In 1980s Mississippi, three sisters — all different in their own way — reunite after learning the youngest has shot her husband.
This is how Brown County High School’s latest theater production, "Crimes of the Heart," begins and the dramatic comedy takes off from there.
This play, which opened last weekend, is not only a first full return to the stage for theater department students, who were unable to perform last year because of COVID. It’s also the last show for theater department leader Laurie Godfrey. She will retire at the end of this school year.
This production is unlike any before. The department lost a month of rehearsal time, they had cast and crew changes due to COVID-19 quarantines, and a smaller number of students are participating overall.
The week before opening weekend, students were still refining their enunciations using a Southern accent and finishing touches were being done on the set, like putting plates in the cupboards, which were also made by Godfrey’s students. The students also stained the door panels, the roofing and the trim on the set.
"They worked their butts off, and hopefully it gets to be seen," Godfrey said.
At a moment’s notice, the production could come to a halt. If an actor or the stage crew gets quarantined due to COVID-19 exposure, then the show could not go on, she said.
Earlier this year, 15 theater students performed monologues from Edgar Lee Masters’ "Spoon River Anthology." That production was supposed to go on last November for two weekends, but had to be moved four times until it was finally performed at the end of February and beginning of March. That cut into rehearsal time for "Crimes of the Heart," written by Beth Henley.
Godfrey said "Spoon River" was a "tester." Students rehearsed on the high school’s hybrid in-person and online schedule because the school was on "yellow" at that time due to the number of COVID-19 cases, symptoms and exposures in the building.
She said she freezes when she sees Assistant Principal Chuck Hutchins come into her classroom because he is most likely coming to pull a student who has been exposed to COVID-19.
"We wanted to desperately finish out with a show. When we were finally able to get that one ("Spoon River") up it had already cut well into a new rehearsal schedule, so this is not a fully rehearsed show in comparison with my normal. We lost a month," Godfrey said.
There are only a few understudies for the cast of six. Godfrey said participation in the theater department is down overall this year because of the pandemic.
The cast is made up of seniors and younger students, but Godfrey said it is overall a relatively inexperienced cast, which is a challenge even without COVID-19. Only one senior has had a lead part before.
Senior Kaya Gore plays the oldest sister, Lenny Magrath, who is the caretaker of the family after the sisters lost their mother when they were young. She is staying at their grandfather’s house in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, and helping to care for him until he goes to the hospital.
"She is not as flashy as her sisters are, but I think she kind of makes up for that in her really brilliant character," Gore said.
"She is really nervous and she is kind of a pushover, especially when it comes to some of the other characters being rude to her, but I think throughout the show she gains a lot of confidence and a lot of self-assurance. She realizes that not only is she a good person, a good caretaker, a good sister, but also someone who deserves love."
Gore had watched the 1986 movie adaptation of the play before trying out for the show. She felt as if she could play either sister, but when Godfrey cast her as Lenny, she said she knew that was the character she wanted to be.
"I was having out-of-body experiences playing her on stage while still feeling like myself and feeling like someone else at the same time," Gore said.
Gore understands her character. She wants to be polite all the time and struggles with anxiety, too. This is Gore’s third time participating in a production. Her first role was a chorus part in the musical "Footloose."
"I just absolutely fell in love with theater and just the experience," Gore said.
She then landed a lead in Yonkers the next fall. "That was a whole different experience because I was important and I had lines and responsibility," Gore said.
Her time in the theater department has inspired her to get into the theater program at Ball State University next fall.
Gore said this play is a comedy that takes a deeper dive into relationships, especially with sisters.
"Sisters are fighting, but then they are also making up. The ending is just so heartwarming and leaves you with an, ‘Oh that feels nice.’ It’s also really funny," she said.
This is freshman Mila Bachman’s first role in a high school theater production. She plays the youngest sister, Babe Botrelle. Babe married at 18 and stayed married for six years before shooting her husband in the stomach.
"The play is a dramatic comedy. The humor is a bit more hidden in most parts. There’s a lot of things going on with this family in the course of two days," she said.
"I think people should come watch it because they get a feel for the story and learn about other people’s lives, how hectic and chaotic they can be."
Lillian Voils will play the role of Babe for the last two shows.
Sophomore Oliver Tincher plays middle sister Meg Magrath, who returns from life on the West Coast after the shooting happens.
"She is not mean, but she is very self-centered. She doesn’t think about other people," Tincher said of the character.
"She is not trying ever to be mean. It’s just that she literally does not think enough about other people to realize her actions hurt people."
Tincher said Meg struggles because as a child, she was the one who found their mother after she committed suicide. "We’ve got a lot of things that aren’t funny in real life, but are funny to watch," he said about the play.
This is Tincher’s first time on stage in a lead role. He was an understudy for a lead role in "Lost in Yonkers." The department had planned to put on the musical "Matilda" in the spring of 2020 and Tincher had been cast as a lead, but the show was canceled after schools were closed due to COVID-19.
Tincher also came out as transgender last summer. Sporting a short hairstyle and pants instead of dresses all school year means wearing a dress on stage has been a strange experience, he explained.
"Meg has to wear form-fitting clothes, which obviously I am not really wearing," Tincher said.
"People were visibly shocked because they had never seen me in a dress. It was my newer friends because my older friends remembered me in a dress. Even for them, it was weird."
Tincher said he would have liked to have played a male role, but the play had physical requirements for the two male parts that he could not meet.
Despite all of the challenges of putting on a high school theater production in a worldwide pandemic, Godfrey said this is the closest life has felt to normal since it upended in March 2020. Students rehearsed with masks on until tech week before the show opened and will perform on stage without masks.
"It’s helped us," Godfrey said of finally putting a show together, "because we felt like everything was thrown away since last fall, a year ago, everything. ‘Lost in Yonkers’ was fall 2019. We will be honoring them (the actors) in my drama awards because they never had a chance to get their awards. It has made everything more stressful."
The actors hope that not only will the community come watch to support their first full production in over a year, but that they also come out to see Godfrey’s last play here, because getting to this point was not easy.
"We have worked so hard to get here. This is my last show, a ton of kids’ last show, and this is Doc’s last show. It’s going to be a very important finale to this year and to her career and to my senior year in general," Gore said.
"It doesn’t have to be perfect, but I’m going to put in my best effort, and I hope everyone else does too."
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="If you go" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
<strong>What:</strong> Brown County High School theater production of the comedic drama,"Crimes of the Heart"
<strong>When:</strong> Friday through Sunday, May 14 to 15 at 7 p.m.; Sunday, May 16 at 2 p.m.
<strong>Where:</strong> Brown County High School, 235 Schoolhouse Lane
<strong>Tickets:</strong> $5 for students, $7 for adults at the door.
Masks will be required in the auditorium. Seating will be spaced for social distancing.
[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title="Cast list" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Lenny: Kaya Gore
Understudy: Jessica Woodrum
Chick: Gracelyn Patton
Understudy: Lorr Imming
Meg: Oliver Tincher
Babe: Mila Bachman and Lillian Voils (Voils will perform the last two shows of the run)
Doc: Jackson Hurley
Barnett: Aidan Lucas
[sc:pullout-text-end]
