‘The Dining Room’ cooks up character feast

Senior Doug Tomlinson (left) and junior Alex Cala rehearse lines to prepare for “The Dining Room,” which began last night, Thursday, April 29, and runs through tomorrow, Friday, May 1.

When junior Alex Cala follows senior Doug Tomlinson onstage, it’s clear that she’s desperate to talk to him. Something is bothering her. But Doug, always a few steps ahead of her, keeps changing the subject.
Drama teacher Nancy Moran promptly interrupts the scene.

“Move a little faster,” Moran tells Doug. “You’re only sixty. There are plenty of teachers at this school who are sixty, and they move quicker than that. Be spry.”

The two actors take their scene from the top, but pause again moments later.

“What type of relationship do we have?” Alex wonders out loud. “Do we talk often? Do we have an awkward relationship?”

Moran, Doug and Alex then leaf through their scripts of A.R. Gurney’s “The Dining Room.” They talk about the two characters, eventually deciding that the father and daughter have a fairly close relationship—she has visited often and still calls him Daddy.

The script of “The Dining Room” itself reveals little about the characters. Since the show is comprised of several vignettes, characters have limited time on stage and actors must get creative to understand their roles.

“Since you don’t have a huge role, there’s a lot you can play off of and create yourself,” Broken Box member senior Clarissa Johnson said. “[It’s all in] the way you portray your character—maybe through an accent or maybe the things you do when nobody’s looking at you.”

The script, for instance, says little about Alex’s character other than that Meg is “about thirty.” But Alex gleaned that her character is very “disorganized” and crafted a possible back story for her, even if no details can be found in the script.

“Meg [often] made mistakes in life,” Alex said. “She’s not very stable. When she had her kids, she wasn’t prepared at all. The relationship she has with her husband is more of a ‘high school sweetheart’ relationship.”

In a scene Alex and Doug are rehearsing, Meg approaches her father, Jim. As a result of their conversation, Alex said, Meg is forced to “finally grow up.” Doug said that the more they rehearse the scene, the more he and Alex develop an understanding of how to portray their characters.

“As you do it, you start to learn more about them and their inner characters,” Doug said. “Over time, rehearsing the scene, the relationships come out.”

In an earlier scene, sophomore Laura Delamare and junior Jasmine McGee play two eight-year-olds at a birthday party. Laura said she and Jasmine crafted a back story where their characters squabble over a boy in their grade named Timmy.

The fine details of their complex friendship are never made explicit in the final show, and Laura said that the story was a “small, silly,” made-up thing. But as viewers watch the two eight-year-olds softly chant “We want ice cream!” while banging on the dining table, it’s not hard to imagine such a relationship.

Although each scene tells a different story from a different time period, they all take place in the same dining room setting. As a one-set show, “The Dining Room” presents unique challenges but also offers opportunities for creativity.

How, for instance, can Broken Box get the audience invested in a show where the scenes are not directly related?

Part of the answer lies in the way the show is structured to have successive scenes overlap. But more importantly, the cast believes that the audience will be captivated by high-energy characters, none of whom overstay their welcome.

“[In this kind of show,] you have to really make an impression as soon as you walk through the doorway,” Moran said. “There has to be a constant flow of energy.”

Moran hopes that the show will not only entertain but also make viewers “think of their families.” After all, most of the vignettes in “The Dining Room”—just like the scene with Alex and Doug—tell stories about family.

“[It is] a very human show,” Broken Box member senior Emma Carr said. “The stories show that all families have their issues. … They show that we’re not as different as we seem. If you wanted it to be, the show could be about one family.”

“The Dining Room” began last night, Thursday, April 29, and runs through tomorrow, Saturday, May 1. Tickets are $5 in advance and $8 at the door.