by Karen Kholer
Starting November 17th and going through the 19th the theater department will be putting on a performance of “Blood Wedding” in Olin Hall at 7:30! Director Nelson Barre is very excited since this production has been in the works for three years but has been delayed due to Covid and other various complications. This is a bilingual play that follows two feuding families and how a community struck with violence can come together. Since a good deal of this play will be in Spanish there will be a screen for subtitles so you do not have to know the language to understand. Only one character, Leonardo has a name, the rest are just referred to as their relations such as Mother, Bride and Groom. The Mother is the mother to the Groom who is getting married to the Bride but she’s in love with Leonardo of the rival family. Barre says some highlights of the show you don’t want to miss are a knife fight, LED screens that will change color and period costumes!
The Dramaturg Rachel Ann is a freshman doing her first production here at Roanoke! Her job is to do research into the playwright and the time period and culture so everything, such as wedding costumes, can be accurate. Some interesting things she found was that the wedding dresses were black and there was no dating beforehand. She was a dramaturg for her theater in high school and wants to continue to do it here. She looks forward to doing a comedy next and hopes to do more plays from other countries in the future! She had a lot of fun with this show and encourages others to come out and experience this layered story!
Mary Langan is also a freshman doing her first production and is the stage manager for the show! Her job involves cueing the show, running everything backstage, blocking and moving or changing the set. This is her first time being on the production side of things rather than the acting, which she did in highschool, but she enjoys it and would like to do it again in the future! She really enjoys how this show exemplifies women coming together after being hurt by violence and has the strong character of the Mother who takes charge. She encourages you to come out to the show if you enjoy high drama!
