The Department of Theater Arts is presenting “Picnic” by William Inge. The show began on March 19 and will continue through March 29.
The 1950s play takes place Labor Day Weekend in a small Kansas town, in the yard shared by two widows in their 40s, one of whom has two young daughters who are completely opposites of each other. Things get riled up when a young stranger passes through town one day and interacts with the women.
This play contains several themes pertaining to youth and how one must bask in this period instead of letting it fly by. The content is very realistic. There’s a bit of everything: tears, joy and laughter. Since the play contains some moderate adult themes, the Samuel French website suggests an audience over the age of 12. Nonetheless, it has received several awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
APU theater students had the pleasure of working with director Gregory Sims on this production. Sims is a professional actor, writer and director who attended and worked at Carnegie Mellon University. He has been an actor on film and television for 20 years and is the founder of Practical Audition Technique, an acting studio in New York.
After the show, Sims discussed how he heard about this play and why he wanted to direct it.
“A friend of mine who’s a professor here told me they were doing ‘Picnic’ and thought I might be interested in directing it and I was. It’s a play I’ve always loved my whole life,” he said.
Sims gave his interpretation of the play and what its message is.
“It’s a wonderful exploration of youth and passion that shows when folks don’t have a spiritual center in their lives and don’t know how to process the powers of youth. It can eat us alive, so to me, it was a play about people struggling with the forces of youth and with passions, and this is how that all plays out,” Sims said.
Sims said he loves APU and the students and he looks forward to teaching in the APU Theater Arts Department this fall. Junior BFA acting major Tyler Hubbard, who played Hal Carter in the production, talked about the hard, tedious work that went into preparing for this show. He shared his perspective on his character and how he related to Hal.
“You know it’s really hard to connect with the character who you don’t really relate to necessarily, I kind of felt like an opposite to him at first, but then as you go deeper, you realize he’s a human too, with basic human needs and desires, so I think we can all relate to that in some way,” Hubbard said.
During the Q&A at the end of the show, junior BFA acting major Kellyn Turrietta said this is one of the first shows done at APU without microphones on the theater’s main stage.
“That’s something that’s definitely different from past shows, and it just shows how far APU has come in voice training,” Turrietta said.
The APU Department of Theater Arts puts on a variety of shows throughout the year. For more information on the program or how to purchase tickets, visit the APU Theater website. The show will be playing at 7:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. through March 29. Tickets are on sale now for $5 and can purchased online on the APU Theater page or at the door.