“Picnic” a Local Theatre High Point

Area actors and moviemakers can view local work on the big screen this Friday and Saturday during the 8th annual Forx Film Fest at the Empire Arts Center in downtown Grand Forks. Local live theatre is also alive and well in Grand Forks, with the Firehall Theatre’s production of “The Bad Seed” opening this weekend and running another two weekends, and shows at both UND (“Godspell”) and Central High School (“Picnic”) having just run last week. UND’s next production, “Two Rooms,” opens November 17th, and in another month, Red River High School will be performing “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.”

For many years Red River High School’s theatre productions have maintained a strong reputation and regularly attract large audiences from the community, not just family and friends of the cast. For some reason, audiences at Grand Forks Central High School productions, except for musicals, tend to be substantially smaller. Yet the quality of the acting and stagecraft at Central for the past several years has been no less impressive than that at Red River.

A perfect example is Central’s production of William Inge’s classic Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Picnic,” staged last weekend. This moving drama of dreams, desires, and expectations in 1950s small-town America boasted not only a beautiful set, but consistently solid performances by its young and talented cast of twelve, under the able direction of Todd Aleshire.

Michael Byram was quite good as earthy drifter Hal Carter, whose sudden appearance in town stirs up emotions all around, especially among the women. Daniella Lima (notable as Ado Annie in SPA’s production of “Oklahoma” a year ago) made a fine Madge, the pretty fiancée of Hal’s old college friend Alan (nicely played by Chandler Cline), who becomes instantly attracted to this outsider. Jacy Thibert, another local theatre veteran, turned in her usual memorable performance as Madge’s smarter but more rebellious and tomboyish little sister Millie, who also develops a crush on Hal.

Those four actors played characters fairly close to their own ages, however. Standing out even more were the two who played the more mature central figures in the play’s parallel subplot. Julianna Lima delivered an amazing performance as old-maid schoolteacher, Rosemary Sydney, effectively coming across on stage as someone at least ten to fifteen years older than her actual age. Sam Erickson also had a very believable stage presence as her middle-aged long-time boyfriend Howard.

Megan Ault did a good job as the mother of the two girls, and Amanda Kalka was very entertaining as the old neighbor lady who likes to take in young men to help around the house in return for food, and must deal with her irascible old mother (played as an off-stage voice by Rachel Iliams). Rounding out the cast were Haley Bratvold and Kat McNamara, both amusing as teacher friends of Rosemary, and Keith Shimpa as the mouthy paperboy.

It’s a shame that larger crowds did not attend Central’s “Picnic,” as they missed both a classic American play and one of the high points of Grand Forks’ live theatre season. For those unfamiliar with the show and for anyone who’d like to see it, there was an excellent Oscar-winning film version made in 1955 that is available on DVD—but make sure to find a letterboxed edition that preserves the original CinemaScope widescreen image.

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