Broken hearts in paper bags and love in big red sacks. Amidst snowy-white evergreens and under a starry sky the Tower Players began their production of “Almost Maine” yesterday.
They continue performing through Saturday night at 8 p.m. in the Sage Center for the Arts’ Markel Auditorium. John Cariani’s contemporary “real romantic comedy” meets nine sets of lovers falling in and out of love in Almost, Maine. It first debuted at the Portland Stage Company in 2002 and since then has become one of the most widely performed productions of the last decade, according to the play’s website.
Director and lighting designer Michael Bayer said each couple appears in 11-minute vignettes and discovers something about how they feel about each other.
It’s Friday night at the tip top of Maine in unorganized territory. The first couple comes to the stage, bundled in winter apparel and sitting on opposite sides of a wooden bench—boy looking clueless and girl about to explode with her inner gleeful emotions.
“It’s pure and simple,” Bayer said. “It makes you feel all the different aspects of what love is.”
Bayer said not all the scenes are happy —which is okay—because it’s okay to have rough patches. For example, junior Matt Sauer plays Lendall, a man who has been dating the same woman for 11 years but keeps dragging his feet when it comes to marrying her.
“They are ships in the night, missing out on each other’s lives,” Sauer said. “There’s a wall of complacency where they scrounge around in sweatpants watching T.V. No dances. No dinners.”
But not all the scenes deal with seasoned lovers. Bayer said some are just meeting, while others are realizing the potential for something more.
“There are all those complex feelings, but the play is remarkably simple. It’s not cheesy,” Bayer said. “It’s simply real things happening to real people.”
For freshman Jonathan Edelbut, his character Dave struggles with the all-too-familiar pain of loving someone and feeling invisible to them.
“We’ve all been there where we like someone and we don’t think they know we exist,” Edelbut said.
Dave comes onstage after snowmobiling with Rhonda – a longtime friend who sees Dave more as a “bro” than a romantic interest. Edelbut said Dave isn’t much of a macho guy, but more of wimp.
“He has a good heart I think. He’s relatable,” Edelbut said.
Sauer, a seasoned Tower Player, said he was excited that this was his first play at Hillsdale in which he doesn’t have to wear tights or a wig.
“I’ve been a general twice and a French aristocrat once, and now I have crashed to become a plebian,” Sauer said. “It is so natural feeling. It’s real life so it’s not too much of a physical stress.”
Edeblut, on the other hand, jumped into the theater his first semester of freshman year. Although he did musicals in a community theater in high school, this is his first time working with a college cast.
“There is a fantastic cast who are incredibly talented. I’m really blessed,” Edelbut said. “And the play itself is so clever, with clever dialogue and story-telling that feels like a real moment in time.
Bayer said certain elements of the show might shock Hillsdale students, but he wants everyone to come with an open mind about love.
“Don’t be afraid to love,” Bayer said. “Open your mind and leave with the door slightly ajar.”
