Hourglass 2021-22 Issue 3 Online

8 | arts the hourglass | March 2022
Design and graphics by Greyson Walko ‘25 • Photography by Jaclyn Dichter‘22
Artists of the Issue:
Julie Brose ‘23, Rachel Gopalani ‘23,
and Chloe Watson ‘24
The leads of Our Town discuss discovering their characters for the Maskers’ upcoming performance.
GRACE HALAK ‘22
LIGHTHOUSE WU ‘24
Editor-In-Chief and Staff Writer
If you wander into the Simpson Center after
2:45, you’ll hear joyful laughter coming
out from the auditorium. Students stand
in a circle, put their scripts on the ground,
stretch to relax their bodies, and sing to warm
up their voices.
The Baldwin Theater department is
rehearsing for their annual new show: Our Town,
directed by drama teacher Ms. Alexis Scott,
which will be performed on March 4 and 5. The
classic play, written in 1938, tells the story of
a small town in America through the childhood,
marriage, and death of two of its inhabitants,
Emily and George.
Rachel Gopalani ‘23 plays Emily, and Chloe
Watson ‘24 plays George. The third lead is The
Stage Manager, played by Julie Brose ‘23. All
the actors have been acting since a young age—
Gopalani since eight, Watson five, and Brose
seven. They are all passionate about acting
and find joy in the process of discovering and
formulating a character on their own.
A unique aspect of Our Town is that the
play is self-aware; the characters know that
they’re in a play. This is conveyed through The
Stage Manager, who narrates the story, directly
addresses the audience, and occasionally fills in
some of the roles.
In this production, the actors have been given
significant freedom to interpret their characters
as they choose.
Gopalani said, “I think Ms. Scott is creating
a [good] energy for the actors by saying, ‘Okay,
you can absolutely play with your characters,
and decide what you want the character to be
like.’”
Watson, in particular, has taken advantage
of this freedom to reimagine their character.
Watson said, “I decided to portray George as
Our
Town
The three leads
of the show,
Rachel Gopalani
‘23, Julie Brose
‘23, and Chloe
Watson ‘24, who
play Emily, the
Stage Manager,
and George.
a non-binary character. In terms of personality,
they give off middle-school boy vibes, and in the
original script, they go by ‘he.’”
Gopalani also spoke about the process
of developing her character: “I know how to
characterize Emily because I’ve been there—I
can relate to a young girl who is smart and wants
to prove to everyone that she can do well. But
there are deeper parts of her character that I still
have to understand as an actor.”
Brose said, “I like that [acting] is a challenge
with no right answer. Nobody’s grading you on it
and saying, ‘You did this incorrectly.’ It’s really
just an interpretation.”
Our Town is not originally a musical, but
director Ms. Scott has added songs to the script
to give performers a chance to sing after two
years without musical theater at Baldwin.
Rachel Gopalani ‘23 and Chloe Watson ‘24
singing “The Moon Song” as their
characters Emily and George.
Watson said, “I am excited to sing ‘The
Moon Song,’ which Emily and George sing
when they’re staring out their windows, looking
at the moon. The song speaks what they want to
say to the other person at the moment.”
In addition to adding music, Ms. Scott also
changed the script to make it more suitable for a
present-day performance.
Brose said, “I like that [Ms. Scott]
modernized it by taking out some of the
language that seemed antiquated because that’s
often a problem with performing arts. You can
appreciate what something was done for its time,
but also not see the relevance of it today.”
No matter what kind of show it is, all
three actors agree on how unique the theater
community at Baldwin is.
Gopalani said, “I like that Baldwin is a
close-knit community because that provides us
with a lot of pre-existing chemistry to apply to
the show. A tightly-knit cast makes a tightly-knit
show; theater is unifying.”
Watson said, “We’re like a family.”