Monday, November 16, 2009

An Outsider's Opinion

By Kelsea Solo

“Why yes dear!” “But of course dear!” “Oh Abby!” “Oh Martha!” Laughter fills the room and I find myself laughing as well; just another typical evening in room 219. My roommate Emily Nott and dear friend Grace Pappalardo are going over their lines for the play ‘Arsenic and Old Lace.’ Let me tell you, these girls really get into character! Emily and Grace are quirky to begin with, but when they start speaking like elderly women with a hint of a British accent, their quirkiness is just taken to whole new level. I find myself laughing with them and I honestly don’t know what I’m laughing at. Yes they make for quite the pair of adorable elderly sisters, but other than that I have very little knowledge about the play. Everyone I know and almost everywhere I go ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ is there though! I am beginning to sound crazy, but I mean what the heck?! I am beginning to feel left out! I come to my room and cast members are rehearsing lines, I see my roommate before she goes to rehearsal in the evening and I am asleep when she returns. In my RCAH 111 class we are told about an upcoming group project and who do I get assigned to work with? Two members of the cast of ‘Arsenic’: Grace Pappalardo and Tim Smela. And what do we decide to do our project on? You guessed it, the upcoming play ‘Arsenic and Old Lace.’ While I may not be in the play, ‘Arsenic’ has most definitely, undoubtedly, become a big part of my life at the moment. Sure, I am not in the play, but I am promoting it. I am living with the lead in the play. Majority of my friends are in it or will be on the stage crew. But my role in the grand scheme of this play is of Control Variable. That’s right. I am trying my best to stay ignorant as to the plot of this play and what happens in ‘Arsenic.’ While I love listening to Emily and Grace go over lines in their cute little old lady voices, and I couldn’t have asked for better people to work with on my group project (Tim and Grace are wonderful project team members who know I am unfamiliar with the play and are doing their best to not ruin the show for me), I feel as the Control Variable, I am constantly being tested to remain dumb. Yes dumb to ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ which is very difficult because like I said before, ‘Arsenic’ is everywhere. While Tim did have us watch a little clip of someone else’s production of ‘Arsenic’ in one of our project meetings, I still am left a bit clueless as to what this play will entail (which is good; it means I am still ignorant!), but for now I am perfectly fine being the Control Variable, sitting on the outer edge, listening from outside of the circle, analyzing the madness that is ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ going on before me. I know that my role in this play is to remain constant in my lack of knowledge of this play, to analyze those involved in the play, meaning to understand why my friends laugh when ‘Matt Swartz’ and ‘ass’ are used in the same sentence and to be so very proud of all my new friends committing themselves and their time to this show. Just as I type time commitment, I hear Emily mumble under her breath, “Damn, practice is at 5 today!” And the clock now reads 4:36. Ahh! I am so anxious to finally see what the final product(ion) will be like, to finally see what everyone has been practicing for and staying up late for will be wonderful. Hopefully after the show everything will come together and I’ll no longer be standing on the outside looking in at this play. This weekend can’t come fast enough! I can’t be the Control Variable forever. Hahaha
So I guess I’ll continue promoting the show! Come see Arsenic and Old Lace this weekend Nov. 19 @ 9pm, 21 @ 8pm, and 22 @ 2pm in the RCAH theater (in the basement of Snyder’Phillips). The cost is to attend the show is $5, but finally being able to understand how a play can take over your friends’ social lives is priceless. :)

1 comment:

  1. this is not kelsea solo (its rebecca; long story) anywhoo...Rebecca thinks the piece was lovely. She liked the conversational tone and thought it made the play seem more 'down to earth' instead of abstract. I would definitely love to attend Arsenic and Old Lace!

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