Working together -- Back-stage crew just as important in theater effort

Posted by: Debbie Bowley on Fri, 06 February 2009 15:22:07

By Noelle Frampton, February 6, 2009
©2009CONNECTICUT POST (Used with permission)

MILFORD -- When Elizabeth Lynch was a freshman at the Academy of Our Lady of Mercy, Lauralton Hall, she joined the fall musical to make new friends. 

A plant in the chorus of "Little Shop of Horrors" that year, Lynch, now a senior, did make friends. She also faced the reality that she could neither sing nor dance.

"That taught me that I want to be involved, but that I should by no means be on the stage," she said, laughing.

So, instead of being on stage this weekend as students perform the romantic comedy "Enchanted April" at Lauralton Hall, Lynch will be backstage, directing. Last year, she was stage manager and the year before that, she did costumes.

Lynch is the latest in a long line of student directors at the all-girls school on High Street, continuing a hand-me-down drama tradition that has continued for roughly a decade, with only one interruption when the play was directed by a teacher.

Working backstage is a good creative outlet, Lynch said. "When a show ends, it's just an unbelievable feeling of satisfaction."

Eight cast members, with help from seven other students, will perform the play Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

This year, the production hit a few hitches when several unexpected snow days closed school, so cast and crew drove through the snow to Lynch's Fairfield home for pizza and practice.

"They impressed me, and I'm not easily impressed," said Claire Lynch, Elizabeth's mom. "It's different than a school-produced one because they really have to put so much into it."

"Enchanted April" is about two British women who, dissatisfied with their marriages, embark on vacation to an Italian villa with two other ladies and eventually determine that their lives weren't so bad after all.

Caroline O'Connor, 17, a Lauralton senior from Fairfield who plays one of the vacationing companions, said the play depends on students working together.

"The school doesn't expect us to do it," she said. "It's students doing it because they want to be there, so it's really nice."

Lynch has allowed actors to develop their own roles, according to O'Connor and Andrew Freeburg, a 17-year-old Trumbull High School student who plays the villa owner.

"I love student-directed theater," Freeburg said. "It's so much more free-form."

Tickets, sold at the door, are $7 for students and senior citizens, and $10 for others.