Robinson Goes Back to '50s with 'Summer Brave'

Just a few days before Summer Brave opened at Robinson, Director Chip Rome was worried about milk. The white paint filling the milk bottles carried by a secondary character in the play looked a little too thin for the 1950s romantic drama.

"Make it look like four percent full milk – the type you're not supposed to drink any more," Chip Rome told a techie. "Everyone drank it back then."

Rome's attention to detail ranges beyond dairy products – he's been working with his cast for eight weeks of rehearsals to get every scene just right for the play.

Rome had hoped to do "The Crucible" in honor of his 30^th anniversary at Robinson, but the students had studied the famous Arthur Miller play about the Salem Witch Trials in class already and wanted something different. He chose William Inge's Summer Brave, a revision of a well-known play called "Picnic," instead.

"It turned out to have been a great decision — it's a wonderful show to work on," Rome said. "It's got a small cast and well-written characters, so it means we can get a lot of meat on the bones. It's very satisfying work for the actors as well of me."

The actors found challenges in the story of Hal Carter, a rebel without a cause.

Carter hits a small Kansas town looking for a job from a college friend, then proceeds to steal his girlfriend and shake everything up.

"He's looking to impress his neighbors and his girlfriend's family and in the process makes some mistakes," said junior Kyle Lynch, who plays Carter. "It's probably the hardest role I've had to play. Comedy usually comes a little more natural to me—with this I had to experiment with a lot of rage and sorrow."

Lynch also learned how to throw a stage punch for a scene in which he and another actor fight over Madge, played by junior Christy Fischer.

"I didn't realize that acting was so hard until this show," Fischer said. "I usually do musicals. This is my first straight play."

In the background of the show, you may catch a glimpse of some of the technical crew that's been working long hours for two months to pull off Summer Brave.

"The techies always work longer hours than the actors," assistant stage manager Anna Barr said. "The actor's call will be like noon and the techie's call will be like eight. I'm not going to say we do more work but we do the same work with less credit."

Freshman Lindsey Rubin, the house manager, agreed.

"We just missed two days of school because we were here doing previews for other students, trying to publicize the show," Rubin said. "It's so much, but yet you don't really notice how much you're doing until you reach the end and you're like, 'Wow, that was a lot of work and I'm really tired and coffee's the only reason I'm still awake.'"

The play's 17-foot, two story set was designed and built by senior Carl Schwartz, a veteran of set design who worked on last year's performance of The Boyfriend and co-designed the set for Fiddler on the Roof the year before.

"The vision behind it was first basically an old mid-western neighborhood," Schwartz said. "I had a small but eager crew that helped [build it]. For the past week and a half we've just been making little details, getting it all to look real nice."

Several last-minute tweaks have been made to the scenery, such as when it was noticed that the paint in the house set, visible through the door, was the same color as the sunset.

The crew quickly found some wallpaper to cover the paint.

Even the floor of the stage is painted a grassy green. No details escape Rome, "Although we never did get that Astroturf that we talked about."

Shows are at 7:30pm on November 19 and 20. Tickets cost $10 in advance and $12 at the door. All seats are reserved. You can purchase tickets at www.robinsondrama.org.