The public is invited to a special preview performance of Ardmore Little Theatre’s competition play, “Frozen,” at 7 p.m. on Saturday in the Charles B. Goddard Center auditorium. ALT will compete against nine other theaters from across the state during the Oklahoma Community Theatre Association’s OCTAFest July 24-27 in Guthrie.
Directed by Fred Collins, “Frozen” is a psychological thriller by Bryony Lavery that entwines the lives of a murderer, his psychologist and the mother of one of his victims, a 10-year-old girl.
The show stars Jon Scott as Ralph, the pedophile; Monica Stolfa as Nancy, the murdered girl’s mother; and Joh Mann as Agnetha, a New York psychiatrist who travels to England to examine Ralph. The show’s title refers to the emotional state each of the three characters are in until they gradually change and “thaw” while they come to terms with the idea of forgiveness.
There will be a $5-per-person charge for the preview, which will be used to help offset the cost of the OCTAFest competition.
ALT’s production of “Frozen” is not the entire play, but a cutting that fits within the OCTAFest guidelines.
In the contest, each theater must fit all of its cast, set pieces and crew inside a 10-foot by 10-foot square. Each team is given 10 minutes to move everything from inside the square onto the stage to set up for the performance. Then they have 60 minutes to perform the play and 10 minutes at the end to move everything from the stage back into the square.
This entire process will be carried out Saturday night during the public preview to give the audience an idea of what the competition will be like.
One thing audience members need to be aware of is that this is not a regular ALT production. “Frozen” deals with themes that are harsh, devastating and unthinkable and the language used by Ralph is very strong and offensive. This is definitely not a show for young people to watch. However, the director urges individuals to not let that fact sway them from coming to see the show. There are more reasons to see it than to not, he said.
“First, if they see the show, they will see some very good acting,” Fred Collins said. “And, two, they will have the ability to see a person’s take on some pretty complex human emotions that are exposed through the script in a real interesting way.”
Fred is directing the show with help from his son, Noel, who just recently presented the same show as his final senior project for the advanced director course at Baylor University. While the father-and-son director team sometimes have creative differences in their vision, ALT’s final project is something of which they’re both proud.
“Stylistically, it’s something they’ve never seen before,” Noel said. “Another thing that makes it unique is our post-modern approach. There’s a lot of symbolism, a lot of imagery. And one thing that kind of happens is everyone can take away something different.”
The majority of the dialogue is done in soliloquy form, with just a few scenes allowing the cast members to interact.
Everything from the set design to the blocking to the lighting is done in such a way that the audience will actively participate in the show, Fred said. The bare set with only four black boxes and a few props not only forces the actors to pantomime much of the action, it also gives the audience members an opportunity to use their own imaginations in watching the show. Thus, each viewer can come away with a completely different vision of the show.
On the subject of the profanity in the show, Fred said, “The writer of the script wrote the language that Ralph uses to try to get to a point of showing a true human condition, and his use of objectionable and vile language is a part of him. As offensive as that language may be, it makes the person more true to real life, more like what that person would have been like.
“Ralph’s character is completely out of bounds, not just the language, but his actions are completely unacceptable,” he said. “But take that away, and that wouldn’t be who he is.”
The show is not a heartwarming love story or a hilarious comedy, but it is the kind of show that captures the attention of OCTAFest judges who select the winning performance. According to the press release for the state competition, “OCTAFest gives theater buffs a chance to sample plays in condensed versions that they might not see in their community theaters or in the seasons of Broadway touring companies.”
“I’ve been involved in four OCTA performances and, after watching adjudicators in the last two, those people are looking for things that indicate a degree of sophistication in the theater,” Fred said. “We hope they see that’s what we’re giving them.”
The public is encouraged to attend.
