The new play on campus, “The House of Blue Leaves,” opened at Bakersfield College April 29, to a crowd of roughly 80 people.
According to director Jennifer Sampson, “The House of Blue Leaves” is a “wacky, dark comedy about an aging lounge singer with dreams of stardom.” The main character, Artie, is 45 years old with a crazy wife, a ditzy girlfriend and a son who went AWOL from the army. “The whole family is obsessed with fame,” she said.
The “House of Blue Leaves” was written by John Guare and opened in 1971. It is set in New York in 1965 and the madness ensues when everyone hears that the pope is coming to town.
“It’s tough balancing the realism and the surrealism of the play,” Sampson said. The actors have to convince the audience that the characters are real, yet they have parts where they speak directly to the audience, which is called “breaking the fourth wall,” in theater.
Ricky Usher, who plays Artie, said the biggest challenge in this play for him was having to sing. “I’ve never sang in my life,” and he usually sings to get into character, he said. Prior to opening night, he said he was most looking forward to interacting with the audience, and that feedback from an audience can make or break the performance.
“If I get laughs, it means all the hard work I put in paid off.” He added, “The cast is wonderful, everyone here deserves a lot of credit.”
“It looks like they had quite a good turnout for an opening night,” said computer science major, Philip Scott, 64. Scott, who attends many local shows, said the performance was very good. “It’s absurd, with lots of humor in it, I enjoyed it.”
Chairs were set up on a hand-made platform directly on the stage in the theater so the audience was just a few feet away from the action and set on opening night. “Seating on stage means more building,” said Kevin Ganger, the technical director. The crew had to build a platform that could sit close to 80 people comfortably and safely. “It’s a very intimate experience.”
Ganger, 25, is in charge of all the technical aspects of the play: primarily lighting sound and set. Though it is only his second play at BC, he has done a number of jobs for a total of about 45 shows. Because nearly all of the cast and crew are students who have daytime classes, Ganger had to do a lot of work on his own. “It’s very hard to put up walls with just myself,” he said. One of the best parts about working on a student show like this is seeing how much?the actors have grown in the past few weeks. “Seeing how much the play grows from start to finish is pretty amazing,” he said.
“I’ve never had an audience this close before,” said actress and student Katy Michelle Lewis about the intimate setting. Lewis plays Artie’s crazy wife, Bananas, and said it’s fun playing a crazy person but extremely challenging. “I kind of get to play it all.”
“The rehearsal process has been fun,” Sampson said. ?Her favorite scenes are “when everyone is onstage and there’s total mayhem going on. ?It’s the hardest to block, but it’s fun to see everybody.”
As director, her job is basically to oversee everything: blocking, characterizations, accents, dancing, singing, costumes, properties, set dressing and “anything that’s going on in the show,” she said.
“I give total props to her for all her hard work,” said assistant director Matt Mizell, 18, about Sampson. He also added, “each and every person is dedicated to it 100 percent, and I just enjoy working with all of them.” ?In addition to being assistant director, Mizell also has a role in the show where he provides a few comedic elements.
“You believe they’re acting,” said student Kimmie Francis, “they’re really in character.” Francis, who attended the show as part of her drama class, said she really enjoyed the characters and thought the actors made the performance believable.
?”I love to see them laugh,” said actor Michael Grant, who plays Artie’s son Ronnie. “Nothing changes a comedy more than an audience.” He said this is his first dark comedy and he enjoys the fact that the jokes may be bad, but it’s still OK to laugh. “You laugh at tragedy.” In addition to acting, Grant writes plays and is hoping to get one produced soon.
Playing a nun is male actor Riki Suzuki, and he said that playing a woman is the strangest and most challenging role he has had. “I’m trying to not walk like a man.”
“I really love when the nuns come in, they burst onto the scene and they’re just hilarious,” said Lewis about her favorite scene.
The “House of Blue Leaves” will be playing at BC’s indoor theater May 6, 7 and 8 at 8 p.m. General admission is $5.50 and is $3.50 for students, staff, seniors and military.