ON THE BALL: McPherson has big plans for Terrebonne hoops
August 1, 2007Dear Editor,
August 3, 2007
For the Renee Rebman play “Death Always Comes in Threes,” director Jonathan Foret had to rustle up a coffin and an urn as props to create a realistic-looking funeral parlor on the Le Petit Theatre de Terrebonne stage.
Fortunately for Foret, the South Louisiana Center for the Arts (SoLa) executive director was able to get a friendly local funeral home to lend him a casket.
“We’re a non-profit,” he said. “It’s nice that businesses step up to the plate.”
Additionally, Foret had previous experience overseeing the construction of a Halloween haunted house as part of a fundraiser for the center in 2006.
“It’s like directing, but not as literal,” he said.
SoLa is staging Rebman’s three-act play in a short run Aug. 2 through Aug. 5 at Le Petit Theatre (7829 Main St. in Houma) as the center’s second benefit performance since its founding in 2001. All shows are at 7:30 p.m., except for the Sunday performance at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10.
SoLa (7839 Park Ave. in Houma) offers arts classes and workshops to the interested public. The center receives money from grants, but a large portion of its support comes from fundraisers.
“Death” is a black comedy written by Ohio playwright and young adult book author Rebman. The work contains three 30- to 45-minute one-acts all set in a small-town funeral home.
In the first, a mother (Sue Peace), who has been newly widowed, has to contend with her two daughters (Summer Skarke and Arielle Domingue), who both have opposite personalities: one is a free spirit and the other is a stuffed shirt.
The second playlet concerns a cremated corpse – his ashes stored in an urn – who had been a bigamist in his earthly life. His real name was Fredrick, but he was known conveniently as Fred to one wife (Patti Loupe, nee Armand), and Rick to the other (Elizabeth Holcomb).
Finally, the third one-act promises to be a more nuanced view of relationships. A young funeral home assistant (Jillian Vedros), and a young handyman (Tim Stevens), who is doing painting work at the parlor, talk about their dreams and expectations.
Josh Martin and Reggie Pontiff round out the cast.
“Sue Peace is fantastic,” Foret said.
Stevens, Vedros and Pontiff have done plenty of previous work with Le Petit, but Skarke, Domingue and Martin are new to the Houma venue.
Holcombe has plenty of acting experience. Along with Peace, she acted in SoLa’s first benefit performance, “Bermuda Avenue Triangle,” held at the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center in 2006.
Foret said that all three one-acts have roughly equal humorous parts and intense passages.
“It’s dark comedy,” he said. “It’s not all laughter. There are sentimental parts, too.”
He said a lot of the tension is relieved by laughter in the one-acts.
“It’s hard to sit through a play that’s all morose,” he said.
“Death” is essentially Foret’s debut as a director. The 30-year-old has directed high school plays, and he attended a theatre conservatory in New York, but his work with SoLa has involved fundraising mostly.
Foret was not uncomforable when talking about the morbid aspects of Rebman’s work.
The casket appears center stage in two of the playlets. In the third one-act, the coffin is sealed, but for the first, the box is open.
“I’m working on two options,” Foret said. “We’ll either have a live person in the casket, or we’ll have a dummy. I don’t want something unbelievable.”
“For the first two acts, people are there for the funeral,” he said. “The third act is a guy and his uncle hired to paint. It’s just them working, but there’s a body in the (closed) casket. The painters use drop cloths to keep paint off the coffin.”
Ashley Furniture in Houma provided some of the furniture used onstage. Samart Funeral Home in Bayou Blue lent SoLa the casket.
Foret said he did not know how to acknowledge Samart in the play program because mentioning the grim prop may cause a few theatergoers to squirm.
“We thank Samart for securing items for the play, but I don’t necessarily say ‘casket’ in the program,” he said.
Call SoLa at (985) 876-2222 for reservations.
