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Comedy about struggles
By Rebecca Andrus
“Butterflies Are Free,” a play by Leonard Gershe, will be the next play performed by the SCSU Theatre, Film Studies, and Dance Department. It starts Tuesday.
The play has been in production since the beginning of the semester and features four talented students–Adam Lesar, Samantha Brix, Christina Stamos and Joe Wicker. It is a romantic comedy about the struggles between a blind man and his sighted love interest. Given the university’s diverse population, this plot should strike achord with many people.
“The play really does a good job of teaching the audience how to interact with people with disabilities,” Lesar said.
The show is directed by assistant professor John Cimics, who has directed numerous plays for SCSU and elsewhere, including “The Learned Ladies,” “Blithe Spirit” and “Twelfth Night.”
Cimics said chose this particular play for several reasons.
He said he looks for dramatic integrity. “Butterflies Are Free” was a Broadway hit that later became one of Goldie Hawn’s first movies.
Cimics also wants to challenge his actors.
“It’s a real challenge to play a person who is blind,” he said.
In the play, a young man who was born blind tries to become independent of his over-protective mother while striving to become a song-writer. He lives next door to an aspiring actress, who has no idea how to act around him because of his disability. Gradually they become friends; then young man’s mother shows up again.
The meaning behind this comedy is that everyone needs to come to terms with something. The mother has to learn to let go of her son. The son needs to understand that his mother is only trying to help him. The actress must accept young man’s differences and her newfound love for him.
The emphasis on learning was not accidental. October is National Physical Disabilities Awareness Month, and Cimics specifically wanted this time for the play because of that.
He has worked with and taught many people with physical, mental and emotional disabilities, and he wanted this play to be a tribute to them.
To ensure accuracy in the portrayal of the characters in this play, Cimics had his cast go to the Office of Student Disability Services.
They received information about disabilities and attended workshops on how blind people acted and moved.
The purpose of this was to ensure that the characters were respectfully crafted, the play realistically shows what it’s like to be disabled and how disabled people wish to be treated.
Showtime is Tuesday, 8 p.m. It will run at the same time each night until Saturday.
Sunday’s showing is a matinee at 2 p.m. The play will be held in the Performing Arts Center and is free with an SCSU identification. Tickets are available at the Atwood Information Center.
For more information on the disabled, contact the Office of Student Disability Services, located in the Atwood Theater.
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