What if the chitchat you shared with the person in front of you in line at the store altered the course of the rest of your life? How is it that relationships can be so complicated? What is the meaning of time anyway?
These are some of the questions the members of Bayfield High School Theatre will tackle when they stage their latest production of “All In The Timing” today and Saturday.
Sarah Ripley, the production’s director, said she chose the play, which is actually a collection of one-act plays, because she had performed a few of them while in college and liked the comedies and the witty word play. There are also the larger, existential questions the show broaches, which Ripley said she finds intriguing.
“I think it’s important because there’s a moment in time that can either change your life or not, or people that you meet walking down the street. Let’s say if you’re walking down the street and you say the wrong thing to someone, that could change your life for the better or the worse. I think it’s kind of cool how a moment of time can change your life.”
Plus, it’s something different for her student actors, Ripley said.
“The relationships within the plays are a little bit more, I don’t know, mature and edgy than anything we’ve ever done in Bayfield,” she said, adding that the plays are all different and they focus mainly on language, word play, comic timing and (sometimes) complicated relationships. “I’m really excited to give my kids an opportunity to play out diverse relationships and diverse emotions.”
“All In The Timing” was written by American playwright David Ives in the late 1980s into the early 1990s.
And while the show is challenging, Ripley said her cast and crew of 38 students are up to the task.
One of those cast members is BHS junior Halle Loveday, who began with the troupe in spring of her freshman year.
For her, “All In the Timing” has allowed her and her castmates to develop as actors.
“It’s a lot more mature than the plays we’ve done in the past. Before, we kind of tried to play for the little kids and it’s a lot easier,” she said. “But this one has expanded all of our emotional ranges.”
She added that “All In The Timing” is much bigger than a mere stage production.
“It tackles some cool challenges. Time is really important in all our lives, you make choices every single minute of every single day, and those choices lead you to so many different pathways,” Loveday said. “It explores all the possibilities, all the choices you could have made and all of those possible outcomes that those choices lead to.”
katie@durangoherald.com
If you go
What:
Bayfield High School Theatre presents “All In the Timing” by David Ives. Directed by Sarah Ripley.
When:
7 p.m. today (Friday), Saturday, Nov. 21 and 22.
Where:
Bayfield Performing Arts Center, 800 County Road 501, Bayfield.
Tickets:
$7 adults/$5 seniors and students.
