The TheatreWorks Community Players will perform “The Shape of Things” beginning tomorrow evening.
The Shape of Things is a show by Neil Labute that tells a story of boundaries, love, art and subjectivity. The story follows Adam, Evelyn, Jenny and Fiona as they live their lives in a small college town.
Adam is studying English and works part-time as a security guard at the school museum. There he meets Evelyn, who is studying art. Jenny and Fiona are engaged classmates and friends of Adam.
As the story unfolds, the spring semester and the intricacies of the quartet’s relationships with each other are explored. The show tackles themes of comedy, betrayal, and societal expectations, detailing just how far someone would go for love.
Owen Amos will play Adam. He began his acting career at Magna Vista High School and has since also performed in enhanced shows and plays with the TheatreWorks Community Players.
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“I didn’t know anything about this show,” Amos said. “I didn’t know anything about the script until I got the part. I knew it was an R-rated show, I knew it was a more serious piece – and I think that’s what attracted me.”
When he got the role, he said, he was excited to see how a more serious role would be a great way to showcase himself and his acting skills.
“I saw a lot of myself in Adam, but I’m glad I pushed through,” he said. “In some ways, I had to regress a little to get into this character.”
“What I love about the show is that it feels like a movie, but the emotions portrayed are relatable to anyone,” he said.
Sarah Beth Webb will play Evelyn. She has been active in theater since she was a child and has performed in community shows since she was 14. She performed in high school and in one show while in college before taking a break. This will be her first show in about seven years.
What she likes most about her character is her style and her intellect.
“She’s extremely smart,” Webb said.
What she likes most about the series’ story is the imperfections of each character.
“Honestly, there are no good characters,” she said. “They’re all crap, but in different ways, and I think that’s part of what makes the ending so confusing.”
“There is no hero and no villain,” she added.
Emma Hutchins will play Jenny. She has almost always acted in film and television and does not usually perform on stage, except at TheatreWorks. Stage manager Zach McPeak contacted her when auditions were coming up and, although she currently lives in Charleston, South Carolina for college, she was able to arrange it.
“I just thought I’d give it a try and see how it works, and it all just worked out perfectly,” she said.
Hutchins had never heard of the play, but knew the 2003 film of the same name.
“It’s really cool,” Hutchins said of the show. “It was like acting for the screen, which is much more natural and you get to do method acting… It was a really happy middle ground between live acting and acting for the screen.”
She said the biggest challenge of her role was embodying the different aspects of her character, while there may be ulterior motives behind some other aspects.
“The cast is so small, but there’s so much going on,” she said. “There’s a lot of interaction between each character and I don’t think I’ve ever worked, especially in a theater show, where I work with the same actors over and over again.”
Madison Maverick will play Fiona. Maverick began performing at Patrick County High School around age 15. She then went on to do theater at Magna Vista High School, Patrick & Henry Community College Productions, and TheatreWorks Community Players.
The role of Fiona was originally written as Phillip, but was changed to Fiona for this production. The character is intense and aggressive in her interactions with other characters throughout the show.
Maverick said to prepare for this mindset, she would sit in front of her bathroom mirror to make sure her facial expressions reflected her words.
“Because I don’t do that,” she said. “With Fiona, it’s pretty much all about a power structure… So when I really need to turn it up… I had to tweak it a little bit, but I’m really happy with what I’ve achieved.”
“It was a lot of hard work,” she said. “It came together really well… Everything just kind of fell into place. Things that were meant just for us, it just clicked together and I thought, ‘This is going to be something really good.'”
Show times are August 9, 10, 16 and 17 at 7 p.m. and August 11 and 18 at 2 p.m. at 44 Franklin St. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at twcp.net.
