BROOKINGS Rabbit Hole, a play by David Lindsay-Abaire, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2007. Five years ago, in March 2020, it was staged by the Brookings Community Theatre. It closed after one performance.
Now its back with the same director, Mike Thompson, but a different five-member cast. At a rehearsal on the unfinished set in the Fishback Studio Theater on Thursday, he looked back before looking ahead.
We always have the (BCT) board show on Wednesday, before opening night. Board members and invited guests come, the director explained. We had that show and great success. About 30 people in the audience. The next night all was in readiness for opening; then came the COVID-driven order to shut down. And he had to break the news.
So I went back into the makeup room and all my actors were back there, the director added, smiling as he remembered. They were devastated. Tears flowed. Its a great show. In time the board would vote to bring it back and Thompson was eager to again direct. But the original cast members of the 2020 production had all moved.
Theyre all states away. The new cast that weve got is top notch. Im really proud of what theyre putting out. Thompson has invited the original cast to attend the new production.
The five members of the new cast are: Howie (Jarid Rychtarik); Becca (Chelsea Bieser); Izzy (Olivia Davis); Nat (Michelle Mack); and Jason (Hannah Engelmann).
Everybody that is in the play this time around, all but two have been in one BCT play, the director explained. Everybodys got acting experience and three of the five are BCT veterans.
When things fall apart
In a brief capsule, the BCT website notes what the tragedy of Rabbit Hole is all about: Becca and Howie Corbett have a picture-perfect life until a tragic accident takes the life of their 4-year-old son. Rabbit Hole delves into the complexity of a family navigating deep grief and learning what it means to live a fruitful life when things fall apart.
For his take, Thompson sees five different characters, all dealing with grief in their own way. Its coming to terms with the grief; some use humor. Izzy gets in a fight in a bar. Everybody deals with it in different ways. When the show is over, you dont know how theyre going to be and thats the ambiguity that I want. I want the audience to know that. You just dont know whats going to happen.
Davis is coming back to the BCT boards after a lengthy hiatus. She was in The Sound of Music during the 2007-08 season. Shes a native South Dakotan, grew up in Brookings and graduated from Brookings High School in 2018. She graduated from South Dakota State University in 2022 with a bachelors degree in theater and moved to London.
I just moved back from London where I have been living for the past two years, she explained. While there she earned a master of fine arts at Trinity Laban, a dance and music conservatory.
Izzie and I dont have a lot in common, she said, with a hearty laugh, as to how she would play her role. But its been fun for me to find different ways to sort of put myself into a role that I wouldnt be into in day-to-day life and just to have fun being someone who Im not.
I dont think a whole lot about the emotions as much as I do about what shes doing. Shes provoked easily; she gets very defensive. She wants people to understand her and when they dont that frustrates her and makes her angry. And she doesnt know how to deal with that very well.
Her version of grieving is very different from the rest of her family. That causes a wedge. Its a very big part of what we dont see happen but we get a glimpse of in the first scene with her and Becca.
Rychtarik, a Sioux Falls native who works at First Bank & Trust, is in his first role in a BCT production. He did community theater there before he and his wife migrated to New York. He was in an experimental theatre company called Nature Theater of Oklahoma.
Most of my stuff was done touring so I spent it overseas, various countries with different groups over there to create shows, he explained. My wife and I relocated back here about nine years ago to help my family a little bit. I did go to college here, for two years in the theater department.
As Howie, he is Beccas husband. Their son, Danny was killed by an automobile when he was 4 years old. He sees a challenge in trying to do the role justice. I have a young son; hes a year-and-a-half old. I really was hesitant to do this one. The subject matter is pretty hard. I also have a friend; her brother was killed, hit by a car way, way back, so Im dedicating my performance to that family.
Ive had some experience on the outside. Now Im on the inside. Its a very hard place to get to. I havent been thinking of my own child while Im doing this, at all, to draw on anything. I think that would be inappropriate. I wouldnt be anything if I did that.
Intense dramatic themes
The BCT news release for the production raised the question about the suitability of its intense dramatic themes being emotionally suitable for all audiences, especially younger people.
I reached out to the Ivy Center (Brookings Behavioral Health and Wellness) and talked to (CEO) Mary Beth Fishback, Thompson said. And theyre going to have grief counselors, a minimum of two per performance starting Wednesday night, for anybody if it strikes a chord.
They will be available for anyone who would like to speak with a counselor. Thompson expressed his appreciation and gratitude to the Ivy Center for its gesture.
Rabbit Hole runs from 7 p.m. on March 20 through March 22 and at 2 p.m. on March 23 at the Fishback Studio Theater in the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center on the SDSU campus.
Tickets are available at: Brookings Cinema 8, 219 Sixth St.; The Cove (Brookings Nutrition), 1455 Sixth St.; and the BCT website at www.brookingscommunitytheatre.org.
Contact John Kubal at [email protected].
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