Hanlon says rehearsals often
had to momentarily stop so
the actors could stop laughing
because they were having so
much fun with the play.
“If you enjoy laughter,” con-
tinued Hanlon. “This is a great
play. It starts off so strong.
We’re just cracking up in re-
hearsals every single day. I’ve
worked with most of these ac-
tors before and they are all so
brilliant and funny. It’s hard to
say too much about the play
because I don’t want to give it
away, but I have not worked on
or ever read a play that made
me laugh out loud as much as
this did when I first read it. It’s
definitely the kind of show that
you come to and will forget
about whatever stresses that
you have outside for a good
two hours. And you’ll feel much
better at the end.”
The Nerd takes place during
one week in Terre Haute, Indi- ana in April 1982. In addition
to rapid-fire dialogue, the play
also involves the use of many
props. Hanlon says the actors
are constantly grabbing some-
thing, breaking things, or doing
thing with them. One of the
props almost serves as a char-
acter itself - Willium’s answer-
ing machine. It does a nice job
of reminding us how difficult it
could be to reach people even
in the not so distant past.
“It’ll be interesting for the
younger audience members to
see if they actually remember an
answering machine,” said Han-
lon. “It definitely took me back!
My parents still have an answer-
ing machine in our house, which
is rather funny to me.”
Between the dialogue and the
props, this will be an exhausting
play for the actors each night.
It’s a change of pace from the
world of television for much
of the cast who switch back
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