‘The darkness’ steals the show

A gallon of gas costs 34 cents, a gallon of milk is $1.08, and a new Volkswagen Beetle costs a mere $1,800. Cell phones and extreme airport security don’t exist.

It may sound like an episode of the “Twilight Zone,” but it’s actually the U.S. in 1968, the year in which “Wait Until Dark,” Theatre VCU’s first show of the season, is set.

Director Barry Bell said audience members should be willing to suspend their disbelief when they come and remember that it’s 1968.

Bell, an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Theatre, has been acting since the age of 17 and was the artistic director of The Barn Dinner Theatre in Greensboro, N.C., for 11 years.

Wanna check it out?

“Wait Until Dark” runs from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 and Oct. 5 – 8 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 9 at 2:30 p.m. Admission prices are $15 for the general public, $12 for senior faculty and staff, $8 for other universities and $5 for VCU students with their ID.

“Wait Until Dark” is a taut thriller about a recently blind woman, Suzy Henderson (played by senior Angela Shipley), who must outsmart a gang of drug dealers in order to stay alive. Frederick Knott wrote the play and the movie screenplay.

To add extra suspense to this particular production, Bell chose to include an extra section taken from the play’s movie version. When questioned about his favorite character in the play, the

director enigmatically answers, “The darkness.”

Bell has directed “Wait Until Dark” twice before in professional theaters. He said he considers his cast for the VCU show some of the hardest working and most professional actors with whom he’s ever had the privilege to work.

He added that he was confident the show was perfectly cast. As a professor with intimate knowledge of the student talent at the university, Bell had some casting ideas upon entering the audition process. A few students, however, impressed him enough to change his mind, he said.

“Collaboration is key,” Bell said. “A good director is collaborative and will be open to having his ideas change if someone comes up with a better one.”

He stressed that this applies to his work with both actors and designers.

The VCU theater season also includes: “Shakespeare in Hollywood,” “The Three Sisters” and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”

This season is more commercial and entertainment-oriented than in past years because of the new VCU policy of charging everyone, including students, for tickets.

Before this academic year, VCU had been one of only three schools in the National Association of Schools of Theatre that didn’t charge its students for its shows. All performing arts departments at VCU have decided to charge students for show tickets at a reduced rate.

“It’s one less pack of cigarettes,” Bell said of the ticket prices. “You have to understand that you have to pay for art.”

Meet The Cast

Ryan Murvin (Mike Talman) is back at TheatreVCU after spending two years studying in Germany. A third year performance major, he was most recently seen as Dromio of Syracuse in the Richmond Shakespeare Festival production of “The Comedy of Errors.” He has also performed at the Barksdale in Their Playing Our Song and as ‘The Murderer’ in “The Tell-Tale Heart” at the Haunts of Richmond and in a special anniversary performance at the Edgar Allen Poe Museum.

Gerron M. Atkinson (Sergeant Carlino) is a second year Performance Major and was last seen as Clayton Toler in the VCU production of “The Civil War.” He is a native New Yorker and has been acting for 8 years. Some of his stage credits include: “Five Guys Named Moe,” “Pippin,” “Godspell,” “Grease,” “The Piano Lesson,” “Fences,” “Macbeth,” “Richard III,” “Blues,” “Days of Absence,” and “Leonardo’s Last Supper.” Gerron has also appeared on television and film and those credits include: “Guiding Light,” “Malcom X,” “The Young and the Restless,” “Cherry Falls,” “One Life to Live,” “Do The Right Thing,” and “All My Children.”