The Playhouse Theatre Company of Stephens College makes their 2018-19 season debut with the musical “Fun Home,” based on the graphic novel memoir by Alison Bechdel. The show runs at the Macklanburg Playhouse at 100 Willis Ave. from Sept. 21-23 and Sept. 28-29.

The story of Fun Home is a documentation and recollection of the childhood of Bechdel, her relationship with her gay father and her discovery of her own sexuality. Told from three different perspectives, Small Alison at 10 years old, Medium Alison during her college years and Adult Alison at 43. She examines her life through song and narration while writing her memoir.

Calista Cherches, a sophomore musical theater student, plays Small Alison in the show. Her role reveals some of the pivotal moments in Bechdel’s life that she overlooked when young, but she recognizes as crucial from an older point of view.

“[It shows] her discovering that she is a lesbian through my role,” Cherches said. “I have a song called ‘Ring of Keys’ and that is the moment. She sees a butch woman walk into a diner and she identifies with her, and that’s my main focus of the show.”

Lauren Douglas is a junior theater arts acting major, directing student and playwright. She plays Medium Alison, who is embarking on her freshman year in Oberlin College.

“[She is] leaping into this new world of queer culture and figuring out her own sexuality, while also kind of realizing some pent-up secrets that have been kept under the rug of her home her whole life,” Douglas said.

A character surrounded in tension and controversy is Bruce, Bechdel’s father. Played by Trent Rash, an assistant professor of music and musical theatre, Bruce Bechdel is a closeted gay man who is married with three kids. About four months after Bechdel finds this out, Bruce allegedly commits suicide by throwing himself in front of a truck, catapulting Bechdel’s memoir into existence. Bruce is the first role Rash has ever played where he did not like the character.

“In the play, we’re only seeing the bad parts of his life, and there were probably good parts,” Rash said. “I had to work really hard to find his humanity and realize we’re all messy humans and we all have our demons.”

When it came to bringing this story to life from the pages of the memoir, director Trey Compton was at the helm. Transitioning the piece from a full Broadway set, where furniture pieces come up from the ground, to the proscenium stage setup of the Macklanburg Playhouse got Compton’s creative wheels spinning. Compton revisited the graphic novel for inspiration in creating what the audience would see visually.

“My job really is to make the audience’s eye go where I need it to go,” Compton said. “We do that with light, we do that with staging and we do that with scenic choices. But understanding when we need to be looking at Adult Allison and when she needs to fade into the background as an active observer, that has been the biggest challenge and also my favorite part of this show.”

What strengthens the performance of these actors is truly their personal connection to the characters they play. Rash was able to find a personal, albeit morbid connection to Bruce in particular.

“My own father actually committed suicide,” Rash said. “So I think that actually in some ways helped me. It’s kind of cathartic because it’s helped me come to terms with my own personal journey as well to try to put myself into the mindset of what my dad was thinking. There’s a big scene at the end of the show where Bruce sings this big song about whether to live or not, and I think that that was actually the song that was able to help me find my connection to him.”

Douglas saw the show four times before it was announced at Stephens and found herself drawn to Medium Alison from the very beginning.

“She’s so much like me,” Douglas said. “My first year going away to college, I came out as a lesbian, and I’m learning that my parents are people and I get this unique privilege that because I’m living away in college, I don’t have to deal with the stuff that’s going on at home. So to get into character? I just exist. It feels like we’re cut from the same cloth. Slipping into this character is like a second skin for me.”

Douglas finds that one of the key parts of this story is that it is a true one, a dramatic retelling of the actual life of another human being.

“You’re seeing a real human person’s first love,” Douglas said. “A real human person’s first experience with realizing that her parents aren’t just put on a pedestal. She’s actually seeing them as human beings for the first time, and I think going to college we all are like, ‘Oh, God, how did I not even realize until now?’”

For people who typically don’t enjoy musicals, Compton wants to remind people that this story is for anyone, that it is about humanity, origins and family.

“It is not a dusty old musical,” Compton said. “It won the Tony three years ago. It’s a coming of age story about coming out. Sexuality is an element of it. Suicide prevention is an element of it. But at its core, it’s about finding yourself based on where you came from.”

Tickets to Fun Home can be purchased at (https://www.stephens.edu/services/box-office/tickets/)[https://www.stephens.edu/services/box-office/tickets/].

_Edited by Alexandra Sharp | asharp@themaneater.com_