Majestic Theater stage welcomes back Southwick native for first-run of ‘Iris’

Date: 1/2/2015

WEST SPRINGFIELD – Dylan Brown, a Southwick native, grew up as a performer at the Majestic Theater. Now, she is pursuing acting as a career in New York City, but this January she will return home to the stage that started her passion.

Brown will star in the first run of Majestic Theater founder and director Danny Eaton’s original “mystery and magical realism” play, “Iris.”

Eaton said that when he began writing the play, about a year and a half ago, he wrote the lead character, Iris, hoping Brown would one day have a chance to play her.

“I’m really happy about it,” Eaton said. “When I first began to think seriously about this play, I always had her in mind for the character.”

Eaton said the idea for the play came after reading an article about a woman in a coma who became pregnant, and he eventually found more cases of these kinds of pregnancies, ones that resulted from sexual assault. He said he wondered what became of the children of these women.

Though it has been in the back of his mind for years, Eaton began writing about a year and a half ago, and Brown participated in the early readings and workshops of the script.
 
While Brown said that “Iris” is a “beautiful piece of theater,” playing the character for which the play is named, the daughter of a woman in a coma, comes with some pressure. As the youngest on a cast of “powerhouses,” her nerves are understandable, but Brown is ready to face the challenge nonetheless.

“I have to really hold my own, but I feel I can. It’s scary, but it’s exciting,” Brown said.

Eaton, on the other hand, has put his faith in her with little doubt. He helped Brown get her start, and when the play opens up, he will be able to help her move on to the next phase in her career.

“She’s a terrific talent to begin with, but I’m able to write an [Actor’s Equity] card for her, which is a huge thing for getting agents and call backs,” Eaton said.

Brown graduated from New York University in 2013 with a degree in drama, and though her young career has just begun, she said that the Majestic Theater will always be a special part of her start.

“It’s very much a homecoming. I’ve grown up on that stage as an actor,” Brown said. “I feel very honored. It’s a sacred space for me.”

Brown, Eaton and the “powerhouse cast,” according to Brown, will raise the curtains on “Iris” at the Majestic Theater on Jan. 8 and it will run through Feb. 15. For more information about the show, visit www.MajesticTheater.com.