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'HOLE IN THE SKY'
 EOU actor David Mather plays a 67-year-old window washer in Hole in the Sky.' (). 9-11. Two simple numbers. Yet they've burned an indelible mark on the soul of all Americans alive on the date of the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. Now the attack on the Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan has been turned into a play called "Hole in the Sky" coming to McKenzie Theatre Nov. 20-22. Kenn Wheeler directs. "While we have a tendency to try to forget things that are sad, this one we can't afford to forget," Wheeler said. "Most of the experience that people have had with 9-11 is from an outsider's point of view, like watching a TV movie and being not really connected. The show will provide audience members with a human connection to 9-11." The 22-person cast includes a variety of characters, from executives and electricians to secretaries and window washers. Playwright Reed McColm will be in attendance Thursday and Friday evenings. A special treat will be after-the-performance talkbacks with cast, playwright and producer to discuss the show. The talkbacks start at approximately 9:30 p.m. McColm will also give a free lecture open to the public beginning at 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21, in McKenzie Theatre to discuss his year-long effort at researching "Hole in the Sky." Wheeler said he particularly likes the script because it could have been very pandering and heroic. "But these are real people some heroic, some cads," he said. The biggest challenge for the actors will be, because of bare-minimum staging, creating the impression in the audience's mind being in the World Trade Center. The show runs through 29 scenes on five platforms, using lighting to switch from platform to platform. The cast has prepared for the show by being blindfolded and taken into an old building and told to find their own way out. That replicates, in a simple sort of way, the chaos and darkness following the plane's crashing into the tower. Cast members also discussed emotional experiences from their pasts and thought about how these experiences relate to the characters they portray. What's more, the cast watched two documentaries on the tower so cast members can draw upon those feelings while on stage. EOU will enter the show in the American College Theater Festival. If chosen, the show would go to regionals next February in Moscow, Idaho, and, if it wins there, to nationals next May in the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Play-goers are advised to bring their hankies. "It's a tear-jerker," Wheeler said. TIMES: 8 p.m. Nov. 20-22, 2 p.m. Nov. 22 PLACE: McKenzie Theatre TICKETS: $7 adults, $5 students and seniors, reserve at 962-3757 BEHIND THE SCENES: Lighting designer, Shaun Sorensen; set designer, Lyle Schwarz; costume and makeup designer, Jennifer Anne; sound designers, Alan Arnson and Todd Tschida CAST LIST: Jennifer Anne plays Alisha, Micah Blake plays Darrin Rosenbaum, Timothy Crabtree plays Milt Santos, David Enslow plays Greg Ingrassia, David Gammage plays police chief, Jennifer Gower plays Gina Rebecca Heihn plays Elaine, Garet Lamb plays Blake Eaton, David Mather plays Salvatore, Alex Mitzimberg plays Yesh Kaada, Erin Mollerup plays Dierdre Wardley, John Nehlich plays Trevor Jokhart, Dana Payne plays professor, Buck Potter plays Jasper Noonan, Shannon Rempel plays Annette Rosenbaum Jeri-Lynn Roberts plays Lisa Wacht, Joel Royce plays Eric Santos, Neva Saunders plays Amelia Santos, Katie Schmidt plays operator, David Sintay plays Douglas Barbuto, Shawn Trimble plays Eschrow, Todd Tschida plays John Damota, Jillian Wheeler plays Cari Rosenbaum |
