FARMVILLE — From a mythical town on a magical night come tales of love and loss that border on realistic — almost.
“Almost, Maine,” set to open on Valentine’s Day at Farmville Community Arts Center, is the story of higher latitudes and various attitudes on romance. Written by John Cariani, the play features seemingly unrelated vignettes about relationships.
“This is a show about love, period,” Director Deana Rodman said. “(It’s) people finding love, realizing they’re not in love anymore, falling out of love.”
Since its premiere in Portland, Maine, two decades ago, “Almost, Maine,” has been produced by thousands of theater companies across the country, including Greenville’s Magnolia Arts Center. Rodman, who was part of the 2018 Magnolia cast, is making her directorial debut with the FCAC production that includes two of her former directors (Kevin Lee and George Crowl).
“I do love the show,” said Rodman, a teacher at Snow Hill’s West Greene Elementary School. “I didn’t realize how much I loved the show. I get to see it every night. I thought I was going to get bored watching it over and over again as a director, but it’s so good.”
The play features a dozen actors portraying 19 characters in nine loosely connected scenes that take place on a winter night in a fictional northern town. Several cast members play more than one role.
The characters “East” and “Phil” represent the first and second ever stage roles for Farmville resident Jack Dail.
“I also did it (as an example) for my daughter,” the Ayden native said. “She wants to be in plays. Sometimes she can be a little timid.”
Dail, who works as a nurse, said friends were surprised to see him audition for community theater.
“I didn’t know anything about the show,” he said. “I just wanted to get kind of our of my comfort zone.”
Fellow cast member Lauren Roupe is no stranger to the stage, having started in middle school at Smiles and Frowns Playhouse. The D.H. Conley High School graduate and Pitt Community College freshman, who made her FCAC debut this summer in “The Seussification of a Midsummer Night’s Dream,” also has more than one role in this mid-winter production.
One of her characters, Sandrine, bumps into her ex-boyfriend at a bar during her bachelorette party.
“It’s a very fun, awkward scene,” Roupe said, laughing. “We’ve all been in some situation involving romance and how to navigate that … so I think it’s a very relatable show for everyone.”
There are some surreal scenes, including a woman who carries her broken heart in a paper bag. But Rodman agrees most audience members will be able to identify with the happy and not-so-happy endings.
“We have people who are just meeting each other for the very first time. We have people that, I call it ‘the divorce scene.’ Then we have two guys that are like good country boys but they fall for each other,” she said. “To me it’s just everyday life. … It just touches every aspect of life.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0