By Amanda Smith//
Hood College’s production of “The Heidi Chronicles” will open in the Tatem Arts Center on April 13.
Produced in 1988 by playwright Wendy Wasserstein, “The Heidi Chronicles” has won both a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award. The play tells the life story of main character Heidi Holland from 1965 to 1989, as she navigates a rapidly changing world.
“It really is the story of the women’s movement,” said Suzanne Beal, theater professor at Hood College and director of the play. The story largely focuses on the turbulence of the time period and Heidi’s growing awareness of the feminist movement.
Beal chose this play as her directorial debut at Hood because of its feminist themes and attentive focus on the lives of its female characters. “I’m very drawn to women playwrights and plays that chronicle the female experience because not many plays do that,” Beal said.
“Heidi is being played by Jordan Costley,” Beal said. “Since the play is about second wave feminism, which was very much dominated by educated white women, I thought that Jordan, as a woman of color, would bring a very different dimension to Heidi.”
According to Costley, her approach to the character of Heidi involves connecting with her through the script, finding where she fits in with her, and where their struggles are aligned.
“Doing a time period piece can be quite difficult, not only for actors but also the audience,” Costley said. “Part of approaching this challenge as an actor is saying ‘how am I different from before, how am I growing besides getting older?’”
Additionally, Gracyn Van Bemmel, stage manager, had the desire to work on this particular production because of her love for the position and her appreciation of the play’s messages.
“It follows the life of this girl, Heidi, who’s very true to herself during a time when things like the feminist movement weren’t as mainstream or accepted as they are today,” Van Bemmel said. “It emphasizes the misogyny and sexism of past time periods, and hints at the fact that there are still some things that women have to fight for now.”
Beal has arranged for a panel of women who experienced life during the time period portrayed in the play to speak at the Black Box Theatre and share their perspectives on what it was like for women during that era. Although it was originally arranged for the benefit of the production’s cast members, Beal believes it will be of interest to anyone who is fascinated by history.
The panel will be taking place on March 7 with a group of diverse female speakers both in terms of age and ethnicity.
“The play really looks at a part of our history that I think is really, really important,” Beal said. According to Beal, the play has a particular relevance because it emphasizes historical problems that still affect contemporary society today.
“When you think about the #MeToo movement, the Dobbs Decision, the women’s soccer league challenging the fact that they’ve been paid so much less than men, all of those kinds of things go back to what was going on in the late 60s and 70s,” Beal said.
“Theater and the arts are the cornerstone to a civilization’s culture,” said Aaron Heiner, marketing coordinator who oversees promoting the production. “Hood has a very diverse student body that is emblematic of the American melting pot of world culture, with theater as part of that cauldron.”
“I think people will be drawn to the characters,” Beal said. “Whether they think about it as historical or not, I think they will be drawn to Heidi’s experience.”
“The Heidi Chronicles” will play in the Black Box Theatre in the Tatem Arts Center from April 13-16. The show is free and open to the public.
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