By Erica Rohde
Staff Writer
The Coppell High School theater department will bring “To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday” to the Black Box Theatre with a new cast and a familiar story on May 9 -11 and May 13.
Written in 1984 by American playwright Michael Brady, the play was familiar to theater teacher Bill Ballard who had directed the play with students in 2002. He knew it would be a challenge for the students as well as himself as a director.
“It explores what we consider important in life,” Ballard said. “It is about making choices, and sometimes those choices aren’t good choices for the people around you and your family.”
The story touches on loss, grief, romance and moving on from a particular event within a family that works to rebuild their bonds with one another. David Lewis, the father in the story played by junior Roberto Williams, has trouble moving on from the loss of his wife Gillian, played by sophomore Jazzy Alvarez. His grief stirs up drama and intensifies the situation for his family and friends around him.
“The play is very emotional, and some of these kids are very young,” Ballard said. “We have to figure out ways to get to the deep emotion involved, so we do a lot of improvisational type exercises. I will tell one of the cast members to say anything they want to as that person. The scene goes on but they make up their own dialogue as those people.”
Alvarez called these improvisational exercises the “Hot Seat.” As Gillian, the actress must act as a ghost Lewis comes to meet throughout the play. The “Hot Seat” is an exercise that comes in handy as the cast explores unique situations they have never experienced before.
“This is the hardest role I have ever played,” Alvarez said. “I have to act as if I am basically a part of my husband’s mind and I have to play this selfish person as if she did not know what happened or did not learn from her own death what is important.”
The character of Gillian is overall disliked by the other characters. The wife and mother, who was always too busy with her work in anthropology before she died, had never made time to maintain healthy relationships, including the relationship between herself and her daughter Rachel, played by sophomore Nicole Rademacher.
“Gillian is into her career and into herself,” Alvarez said. “The audience can relate to her in some way. I think teenagers sometimes start caring about one thing, whether it is sports or school work and they start neglecting the ones who love them. It can come back to bite you later on.”
Rachel, one of the victims of Gillian’s neglect, is affected emotionally as her relationship with her father Lewis falls apart within the play. Lewis loses focus on his daughter when she needed him the most.
“I have lost loved ones but I have never lost anyone who went away so soon,” Williams said. “It makes me go into a different state of mind. He makes the situation harder for every other person.”
Father David Lewis is also a professor of literature as well as a man interested in stargazing. Not only does Williams have to tap into deep emotion, but must tap into the interests of his character.
“I have been researching a lot lately,” Williams said. “I have been learning more about star gazing and the constellations. Lewis is very knowledgeable. Before I walk into rehearsal I have to make this a part of me to where I can switch it on and off easily.”
With challenging roles to play, the cast works together well to keep it rolling smoothly.
“This cast fit perfectly together,” Alvarez said. “At most we have forgotten three lines. This cast is by far the hardest working that I have ever been a part of.”
