COME FROM AWAY: A post-show discussion

This round table discussion format was born from the idea to have members of the theatre community see a theatrical performance together and dig deeper into that shared experience. When people go to a show, there are many great conversations that happen after. This is ours. 

NOTE: Week one of “Come From Away” was performed at Thalian Hall’s Red Box Theatre. Week two is at the Front Street Theatre.

At the table:

Alisa Harris (AH): Mom, actor, artist, and producer in Wilmington, NC. Visit www.alisaharris.actor

Cathy Street (CS): In her over 30 years of professional arts experience, Cathy has worn many hats including director, musical director, producer, actor and teaching artist. She is founder of Street Theatre Company in Nashville, TN where she also served as Artistic Director for 10 years. She works with various local theatre companies here in Wilmington. 

Two of us attended the musical “Come From Away,” the first show presented by a new local company And:Seen Theatrical Productions. Come From Away tells the remarkable true story of 7,000 stranded airline passengers and the small town in Newfoundland that welcomed them in the wake of September 11, 2001. With humor, heart, and a soaring Celtic-inspired score, the musical celebrates kindness, resilience, and the power of human connection in times of crisis. Uplifting and deeply moving, Come From Away reminds us how compassion can turn strangers into family.

Alisa Harris (AH): I'm glad I got to see it. The show was charming.

Cathy Street (CS): Charming is a great way to describe it!

AH: It was a perfect coming out show for them to do, because it has a minimal set. It was very real and grounded.

CS:  Jamie Nelson [Founder of And:Scene, Director of this production, and performer in the show playing Beverly] gave a really personable curtain speech before the show introducing the audience to the mission of the company. Per their website, their mission is to “share the magic of theater, nurture creativity, and help every performer—whether stepping on stage for the first time or returning after years away—find their voice and shine.”

I thought this show did just that. The bios were very interesting—it was neat to see so many varied members of our community taking the stage, maybe for the first time or the first time in years. But there was also a wide range of experience on the stage, including more familiar faces in our theatre community.

AH: There was a real life married couple playing love interests in the show that were sweet and they hadn't done theater before!

CS: While their singing was timid, they had a nice rapport.

AH:  And there were some standouts. I loved Krysten Rivenbark as Bonnie, the SPCA manager. And she is also someone who according to her bio hadn't done theater.  Jamie Nelson's Beverly was really good. 

CS: Katie Deese's comedic timing as Beulah really stood out to me. She had lots of laugh-out-loud moments. Bella Bellomo as Annette was really sparkling, she lit up the stage in her featured moments. Other people who stood out to me were Courtney Harding, Tim Manley, and Nelly Holdford.

AH: Agreed, Nelly’s great. 

CS: He was just so natural and engaging to watch. And Denyse McDonald -every time you see her on stage, her joy just radiates. 

AH: And Denyse choreographed it! That was perfect!

CS: Yes, the scene in the bar was so fun—definitely a highlight. Vocally, I was most impressed with Jayme Wood who played Hannah. Her song “I am Here” was absolutely gorgeous and heartbreaking.

AH: And while some of the accents were inconsistent, some of them – like Beau Mumford - were good. It was also staged very well. It was seamless. If you're going to do an hour and 20 minute show with no intermission, you’ve got to keep it flowing and they did.

CS: Agreed. Their chair ‘choreography’ was tight and did a great job of establishing different locations really clearly and quickly.

AH: But the technical elements struggled.

CS: Yes, half of the mics didn’t work. There was really overwhelming feedback multiple times throughout the show. The music was tracked and it overwhelmed the singers many times. Other times, the back-up singers’ mics were so hot that you couldn’t hear the dialogue on top of the background vocals and the music. That is a particularly big problem with a story-driven show. 

AH: And on top of it, having mixed abilities on stage, some people projecting, some people not projecting, it was challenging.

CS: And listen, I have been involved in plenty of shows with the same issues. It is, unfortunately, a fairly common problem on Wilmington’s local stages. Going off on a bit of a tangent here but sound is so vital to a musical and it can be prohibitively expensive. You need quality mics (which are not cheap), you need a sound person who knows how to navigate and mix for sometimes 20 body mics and music-sometimes a large orchestra-onstage…I don’t fault the theater company for those issues - it’s their first adult show and I’m sure they are working on a shoestring budget. But my question is - is there a solution in this town for what seems to be a chronic problem?

AH: There is a lack of space. And Red Box is not quite set up for a theatrical production yet. It will be transformed soon enough to a state-of-the-art immersive performance space, but for now it’s only a serviceable performance space.

[NOTE: Week one of “Come From Away” was performed at Thalian Hall’s Red Box Theatre. Week two is at the Front Street Theatre.]

CS: Yes, the lighting didn’t seem to have a lot of capabilities, either. I am not sure if it was equipment or what but there wasn’t a lot of front lighting and we lost a lot of faces. Additionally, some of the novices didn’t quite know how to find their light.

AH: And I want to be tactful about this but another struggle with community shows is justifying the price points.

CS: Yes, which brings us back to the same question we were talking about with sound which is affordability. Mounting a show, whether it is community or professional, costs a lot of money. Even if you aren’t paying performers, there are royalties, venue, technical elements, costumes, sound…the list goes on and on and those costs don’t diminish. So I understand the need for ticket sales to assist in offsetting those costs but…

AH: And nobody recoups all of their money off of ticket sales.  You also have to rely on sponsorships and grants. But for a group that their mission is learning and teaching, what is the solution?

CS: Exactly because both things are true-there is huge value in what they offer to the community and yet, it is not going to be expected to be at the same level of a professional company but ticket prices here tend to be almost the same. 

AH: These are important conversations for our community to explore.

CS: I do want to get back to what I see as a real value from what I experienced in this production.  I saw the National Tour of “Come From Away” when it was in Wilmington and I was left a little cold. It was technically lovely, the performances were obviously top notch, and YET…for me, emotionally, it was just ‘fine’. And with this production, while there was a wide range of abilities on this stage, I left feeling much differently. It was personal. They were so connected with the audience and so honest that it actually resonated for me more in that respect.

AH: Yes, I teared up a couple of times. And it is also the residual PTSD of living through 9/11. You remember staring at the TV for weeks on end…

CS: That's one of the things I love about more intimate theater experiences. I love the connection that you don’t get from some of the big splashy shows that may be polished, well-oiled machine but also maybe lose some of the heart. 

AH: Yes, and this space was perfect for that kind of in-your-face intimacy.

CS: There really was so much heart. I was rooting for everyone on that stage—the characters AND the actors. What a lovely experience that is to have in the audience.