XAVIER BOATNER
campus editor
xavier.boatner@my.tccd.edu

NE Campus theater crew will be telling the story of the battle of wills between a nun and priest in 1960s America.

NE drama playhouse’s production, “Doubt: A Parable,” will run Oct. 5-8 in NFAB 1205 with performances at 7 p.m. each night and a Saturday matinee at 2 p.m. Tickets are free for TCC students, faculty and staff, $3 for non-TCC students and senior citizens, and $6 for the general public.

The cast spoke about the clash of ideals explored in the play and gave opinions on what side the audience would align with. 

“It’s a courtroom drama, so it’s very back and forth,” said NE student and stagehand Austin Uselton. “All of the scenes can be taken in so many different ways. I’ve had fun talking with the cast about their thoughts on their character or their thought on this scene and all of them don’t ever completely match up.”

The show is purposefully open-ended to allow the audience to have an opinion on the themes of the story and to encourage interpretation and discussion, Uselton said. 

“I see what people are talking about with each side,” he said. “In the story, the main takeaway and how you interpret it depends on if you think he did it or not.”

NE student Cal Graham, who plays Sister James, said her takeaway from the story was that people shouldn’t be so reliant on others for validation.

“The main overall thing is just perspective and how far you’re willing to go to justify yourself,” she said.

Given the story’s open-ended conclusion, Graham predicts what the most popular interpretation of the story’s theme will be for the audience.

“I think we’re going to get a lot of open-ended interpretations of it and the biggest one is going to be to trust your gut as opposed to what other people tell you,” she said.

The cast seemed to come to the consensus that the story’s reception would be split, and the themes explored in the play would require extra thought to nail down.

“Think very deeply about it,” NE student and Father Flynn understudy Adam Sellors said. “Consider everything that happens. Consider all the small things. There are things that you will not immediately think about until you’re done watching it, and then things will connect.”

Sellors explained there are many underlying messages in the story that the audience will have to seek out.

“It’s not going to be black and white, so I think it’s definitely a play with two sides,” he said. “I think it’ll be very interesting when people watch it.”

NE associate drama professor and director Jakie Cabe said his goal for the play was to split people’s opinions down the middle.

“People are going to think ‘Oh, the priest did do what he was accused of,’ and the other half is going to go ‘Oh I don’t think he did it necessarily, she’s really pushing the envelope too far’ ” he said. “That’s what I’m trying to get at.”

UNT student and Mrs. Muller actor Alyssa Meekins appreciated the story’s serious undertones and said that the goal of the play was to leave people feeling uncertain.

“If you walk away at the end of it feeling happy, we did something wrong,” she joked. “We want people to walk away feeling unsettled and having questions and really wrestling with that doubt and that uncertainty. I think that’s kind of an unusual goal for a piece of theater, but I think it’s a really admirable one.”