“The Baby Dance” has been dancing around play director Karen Baker’s mind for about 12 years.
“It really moved me,” she said. “It was something that has been in the back of my mind as a play that I would like to do, or would like someone to do, and the opportunity finally came around.”
Anyone interested in seeing why it stuck with Baker for so long can go to Allen Bales Theatre any night this week. The first showing is tonight at 7:30 p.m. with showings Tuesday through Saturday also at 7:30 p.m. and the final showing on Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 for students, $12 for faculty, staff and seniors and $18 for adults.
The play is about two couples. The first, Wanda and Al, already have four children and cannot afford their fifth child who is on the way. The other couple, Rachel and Richard, want a baby but are unable to conceive. Through an ad in the paper the two couples come together to try to give the baby the best life possible.
“It’s essentially about the dynamics of those two very different couples and them both coming together for this common goal,” said Amy Handra, who plays Rachel. “There are complications that ensue with the baby, so it becomes a play that deals with a lot of questions about adoption and about responsibility with children.”
Although the play has some lighter moments, it is a drama that deals more with serious issues.
“In a lot of ways, working on something as dramatic as this is a lot like working on a comedy,” said Matt Lewis, who plays Richard. “This is just the opposite. You’re still moving people a great deal; you’re just moving them to sadness instead of happiness.”
Handra said the play is a very fair representation of the material, and the play will make audiences think long after they’ve left the show.
“There are a lot of big messages in the show,” said Peyton Conley, who plays Al. “It handles them very subtly, though. They aren’t heavy-handed, and they aren’t in your face.”
Both Matt and Amy said they agreed that creating any character is a challenge, but in the case of their characters, Richard and Rachel, they both saw a lot of themselves in the script, which has made the play interesting to put on.
“It’s been interesting to do a character that is so much like me and so contemporary,” Handra said. “It’s challenging, too, though, because you want to make sure that you are creating a character. The basis is always in you, but you want to have different aspects as well.”
Peyton Conley and Leah Ferrill, who play Al and Wanda in the play, said they have not had such an easy time creating the characters because both of these characters are not like the actors who play them.
“Creating the character has been a great process,” Conley said. “He is volatile and a real product of the environment he is in. The way I think we have to justify these characters is by creating real people.”
Baker said all of these characters have flaws that, in many other works, would make them unlikeable characters. However, in “The Baby Dance,” it is hard to hate any one of them because you really see where they are coming from.
She also warns that the show might not be for everyone because of the mature subject matter, but hopes anyone who can handle the material will come this week and see the show.
