Townspeople stroll outside on the icy, snow-draped ground, while snowflakes flutter gracefully onto faces. A magical glow slowly paints itself high in the sky, with hues of greens, blues and purples. In this starlit town, the night sky cradles the various stories of all its residents. Love floats around in the air; however, it doesn’t always come out in the way that is expected.
LSE’s winter play production “Almost, Maine” took place on Thursday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 7 and 8 at 2 p.m. in the Jennifer L. Dorsey Howley Performing Arts Center. This play takes place in a lost, remote town in Maine called “Almost”, where we get an insight into the stories of various people within the town. With nine scenes that convey themes of love and loss, it’s clear to see that everyone has their own experiences with their love lives, whether the result is happy or sad.
The play featured nine different couples who are all experiencing some type of new experience all at the same time. There was a magic moment that happened where the northern lights appeared and that is when something significant happened in the scene.
Some of the scenes explored the blossoming of new love while people fall for eachother with small sparks, while others explore the breaking of a long-lasting love, devastating hearts. This play was very realistic and showed how simple or complicated relationships can be, but also how something that may seem like a big deal to one, can be interpreted as a big deal to others. Sometimes it was as simple as finding a lost shoe that may have a greater meaning or it could be as big as confessing your love for someone after being away for a few years.
For example, in scene six: “Where it Went”, a couple goes ice skating. However, you can sense that something is off with this couple. The husband, Phil, showed up late to the date while the wife, Marci, claims she had fun and everything was all good. With an insight on backstory, we learn that Phil works late and picks up shifts at his work which causes him to miss out on time with his family. After the date is over, getting ready to leave, Marci can’t seem to find one of her shoes, so they start searching. After some moments of agitation, Marci finally reveals it is their anniversary, while Phil had completely forgotten about it. As the northern lights appear, the shoe falls from the sky, and for the couple, it is a big “aha” moment which leads them to see that their relationship has come to an end. As a more unexpected scene of heartbreak, the wife shortly dashes off, leaving the husband at the ice skating rink.
Like this one, each scene had its own key moment at the exact same time in the play when the northern lights came visible. This was cool to see this full circle moment making it visible that each scene was interconnected through the residents of the town. Senior Dazayah Hartshorn-Harvey, who performed in a scene with fellow senior Grayson Crabtree, acted in one of these moments.
“The main moment that happens in each of the scenes is what’s called a ‘magical moment’, which is when just something of circumstance happens, and it’s when the northern lights appear. All of them happened at 9 p.m.,” Hartshorn-Harvey said.
One difference in this play compared to the other plays that Southeast has performed, is the fact that there is not really a “main character”. With all nine of the scenes, this show focuses on the little experiences each person has as a whole, rather than a few individuals in the spotlight. This makes it so there are more people that can get bigger roles in the play, but this also opens some issues for casting with potential shortages of people.
Despite this, the absence of a main character in the play didn’t cause any characters to not stand out, and instead kept their spotlights equal. Each scene had incredible actors playing the roles to give us the full emotions of the scenes from start to finish. Some examples of this throughout the play are senior Drew Lohrman and her wacky stories as Glory because she “killed” husband by pushing him away, freshman Kaycee Flores and her name which happened to be the same as Senior Quincy Soto’s tattoo and freshman Lydia Peterson’s love in a box which showed her true amount of love as Lendall towards Sophomore Carly Brittenham’s character just to name a few.
The crew didn’t go unseen either. With the constant scene changes and prop switches, it was hard to ignore all the work they did with this show. Sophomore Leahlani DeOllos, who served as the sound head for this show, also had a big role with the music that went along with each magical moment.
“I enjoy the crew part because it can be easier than auditioning and you still get to be a part of the show even if you don’t get a role in the show itself,” DeOllos said.
This hard-to-forget show was truly enchanting to watch due to its originality and experience that it displayed. It was cool to see the different love stories and their impact and connections within the small town “Almost”. No matter how big or small your problems may be, this show demonstrates that everyone’s experiences vary massively even if they occur at the same place and time.
