Play takes audience’s ‘hearts’

Also, download the free Paws to Listen podcast for a review of this performance.    
  
Packed audiences sat on the stage of Russell Auditorium last Thursday and Friday nights to experience “A Piece of my Heart,” a play following the experiences of six young women as they serve in Vietnam and as they return home.
    The seating arrangement, called “theatre-in-the-round,” consisted of rows of chairs circling the entire stage. Audience members were seated very close to the actors and were able to see every facial expression, which according to the director of the play, senior theatre major Brooke Faulkner, made the show more engaging.
    “I wanted the audience to be closer when they were watching the play, because it makes people take things more to heart,” Faulkner said. “If you’re right there while the action is going on, you have to be a part of it.”
    Sophomore theatre major Rachel Edmonds was the stage manager and costume designer for the play. She felt that Faulkner’s seating choice added to the experience of the show.
    “It really brought the audience into the play,” Edmonds said. “And since this is such an emotional and true play, by putting the audience on stage, it feels as though they are a part of the stories being shared.”
    The play shows the women endure the struggles and hardships of war as they experience death, violence, love, friendship and even some fun during their time in Vietnam.
    Erin Burnett, senior theatre major, played Mary-Jo, a young singer that traveled all the way to Vietnam to perform for the troops. “A Piece of my Heart” was part of Burnett’s senior project, and she learned to play the guitar specifically for her role in this play. Although her role was an intense one, she liked that the play focused on all the women as a whole.
    “My favorite part was the ensemble work that we did,” Burnett said. “It really was about the group of women, not about a specific person. We all really worked hard together and I’m really proud of the finished product.”
    Maria-Victoria Perez, who played Leeann, also acted in the play for her senior project. According to Perez, it was a struggle to become more laid-back and easygoing in order to portray her character Leeann, who is a true hippie. Perez feels that this play sends an important message to young people today.
    “Our generation didn’t live through Vietnam War, but they’re going through a war now,” Perez said. “They can kind of relate to war. Even though they’re different in context, they can still see what’s going on.”
    Sophomore theatre major Bren Thomas played Bruce, a frustrated and angry young soldier whose days fighting in Vietnam have taken a toll on him. Bruce’s personality is very different from Thomas’s, which Thomas says is what made it such a fun role. According to Thomas, “A Piece of my Heart” may have helped GCSU students understand more about war.
    “I think it’s important for young people to see this play, because it’s about an era and a war that a lot of us don’t know about,” Thomas said. “It’s also pertinent to our society today, because once again, we’re fighting another war and I think some of the ideas in the play parallel what’s happening in Iraq.”   
    Because the cast consisted of only ten actors, there were often character and costume changes. The four men in the cast had numerous roles, each playing dying soldiers, love interests to the women and even a Vietnamese child.   
    The cast and crew put an extreme amount of work into making this play a successful tribute to the veterans, hoping to not only reach the young but also those who did live through the Vietnam era.
    “My favorite part would be after the show was done and people’s responses to it,” Perez said. “Like veterans coming up and saying how much they appreciate us doing a good job and doing this for them.”
    The “theatre in the round” seating along with the obvious connection that the ten actors share really brought the play to life for audiences.
    “I think this play was a huge success,” Edmonds said. “I really wish that we had more nights to perform for an audience. We sold out every night, and still had people standing at the door wanting tickets.”
    Mary-Jo’s quote from Act I sums up the women’s time in Vietnam perfectly: “Best year of my life – Worst year of my life.”
    “A Piece of my Heart” depicts the good and the bad that these women experienced, and how they returned home to protesters rather than a warm welcome.
    “I really think it’s a good release for people to see what other people went through and that they did move on and everything was okay at the end,” Faulkner said. “So students can look past the fact that they were not in Vietnam. They can connect to moving away from home, going through struggles and seeing light at the end of the tunnel.” 

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 18 2008. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry