Mainstage
debuts comedy ‘Off the Map’
By Lisa Hoppenjans
News Editor
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February 16, 2001
The Mainstage
Theater will be visited by the nostalgia of the ’70s as the theater
department presents Joan Ackermann’s Off the Map, a comedic and
bittersweet look at the power of human relationships.
The play,
which opens Feb. 16, is set in a remote northern New Mexico town and
it looks back in time as adult narrator Bo Groden (junior Claiborne
Heilman) reflects on the summer her father was depressed.
Set in 1973, the young Bo (freshman Kate Roberts) is growing up as the
only child of aging hippie parents. The family makes a scant living
off of the Korean War military benefits paid to her severely depressed
father, Charley (junior Lee Briggs). Bo’s mother Arlene (sophomore
Meg McKee) is a free spirit whose habit of raiding the junkyard for
household items provides an endless source of embarrassment for her
daughter.
Compounded with the typical adolescent problems is Bo’s yearning
desire to escape her personal isolation and lead a more exciting life.
Bo spends much of the summer attempting to brighten her monotonous existence
as her father’s best friend George (sophomore Andy Rigsby) serves
as her fishing partner and sole friend.
In the
midst of Bo’s struggle, she finds an answer to her thirst for excitement
in Internal Revenue Services agent William Gibbs (sophomore Cary Donaldson),
who is sent to audit the family’s taxes. Gibbs searches for them
for four days and once he stumbles upon the family he is unable to make
himself leave.
“The thing I liked about this play is that it’s got a good
soul,” director Cynthia Gendrich, an assistant professor of theater,
said. “It definitely has its moments of comedy, but it also has
a serious side that explores the joys of being needed and being able
to help someone change their life.”
The play
focuses around the complex relationships between the ensemble cast of
six characters. “All of the characters are so strong and so dynamic.
The way Joan Ackermann puts them together just amazes me,” McKee
said.
Gendrich cited the appeal of these relationships as a primary reason
for her selection of the play. “I was looking for characters that
I could spend a lot of time with and go home feeling good about,”
she said.
The relationships between the characters also serve to drive much of
the play’s humor. “The relationships between the characters
provide comedy because the characters continually find themselves in
these awkward moments,” McKee said.
Gendrich described the piece as “sweet funny” and “kooky”
but emphasizes what she terms its “serious underbelly.”
“The play deals with serious issues such as depression, death and
loss, but it in long run it ends up being very funny and uplifting,”
Donaldson said.
Heilman points to the lessons Bo learns through her reflection. “It’s
a combination of nostalgia, regret and a realization of how much she
learned from that summer and how supportive the people around her really
were,” Heilman said.
Gendrich hopes that audiences will appreciate and enjoy the comedy,
but also learn from the more serious aspects of the play. “I hope
the audience brings a willingness to both laugh and feel something.
And I hope they leave feeling good, appreciating their relationships
with the people they love,” she said.
Off the Map will run at 8 p.m. Feb. 16 and 17 and Feb. 21 - 14, and
at 2 p.m. Feb. 25. Tickets are $5 for students and $12 for non-students.
