The dark stage reveals a young priest, illuminated in white vestments, behind a podium. As the audience begins to embody the mysterious, uneasy tone the stage sets, the father unveils his sermon’s topic. It’s no surprise that it describes doubt as a force just as powerful as certainty.
Thus plays the opening scene of Columbia Entertainment Company’s presentation of John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt, a Parable.” CEC performed the play March 3 through March 6 and performances will continue Thursday through Sunday.
Director Shawna Kelty said when she heard CEC would be putting on “Doubt,” she knew she had to apply to be the director.
“I really like John Patrick Shanley’s work and this play in particular in how it’s always wrestling with that idea of certainty and doubt,” Kelty said.
“Doubt’s” cast consists of Sister Aloysius Beauvier, played by Melanie Vessels, Sister James, played by Courtney Wucher, Father Brendan Flynn, played by Rory O’Carroll and Mrs. Muller, played by Erica Bruington.
“I actually heard about auditions from another cast member,” Vessels said. “I thought it’d be fun to get back onstage again (after a four-year hiatus), and to do such a demanding role would be a real challenge.”
The play is set in Bronx in 1964 at Saint Nicholas’s Church School. The performance unfolds conflict between Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn, regarding Father Flynn’s one-on-one meeting with the school’s first-ever African American student, Donald Muller.
Debuting her acting career Thursday, Bruington said rehearsing for the show was her life for the past five weeks, but she thoroughly enjoyed it.
“I like the whole idea of acting, being a different person ,” Bruington said. “I get to come in here and be this lady… then when I go home, I’m Erica again. It’s neat.”
Vessels said the most difficult part of the production wasn’t the time commitment, but rather memorizing her lines. She also said committing to one’s character is a major struggle actors face.
“You have to try to make sure you play the character with honesty and truth, so the audience believes the person they are seeing onstage is a real person,” Vessels said.
Apart from his role as Father Flynn, O’Carroll also serves as Assistant Director for the play.
“We strove to have an ensemble cast where everyone has their part to play in the morals we have to tell,” O’Carroll said.
Costume Designer Jolene Metzen said the costume selections were all laid out, having two nuns and a priest in the cast.
“We only had like a $100 budget, so it was more getting a hold of the people in the community and then looking through their stock,” Metzer said.
Kelty said being a Stage II production accounts for these minimal costs.
“A lot of the pieces (set) were loaned to us,” Kelty said. “In terms of costumes, we had a few pieces we purchased and the priest vestments were actually loaned to us very generously by Our Lady of Lourdes Church, one of the ministers or priests there loaned us his personal vestments for the use for the play.”
