“The most important part is the kids had fun and created memories,” says Jesse Evans about the play “Six Characters in Search of an Author.” For six weeks, around fifteen members of the acting troupe worked on just that.
While modified from the original to “make it more interesting for teenagers,” according to Evans, the play has intellectual aspects. Beginning with an acting troupe practice interrupted by mysterious characters from an unfinished play, it evolves into a complicated recount of the characters’ lives.
“The ultimate goal was the character will live on in the minds of the audience,” says Brodie Gross ’24, who portrayed the main father character obsessed with telling the family story. As the characters explain their history, the audience is wrapped into a tale involving a grieving mother, two expressionless children, a quietly fuming older brother, a sassy older sister, and the overbearing father.
For each character, the preparation varied. “I pretended to be dead, and so I just zoned out the whole show. I wish it was deeper,” says MC Huff ’26, who played an emotionless child.
“I was just stupid and making jokes the whole time,” says William Hollberg ’26, whose character served as comedic relief throughout the show.
But even after tireless practice, “There was never really a day where everyone was in sync,” Hollberg claims.
“We had some issues with lines,” Evans admits, “and we weren’t fully ready to go the Monday of the show, so that was a bit of a panic.”
“We got really lucky on Thursday, it wasn’t bad,” says Huff on the first show. The play ran successfully, and was a great experience for all.
