Every once in a while, a theater production comes around that really knocks your socks off.
For patrons of the Rogers Little Theater this season, "The Other Place" is exactly that. This weekend, four actors will guide audiences through the tumultuous and enigmatic life of Juliana Smithton, a 52-year-old scientist for a pharmaceutical company whose research makes an exciting breakthrough just as her personal life is crumbling.
FAQ
‘The Other Place’
WHEN — 8 p.m. today & Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday; again May 8-10
WHERE — Rogers Little Theater’s Victory Theater, 116 S. Second St. in Rogers
COST — $17-$48
INFO — 631-8988
The production centers on Juliana's strong narrative voice that winds through her rocky marriage, anxieties about her estranged daughter and fears of being diagnosed with the same disease that her mother had.
Theatergoers are promised a strong hook from the beginning and a surprise ending that will change everything you think you know about the characters.
Joey Farmer, Rogers Little Theater manager, directs the play, which features Tom Karounos and Amy Eversole as Ian and Juliana, the lead characters.
"This is probably my favorite script I've had the opportunity to work with," Farmer says. "It's written brilliantly. The way the playwright has layered this show is amazing. Even having worked on it [for a year], I still discover things about it."
A huge part of its appeal is its emergence as a powerhouse script on the theater scene.
"The Other Place" first debuted in 2011 as an Off-Broadway production starring Laurie Metcalf, which picked up Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for outstanding play and outstanding actress. Metcalf won an Obie Award and was later nominated for a Tony. The drama became a Broadway production in 2013.
That makes Rogers Little Theater one of only six or seven theaters which have done the production and the only one whose staff coordinated with the playwright, Sharr White, for use of the original music.
"Not a lot of theaters have gotten to do this play," Farmer says. "I think [many] are intimidated because it's complex and new, but when my production chair saw Metcalf perform it, he was taken aback and knew that it was a great fit for us."
The difficulty of a play that depends heavily on two main characters, very few sets and high emotional stakes is the very reason Karounos was attracted to it.
An amateur theater buff, Karounos has performed in various community theaters around the country as he moved from job to job in sales. Last summer, he made his Northwest Arkansas theater debut in RLT's production of "Fiddler on the Roof" after a hiatus of more than a decade. Now that his children are older, he has more time to devote to his passion.
"I started getting back into theater recently, and it's been very exciting," Karounos says. "It's my way to give back to the community with what I enjoy, which is the arts."
"Fiddler on the Roof" was a great and familiar piece that helped him get his stage legs back -- and "The Other Place" is something else.
"This one has really stretched my ability," he says. "I thought this play was phenomenal. It's mysterious, haunting and was a stretch [acting-wise]. It's not like anything I've ever done before."
Whereas "Fiddler on the Roof" gave him the advantage of more easily memorizing lines, thanks to the music, Karounos found himself changing his methods to tackle this piece. He recorded every other line of the play so he could more easily practice his own between rehearsals.
In a storyline where dialogue is the main course, that's important.
"The characters talk over each other," Karounos says. "So you're not waiting for a cue. You can't just wait for a line to stop and then you go. That makes acting [in this] more difficult, but it's that way in real life. People talk over each other when they have an argument; it's actual communication. We don't wait for that period."
None involved will spill the beans about the punchy ending, but in a recent dress rehearsal, Farmer, Karounos and Eversole got a feel for audience reaction when they asked technical workers, stage manager and a couple others to sit in.
"One watched the show in its entirety and to watch his reactions and body language was rewarding," Farmer says. "At one point, he turned to me and said, 'WHAT?' and I could only say 'I know, right?'"
"Even at one of the script readings, we had one person say 'Don't be upset if I have to leave early,'" Karounos says. "But at the end, he was still sitting there with tears and looks of amazement.
"I thought, 'OK, that's a good sign.'"
NAN What's Up on 05/01/2015