Fall Play

The poster for The Curious Savage features a teddy bear and important information regarding detail for the play.

By Frank Gordon

Pinelands’ newest fall play, The Curious Savage, is opening on November 17th. It is a comedy and the plot follows the eccentric Mrs. Savage as she is committed to a sanatorium by her greed-driven stepchildren in an attempt to prevent her from donating their large fortune to charity. Mrs. Savage is greeted by the wonderfully strange members of the sanatorium, like Hannibal, a former statistician cumbered by the weight of his knowledge of facts and figures, or Fairy, a woman who is compulsively childlike and tells lies of stunning grandeur. I spoke to Katrina Erdin, first place Speech and Theatre Association of New Jersey (STANJ) competitor and Governor’s Award recipient, who plays Miss Wilhelmina, the sanatorium’s nurse, about her experiences rehearsing for the show:

“It’s a very tumultuous process, in the beginning—you know, everyone is dropping their lines, and characters are flat, and the blocking is messy—but as we progress these things begin to fall away, and the semblances of a finished, polished play start to show through.”

I then asked her to comment on the effort required to create a quality play:

“It’s very hard and tedious work but it is so indescribably rewarding.”

The process often involves long hours on an ever-increasing frequency as opening night approaches, involving rehearsals on the weekend and after school until late in the evening. Though tedious, the process is not unfun, as rehearsals also involve playful experimentation.

Tickets are on sale now at https://www.locallevelevents.com/events/details/23336! Be sure to show your support!