By Jake Fain
Staff Writer
A Union theater major will help direct an adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” in late April on campus.
Technical director Ben West appointed Allison Hearn, junior theater major and business management minor, as assistant director and stage manager of the spring children’s production, which runs April 29 through May 2 in Harvey Auditorium.
“It’s really exciting to revisit a play that you know really well with an entirely new cast,” said Hearn, who formerly took part in a traveling production of the same play for two months in 36 states. “I’m trying to make sure that I don’t copy what I’ve done before so that it’s fresh, interesting and new.”
West said he needed a production partner he could count on.
“I needed someone who could get things done and relay my concerns to the actors and their concerns to me,” West said. “I’ve worked with Allison closely in my two years here, so obviously I knew I could rely on her.”
The cast also will perform a portion of the play May 1 in G.M. Savage Memorial Chapel during chapel services that day.
West, who is technical director for the theater department, is lead director of the “Chronicles of Narnia” production, which also will be West’s directing debut at Union.
Originally, he planned a stage production of another C.S. Lewis novel, “The Silver Chair,” but was unable to acquire certain rights for that performance.
Hearn has gained experience on and off the stage at Union, and although she is directing a production on campus for the first time, she has merged the roles of assisting director and stage manager into one.
“I’m like the actor wrangler,” Hearn said. ‘I’ll be calling cues, working backstage, working with props and organizing the choreography of set movements.”
Hearn also plans to perform with former cast members in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” in their own production in Indiana.
“It’s interesting for me personally to be doing the same show with two different productions simultaneously,” she said.
Daniel Poore, sophomore theater major, will play Aslan; Peter Pevensie will be played by Thomas Griffith, freshman art major; Susan Pevensie will be played by Sarah Moore, sophomore nursing major.
Nathan Pique, a dual enrollment student, will play Edmund Pevensie, and Cassandra Robbers, junior ceramics major, will play Lucy Pevensie.
Union invites elementary schoolchildren to see the show, but audience members of any age are welcome.