‘The House of Blue Leaves’ to be presented Feb. 25 - 28
By Keith M. Moritz
On Feb. 25 – 28, "The House of Blue Leaves," written by John Guare will be performed in the Cultural Centre.
The play is a story that focuses on one man and the pursuit of his dream to become a songwriter. Steven Miller plays the lead role of Arti Shaughnessy.
Arti’s wife, Bananas, is mentally ill and is constantly impeding Arti’s work, and his son has gone AWOL with the intention of killing the Pope. Bananas is played by Judy McQuilkin and the son by John Pfundstein.
Director Dr. David Kuester, said the play "deals with dark themes that may seem distasteful." The play is also very hard on Catholicism, Kuester said.
"You can sit and watch the play as Monty Python – type farce," he said, adding that audiences laugh to the point where they start to question what they are laughing about.
"The people in the play have truly embodied the characters," Kuester said, attributing this to the talents of the actors and to the script.
The biggest problem, Kuester said, has been to portray the character’s fashions. The play is set in 1966 and one of the characters has hand-me-down-clothes. Researching the fashions of those times has taken a lot of time, he said.
The technical crew includes Jennifer Rodrick as the assistant director, Matt McNally on lights, and Jaclyn Vasquez as tech support.
Performances are at noon on Feb. 25 and 26, 8 p.m. on Feb. 26 and 27 and 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 28.
Admission is free for IVCC students with an ID, $3 for students from other schools, and $5 for the general public.
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