Audience members will inevitably see themselves reflected in the mosaic of family scenes in the Glen Arbor Players’ production of A.R. Gurney’s Pulitzer Prize nominated play “The Dining Room” set for Thursday through Saturday, July 25, 26, and 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the Glen Lake Church.
In this 1981 play, directed by Dr. Thomas Webb, seven actors play 57 different characters in 18 vignettes over 45 years, all in the formal dining room of an upper-class American home as an old way of life fades and new ways replace it. We have all been on one side or the other, or both, of some of the funny, poignant, evocative stories of family struggles, of being young and growing old, of control, unruliness, mistakes, and love. Always love.
The vignettes are not sequential; they jump around in the same way our memories do. A haughty aunt forcefully defends her fine tableware and manners from her condescending nephew. A resistant teenage daughter and an inflexible mother argue about decisions. A family attempts to keep their dementia- addled mother at the Thanksgiving dinner table. The once familiar job of household maid disappears. With almost no props and only minimal costume accessories, the actors use their voice, face, and posture to play a wide range of ages, personalities, and emotions.
The dining room itself is a character, a quiet one watching a generation that, with few exceptions, sees neither the value of the formal dining room that once anchored most American homes, nor the importance of the customs that gave structure to their parents’ lives.
In 2013, Dr. Webb directed The Dining Room at the Old Town Playhouse Studio Theater.
“The Dining Room is a grand and complex play. It’s fun to do, ” Webb, the director, said.
Three other members of the 2013 troupe, actors Rick Korndorfer and Jan Dalton, and director’s assistant Margaret Schaal, are involved in this production too.
“I love this play!” Korndorfer said. “It’s an actor’s delight.”
He hesitates to compare the off-book performance in 2013 to this readers’ theater version because they are so different, but he does say that readers’ theater is fun and rewarding, while the memorization of an off-book show is more liberating and changes the way an actor can perform. Of this cast, he said, “...our current production, in my opinion, is stronger. The women in this show are very, very talented! It’s been wonderful to be a part of it.”
Margaet Schaal observed that one challenge with readers’ theater is “trying to capture the overlapping of scenes which are more evident in a full blown production,” but she also said, “It is a tribute to the good writing that two actors who have played in this show before wanted to come back and do it again playing the same characters.”
Eleven years ago, Dalton doubted that a unique show like this would return to Traverse City.
“There are very few shows like this and the likelihood of finding another one like it, let alone performing it in, would be rare and surprising,” Dalton said.
The overlap between the scenes “is clever and well-written,” and the audience will enjoy “seeing our ensemble take on so many roles. Everyone gets to play children, and everyone gets to play characters older than they are.”
The other cast members are Celeste Anderson, Karl Hartley, Jean Jenkins, Chelse Kaye, and Jan Ross. Ron Smith is the narrator and Margaret Schaal is the director’s assistant.
The church is located at 4902 W. MacFarlane Rd.
Free admission; $10 goodwill donation gratefully accepted. Refreshments will be served.
