It’s a beautiful play. It’s romantic,
it’s funny, and it’s philosophical
at times. It has everything that a
good play should have.”
Driscoll saw the play many
years ago in New York and always wanted to do it, but it’s a
tricky play to cast. The play revolves around Peter and Kari
who should both be strong
actors and appear 37 years
old. And then there’s the Narrator who guides the audience
through the people met during
the reunion. The role requires
both male and female voices
and demands an actor adept at
dramatic and comedic scenes —
a combination which normally
makes it a difficult role to cast.
Fortunately, Driscoll had worked
with Howell on a previous play
and thought he would be perfect for the role. He saw the role
as a nice challenge and was interested. Once Howell was on
board, Driscoll began holding
NewJerseyStage.com
auditions for the other two roles.
The role of Peter was found
through the auditions, but he
didn’t find a good match for
Kari. After looking through
old files, he found Sarah Kuhns
who he had worked with over a
dozen years ago at the Villagers
Theatre.
“Sometimes it’s weird how
casting shows actually fall into
place,” said Driscoll. “We are a
repertory company in the sense
that we have a repertory of actors, but none of them quite fit
the right age range.”
Sarah Kuhns actually went to
her reunion earlier this year. She
noticed the same old stories that
we often see in movies about
reunions — the good looking guy
is now bald and overweight, the
popular girl was unhappy in life,
and the ugly duckling wound up
being gorgeous. Originally from
Kansas, Kuhns could relate to
the character names in the play
2015 - ISSUE 12
ARTICLES
24