October 29, 2007
Lyon College News Bureau

Harlequin Theatre fall production to address sensitive issues

By Lauren Adams
Lyon College News Bureau

Lyon College’s Theatre Department is set to perform a play during its fall production that takes a look inside the sensitive issue of abortion and how it affects the lives of those it touches.

The Harlequin Theatre will open their production of “The Water Children” by Wendy MacLeod on Nov. 2, 3 and 5 at 8 p.m. They will also give a 2 p.m. performance on Nov 4.

The production will then travel to the University of Central Arkansas in Conway to perform at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.

All faculty, staff, and students are admitted free. Admission prices for others are: Adults $6, seniors/students $3. For reservations, call 793-1749.

“‘The Water Children’ is a play dealing with abortion, romance, humor, and sadness,” said Dr. Michael Counts, professor of theatre and director of the Harlequin Theatre.

The play tells of an actress in her mid-30s who is too old to play the young lover and too young to play the more mature roles. She gets the chance to do a pro-life commercial, and although she is a liberal with differing personal views, she takes the job. She then becomes romantically involved with the leader of the pro-life organization. After becoming pregnant and having a falling out with him she travels to Japan for a job. There she visits a Mizuko shrine – a shrine for the Water Children.

The Japanese do not think abortion is a good thing or a bad thing, but sometimes necessary. They build shrines to honor the spirits of the stillborn, the miscarried and the aborted, believing a child should not enter the world until it is wanted. It is then and there that the play’s heroine decides whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.

On her Web site, author Macleod said that after she had her own children, she was unable to see abortion as matter-of-factly as she had before.

“I realized that in the event of unplanned pregnancy now, I would probably choose to have the child,” she wrote. “At the same time, I realized an accidental pregnancy in your 30s when you're married and employed is very different from an accidental pregnancy when you're 16, alone and poor. So my emotional self was at war with my rational, feminist self.”

Macleod said she felt that the only way to say something new about the issue of abortion was to challenge the presumptions of the predominantly liberal theatre-going audience.

“Instead of making the Randall Terry figure a cartoon, I wanted to make him an intelligent, sympathetic pro-lifer,” she said. “There is, at least, a consistency, an integrity, to his position. He started out as an anti-Vietnam War protester and, because he was opposed to all killing, found his way into the pro-life movement. Randall is not a villain and should not be played as one. We have to believe that Megan would consider marrying him, at least until she discovers that, when push comes to shove, he might literally try to control her body.”

The Harlequin Theatre production will be directed by Dr. Counts and designed by Gary M. Harris, associate professor of theatre.

“I chose this particular play because of what is going on right now with the challenging of abortion,” Counts said. “This play shows both sides of the argument and leaves the viewer pondering many tough questions.”

The actors have been rehearsing four nights a week and on Saturday afternoons for the past six weeks.

The cast includes Emily Fleming as Megan, John Earney as Randall, Nina McCoy as Liz, Shane Russell as Tony Dinardi, Roger Simons as Chance, Kelsey Lack as Crystal, Morgan Dumeny as Kit/Mom/Cat, and Victor Wilson as Dad/Roger/Jim/Buddhist Priest.

Amy Hancock is production stage manager. Paul Cootes is assistant stage manager, Luke Diver is master electrician and Coleen Rose will do wardrobe acquisition and alteration. Ashlea Armstrong will do properties and wardrobe and makeup supervision.

The play is intended for mature audiences.

Emily Fleming as “Megan” and John Earney as “Randall” rehearse the Harlequin Theatre’s fall production of “The Water Children.”

Emily Fleming and Morgan Dumeny, who plays the roles of Kit, Mom and Cat, practice a scene in the upcoming production of Wendy MacLeod’s play.