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Families and Friends Play Together
By Karen Hunter
 | | Witches Alison Peterson, Alyssa Olavarria and Lauri Moreno |
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The newly formed Winsted Community Theater has provided a place for families and friends to play and grow together. Alison Peterson of Torrington, who attends rehearsals with her entire family, unofficially dubbed the cast the Mountain Laurel Players. Alison is cast as Witch #1, her husband, Chris, plays Lennox, and her son, Steven, is Fleance in our upcoming performance of MacBeth. Their young daughter also accompanies them to each rehearsal and brings a large bag of toys and snacks to entertain herself as her family rehearses. She is a shy child who receives plenty of attention from the cast and has melted our hearts as she approaches select members to inform them of how beautiful they look. The Peterson family seems to be enjoying themselves, and Chris says, "It has been an enriching experience." He considers their rehearsal time "a nice family activity."
Cast member Melissa Heuschkel, who plays Lady MacDuff, attends rehearsals with her two children, Beth and James, who are cast as the MacDuff children. They too have been enjoying their time in community theater. Melissa considers the rehearsals "quality time." The Heuschkels have been spending their weekends studying their lines. Because James is a beginning reader, Melissa reads his lines aloud so that he can memorize them.
Chuck Rek and his son, Daniel, play disparate roles. Chuck is the hero, MacDuff, but 12-year-old Daniel plays a murderer. In my family, both Jennifer and I play witches. This experience has been positive for all our families and has given us a special sense of togetherness while creating shared interests and giving us a love of the theater that we may enjoy together for years to come.
Rehearsals continue for MacBeth. Last Saturday, MacBeth and the witches met at the Recreation Center in Rowley Park. Director Penny Owen started the rehearsal with an acting exercise. She began chasing the Players through the rehearsal space as she screeched loudly and lunged at us with a mock sword, requiring the witches to react by ducking and speaking our lines more rapidly. The exercise also created a frightened tone as we attempted to be heard over her imitation of an ancient battle. Had an unknowing passerby overheard or observed Owen, they may have mistook her for a deranged psychopath—yet she had a method to her madness, to which we have become quite accustomed.
 | | Jackie Vaccari, James Benedetto, Melissa Heuschkel aand Beth Heuschkel |
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Each time the witches take the stage we are surrounded by imaginary danger, either because we are practicing our religion or because we are in the middle of a battlefield. Character development and the "where" of a scene are essential. During this exercise Owen attempted to create a sense of fear and nervousness among the witches to provide a realistic sense of our environment. After the exercise Owen asked each of us to retain this sense of fear and nervousness as we began to rehearse the play. She then guaranteed we would remain jumpy by unrepentantly continuing her behavior. Owen is full of energy and she surprised the Players again and again by unexpectedly running up and lunging, which helped us maintain the high energy level needed to create a good scene.
We are beginning to feel that we are ready to welcome the rest of the community to our show on Thursday through Saturday, March 27-29 at 7 p.m.; and Sunday, March 30 at 4 p.m. at Redman's Hall. It’s free, so join us!
And thanks for the doughnuts and coffee, Amanda and Ray. Adieu, Hecate.
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