An Insider's Opinion

By Grace Pappalardo

I’ve always joked about sharing an unhealthy amount of qualities with octogenarians. I enjoy knitting, watching the news and solving crossword puzzles, all stereotypical pass times of the classic “old person.” I have perfected the art of aging myself decades with my habits. However, I never could have guessed that my strange talents for acting like an elderly woman would ever come in handy. When I heard that my dear friend and fellow thespian Matt Swartz was casting roles for “Arsenic and Old Lace,” an upcoming play he was directing, I decided to follow the countless pieces of advice I had received from current Michigan State students and got involved. I did a little research on YouTube before my audition, investigating the potential roles I might be asked to read for. While watching clips from the old film, I found myself becoming quite suddenly attached to one character in particular. She was a charming elderly woman wearing a high lace collar and a whimsical expression of complacency. I watched her bustle around the movie’s set in a slight cloud of reverie. She seemed to maintain her endearing, spry quirks, despite her old age and I became immediately intrigued. This was my first encounter with the character of Martha Brewster and at that moment, I silently hoped that we would somehow meet again.
As fate would have it, Matt cast me as Martha Brewster, the lovable and quaint aunt character that I had originally been endeared by. Overtly ecstatic, I arrived at the first rehearsal, ready to begin the saga of developing my character and fleshing out Martha Brewster to the fullest. At our first read through, Matt took meticulous steps to help the cast realize that acting in this play was not about memorizing the lines or accomplishing a perfect blocking format, but, most importantly, to become our characters. This idea was completely novel to me as a rookie in theater. In every other school play I had been in, line memorization and choreography trumped character work and I had never experienced becoming close to a character. As rehearsals continued and people began to develop the voices, mannerisms and habits of their characters, I began to see why Matt had been so adamant about his cast getting to know and love the characters they played. The acting was more real than I’ve ever before experienced in a school production. Each character had his own motivations, thoughts, and mannerisms and these seemingly miniscule elements created such an enormously authentic setting. During each practice, I felt like an eighty year old women whose only concerns were cooking and her nephews. I began to let myself feel the emotions that Martha would feel in the circumstances that arose in the play and I could feel my fellow cast members doing the same around me, adding volumes of energy and legitimate feeling to the scene.
“Arsenic and Old Lace” has allowed me to discover what the actual aim of theater is. It not only acts as an outlet for entertainment, but also as a vessel to portray the emotions and persuasions of the different characters and even those of the playwright himself. I think that this production of the show does exactly that and helps the audience identify with a character on stage. I’m hoping that, since the cast is so vehemently dedicated to the quality of the performance, the audience will laugh at our jokes, gasp at our lack of morals and feel like a part of the Brewster family.