lessons in comparison

I’ve spent the past two months in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, friends, located inside the black box of Everyman Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland. It has been an honor and challenge returning to the classic American play by Thorton Wilder as Emily Webb in Our Town.

I first played Emily at Brown Ledge Camp as a fifteen year old camper. Last spring, I was thrilled to be cast in the role for this season and eager to tackle the character again, this time with a little more understanding of the craft. I must say, it has been more of a challenge than I expected, especially playing the young Emily in Act One.

For those of you unfamiliar with the play, Our Town chronicles the life of a small town in New Hampshire at the beginning of the twentieth century and follows the neighboring Gibbs and Webb families, and more specifically within those families, George and Emily. I do not remember the process of rehearsing the first two acts when I performed the play the first time, but remember well working on Emily’s famous “goodbye” speech in Act Three. Though my current director, Donald Hicken, and I have put much care and crafting into Act Three, it has been Act One this time around that has caught my attention and frustration.

The act is saturated with the “daily life” of the families and the challenge for the cast has been to bring detail, sincerity and humor to Wilder’s calculated scenes. I’m still playing with the moments each night on stage in performance with my scene partners, but the trick for me in the past few days has been to release my attention to the work and allow Emily to be more carefree about her young life.

This pays off when we arrive at Act Two, when the audience witnesses the moment that “Emily and George first knew that they were meant for one another”. Emily has taken herself a bit too seriously and her education is what endears you to her. I wont give away too much of Act Three, though my main lesson learned for this process has been to pull back the expression of emotion- to feel it just as much and just as powerfully- but to allow the emotion to simmer beneath. I have to thank Donald for his patience in teaching me this lesson. One I know I will continue to study.

I hope you’ll have the chance to see my work and give me feedback.

Our Town at Everyman Theatre in Baltimore runs until April 18th with eight shows a week, click here for tickets and more information. *Now extended due to popular demand until April 25th*