Millikin University’s School of Theatre and Dance kicks off the second half of its 2024-2025 mainstage season with Clybourne Park, written by Bruce Norris and directed by Nick Dalton with assistance from sophomore BFA Acting major, Felisa Lascano.
“Bruce Norris’ Pulitzer Prize winning 2010 play, Clybourne Park, imagines the events that unfolded in, before, and after Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play, A Raisin in the Sun. It takes place in the home purchased by Lena Younger in Hansberry’s play, and, like her play, addresses issues of race, class, and gender. The play examines how conversations around these issues have, and have not, changed over fifty years, often using humor – first in 1959 and then in 2009, a year after Obama’s election,” Dalton said when asked to describe the plot of the play.
The cast consists of a variety of students across several School of Theatre and Dance majors including Zachary Leclerc (Russ), Libby Eichorn (Bev), Max Cline (Jim), Asher Knauff (Karl), Ellie Hometorwu (Francine), Matt Taylor (Albert), Noah Roberts (Kenneth), James Earlywine (Steve), Mary Evelyn King (Lindsay), Olivia Crabtree (Dan), Jay Lee (Lena), Ethan Cerros (Kevin), Joe Jacobson (Tom), and Lily Evelyn Bryson (Kathy) with Rock Edwards (Swing).
BFA Stage Management majors Mayah Jaimes and Willow Henzel serve as the Stage Manager and Assistant Stage Manager respectively. Junior Design and Production major Tierra Cook costume designed alongside sophomore Isabelle Porter who is the Hair and Makeup Designer. Outside hires Casey Kearns (Scenic Designer), Aaron Mooney (Lighting Designer), and Dee Etti-Williams (Sound Designer) make up the rest of the design team as outside hires.
Dalton has expectations of what he wishes the audience take away from this show.
“I hope we create a sense of hope. I hope that we do have the ability to bridge cultural divides, or in fact we deal with the seeds of our foundational issues as a society. If we don’t, we are attempting to build new ways of being on top of a crumbling foundation riddled with wounds of lies that must be recognized. Then our souls can dance forward together – with an occasional cha-cha,” Dalton said. “We hope the audience walks away with an informed perspective that our current societal questions are not new, and change is not linear but cyclical. And it takes time, which sometimes requires us to go slow to go fast. In the end, if we just took the time to sit down with those deemed “other” to ask questions towards exploring our shared humanity – then we can truly work towards building community.”
Dalton let us into the rehearsal room by sharing some of his favorite parts of the process as a Director.
The biggest part of a Director’s job is to conceptualize the overall vision of the show.
“My first questions to ask when directing is ‘Why this show? Why now?’ Once the election happened, we had to open up the way our storytelling would navigate the intersectional nature of the themes and issues,” Dalton said.
A unique approach Dalton took with Millikin’s production is choosing to cast separate actors for the first and second acts instead of double casting as it is traditionally done, with the same actors playing different characters across both acts. This allowed them space to explore possibilities for intersectional storytelling.
“One example is that it allowed for us to cast Bev in Act 1 with a fabulous Vietnamese actress, playing with the concept that Russ would have come back from the WWII Pacific Theatre as an Army member with an Asian wife, that then had to pass in 1959 Chicago. That is one of many ways we have cracked this show open a bit,” Dalton said.
Dalton went on to speak for the cast and explain the process of each actor learning to truly embody their character over the four weeks in the rehearsal room.
“We spent the first week focusing on building a culture of belonging in the rehearsal room, where we explored the play but also the rich unseen lives of each character. Then I got to sit back and guide our actors in making the right tactic guided actions and choices as we put the show up in 4 weeks. This show truly belongs to the cast – for whom it has been a humbling honor to shepherd towards what audiences see on the stage,” Dalton said.
Clybourne Park runs for 2 hours with a 15 minute intermission. This production features discussions of suicide and mental health, mentions of miscarriages of babies and justice, exploration of racism and stereotypes in society, and features explicit language.
With that in mind, Dalton wants to remind audiences why we keep telling stories like those in Clybourne Park.
“There’s a reason we keep telling these kinds of stories, which is why the themes were important in 1959, grotesquely at the forefront the year after Obama’s election, and shockingly present today. I’m hoping the show starts a conversation and raises questions that can help our Decatur community come together in a deeper mutually beneficial way. That is the true Third Act of a play.”
Clybourne Park has three remaining performances in the Virginia Rodgers Theatre, located in the Center for Theatre and Dance at Millikin University on 1184 W. Main St. Tickets are $20 for community members. Millikin students may pick up a free ticket at the box office the day of starting two hours before curtain.
The show times are as follows: Friday, February 28 at 7:30pm, Saturday, March 1 at 7:30pm, and Sunday March 2 at 2:00pm.
The Saturday performance will feature a pre-show talk in the first floor lobby of the Center for Theatre and Dance at 6:00pm, free of charge. This is an opportunity for audiences to meet the director, designers, and cast of Clybourne Park. The themes and concept for the production will be shared as audiences are let into more of the process before a Q&A session.
