IMPRESSIONS OF EXPRESSIONISM: CFCC’s Theater Program Examines the 'Machinal'
A stroll down “memory lane” is often a metaphor to express fondness of the past. Recently, for me, it was stumbling around my old alma mater of Cape Fear Community College’s theater department. I literally found myself standing in the shadow of my past; CFCC’s new and improved Humanities and Fine Arts Building on their downtown campus—more popularly referred to as the Wilson Center.
When not in service as the premiere venue to the choicest touring shows to come through the Cape Fear, the Allan & Laura Wilson Humanities and Fine Arts Center serves as the center of operations for CFCC’s arts centric students to receive hands-on training. As I awaited my guide to this sterling facility, my mind couldn’t help but recall the humble, concrete, black-box theater down on North Front Street, where I had studied many moons ago as an attendee. (Nice to see where my tuition went!)
Charlotte Fuchs, who acts in CFCC’s upcoming staging of “Machinal” by Sophie Treadwell, also handles the show’s marketing. She reached out to me about covering the college’s production of the 1928 true crime play and expressionist experiment, running November 12-14 and 19-21. How could I resist? SEA DEVILS FOR LIFE!
Photos by Charlotte Fuchs
The rampant interest in all things true crime is feverish. That certainly was the notion which crossed Fuchs’ mind, she admits, navigating me to the rehearsal room. “I hope that the true crime part gets them in the door…” she takes a moment to build emphasis, “You know, marketing wise.”
Fuchs elaborates, “I hope that audiences come expecting one thing and they leave shocked, but with their expectations having NOT been met.” With a shrug of her shoulder she adds, “Come for the true crime, but the story is not that.”
The cavalier response colored me curious for what did in fact await.
Rehearsals were in progress as Fuchs led me into the much-improved upon black-box performance space. From the door, I spotted director Cat Thomas zeroing in on her actors in the heat of the scene. Maddy Liva and Ty Shull play two young lovers making passionate promises that they hope don’t turn to languishing lies. My attention towards the student actors breaks when Fuchs leans over and into my ear tells me, “This is the end of Act 1.”
The play, which was first staged on Broadway in 1928, was inspired by the murder case and execution of Ruth Snyder. Snyder was executed by electric chair at Sing Sing Penitentiary for killing her husband. Interestingly, a full calendar year would not pass from Snyder’s execution on January 12, 1928, to the premier of the play on September 7, 1928. Treadwell used her personal observations from the courtroom and other documents from the trial to draw inspiration and aimed to reframe Snyder's story into a critique of the apathetic and patriarchal society in which women are confined. The play would go on to be considered a high point in the American Expressionist theatre movement.
As the two lovers part with lingering kisses and longing eyes, the production’s stage manager, Ike Vickery, calls “Scene!”
The cast brings the day’s rehearsal to an end. Thomas gives post-rehearsal notes to her cast as chairs form into a circle for our impending convo.
SCENE! The cast of 'Machinal' at CFCC's Wilson Center. Photo by Julie Martin
Teacher/Director Cat Thomas starts us off by explaining the school’s setup: “Here at CFCC, the Associate in Fine Arts program is only two years, and we only do two productions a year. As an educator, it’s important to me that the students have a variety of plays on their resume. I started with Shakespeare, we’ve done Greek, we’ve done Neo-Classism, and I just felt like the next step was to do something Expressionist.”
When I ask what drew her to this play in particular, Thomas notes the multiple times she read it in undergrad and grad school. “Every time I’ve read it, I’ve come back to the same thought.” Thomas wrings her hands together with anxious energy and laughs mischievously. “It’s so cool, but it’s such a ****ing beast! It’s so scary, but we had such an army behind us that I just felt we could pull this off. This is a story that will pull at the heartstrings of the people really watching and listening to its message. To me, the beauty of this play is that it opens up the question of how you can have empathy towards a person or situation that you would otherwise judge without understanding. Even though the play’s vibe is very 1920s coded, there are a lot of the things that the lead character goes through that I identify with as a woman in 2026.”
Jumping off of the director’s point, stage manager Ike Vickery chimes in, “This show fits the political standpoint we sit in now and art forms have been a way for people to express about them. This is an expressionistic play, a concept from the 1910s, originated in Germany, to be different, to show the true feelings of what is going on.” With a sense of pride to his words, Vickery adds, “We can affect that and show people just what is going on right now, as theater students, as art students!”
Nevertheless, the director confesses to feeling anxious towards how audiences will accept the show. “Yes, I’m a little anxious about it, sure. There is always the risk of contemporary audiences not relating to the material. This play really tries to get into the inner workings of the main character’s mind…”
Thomas goes on to reveal this fascinating detail about the play: The audience doesn't know the lead character’s name until Act 2. This is another concept of the expressionism movement, the director explains, as the lead is referred to as “The Young Woman” throughout most of the production. “So sometimes her dialogue isn’t her actual spoken words but her vocalized thoughts that we as the audience get to hear spoken aloud.”
“It’s been a challenge” says Maddy Liva, the young actress portraying the every-woman-role of Young Woman. “This process has had its highs and its lows, but that’s the fun of the experience, you get to learn new things about yourself.” She continues with a confident air, “I do feel like we are doing what needs to be done and doing the play justice.”
Ike adds on to Maddy’s point about challenges overcome, but from the other side of the curtain. “From a technical standpoint this show has been a good challenge for us all,” the stage manager says. “As we slowly moved along from rehearsal to our tech week, into our full production, we have seen characters come to life, we have seen set designs, costume designs, and props become real. The entire production has been an amazing learning challenge.”
Thomas goes back to the show origins when discussing her design vision: “The play is based on a true story, the trial of Ruth Snyder. I had the costumer go and look at photos of Snyder, what was she wearing in the courtroom. If she had a hat, I want a hat that matches that hat. We have a few Easter Eggs planted throughout [the play] of the real woman this story is based on.” Thomas stresses her point: “I want this to feel more like an everywoman story. So, the less we lean into the realism the better it is for the production."
“You can’t really tell right now,” Thomas says, gesturing to a large white cloth wall. “But that is a scrim. We are going to light it from the back and cast a lot of shadow work and silhouette work throughout the production, which is very expressionistic.”
Cast member Parker Bird brings up an interesting outlook he hopes audiences take from the play. “I kinda want—I know this will sound negative—but I kinda want audiences to have a sense of hopelessness by the end. Not getting a happy ending is what opens an audience’s eyes.”
Ike counters that sense of hopelessness Parker spoke of, saying the show is more of a “wake-up call with its bleakness.”
It's Maddy Liva, though, who sums it up quite distinctly. “Young Woman, she’s a fighter. Her problem is while she knows what she doesn’t want out of life, she has no idea what she DOES want out of it. I just hope that people take from this show to speak their truth even if it feels hard.”
At that, I wish the student cast a collective broken leg with their upcoming production and make my exit. As I wandered through these newishly christened hallways and back outside into the remainder of the day, I found myself struck with a profound sense of school pride.
Find more details and purchase tickets to the "Machinal" at WilsonCenterTickets.com.
