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Majestic Theater lifts curtain on 11th season

By Katelyn Gendron-List

Reminder Assistant Editor



WEST SPRINGFIELD There are no dark days at the Majestic Theater on Elm Street, Marie Susen, company manager at the Majestic Theater said.

Therefore it's no wonder why the theater has over 4,000 subscribers because throughout the year this intimate and historical theater provides the West Springfield community with the opportunity to see plays every year from September through May, and children's theater, open mic nights and concerts throughout the summer.

With fall approaching, the Majestic Theater will be raising its curtain once again as the Theater Project kicks off their 11th season with the first of their five-production run, beginning with the play "Trying," on Sept. 6.

According to Susen, "'Trying' is a touching dramatic comedy with a warm-hearted story." This two-person play chronicles the relationship between 81-year-old Francis Biddle, a judge, United States Attorney General and chief judge at the Nuremberg Trials and his newly hired secretary, 25-year-old Sarah Schorr.

"The play is about the two of them 'trying' to overcome their differences, they're cultural, age and gender differences," Danny Eaton, founder of the Theater Project and producing director of "Trying" said in an interview with Reminder Publications.

Eaton also stated that he reads one play per day and that after reading, "Trying" there was just something about the story that kept calling him back.

"When Danny reads something he sees himself as part of the audience," John Thomas Waite, the actor playing Francis Biddle said. "If there's something that resonates with him it will resonate with the audience and that's a great way to plan a season."

Waite added that he too fell in love with the play written by Joanna Glass, who based this work on her experiences working for Biddle in 1967.

"This isn't so much a historical play for me but it's really about a man who spent a good deal of his life being at the top of his intellectual game and was a man of great power," Waite said. "He was an intellectual giant and is now dealing with the physical and mental deterioration of old age."

While the characters are "trying" to make their working relationship a successful endevor and bridge the gap between their two worlds-Biddle a Harvard man and Schorr a young wife originally from Saskatchewan, Canada-they end up forming a "grandfather-granddaughter relationship, although Biddle would never call it that," Sandra Blaney, actress playing Schorr said.

Blaney described her character as strong-willed and head-strong, even as Schorr's grammar is constantly being corrected by Biddle. These are moments in the play that she described as smart and humorous.

When describing her experiences working on this only two-actor play, Blaney said, "I have an exceptional costar. Right out of the gate he set the bar really high."

According to Waite and Blaney, audiences attending "Trying" will immediately be impacted by the intimacy of the venue as "the audience as put right at your fingertips."

Blaney added that at some moments during plays she has performed at the Majestic Theater in the past she could almost hear audience members breathing.

"We don't have a bad seat in the house and we are convinced that if you come for one show you will come back," Susen said.

Tickets for "Trying" as well as the four other plays running this season are now on sale and range in price from $19 - $27.

For more information on the plays or to buy tickets call the Majestic Theater box office at 747-7797, or go to www.majestictheater.com.