Preview: Having the Time of My Life

Madison Weikle, staff writer

“Time Of My Life is about many things, all at the same time. A tightly-knit, somewhat insular family doing the things that a family is supposed to do, despite the stresses engendered by their interpersonal relationships,” said Director Chip Staples.

Staples is directing PVCC’s Spring Production Time of My Life by Alan Ayckbourn. Time Of My Life will be his first directing experience.

Staples said, “I’ve been working with PVCC Theatre in many capacities for the past few years, including as performer, stage manager, and assistant director. When we were discussing the Spring, 2019 plays, Brad Stoller (PVCC Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts) invited me to direct one of them. I had already been thinking that I was ready to direct a play, so the opportunity came at the perfect time for me.”

Unlike previous PVCC performances, Staples is not looking for a community impact. He says, “I think Time Of My Life is a play that will have more of an impact on individuals rather than the community at large. It doesn’t touch on large issues like West Side Story or Cabaret but rather on individual self-knowledge, close, but not necessarily healthy, interpersonal relationships, and the ways in which an insular group, such as a family, can unintentionally damage itself and its members while believing itself to be supportive.”

A glamourous performance is not Staples’ goal, he said he is working towards building each character and helping them create a “life story.” He said, “I see this play as having a very closed, even claustrophobic feel to it, and I want to convey that through the set, the performance, and the character interactions.” He  said he hopes to work towards an intimate setting through the relationships between characters and minimal movement of set and actors.

Working on the relationships between characters is one thing, but Staples is hoping to create individual connections with the audience as well. To accomplish this, he has decided to make his own adjustments to the play. Staples said, “One change we are introducing in this production is to make it somewhat more accessible to current audiences, is to make the character of Maureen, written as a lower-class exuberant and flamboyant female hairdresser, looked down on by the middle-class Stratton family, into Maur, an ambiguously androgynous glam goth hairdresser, looked down on by the middle-class Stratton family. I believe that non-standard gender identity as a, mistaken, reason for disdaining someone should be very recognizable, and often relatable, to current audiences.”

The performance will take place April 4-6 from 7:30-9 p.m. and April 7 at 2:30-4 p.m., and will star Alex Citron as Gerry Stratton, Shelley Cole as Laura Stratton, Bob Abbott as Glyn Stratton, Rain Eguiguren as Stephanie Stratton, Corey Darnellas Maur, and Shane Rose as Calvinu.

Staples said, “The main reason I like volunteering for PVCC Theatre is that PVCC Theatre approaches student theatre in a way I haven’t seen before in Charlottesville. The goal is to involve as many students as possible in every production, while at the same time crafting the experience to expose them to real-world production processes, to give them the opportunity to work closely with non-student performers and technical staff, and to create a performance that draws people from the community at large based on the performance quality.”