Common Decency by Ann Marie Healy

The play I was just in (ended last Sunday) was called Common Decency. It was about a little town in Michigan called Calumet (an actual REAL little town in Michigan) and the quirks and pitfalls of living there. I had the glamorous role of "townsperson" (ensemble). My one individual line was: "Oh my god, he's takin' her right now!"

It was a really fun show to do, though. I basically got to sit around and learn things, and watch MFA acting students work, and then not have to do very much actual work myself. Good times. The play was one of three new plays going up this year as part of Brown/Trinity's New Plays Festival. All plays were written by MFA playwrights, directed by MFA directors (except ours, who was directed by a professional), and acted by MFA actors (and undergrad actors, who filled out the casts in smaller roles). The whole thing was great fun.

Our play is centered on the little town of Calumet and its inhabitants, Old Man McCauley (owner of the town general store where all the action took place), Old Man Aggie (the town rabble rouser and owner of a neighboring shop), Old Man Kenghis (a kind old man whose wife has just committed suicide), little Jake-O (McCauley's apprentice, a young man with a stuttering problem and a lot of heart), Minnie Willet (the town outcast, a bookish type who often makes up stories), and Lila & Eleanor Willet (Minnie's selfish cousins). Jake-O and Minnie are the true leads, and they fall in a kind of uncertain, desperate love in the middle of Act 1. Events from then on spin into comedy and then spiral into tragedy via misunderstanding, groupthink, and general intolerance of difference. To say more would spoil the story (and I don't think I'm even allowed to do that, since it's a new and not yet published play), so that's all I'll say.

Anyway, here are some more photos from the show:




Can you pick me out of the crowd?

Hint: I look really stupid (it's the costume).

Hmmm... I guess these photos give you a good idea of what happens later in the play (they're from the big, climatic, penultimate scene). But I still didn't tell the story. For the record. ; )