Neil Simon

Student talent brings Neil Simon alive

by
Andrea Page
at
U. of Maine, Orono

Students busily walk about the stage, moving a lamp to the corner, taking the chair to another spot. Behind the walls of the set, other students stand in a circle barking out words, warming up their voices for the rehearsal. In the audience, directors and stage workers discuss lighting. In this chaos that is theater, students are hard at work producing the University of Maine's recent student play, "Barefoot in the Park."

It all began in 1997 with books. Lots of books. Theater students Telly Coolong and Sean Fidler wanted to direct a Neil Simon play. They needed to research him to find a play that would work here at the University of Maine theater program.

"I immersed myself in Simon in the spring of 1997," Coolong said recently. "I just read everything I could get a hold of."

These students are no strangers to theater. Coolong is a senior theater major whose interests lie especially in play writing. He won the Hamlet Play writing Award, given out at UMaine, in 1998 for a play titled, "Cheap Moves." He has written three plays and hopes to find a career in play writing.

Fidler's interests are different from Coolong, but that's what makes them work so well together. Fidler is currently the president of the student theater group, the Maine Masque. Fidler enjoys doing impressions, he has since he was seven years old, with his favorites being Star Wars characters like Darth Vader and Yoda. Fidler has acted in many plays at UMaine and also directed a couple. He hopes to get some experience in acting, but then move back to a university setting, one he believes is more rewarding.

"Barefoot in the Park" is a comedy about first love and about communication. Here's what Simon himself had to say about it.

Fidler said one reason it appealed to him was because college students would be able to relate. "'Barefoot' was often a scene we did in class, and it struck me that this play had a lot to say to student bodies," Fidler said. "Most people are going to be looking at a commitment of that sort, and it deals with the ever present theme of love."

One character in the play is Ethel Banks, a Jewish mother, who has to deal with her daughter moving out and becoming married. Ethel is played by third-year theater student Michelle McCann, also known as "Sparky" to her friends and fellow cast members. "It's a masterpiece. It's probably the most produced play," McCann said. "It's a timeless situation man and woman get married and they're just finding out who they really are. It's beautiful and it's funny. It is an epic comedy."

In working with the cast members, Coolong and Fidler had to make it fun for the cast to develop their characters. One night, as McCann recalled, they had all the cast play poker together in character, for the entire rehearsal.

For Coolong, who loves storytelling, and Fidler, who enjoys doing impressions, "Barefoot in the Park" was the perfect fit for them both. It is a comedy with attitude. They both said that the difficult part of doing "Barefoot" was keeping the laughs going in the play, but they seem to accomplish that quite well.
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