Frank Ryan rehearses ahead of The Pleasant View Player’s comedy, “Back Story” on April 25 and 26.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
EAST LONGMEADOW — The Pleasant View Players are inviting local theater lovers to help them with a grand experiment.
The group of 10 actors, all but one in their 60s, 70s and 80s, will be performing the collaboratively-written comedy, “Back Story,” where each of the actors will be voicing the words of one of the play’s two teen characters, Ainsley and Ethan Belcher, as the siblings navigate growing up together.
Performances will take place on April 25 and 26 at the First Congregational Church of East Longmeadow, 7 Somers Rd. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. for the 7 p.m. Friday night performance, and at 2:15 p.m. on Saturday for a 3 p.m. performance. Tickets are $5, available at the Pleasant View Senior Center or at the door. Light refreshments will be served. According to Director Fred Sokol, this play is for audiences in their teens and above.
“I did this play 15 years ago at AIC with a group of college-age people,” said Sokol, who has taught theater at area colleges for over 30 years. Mounting the play — which is a collection of 19 different scenes — using older actors this time around is an inspirational and rewarding experience for both himself and the performers, he shared.
“I’m challenging these actors in my own age group,” Sokol explained. “You are teenagers — your father has left you and stayed in Alaska and you are growing up alone.”
Though most of the scenes are monologues, all the actors have “bought into” the challenge, Sokol said. “Everyone likes [the play.]”
“Monologues are hard, you are alone in front of an audience with no one to bail you out,” he added, praising the courage of his actors.
According to Sokol, “Back Story” is based on a short story by Berkshire-based author and playwright Joan Ackermann. Set 25 years ago, the short story opens with 2-year-old Ainsley rushing out into a blizzard to shovel a path so her new baby brother can be born, nearly chopping off a toe in her rush to welcome her sibling.
Ackermann subsequently sent the story to 18 fellow playwrights, asking each to craft a scene using Ainsley, Ethan, or both teens and to “keep it short, and say something interesting,” Sokol said. “She got back different scenes … some were more historical, some funny, some moving, some provocative,” he explained. The play premiered in 2000 at the Actors Theater of Louisville, Kentucky, as part of its influential Festival of New American Plays and is now popular with high school and community theater groups.
In a twist, Sokol said the Pleasant Valley Players will include a reading of the original short story a half-hour before the curtain goes up. Though it’s not critical to understanding the play, Sokol said those who hear the short story will get the “back story” — a phrase that in theater refers to the motivation actors use for their character — for the production.
He also hopes audience members will be willing to participate in a talkback session after each performance, sharing with him and the actors what scenes they found “the most moving, or provocative, or funny.” Fusing his longtime skills as a teacher and director, he added his goal for the talkback is to make attending the play “an enriching experience for the audience.”
Sokol, who premiered the Pleasant View Players with a production of “Don Quixote” at the East Longmeadow Senior Center last year, said he and the troupe were grateful to the First Congregational Church for allowing them to use their space for this performance. “The church is very, very welcoming,” Sokol said. “It’s very good for us, and we hope to continue this partnership.”
