Keene State Theater and Dance Department (TAD) is anticipating the opening night of their next production “Really Really” in a week.
The production is directed by Theater Department Chair Kirstin O’Brien and Broadway actor Jake Odmark, who was in the original production of “Really Really.” Odmark worked with the cast as part of a 10-day acting intensive.
According to O’Brien, the production was loosely based on the 2006 Duke lacrosse case involving an exotic dancer accusing Duke lacrosse players of sexual assault.
“The play is much about a college campus, college kids and takes place at a rugby house,” O’Brien said. “There is an accusation of sexual assault and whether it happened or not is not the point of the play, it’s more so once the accusation is made, how does that impact the people involved in the accusation?”
O’Brien said “Really Really” opens the floor to discuss the common occurrence of sexual assault on college campuses.
“I’ve always wanted to try and find pieces of theater that I think tackle the same topics and open up the hard conversations of if this might occur, and when it does, What do you do about it? Where do you go? What support do you have?” O’Brien said.
Considering the weight this production can carry for audience members, O’Brien organized support services to appear outside of all performances such as a sponsor from the Monadnock Crisis Prevention Center and Wellness Center staff.
“We’ll be there for support in case somebody needs to step out,” O’Brien said. “I wish it wasn’t a relevant topic but I’m going to say, unfortunately, this has been happening across college campuses for decades.”
Additionally, there will be a conversation with these support people and the audience following the opening night performance.
Sophomore Amanda Sennett portrays Leigh in the production and said the process has been more fast-paced compared to other TAD productions.
“This originally started off as a staged reading and then it evolved into what it is now which is essentially a full play,” Sennett said. “It’s only been a 10-day intensive… Coming into the process, we already were able to work individually on these characters for two or so months.”
According to Sennett, the cast and crew will spend the final week of rehearsal focusing on themes and breaking down each scene to ensure a smooth production.
“[We] are working one-on-one to make sure we’re all fighting for what we need to really be fighting for in terms of character,” Sennett said. “And a lot is just getting out and really understanding… communicating with each other and making sure that everyone’s comfortable with everything.”
Junior Wilson Hines portrays Cooper in “Really Really” and describes his character as, “A loud mouth guy with all bark and no bite, who is pretty much trying to take life super easy… His ultimate goal is to just get to a point where he doesn’t really have to do any work.”
However, for Hines, it took him a while to discover who Cooper truly is.
“I really only truly found his energy the other night where Jake was really pushing us on to live in this specific scene where the energy is just so heightened … Obviously I saw Cooper’s flaws from the beginning, but now I’m really discovering that he’s just a weirdo.”
Hines said, “People are going to see this and it’s going to turn some heads… you see it and it’s like whoa, partly because of those themes and partly because it’s such a powerful statement.”
Similarly, O’Brien encourages people to attend a performance to, “Be a part of the conversation that revolves around this type of subject matter… So God forbid anything of this nature becomes a part of someone’s life, they are able to open up the conversation and use the resources that they know they have.”
Performances of “Really Really” will take place in the Redfern Arts Center Wright Theatre from March 5 to 9 at 7:30 p.m. each night. Tickets can be purchased on the Redfern box office website and are free for all students.
Nicole Dumont can be contacted at
ndumont@kscequinox.com
