By Julissa Treviño/south news editor
In between rehearsing scenes, the four cast members laugh and joke like real friends, but probably not like the characters they portray in the South Campus play Extremities, opening next week.
Based on the 1982 play of the same name by William Mastrosimone, Extremities follows a young woman who is attacked in her home by a man trying to rape her, but she eventually manages to turn the tables on him. Her roommates then discover the man tied up, and the four characters battle to resolve the issue.
The play was also turned into a popular film in 1986 starring Farrah Fawcett.
Jason Morgan, South Campus drama instructor and director of Extremities, says his choice in play came from its relevance to today.
“It deals with issues of torture … with everything going on in the Middle East, and it deals with the rape issue,” he said.
Under his direction, the play has not been reinvented or changed at all, he says.
The cast members have now been rehearsing for about four weeks and their energy is apparent onstage. The character of Marjorie, the young woman under attack, is played by second-year South Campus theater/directing major Heather Dyer.
“I have not actually been in a lead role since freshman year of high school,” she said. “The part [of Marjorie] is so extreme. She’s not just a simple character.”
Dyer said Marjorie is very diverse in her range of emotions throughout the play.
Nicole Bowen, playing Patricia, one of Marjorie’s roommates, is a freshman theater major and has been in another South Campus play already.
“[For this role] I’m trying to portray myself as a smart-aleck character that keeps her emotions in check,” she said.
Terry, the other roommate in the play, is quite the opposite, says Teran Jones, a UTA junior who plays the part of Terry.
Dyer said Terry “is an optimistic person and trusts people too easily, let’s people walk on her.”
“Including me.”
As for the fourth cast member, first-year student Justin Veltman, playing the attacker, Raul, he had never intended to get involved in theater or drama.
“I just took a drama course as an elective, and I was asked to come. It was a generic audition,” he said.
The same can be said about stage manager/assistant LeAnn Smith, forensics anthropology major.
“This is just a hobby. I took a director’s appreciation course and was stage manager for Medea Odea,” she said.
While the play is full of distress and mixed emotions, off-stage, the cast are very natural together, constantly chatting with and amusing each other.
“We’re all connected,” Dyer said.
Dyer and Jones have taken acting classes and have been in plays together before Extremities, but some cast members are new to the South stage.
“I’m the newbie,” Bowen said.
The four actors will perform Extremities April 24-26, 7:30-10 p.m. every night in the Carillon Theatre of the Performing Arts Center on South Campus. The department allows no late seating.
Tickets are free for TCC students, faculty and staff, $3 for other students and seniors and $6 for the general public. For more information on tickets, call the box office at 817-515-4642 or 817-515-4717.
With the emotion, conflict and theme of the play, “it’ll keep the audience at the edge of their seats,” Dyer said.
Extremities
Warning: Adult Content
South Campus
Showtimes: Thursday-Saturday 7:30 p.m.
Box Office: 817-515-4652
No Late Seating
General Admission: $6
Non-TCC Students/Seniors: $3
TCC Students, Faculty, Staff: Free
