Theater

Mrs. Miniver stages premiere

Paige Reynolds, Grace Pitts, Corbin Pitts, Michael Klucher and Nathaniel Darbonne rehearse for the worldwide release of Mrs. Miniver. The 1942 movie won six Academy Awards.
Paige Reynolds, Grace Pitts, Corbin Pitts, Michael Klucher and Nathaniel Darbonne rehearse for the worldwide release of Mrs. Miniver. The 1942 movie won six Academy Awards.

In 1942, the World War II film Mrs. Miniver captured American audiences, winning six Academy Awards -- more than any film at the time except for Gone With the Wind.

And for the first time, the film has been adapted for the stage in a worldwide release Wednesday at the North Little Rock Argenta Community Theater, says Arkansas playwright Judy Goss.

Mrs. Miniver

7 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, July 28-30; 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday and July 31-Aug. 1; and 2 p.m. Sunday , Argenta Community Theater, 405 Main St., North Little Rock

Tickets: $30-$50

(501) 353-1443

argentacommunitythe…

After years of negotiations with Warner Bros. and the estate of author Jan Struther, North Little Rock director Vincent Insalaco got the green light to put the movie he loved on stage.

"It truly is a big deal. The major studios -- even the minor ones -- do not give the rights out from movies that have won Best Picture," Insalaco says.

Mrs. Miniver takes place outside London in the years leading up to World War II, following the story of the community and the Miniver family as the war approaches and through the Blitz.

And Insalaco had been intrigued by the movie since watching it during his childhood in the '60s and '70s. After that, his family watched it every Christmas.

"When everyone was watching Sound of Music, I was watching Mrs. Miniver," Insalaco says. "It was political, and I had a passion for politics. It was a story about three strong women, and I loved the characters."

The film was first adapted from Struther's 1939 book, also titled Mrs. Miniver. When Insalaco read in a newspaper story that Mrs. Miniver was originally to be a stage play -- one that was never officially produced -- he knew he would one day try and put the movie on stage. He eventually secured the rights.

In 2013, Insalaco approached Goss to write the stage adaptation. Her main focus: structuring the play. Struther's book, Goss says, isn't much like the movie. It has the same characters, but rather than one long narrative, the book is a series of vignettes.

The film version of Mrs. Miniver wove the book's characters into a more cohesive plot. Goss also made changes, shortening the run time, combining some characters and streamlining the sets.

Goss made Mrs. Miniver a memory play, in which Judy Miniver -- a child during the war -- returns to her village years later and narrates the story.

"She greets the audience, says, 'Nice to see you,' things like that, and sets it all up," Goss says. "From time to time she comes into the play to observe moments in the past of the war or show a memento in a box she found. It's a nice way to make it a very theatrical event for an intimate audience."

Despite its 1940s story line and the seven decades since World War II, Goss and Insalaco believe there's much to be learned from Mrs. Miniver about how communities can support the armed forces.

"What's missing from America today is we have such an opportunity to bring us all together, to work together, and really appreciate what militaries do," Insalaco says. "We have men, women, anyone can be in the military, but it's a disengaged military. If you don't sign up and go, you don't have any experience with it."

With September marking the 70th anniversary of World War II's end, Goss says it's particularly meaningful: "It's lucky that now is the time Vince [Insalaco] got the rights and it's a good time to be working on this material."

Style on 07/21/2015

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