By Nikolai Wise ’21
TheatreUNCA will open its production of This Girl Laughs. This Girl Cries. This Girl Does Nothing., written by Finegan Kruckemeyer, on Thursday, April 19, 2018. The production is a theatre for young ages, but can be enjoyed by all.
The production follows the lives of three girls who are abandoned in the woods by their father. Each of the three decides individually what to do next. One of the sisters continues going forward in the forest. The second sister goes back where they had been. The last sister decides to stay where she is and to build a house. After many years, and many adventures, the sisters reunite.
“It is so different from any other play, because it’s not quite a fairy tale, but it’s also not quite a modern story, it’s both,” said Naya Spencer, a student actress in the production playing the girl who stays.
“I actually heard about auditions the last day, and wasn’t even committed to signing up or auditioning, but something about the play beckoned to me,” Spencer said. “I typically like more realistic plays, and musicals, this is so far outside my norm, that it really pushes me in a different way.”
The production also involves the use of fantastical puppets by master puppeteer Hobey Ford, who has received puppetry’s highest honor, the UNIMA Citation of Excellence, and is recipient of three Jim Henson Foundation grants.
Scott Walters, professor of drama at UNC Asheville, explained that TheatreUNCA’s production of This Girl follows the mainstage season’s theme of exploring the dark, and then coming back into the light.
“I was on the student-faculty committee last year that chose the plays for this season. Here was the idea the students came up with: the fall semester, we would take our audience ‘into the woods,’ into the dark,” Walters said. Fall semester productions included the musical, Into the Woods, followed by The Sunset Limited by Cormac McCarthy, which explored the dark thoughts of a suicidal academic.
“This Girl Laughs will bring us back to the light again, as we hear the story of triplet sisters who each respond differently to being abandoned in the woods by their father,” Walters said. “It is a really beautiful play that has the added bonus of being directed by former Drama Department chair Pat Snoyer, and of displaying the talents of internationally-known puppet-master Hobey Ford.”
TheatreUNCA will perform five performances opening April 19 in UNC Asheville’s Carol Belk Theater. Evening performances will take place Thursday-Saturday April 19-21 with curtain at 7:30 p.m. Two matinees will be offered at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 21 and Sunday, April 22.
General admission for “This Girl Laughs. This Girl Cries. This Girl Does Nothing.” is $12; for information and tickets, visit drama.unca.edu/theatre-unca, or call 828.232.2291.
2018-04-09
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