Arts Quincy Magazine

The Partnership of a Solo Show
By Brandon Thomsen, Artistic Director
It was announced in mid-February
that live theatre would return to the
tri-state area with Quincy Community
Theatre’s production of The Belle of
Amherst, a one-person show written
by William Luce about the great poet
Emily Dickinson. There’s a great irony
about presenting this play in the era
of Covid-19. Emily Dickinson was a
(now) famous recluse! She spent much
of her life in seclusion. She would
have loved quarantine and a stay-athome
order! If the people of Amherst,
Massachusetts knew her at all, they
would have known her only as the
eccentric woman who wears white
and who no one sees. After her death
at the age of 56, her sister discovered
in Emily’s trunk nearly 2,000
handwritten poems. Very few people
knew that this woman in isolation
had an incredibly unique perspective
on life, death, the world and had the
ability to share it through words
on paper.
The Belle of Amherst is a play I have
wanted to direct for about 15 years.
I first saw a friend of mine perform it,
and later she presented me with a
volume of “The Complete Works….”
I saw a filmed version of the play that
starred Julie Harris, and I found the
script at a used bookstore several
years ago. As the artistic director of a
theatre, it’s my responsibility to select
the stories that we will tell each year,
but that doesn’t mean I do whatever I
want whenever I want. Instead, each
year I look at where we are as an
organization, as a community, how
we can grow and how we can vary
the voices. With a possible return to
live theatre during an era of social
distancing, I wanted to select a piece
with a small cast that would feel
appropriate for intimate audiences.
Dreams wait for the right timing…now
is that timing.
Traditionally we would hold open
auditions for all our roles, but in the
unique circumstance of a one-person
show, I needed to make sure we had
someone in place who wanted to
take on the hefty task of memorizing
a 90-minute solo play and who could
hold the audience’s attention for
that amount of time. Local actor Jeri
Conboy has played several roles in the
past that have had loads of dialogue,
and I knew she could not only
memorize the piece but would grow
into the role and make it her own. I
approached Jeri with the idea, and she
thought about it for a week and came
back with a yes. We decided to meet
to discuss the process. As neither of
us had done a one-person show, we
talked about ways we might proceed.
(Side note: I performed in a solo
show as Abraham Lincoln, but I also
directed it, and directing one’s self is
entirely different from directing another
person.) Jeri recently retired and had
daytime availably, so we decided
that most of our rehearsals would
be during the day. We discussed the
frequency of rehearsals – should we
rehearse every day, or would it be
better to rehearse a few days a week
so that she could memorize on the off
days? Ultimately, we decided that we
would figure it out as we go. We would
adjust the process to suit what we
needed.
Our first rehearsal was just reading the
play out loud. I took note of words,
places, and people that I needed to
look up. Then we went our separate
ways and did our own research. We
read books, watched documentaries
and movies, and listened to interviews.
We started each rehearsal with sharing
some piece of information that we
had discovered since the last time
we met or a “light bulb moment”
about a poem. Unlocking the poetry
is the most challenging part, but we
talk it through, asking questions and
frequently what happened is Jeri
would throw out an idea about a word
or phrase, and my mind opened to the
rest of the poem. Emily Dickinson’s
poetry is exquisite.
What I have appreciated most about
this experience has been that our
respective impressions of Emily
Dickinson have changed during our
rehearsal period. Together, Jeri and I
have discovered that Emily Dickinson
was a radical who would not accept
the conventions of her time, and rather
than give in to something she didn’t
want, she took control of her own
narrative. When Jeri and I discussed
the question “What do you want
audiences to walk away with after
seeing this show,” Jeri said, “I think I
want them to have more questions.”
No one will ever know the true Emily
Dickinson, but I hope the play will
serve as a reminder for people to ask
questions of themselves and of each
other and to seek to understanding.
Emily Dickinson is a fascinatingly
complex human being. We each are.
See you at the theater!
6 artsquincy.org
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