre website.
