After months of rehearsal, Keene State College students opened the doors of the Redfern Arts Center from Nov. 15-18 for eager audience members to see their rendition of the Tony Award winning musical, Company.
Photo Contributed by Céline Perron
The show takes place in 1970s New York City where the audience meets beloved bachelor, Bobby, at his thirty-fifth birthday party.
The party is thrown for him by ten of his closest friends, which make up five married couples. Centering around Bobby’s single life style, the musical depicts Bobby’s search for love, and the fear from his married friends that he may never find it.
While the show paints marriage as a beautiful union between two people to the outside eye, as the performance dives deeper into each relationship, Bobby, by spending time with the couples, sees the imperfections of marriage such as fighting and scepticism of one another’s love. As a result, Bobby finds himself torn between wanting to have someone to share his life with, but also having the privilege of freedom.
Junior Isaiah Lapierre, who played Bobby in the KSC production, talked about what it was like to play such a complex and conflicting character.
“It’s kind of an incorrect notion, but the pleasure of playing an enigmatic character in this musical that is not very linear. It’s sort of just vignettes and scenes, and as such his journey is kind of puzzling, but not puzzling. His revelations are his epiphanies. He’s profoundly simple but very complex, and he’s ultimately abstract,” Lapierre explained.
During the show, Bobby is seen with three different girlfriends. Martha, who is adventurous and loves everything about New York City; April, who is a flight attendant that describes herself as “dumb;” and Kathy, Bobby’s on-again, off-again girlfriend who feels out of place in the city.
Senior Erin Conti made her KSC Theatre and Dance production debut as April, and expressed what it was like to be on the stage.
“I was pretty nervous going into it,” Conti said.
Not being in the theater department, Conti explained that it was a little nerve wracking coming into a production where most people already knew each other.
“I knew some before from the music department,” Conti later said.
Despite not knowing a number of her co-stars before the working with them, Conti stated that she felt welcomed by her fellow cast members.
“It was just a really great experience, and everyone was so welcoming. It was awesome.”
On opening night of the performance, the Main Theater in the Redfern Arts Center was packed with KSC students, family and community members anxious to see the production.
First-year Megan Marcotte was one of the many people who went to enjoy the show that night. Marcotte explained that she had gained some background knowledge after learning about the show in class, and was impressed with the casting of the roles.
“I’m really impressed with Bobby. I think they picked a pretty good cast member for him. I think his character is pretty good. He plays a good character.”
The opening night performance concluded with a standing ovation from many of the audience members.
Erin McNemar can be contacted at emcnemar@kscequinox.com
