Brown County High School theater students are finding their dark sides.
In the fall play, “Another Part of the Forest,” they’ll portray members of the dysfunctional and evil Hubbard family.
The 1946 play by Lillian Hellman will premiere Nov. 2. Usually staged in late October, the play was moved to two weekends in November after a casting change.
“Another Part of the Forest” tells the story — and secrets — of Marcus and Lavinia Hubbard and their three adult children, Ben, Oscar and Regina. They manipulate those around them to gain power.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Lavinia has a secret that her husband wants to be kept forever.
“She wants desperately to leave and go back to her beginnings, and make up for the sin she feels she’s lived in with this group for all those years since her secret. Marcus will not let her go,” said Laurie Godfrey, head of the theater department.
“Everything to them is power, money. They don’t care about people around them and what happens when you start manipulating the world,” she said.
“When I start looking at it and it starts tailing into what we’re seeing nowadays, This is something we need to look at.”
The play takes place right after the Civil War in 1880 in a fictitious Alabama town. It’s a prequel to Hellman’s hit Broadway play “The Little Foxes,” which also follows the Hubbard family.
“It’s not like they are politically correct in any way, and we certainly don’t want to offend anyone in this show, but it was what it was. That’s the way things were,” Godfrey said.
“We did filter a tiny bit, but the play time period is what it is. You can’t change history. It’s really just a background to what’s going on in that household. … We might raise a couple of eyebrows every once in a while, but for the most part it’s all about the story of this family.
“You watch. All the truth eventually does come out, and what happens in the family structure and how the powers in the beginning are no longer the powerful at the end.”
The theater department has read this play every three years and the students have always wanted to perform it, Godfrey said.
“I finally looked at it and said, ‘Maybe we really should pull out the stops and do this play because my acting group will learn incredibly,” she said.
The play pushes the student actors into areas they’ve never gone before, but the “mean-spirited play” will allow the students to learn a great deal, Godfrey said.
“They have been fighting to find these characters, and oh my gosh, what they’re doing, as they’re growing into it, some of it just stops you cold and you have to go, ‘How did they find that?’ It’s really powerful and it’s really wonderful,” she said.
For senior Rachel Bessire, playing daughter Regina is a step out of her comfort zone. This is her first lead role, but her ninth time participating in a high school theater production.
“She is a daddy’s girl, but evil. She knows a way to get the dad, to have her twisted around his finger. She has an evil side and is super smart, so she thinks about everything she does and how it’s going to benefit her,” Bessire said.
“My family, they’re going to be completely surprised because I am a shy person, then playing this part of being terrible is going to really surprise them.”
Senior Noah Hostetler will play Marcus, who he describes as stern and controlling.
“He controls the entire house and he knows he can,” Hostetler said. “He makes people feel bad for just pure pleasure basically. … It’s very different from how I am in real life, but I guess I portray well it enough.”
This is Hostetler’s first lead role.
“It’s a really great show. I feel like we’re going to bring a lot of power with it, and there’s a lot of different levels in it that will keep people on their edge of their seats the entire time,” he said.
Hostetler has been in four other productions. He plans to study acting in New York City after graduation.
“It really was pure happiness (when I found out about the role) because this is my last year of high school and I’m going into this for an actual living, so to get one of the main roles was just really good for me. It felt really nice,” he said.
Jacob Landry plays Ben, who he describes a watcher and a thinker. He also plans to pursue acting after high school like his brother who is already studying in New York City.
“I am kind of the person that sets everything up, then watches it all fall down then laughs behind people’s backs,” Landry said.
Senior Cole Lewis plays son Oscar, and like Landry, this is his second time playing a lead role. Lewis has performed in two other productions and Landry has been in nine.
“I was just really pumped. I am ready to go out on a lead,” Lewis said.
The core cast describes the Hubbard family as evil, corrupt and selfish.
“They are always climbing on top of each other to get ahead,” Landry said.
“You have to find the dark side to you. It takes time, because you can’t just get up there and do it. It takes rehearsal, it takes reacting off of each other and building relationships,” Landry said.
Godfrey said audiences will get “dragged” into the Hubbard family drama.
“You watch what is happening and you just sit there going, ‘Boy, I’m glad my family is not this dysfunctional,’ but it is powerful to watch. There’s no question about that, you get sucked right in,” she said.
“I am all for theater that takes your focus, but also then makes you think about the parallels to what we see in this show at times. Theater really is supposed to make you think about society as a whole, in some ways, when it is at its best, and I think it does that.”
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Regina Hubbard: Rachel Bessire
Understudy: Meghan Cassiday
John Bagtry: Eli deWeerdt
Lavinia Hubbard: Vera Wagler
Understudy: Jamela Jafari
Coralee: Virginia Lecklider
Understudy: Jade Crouse
Marcus Hubbard: Noah Hostetler
Benjamin Hubbard: Jacob Landry
Jacob (Jake): Keaton Hayes
Oscar Hubbard: Cole Lewis
Col. Simon Isham: Zelton Kay
Birdie Bagtry: Grace Richardson
Understudy: Calla Imming
Harold Penniman: Cameron Cassada
Gilbert Jugger: Will Leggins
Laurette Sincee: Kara Payne
Understudy: Jamela Jafari
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What: Brown County High School theater production of “Another Part of the Forest”
When: Nov. 2 to 5; Nov. 10 to 12. Thursday, Friday and Saturday shows start at 7 p.m., and Sunday shows start at 2 p.m.
Tickets: $5 for students, $7 for adults at the door.
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