Written by Isabelle Hendrich, Editor in Chief
DAYTON, TN – The Great Divorce play is the senior job of director Dana Rice. Rice is a double significant in Theater and Marketing at Bryan College. Rice will likewise be the assistant directing for The Murder Room, which will be carried out on April 20 – 23.
In her adjustment of The Great Divorce, a narrative composed by C.S. Lewis, Rice masterfully consists of lots of poignant scenes and discussion that brings the story to life. By having the chance to sneak peek the play, it can be specified with certainty that this production will be kept in mind for a long time.
“I really like allegories, like Pilgrim’s Progress, or stories that are fictional, whimsical, that have theological themes behind them . . . I listened to the audio book and the way they presented the book, just with the different characters’ voices and everything really made me envision it,” Rice said on why she chose to pick The Great Divorce.
The twelve cast members consist of Martina Ferguson, Hannah Westerman, Jillian McKinney, Brynna Phagan, Haddie Ward, Eliana Martin, Madeline Fournier, Cameron Cook, Marcus Heil, Caleb Mulligan, Josiah Gelatt and Hunter Landreth. Each of the cast members play 2 to 4 characters, making an overall of thirty-one characters in the play.
While there have actually been a number of other productions based off of the book, no official script has actually been offered online. After asking the C.S. Lewis Foundation for approval to carry out The Great Divorce, Rice invested 3 months composing the script from August through October. Auditions were kept in November.
Because of a demand from the C.S. Lewis Foundation, tickets are complimentary for the program, however they were booked so rapidly for Feb. 17 and Feb. 18 another efficiency was included on Feb. 16. Attending the production deserves one Christian Formation Credit for trainees.
During the production of the program, Rice experienced a number of problems. Rice wanted to make the phase green, either by painting it or having actually grass laid throughout it. Since astro-turf is costly, she searched for alternative choices up until a generous donor spent for about 80% of the expenses for the grass.
Describing another held up, Rice said, “Honestly, there has been a lot of spiritual warfare because this play unlike a lot of other plays in that it has the gospel is present through it, so there has been a lot of small ways the enemy has tried to get a foothold.”
Despite this, one true blessing Rice skilled is that she desired a Scottish sash with a broach for among the characters. She had the ability to discover it at a thrift store after just a couple of minutes of searching.
While The Great Divorce is the very first play Rice has actually directed by herself, Rice said she truly enjoyed doing it. The most tough part of directing, according to Rice, was relying on that God was directing her actions.
On her preferred parts of the play, Rice said, “My favorite part is scene 10 in the play, towards the end, is the man with the lizard. He’s got this lizard on his shoulder . . . it’s a very dramatic scene and it has a very present reality. But I just love the man with the lizard scene because he is also one of the only ghosts who chooses to go to heaven, he chooses to give up what he is holding most dear as a ghost, which is the lizard and so I find a lot of hope in that.”
Martina Ferguson plays the Narrator in The Great Divorce. Since The Great Divorce was composed by C.S. Lewis from a very first individual viewpoint, the storyteller in the play handles this function to much better help the audience comprehend what is taking place. When asked what her preferred element of playing her character was, Ferguson said, “All of the character development I got to do because the narrator in the script was practically a blank slate.”
Ferguson said that as the Narrator, she almost gets to experience the play like an audience member because she asks lots of concerns that the audience is most likely believing and she is finding out about specific elements of the play for the very first time as the Narrator.
“It gave me the opportunity to do all of these exercises, I ended up giving the narrator a whole backstory, a whole personality that explains a lot of the lines she says and a lot of the acting choices I had to make, so it was a really great opportunity,” Ferguson said.
Brynna Phagen is a junior double significant at Bryan College in Liberal Arts and Communication, Media, and Culture, and she depicts a number of various functions in the production.
“I think my favorite part is just about the experience, I guess looking at the book, and being able to dive into those characters and see how that could be portrayed on the stage. It’s just been really cool to see the book that I love so much come to life,” Phagen said.
On the faith of the play, Phagen said, “I can’t say that I agree with all of it, but I don’t think we are supposed necessarily, because the thing about The Great Divorce is that it is not a literal story of what C.S. Lewis thinks heaven and hell are like. But I do think it is a really interesting way to look at free will and what we do with it in our earthly lives.”
At completion of the program, there will be a talk back, where audience members can document concerns they have for either Rice or Alexis Marsh, a trainer of carrying out arts at Bryan College. Once all of the concerns have actually been gathered, Marsh and Rice will read them from a box.
Isabelle Hendrich is a senior interaction significant and history small at Bryan College. Besides running, Hendrich likes to check out and do crafts. She is a triplet whose brother or sisters, Benjamin and Savannah, are likewise going to Bryan College.
