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Student-Directed Production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Opens
The Woodberry Forest Players production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which opens this week, is the debut directorial effort of Jared Thalwitz ’16. He, along with other members of the Advanced Acting and Directing course, are staging the darkly comic play about conflict between the medical staff and patients on a psychiatric hospital ward.
Jared signed on to serve as the show’s director because teacher and director Brent Cirves, Woodberry’s fine arts chair, was scheduled for a spring sabbatical. “We talked as a class about who would direct the play while Mr. Cirves was away,” Jared says, “and I offered to take on the challenge.” The other members of the class agreed and placed the experienced actor, whose previous roles at Woodberry have included Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet, Sir Robin in Spamalot, and Frank Abagnale, Jr., in Catch Me If You Can, into the director’s chair.
Though Jared expected his long list of stage credits and years studying theater at the Forest to have prepared him to lead a stage production, he was surprised by how much a director has to do. “Luckily I had help from Mr. Ray Smith and other faculty members,” Jared says.
Together, the team stayed on schedule and created a piece that challenges the conventional interpretation of the classic drama. “We wondered what would happen if the lines between right and wrong were less black and white,” Jared says. “What if Nurse Ratched wasn’t evil? What if she really cared about the patients and was just trying her best to help them and do her job?” Lindsey Gammon, a senior at William Monroe High School, plays the ward’s head nurse.
Evan Backer ’16 plays Randle P. McMurphy, a new patient whose energy and disrespect for established norms disrupts the ward’s routines and eventually leads to tragedy. “I’ve played a lot of roles,” Evan says, “but this is the first time I’ve been the ‘bad boy.’ I’m not that type in real life by any stretch.” For Evan, working with a student director brought challenges and rewards. “It’s easier connecting with someone closer to my age,” he says. “But we’re teenagers, so Jared had to shush us a little more.”
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
By Dale Wasserman.
Adapted from the novel by Ken Kesey.
Bowman Gray Auditorium, Walker Fine Arts Center
8:00 pm
May 19-21, 2016
Admission is free and open to the public. Suggested for mature audiences.
Woodberry Forest School is an exceptional private school community for high school boys in grades nine through twelve. It is one of the top boarding schools in the United States and one of the only all-boys, all-boarding schools in the country.
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