The second play we produced from the class in the Spring of '25 was the amazing play by Jordan Harrison called "Marjorie Prime". Mr. Schaefer had seen the movie over one of his Summer Breaks and fell in love with the story. The stage play of course came first. With just four characters in the story and one location, we just had to add this play to our festival line-up.
The story is layered and complex; our cast was absolutely up for the challenge.
The Poster we hung up around school to get people talking
The rehearsals in class started with read throughs and getting the scenes on their feet.
This story needed a one living room set, and we had everything we needed in stock.
Once Spencer finished the run of Oleanna
they joined the cast of MP and became their stage manager
The cast really started to lock in when moved them onto to the stage
The technical aspects of the show also started getting added to the last several rehearsals
Freya Adkisson was brought in to run spotlight for the run.
This show has a special effect that has all of the primes illuminated in a blue light.
The audience can immediately recognize who is a prime and who is a human.
The Techies!
Charlotte Jennings on set changes, Mira Thies on lights
and Spencer Buchanan on sound
The set was given a over all white tone to suggest more of a modern or future era.
It also allowed for the lighting to have more theatrical effect.
William Roche and Jensen Clendennon start the story out as Walter Prime and Marjorie.
These two characters transport the audience into the 2060 story of eighty-year old Marjorie; her struggles with serious memory loss, her difficult relating with her own family due to secrets from her the past, and ultimately sharing the last bit of her time with an AI version of her husband.
The play asks lots of ethical questions, but ultimately it asks the big question, "what makes something real?". The actors did a great job establishing the relationships and building empathy for these characters. The story went to dark places and the backstory slowly gets revealed to the audience.
The reality of the world is teased in the first scene and the audience is left with questions..
We then meet Tess and Jon and the plot begins to get complicated...
All of the characters fight for a sense of control in their lives
It is fabulous, the dialogue flows beautifully!
Carl Ellis (Jon) and Elizabeth (Zodiac) Ryan, and William Roche
Carl was great in the role of Jon, and really gave him a sense of urgency.
Jon became the hopeless romantic in the story and his inventions impressive
Jon is the one who creates the AI primes in the story and comes to terms with the limitations of his creations...just like Dr Frankenstein.
Zodiac has been in a drama in the Black Box before and it was nice to have her back on the stage.
This beautiful script let her dive into a really complex and layered character.
She gave a heartfelt and empathetic performance as Tess, the audience really felt for her.
The set was a great playground and allowed for some great stage pictures.
There were all kinds of things places for the actors to go on this tiny little stage.
Jensen brought a real sense of wonder and contemplation to her Marjorie.
The character spends the story struggling to bring any sort of clarity to her fast-fading reality.
The audience loved Marjorie's sense humor;
all of the snarky and witty comments
Each scene moved seamlessly into the next with help from our runner Charlotte Jennings.
There were also quite a few props in the show that had to be moved and set during changes as well. The costumes were pulled from our costume stock.
"Why are you the Marjorie for me?"
The story takes a turn when Marjorie suddenly the new Prime.
The play really begins to feel like it is in the future...
...the Primes begin to collect on the wall
The dark secrets of this families past are slowly revealed and we see that it has definitely taken its toll on Tess's mental health. Jon does his best to comfort and hopes the AI can be the solution
The play doesn't answer all of the questions it poses, but it brings the audience to a wonderfully exciting place of conversation about AI and what we want from it, what kind of limits should be placed on it, and how can it help us heal when we are broken.
The Advanced Acting Class 2024-2025
Walter Prime says,
"GO SEE A PLAY!"
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