By Justin Tam
Staff Writer
The award-winning Mira Costa Drama Department is unveiling its fall play, “The Dining Room,” tonight, at 7:30 p.m.
“The Dining Room” was written by A.R. Gurney in 1982. Luke Yankee, who has worked with Costa’s Drama Department in the past, is directing the production. The play, a sometimes-comedic portrait of upper-middle class American life, is composed of various seemingly unrelated scenarios of families – all intertwined around the subject of the disappearing white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant (WASP, for short) population of America.These families are from various time periods that all possess the same set of dining room furniture.
What makes the play interesting is that it has no defined lead roles; no one character is prevalent throughout the play.
“It will live up to Costa’s standards, but it’s formatted differently,” senior cast member Sam Henneberry said. “It’s an ensemble piece so instead of following the story of a select group of characters, it plays through different and smaller vignettes.”
In the play, each scene introduces new characters and events, all taking place in a similar dining room setting. For example, in one scene, a boy returns from school to discover his mother’s infidelity. These scenes highlight the slow death of upper-middle class American culture.
With so many different scenes, it’s easy to imagine the play being choppy and difficult to watch as well as to understand. However, the small cast and rather smooth and subtle transitions and overlapping scenes allow for relative ease of continuity throughout the entire play.
Unlike previous Costa productions, the cast of “The Dining Room” is very small and, as a result, the production and the dynamics of the play differ greatly from past efforts.
“Working with such a small cast is a really great experience; we’re like a little family,” sophomore cast member Sawyer Fuller said.
Due to the minimalistic approach to stage design in this play, (there is only one dining room throughout the entire length of the show), the approach of stage and production crews differed as well.
“Usually we are at school incredibly late, furiously working on sets, costumes, etc. but not for this show,” senior production manager Breanne Flory said. “The play has a very minimal set; it’s meant to focus on the scenes, so it is much less stressful, crew-wise at least.”
Despite limited promotion, anticipation for the play has been generally positive and expectations are high for this newest dramatic production. Even those who do not know a lot about the play are excited to see it based on the quality of past productions.
“I think that it’s going to be a good performance because there are a lot of really good actors in it,” freshman drama student Karli Halberg said.
Be sure to catch the “The Dining Room,” which opens tonight. Ticket prices are $12 for adults and $10 for students.
“The Mira Costa Drama Department never fails to amaze me. Their dedication to excellence is really commendable” senior Alka Nath said.
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