The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail recently graced the stage of the Blackbox Theatre, as presented by Stage II. Despite a five-day gap between their first and second performance due to a snowstorm and Head’s Holiday, the seven cast members masterfully brought the play to life with the utmost energy and high-quality acting.
“I wanted an ensemble piece, so I distributed Henry [Thoreau] amongst everybody. The directing process was collaborative. While I had ideas, it was very much open to their ideas. From props to small details within scenes, the students led themselves to perfecting the play.” Dr. Will Eggers, English Faculty and director of the play, said.
Thoreau’s original idea about civil disobedience and how his ideals- individual autonomy, environmental responsibility, and political activism- still resonates today.
Dr. Eggers found it helpful for the students to study and put the world from Henry Thoreau’s perspective. “We approached everything with a ‘discover in the doing’ manner. We would try something out, and if it didn’t work, we would change it. Their work ethics and can-do attitude were incredible. The cast was able to go off book early on, which allowed me as a director and them as actors to play with materials and explore ways to execute the story,” Dr. Eggers said, highlighting his admiration for the cast.
“I took the cast members on a nature walk to get a sense of Thoreau. We read his lines to get a sense of his relationship with the environment and to really try to understand his perspective. In every scene, we asked ourselves the characters’ desires, how they were trying to get it, and how it resolved, to create a relationship and deeply understand his philosophy,” Dr. Eggers added.
The most notable aspect of the play was the distinctive fact that 7 separate actors took on the lead role of Henry Thoreau. However, the cast members' commitment to creating a flawless performance went beyond memorizing lines and embracing the challenges and opportunities of sharing the leading role.
“I thought it was fun that we all got to play the lead role because it meant that everyone got their interpretation of Henry. At the same time, it was also one of the challenging parts of preparing for the play as we had to find ways to differentiate between Henry and our side character and making it clear to the audience about who was Henry when and that this play was a complex, multi-layer show,” said Klara Oppenheimer ’28.
“Initially, it was confusing because I would forget to pull out the handkerchief when playing Henry (their way of signifying who was playing Henry when) and when to block (to position/move oneself when in a scene), but later it was super exciting because I got to improvise and convey my version of Henry to the audience,” Cylina Wang ’28 said.
This unique role-sharing approach not only added layers to the characters but also intrigued the audience about the creative process behind the play.
These performers undoubtedly executed The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail well, and in a collaborative effort with director Dr. Eggers and the professional crew, regardless of the complexity behind sharing a role.