TOWNSHEND — It started as the Leland and Gray Players' winter production - a classic comedy of manners about love and mistaken identity.
Then, a few weeks into blocking Richard Sheridan's well-loved 18th century chestnut, The Rivals, for a more traditional stage configuration, the blocking was changed so the stage could be like a tennis court, with audience on both sides - a clever concept of one of my peers.
And then we Players opted to set The Rivals in the spring of 1929 to be exact, just before the stock market crash that hit the play's original setting of Bath, England, soon after the one that hit the U.S.
However, these changes were only the beginning.
A feisty, duel-loving Irishman named Sir Lucius O'Trigger has become a Texan, and a young male servant has turned into a young lady named Fig. Topical references that pepper the play have also been altered to suit the times.
However, one thing remains: the timeless character of Mrs. Malaprop. A woman of class and faux dignity, she prides herself on the language that she butchers time and time again. One of her lines - “He is the pineapple of politeness” - is followed by a polite nod from her fellow character and a slightly confused expression that zooms right over her head.
Mrs. Malaprop is sure to remind her romantic bookworm of a niece that “reading does not become a young woman” - absurd, of course, but a popular belief at various points in history. Throughout the 1920s, women's roles were changing, and while some opposed, many others fought for equality - and education.
In the play, though quite a few female characters could be seen as both foolish and frivolous, a few heroines can be found. A servant, Lucy, uses the negative stereotypes against both women and the lower class to outsmart the foolish higher class. She even makes a living out of it.
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Throughout our work on this production, a tradition has remained: that we young actors have had an equal say in where our production takes us. We have the creative control to show the play as it is, or to change it and create something uniquely our own.
The beauty about The Rivals, our director Ann Landenberger (“Ms. L”) will remind us, is that it is a “malleable script.” Others have changed the play before us, adding their own twists and turns to the already colorful plotline. The Utah Shakespeare Company even turned the show into a rip-roaring musical set in the Wild West.
The decision to set The Rivals in the 1920s was Ms. L's idea. She e-mailed us one day maybe two weeks into rehearsals, about a vision she had of a Gatsby-like wardrobe set against the set we originally had planned, Georgian in style and decor. It would be something new, something different. A mix of the old and the new and a perfect way to take advantage of the flexibility we have been given.
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The time shift isn't the only change for me. Having been acting with the Leland and Gray Players since I was in 7th grade, I have chosen to step aside from the limelight and try directing. Ms. L has graciously made me her associate director, and as such I have the opportunity to work with some extremely talented actors.
The Rivals is the perfect play to begin my directing career, not only because it is extremely funny and entertaining, but also because of the script's malleability. We are presenting not only Sheridan's play, but also one that will always be our own unique interpretation - an interpretation I've helped to shape.
I have enjoyed working on this show since the beginning, through every change that has occurred. It has been a wonderful experience, one I hope you will share with us. The evening will be made even more entertaining by the live performnce of '20s love songs heard now and then through the course of the show.