 |
 |
| Photos by SCOTT GULLEDGE/ Scroll |
|
| Jared Deveraux, a junior from Ravensdale, Wash., and Tia Fordham, a junior from Castle Rock, Colo., act scenes from The Guys. The director, W.
Hyrum Conrad, double cast the two-person play with Melissa Woolf, a junior from Flower Mound, Texas, and Brant Wadsworth, a senior from Sugar City, Idaho. The four cast members will alternate performances throughout the run.
|
|
A new play, The Guys, commemorating the firefighters who died in relation with the events of Sept. 11, 2001, opened Oct. 12. in the Oscar Kirkham Arena Theater.
The Guys stars Tia Fordham, a junior from Castle Rock Colo.; Melissa Woolf, a junior from Flower Mound, Texas; Jared Deveraux, a junior from Ravensdale, Wash.; and Brant Wadsworth, a senior from Sugar City, Idaho. The play was written by Anne Nelson.
The Guys is only a two person play. The four students alternate performances so during any given performance only one of the women and one of the men perform.
The play follows the characters Joan, who loves New York City where she works as an editor, and Nick, who works as a fire captain.
Joan mentions that as she walks down the street, she never really sees people, just shadows of people. Similarly, hearing numbers of casualties and fatalities after the events of Sept. 11 offers little humanity and an impersonal number.
The Guys, however, portrays the firemen who gave their lives in their jobs as real men.
Joan doesn’t think she has anything to offer those who suffered directly from the attacks on the World Trade Center, but Nick needs her help. Nick can remember his men and Joan can write about them.
As Nick talks, the firefighters who died at Ground Zero come alive to Joan. These firefighters were family men, New York lovers, new guys on the job and bicycle racers. They had recitals to go to and birthdays to celebrate.
Some built tools for the firehouse, some set good examples for the new men and some raised solid families. Some lived lives of antics and anecdotes that live through those who can remember them.
The eulogies Nick and Joan write explain that the firefighters filled holes in other peoples’ lives, and their void is felt, but their legacy will remain.
W. Hyrum Conrad, director of The Guys said that these legacies drew him to the play. “The script didn’t focus on terror,” Conrad said. “[It gives] a new awareness and understanding of how we help each other deal with trauma and grief.”
Through the experience of writing eulogies together, Nick and Joan dealt with their grief and coped with the levity of the tragedy. The Guys focuses on what we do as people to help each other after tragedy strikes, Conrad said.
The Guys runs Wed. Oct. 19 till Sat. Oct. 22 at 7:30 p.m. with 9:00 p.m. shows on Fri. Oct. 21 and Sat. Oct. 22. All performances are in the Kirkham Arena. Tickets are available through the BYU-Idaho ticket office and cost $1 for students and $6 for public patrons.
