The Impracticality of Modern-Day Mastodons

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” is both a simple question about a child’s interests, and the most profound question any of us can ask ourselves. While everyone around her gets to live out their childhood fantasies, it’s lonely to have dreams that people deem impractical. But we must keep going forward. And maybe, if we search long enough, we might find other impractical children with equally enormous dreams.

Photos by Craig Bailey/Perspective Photo

Sylvia

Though written long before smartphones, Gurney’s "message of the need to connect in an increasingly alien and impersonal world” continues to be relevant. It is easy to get lost in our fast-paced world. But joy can always be found, if we know where to look and if we allow it to affect us. Deep down, we’re all animals; whether human, dog, or anything else, we are social beings that need to laugh, cry, and love together.

The Honky Tonk Angels

Music brings people together, allows us to experience emotions more deeply, and makes life a little more joyous. In forming their bonds, these three women find hope, power, and strength that allows them to more firmly know who they are, take control of their lives, and find happiness on their own terms. On all of our journeys of self-discovery, music makes us feel a little less alone and allows us to tell our stories.

How I Learned to Drive

Though far from a new problem, we live in an age where stories of sexual assault, violence, and harassment are being seen on a much larger scale. This play makes us question how and why it happens. How do people wind up in these situations? How does one become a victim, without even knowing it? And just as importantly, how does one become a perpetrator, without even knowing it?

The Comedy of Errors

This play stems from the fundamental need of these characters to understand their identities; they can never truly be whole until they understand their past and connect with their other halves. But life is absurd and strange and surprising, full of twists and turns too unbelievable to put into any story – so you might as well have some fun along the way. We must laugh, smile, and enjoy the comedy (and errors) of our own lives.

Arms and the Man

Reality is more complicated than storybooks tell us. Celebrity and fame aren’t what they cracked up to be; war is not glorious but hard and dark; those we think are our true loves are may deceive us; and those we think are so different from us may be our perfect match. The characters in this play must let go of the childish notions of what romance and adventure might be to discover what romance and adventure truly are.

Over The Pub

No matter how big or small, calm or dysfunctional, our family experiences shape who we are. While parents impart their knowledge and beliefs onto their children, children teach their parents, too. It is always the next generation who asks the simplest of questions: “why?” That most basic question helps us to determine what we actually believe, understand how we got to where we are, and consider what we want next.

Cymbeline

Defying traditional Shakespearean categorization, the characters in Cymbeline exist in the grey areas between good and evil, happy and sad. They are familiar from folklore, novels, and history, yet don’t fit into the journeys we expect. The play is a great puzzle: a series of events and complications that must be unraveled before being put back together again, different and (hopefully) better than before.

Sweeney Todd

Every character in Sweeney Todd is obsessed: with revenge, with love, with lust, with fame… these obsessions cause them to blackmail, kidnap, and kill. We shouldn’t like these characters, yet we find their stories compelling. Perhaps we are fascinated by how they became so twisted; perhaps we pity how far they’ve fallen; or maybe—just maybe—we connect with their desperation for a better life.

The Learned Ladies

Each of us has something we are unyielding about. The “lofty learned ladies” of this family have gone too far in idolizing intellectualism, just as their opponents have become too hot-headed in their tirade against it. It is only in coming together that both sides can truly learn and—hopefully—live their lives more fully to find their love, their laughter, and their happy-ever-after.

Beauty and the Beast

Belle lives in a small town, longing for adventure; the Beast lives in his cursed castle, longing to be free. Their meeting allows them to learn about themselves and undergo a profound change in how they view the world. Home is not tangible or something you can easily define; it is a feeling, a connection, an understanding. It is found when you know your true self are surrounded by people you love.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond books, wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for his son. While he had great success writing action novels, he wanted to leave a legacy of something more meaningful and personal; so he created this family fantasy adventure.  In the novel, Caractacus tells his children: “Never say ‘no’ to adventures. Always say ‘yes,’ otherwise you’ll lead a very dull life.” I couldn’t agree more. 

Adam of the Apes

What is the truth? What do I believe in? Why am I right? Why is everyone else wrong? Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs about existence, the universe, and whether you should wear white after Labor Day. But, as Adam and Eve remind us, “just because something is sacred to you doesn’t mean everybody else has to hold it sacred as well”, nor is it right “for [anyone] to take your beliefs away from you.”