Senior project: 'Angles in America'

Hope in the midst of social turmoil

Stephanie Williams
assistant features editor

Standing before me is a woman hallucinating that she is in Antarctica, as she converses with a voice coming from behind her. As she plays with the snow on the ground, she discusses her fictitious pregnancy and how wonderful their life could be, lived in the cold.

A moment later, I see a man being examined in a doctor’s office while he recites a laundry list of symptoms he is suffering due to his affliction with AIDS, the last item on the list being that he thinks he is “going nuts.”

Subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes” by its author, Tony Kushner, “Angels in America: Part One, Millenium Approaches” is poignant, intriguing and “the broadest, deepest, most searching American play of our time,” according to Jack Kroll, of Newsweek. The play is a winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and also of two Tony Awards for Best Play.

It is also a senior project, culminating four years of studying at Millikin, for seniors Nick Curry, Lily Emerson, Brian Marshall and Andrew Martinez. Emerson came across the play last year when she had to read a scene from the script for an audition.

“It was one of the best plays I had read in a long time,” Emerson said.

Emerson approached several then-juniors during the spring of 2004 in hopes of pulling the show together as her Senior Acting project.

“This was something that needed to be done here and it’s a really challenging piece,” Emerson said. “It is so meaty and there’s lots of technical things that are really difficult and I thought that if we could pull this off and have it be all student-run that it would be really amazing, and we could show the faculty that we could do this on our own.”

Among the students Emerson approached was Marshall, a BFA Tech/Design major. Marshall is overseeing every aspect of design for ‘Angels,’ including scenery, lighting and costumes.

“The challenge is making sure the design goes through with what [the director] wants the show to look like, with his conceptual vision of the show,” Marshall said.

Marshall has had to work closely with director Curry on the production of ‘Angels.’ Working on this senior project together has been a true culmination for the two, who knew each other even before attending Millikin.

“Brian and I have known each other since high school so we started doing theater together,” Curry said. “We sort of have a rapport and vocabulary that extends way back.”

Curry, a double major in Theater and Philosophy, was also approached by Emerson last year. He asked her to save the project for the spring semester, since he was in London during the fall of 2004.

“I’ve worked with [Emerson] before several times with great success; I was honored to be asked by her,” Curry said.

While working with a cast full of his peers, Curry has taken a collaborative approach to directing ‘Angels.’ He wanted his cast to utilize the skills they had developed over their four years at Millikin.

“I really feel like my job as a director hasn’t been so much dictating to [the cast] what to do but shaping the ideas that they came to me with,” Curry said.

Jeff Farber, a senior Acting major who portrays Louis in the show, appreciates Curry’s approach to directing Angels.

“[Curry] lets the actor do their thing but at the same time is so compassionate and guiding as a director,” Farber said. “It’s so great working with people who are towards the end of the road at Millikin and it’s great seeing how they’ve grown the last few years and all the stuff that they’ve learned and seeing them applying it.”

The dynamic characters of ‘Angels’ have posed a challenge to the cast.Farber plays a man who leaves his lover after discovering that his partner has AIDS.He began rehearsals disliking his characters disposition.

“At first I went into it hating my character, but it’s actually been a real joy trying to play someone that I dislike so much,” Farber said. “On the surface, he doesn’t seem to have the best ideals or morals but I think what is so dignified about him is he does what he has to do to survive.”

Martinez plays Louis’ former partner, Prior. Portraying a man dying of AIDS, according to Martinez, is the most challenging role he’s had to play. In addition to information received from dramaturg Angie Balsamo, Martinez also researched for his part by attending AIDS clinics and looking up information online.

“It’s very difficult. I had a few sleepless nights after reading information about [AIDS],” Martinez said. “It’s something that I’m hoping I can do truthfully.”

Emerson’s biggest challenge has been integrating her character’s Valium addiction into her role as Harper.

“I read a lot about the different symptoms, but I’ve also been trying to balance that with making sure I’m understandable,” Emerson said. “A lot of the scenes I’m in include either me hallucinating or being in someone else’s dreams.”

The play interweaves all these characters to include elements of religion, politics and fantasy. The play not only discusses homosexuality and AIDS, but also thoroughly examines personal identity and the interconnectivity of human lives.

“I think the overriding message of the play is hope.That’s a huge reoccurring theme,” Curry said. “The social commentary is incredibly important but certainly not cutting edge.”

Curry believes the audience can expect to see excellent acting and a well put together production. The cast’s focus has been on “integrating a lot of aspects of production and getting them all working to do the same thing,” Curry said.

The two performances will be held on Friday, April 8 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, April 9 at 1:30 p.m. Performances will be held in Pipedreams, located on the corner of Oakland Avenue and Wood Street. Contact Curry via e-mail at ncurry@millikin.edu to reserve tickets.

The final product will be a truly thought provoking senior project.

“It’s about America and it’s about being gay in America and it’s about AIDS, but it’s also not just about those things,” Emerson said. “It’s about humans figuring out how to connect with each other.”

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