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This Weekend: Doubt
While Doubt has been garnering critical acclaim on the silver screen, the Lawrence Community Theatre is bringing it back to its roots.
Director Mary Doveton says it was an easy decision to put Doubt on the performance list at the Lawrence Community Theatre this season because it is so well written and won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2005.
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KU professor of anthropology Sandra Gray plays the lead role of Sister Aloysius Beauvier. Gray says audience members should not come to the theater expecting the same version as the film, which is a problem with the movie being released so close to the performance dates. She says it affects how the audience views someone's portrayal of a role.
"Someone will say, 'Well, she wasn't Meryl Streep,'" Gray says. "Well of course I'm not Meryl Streep!"
The play is set in the 1960s and revolves around Principal Beauvier's suspicions that a priest in their Catholic school is having an improper relationship with a student.
Director Doveton says the substance of the play is very powerful and she relates to the education aspect of the play."I was actually in Catholic schools at the time they're writing about," Doveton says.
Doveton and Gray both agree that the
"I have doubts. I have such doubts". From left, Father Flynn, played by Jason Abramawitz; Sister Aloysius, played by Sandra Gray; and Sister James, played by Amanda Thomas. 'Doubt' is playing this weekend at the Lawrence Community Theatre.
experience is enhanced in the Lawrence Community Theatre because of the thrust stage, which protrudes out into the audience. Both think this makes the play more intense for the audience." "The audience is part of the play." Gray says.
If you want to be a part of Doubt, you can see the performance at the Lawrence Community Theatre at 1501 New Hampshire Street at 7:30 tonight, 8 p.m. Friday or 8 p.m. Saturday.
— Kelly Breckunitch
[stagepresence] Softee
Who knew a company known for its greeting cards could spark the formation of a band? That's exactly what happened for Sarah Anderson and her friends in the band Softee. Anderson, lead singer, says they were drawn together after working on the same illustration team at Hallmark.
She says a game of "what ifs" followed between her and her friends at Hallmark about forming a band before their supervisor, Mimi, started talking about playing drums. "I started freaking out." Anderson says. "I was like,' Oh my god, we can have an all-girl band.'"
Now Softee has signed with an indie label and has released an EP.Anderson says the band members still work full time at Hallmark and she is a parent, so they try to balance their schedules with being a band.
Anderson says the band doesn't like to describe its own sound but when pushed, she describes it as "low-fi, kind of girlle pop." She says many people compare Softee to other bands. "Recently we've been called Weezer hangs out with OK Go meets Luscious Jackson," Anderson says.
Anderson says she never would have started performing if she hadn't had her friends from work, and eventual band mates, around her, and that's something she thinks most people don't realize about music.
"Anybody can do this if they have some
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All play and no work ... The band mates of Softee met while they were coworkers at Hallmark.
music inclination and are around friends that are going to give each other a chance," Anderson says. "It's too scary otherwise."
See Softee play at 8 p.m. Friday at The Beaumont Club, 4050 Pennsylvania Avenue, in Kansas City, Missouri.
— Kelly Breckunitch