With a marriage in shambles, a crazy ex-girlfriend and two kidnappers, "Wanda’s Visit" isn't your average dinner party.
"Wanda's Visit," a play which premiers on Oct. 14 at the Lab Theatre, chronicles a married couple, Jim and Marsha, as they endure a visit from Jim’s ex-girlfriend. From there “it’s just chaos,” third-year theatre student and director of "Wanda’s Visit" Logan Davies said.
“There’s a failed relationship, jealousy and there's some fine dining,” Davies said. “It’s one of the funniest plays I’ve ever read in my entire life. And this cast keeps taking it each night, adding more layers and more layers to make it funnier and funnier.”
This will be Davies’ first time directing a full show, and he says that when he started directing it “clicked.” While the show has been challenging, he also says it’s been fun.
“Time management has been a big thing because I work a couple of jobs, go to school and directing ... when you’re the director, you have to oversee everything," Davies said. "It’s a lot more involved than I guess I realized at first, but it’s been a really great learning experience and I want to do it again."
The cast is made up entirely of undergraduates and focuses on three main characters: Jim, Wanda and Marsha. Lilly Heidari, a second-year English and theatre student plays the “poised and uptight” Marsha. Heidari says she likes the energy of the show and how close the cast has gotten throughout the rehearsals.
“As we’ve gotten closer in our own relationships, we can show Marsha, Jim and Wanda’s relationships on stage better. 'Cause the more that we know each other, the more comfortable we are with pushing each other to do something even crazier or show emotions,” Heidari said.
The play's title character is played by second-year public relations student Jordan Postal. Postal’s character is "insane, so she's very flowy and sporadic,” according to Heidari. Wanda also talks with a unique accent that Davies calls her “Wanda voice.”
“She just did it once and then each night it just improved more and more, or she's felt more comfortable in it,” Davies said.
The cast rehearses from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday. The first few rehearsals of the show were table work. Gradually, the cast began to put voices to the characters, figure out where to walk and eventually start running the show. Davies says that at rehearsals he tries to be open to new ideas.
“I want everyone to feel free to experiment, try new things with their character each and every night ... we bounce ideas off of one another,” Davies said. “If my idea is bad, I want them to be able to feel like they can tell me my idea is bad because if they're doing something that they don’t fully believe in, then they’re not doing the show justice.”
Soon their ideas will be on stage for an audience, and this is something that Heidari says she’s looking forward to. Heidari also says that “anyone who likes to laugh, especially college students” will like the play.
“No one's laughing quite yet,” Heidari said. “I’m sure that will add a lot of energy to the show, when we have an audience.”
Davies is excited for the opening night and although he’s nervous, he’s “so ready for everyone to see it.”