REBECCA HALE
Staff Writer
The Performing Arts Company’s first show of the semester had its debut last weekend; the show had themes so widespread that the scenes depicted could be related back to every person and their family.
The Dining Room, a play by A.R. Gurney, takes 18 different scenes set in differing time periods and uses each one to present a raw view
of different social and political issues that have unfolded in past, present and future alike. The interesting part? The entire play is centered around WASP (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant) families in their own dining room. So, why a dining room?
“Dining is not simply eating. It is an experience that brings people together and the WASP culture has a respect for that togetherness,” said Cody Jones in his director’s notes.
“The china and silver are not signs of wealth or power, but rather intricate details of the dining experience. It is these details that make dining special. There’s a purity to the cleanliness and order in which the WASPS dined.
“When a table is set with beautiful china, silver and cloth it signals importance. It communicates that the experience in which we are about to engage in has been thought about and cared for,” Jones said.
The play only had a six-person cast, so each actor in turn played at least nine different roles, ranging from small children, to married adults, to an old man who is nearing death. This cast included Kate Armstrong, Joanna Shapiro, Brittany Bassett, Nicholas Stevens, Michael Benoit and Joshua Carey. These students, along with their crew, have been working on “The Dining Room” since last semester’s dead week when auditions took place.
“It’s a play about real people, real things and showing how this WASP culture doesn’t only affect the people who were the
WASPs, but that they have threads in almost every aspect of our American lives, and how we deviate from that,” said Stevens, a senior BFA acting major.
“It’s a foreign aspect when you start the play, but by the end of the play, you realize that these people aren’t foreign at all, and that they put themselves on this pedestal because that’s what they do. These are just human beings who have a family and care about their family and reputation just like everyone else,” Stevens said.
The style in which the scenes played out overlapped one another, causing a phantom-like feeling. As one scene was ending, another was beginning, and characters from both scenes were in the dining room at the same time, although they did not interact with one another.
This helped the audience feel the time changing throughout the play, and the fact that the table was being passed down through the generations. The idea is that a dining room is timeless, as are the concepts that go along with it.
“There are scenes that are in different eras and we play them in different eras and our costumes show the different eras, but it also shows how it changes and how it’s also kind of all the same, and how problems from the ‘20s are also problems that are relevant now,” said Bassett, a junior BFA acting major.
The entire play covered a multitude of topics including Alzheimer’s, divorce, culture, affairs, growing up, coming out, politics, death, birthdays, money, depression, family, discipline, abuse, anorexia and peer pressure.
“There’s a lot of things that have been passed down from this type of culture to our own modern culture today,” said Benoit, a senior BA acting major. “One big thing is, you always get excused from the table, no elbows on the table when you’re eating, etc. All the different types of morals and ethics come from the higher class.”
A show like this would normally take place in Bartlett Theatre, but due to the tight schedule and construction in RAC this year, PAC decided to hold this production in the Williams’ Center MPR. However, Jones had a vision for the set as a black-box theatre, and they weren’t going to let location stop them. The crew set to work building a box-style set for the show that would enclose the audience; they are centered around the main focus, the dining room table. This is where all the action happens.
The set included four walls that were painted black, with red paint to accent, and candles that burned on each wall, to add to the homey feel. As the audience was inside the dining room walls this gave the illusion that the audience was in the dining room itself, as opposed to being on the outside looking in.
“I think they did well considering they couldn’t get Bartlett,” said Adam Munio, a senior video production major and spectator, who attended the show in support of Shapiro, his girlfriend. “I [also] thought the acting and production quality is fantastic. I didn’t care for the writing in the first act, but the concept is brilliant. It has a timeless aspect to it.”