By Misti DeHart/ nw news editor
A truly Texan experience is being brought to Theatre Northwest on NW Campus the first week of December.
The theater company will present together the double-billed, one-act plays Lone Star and Laundry and Bourbon by James McLure for five nights beginning Dec. 2.
The plays both take place on single sets. Lone Star occurs in a bar where three men visit, drink and possibly over-share — all while drinking the beer that is the bar’s namesake. Laundry and Bourbon takes place just across town on “Elizabeth’s Porch,” as noted by the script. This is where the ladies get together and do what every other person in this small town does — talk about everyone else’s business instead of their own.
Director Brent Alford said he chose the play for “its capacity to relate to all Texans, really.”
The setting is Maynard, Texas, population less than 1,000, in the early 1970s.
“Lone Star involves two brothers and their friend,” Alford said. “They’re back from the [Vietnam] war and sort of realizing they’ll never get out of this town. I get that right from the beginning, you know, because I’m from a very small town in southeast Texas. Anybody who was ever going to get out [of his hometown] would have done it a long time ago. That’s just the reality of it.”
The students who star in the play, although not quite as old as the characters in reality, can certainly see the struggles of the ladies spotlighted in Laundry and Bourbon. NW student Sarah Driskill, who plays Elizabeth, agrees.
Photos by Bogdan Sierra Miranda/The Collegian
“Although I honestly only have the struggles of a teenager to attribute to my life so far, I am able through [McLure’s] writing to feel the pain underneath the humor,” she said. “It is so funny, maybe one of the funniest [plays] I’ve ever read. But through acting, I not only feel [Elizabeth’s] love and humor but pain.”
But some can’t help but celebrate the humor in these small-town lives.
“It’s a play that I hope people will just have fun watching. I want them to have fun — and it’s hard not to with these ladies!” said NW student and Laundry and Bourbon cast member Nicole Shephard. “It’s Christmas, you know? I want people to be able to check [their worries] and just laugh when they come see us.”
Lone Star/Laundry and Bourbon will run 7:30 p.m. Dec. 2-5 with a 2 p.m. Sunday matinee Dec. 6. Performances are free for all TCC students, faculty and staff. Tickets are $3 for other students and seniors and $6 for the general public. Admission is restricted to ages 18 and up due to strong language and sexual content.
For reservations, call the box office at 817-515-7724.
