Lawrence & Lee’s "The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail" brought out the best in Athens Academy. Beyond its colorful title based on a night writer Henry David Thoreau really did spend in jail, this play has substance, and it’s up to Athens Academy’s kids to bring this substance to life.
Right off US 441, on the outskirts of Athens, sits the picturesque private high school campus of Athens Academy. And once you get past the snootiness of the structures and the parents you’ll find a remarkably talented high school drama program.
The Academy recently won their district one act play competition with this production and are tuning up for state competition.
The primary reason for their success is the quality of the acting. The acting surpasses what one might expect from high school students.
Aaron Strand is more than a caricature of the typical high school overachiever. He’s a talented actor. Strand spent his last summer in an acting program at New York University. He has an inordinate number of lines in this play and he refused to slip-up. Most of his emotion came across as genuine. He was not the most genuine, but he managed what was by far the play’s most difficult character, Thoreau.
The other obvious stand-out was Amy Bruckner, playing Thoreau’s love interest Ellen Sewell. Bruckner is adorable on stage. She cries on command and wears her emotions on her sleeves. Her character is as real as can be. This shouldn’t be suprising considering she has had roles on ER, Ally McBeal, The West Wing, Judging Amy, and Malcolm in the Middle.
The production also had its comedic highlights with the best of these being Jake Parnell, playing Thoreau’s fellow prisoner Bailey. Parnell became a crowd favorite with the hillbilly charm he injected into his character.
Not only was the play’s acting strong, but so was its costuming. All of the clothes appeared relevant to the Mexican War days in which the play was set.
And although this was a one act play, by which competitive rules require minimal stage design, the designers made the most of what they had by leaving a jail set up in the middle of the stage. They made use of the wings of the stage when doing outdoor scenes.
The play often went back and forth with its scenes so the directors left much its settings to the audience’s imagination. At some points they even included the audience as if they were the students in Thoreau’s classroom or the audience in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s lectures. This effect worked to hold the audience’s attention and make the play more vibrant.
The play didn’t have any outrageous special effects. The intent of its sound and lighting was to keep the attention on the play’s strength, its acting, which it did.
The 1970 writing of Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee is powerful. The writing has humor mixed tastefully with philosophy. It shows Thoreau living by the words he writes.
I wasn’t expecting to be moved by these young performers, but I was. I was surprised to find the young acting talent that I found at Athens Academy.
-Reviewed by: Gregory Sullivan
Though the actors in “The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail,” may be in high school, the production had all the features of a professional event.
From the impeccable costuming to the outstanding acting, I was thoroughly impressed with Athens Academy’s rendition of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s 1971 play.
On Friday night, after winning the region one-act competition and several other awards including Best Ensemble, Athens Academy presented the play to the community in preparation for the state competition this Wednesday.
“The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail” chronicles Henry David Thoreau’s early adult life in Concord, Mass. The play takes place in a jail cell where Thoreau has been incarcerated for failing to pay taxes in protest of the war in Mexico. There are also flashbacks, including Thoreau’s time as a teacher, starting his own school and working for his friend and idol, Ralph Waldo Emerson.
In a one-act competition, competitors have 55 minutes to set up the stage, perform their chosen play and strike the set. Because of these constraints, there were no major scene changes, and the set, which won Best Set Design, was minimal but very effective. At center stage sat a simple jail cell with two cots, and flashbacks were acted out on the rest of the stage.
Furthermore, the audience was required to use its imagination to envision invisible props and characters like Thoreau’s inquisitive pupils. This did nothing to diminish the performance but made me more engaged and impressed with the cast’s acting ability.
Because of the flashbacks, at first it was difficult to understand what was going on and when certain events occurred. However, once I grasped the flow of the show, it became much clearer.
The costumes were well made, and, as the play was so short, the costumes gave more insight into the characters’ natures. Emerson’s rising reputation was displayed by the tailored suit and pompous ascot, while Thoreau wore a simple white work shirt and cotton pants. These clothes were visual juxtapositions of the differing lifestyles of the two men.
The acting was similarly superb. Athens Academy’s production changed the male character of Deacon Ball into female Widow Ball, who was played phenomenally by senior Carley Moore. Though the character’s sex changed, the essence of Deacon Ball, with his harsh and strict ways, was kept intact. Moore perfected the crisp consonants and shrill, piercing voice of someone whose life is regimented by keeping rules.
In his acting debut at Athens Academy, junior Jake Parnell plays Bailey, Thoreau’s dopey but endearing cellmate awaiting trial. Though Parnell’s exaggerated southern accent was out of place for a play that took place in Massachusetts, it added to the innocent, simpleton qualities of a man who gets excited to learn to write his name. For his role as Bailey, Parnell was awarded with the All-Star cast award at region.
It was senior Aaron Strand who carried the show with his amazing performance as protagonist Thoreau. Strand, who studied acting at NYU this summer, was able to effectively convey a range of emotions, from inconsolable grief to intense passion. Strand, who was awarded Best Actor at the regional competition, was most compelling in a scene where, under the orders of Ball, he whips six students. With each crack of his belt upon a chair representing the students, Strand’s facial expressions became more pained, and the scene was like a car crash, painful to watch, but I was unable to turn away.
Due to the nature of the one-act play, Athens Academy had to condense the two-act original. In doing this, one major character was cut out, that of a runaway slave named William. While this was not particularly damaging to the story, it eliminated an aspect of Thoreau’s passion about abolishing slavery. Instead, this version focused on Thoreau’s intense opposition to the war in Mexico.
The ending, a violent dream sequence, was not nearly as powerful as it read in the original, however. Parts were cut out due to time constraints, and the absence of William made it less dramatic.
However, overall, this performance was not the amateur high school production I was expecting. Come Wednesday, the competition better be ready.
-Reviewed by: Jo Lee
