“When we saw the library at the Old Historic Fort site, we knew it would be perfect for our production of ‘Sense and Sensibility,’” said Mona Wood-Patterson. “Space speaks. There’s a high ceiling and long, tall windows. And there is so much history there – so much sorrow and strife. We thought we would add to that history by creating a new energy.”
The Merely Players’ fall production will open tonight, Sept. 28, at the Old Fort Lewis property in Hesperus. It is 15 miles west of Durango at 18683 County Road 140. There is plenty of parking, albeit in an open field adjacent to the 1938 library building.
“The audience will be seated on two sides of a lane that runs through the middle of the room,” Wood-Patterson said. “That’s the acting area, and we always have to think about entrances and exits.”
Wood-Patterson said the room has three doors, one at the front through which the audience will enter, and one at the back that goes outside. The actors will be able to go around the outside of the building and enter from another door. But the third door leads to an indoor kitchen, so that’s a blind space. “It’s been challenging,” she said.
“‘Sense and Sensibility’ has been on my list of a work of art I’d like to see us perform for a long time,” she said. “Kate Hamill’s adaptation first appeared Off-Broadway in 2014 in New York. In 2016, Charles (Ford, co-artistic director of the company and Wood-Patterson’s husband) and I saw it in New York. Then we saw another production this last summer at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It was done on a proscenium stage and just didn’t capture the magic of the work. They used period costumes and lots of props, not my concept at all.”
Wood-Patterson added that it has taken time to get the rights for a nonprofessional company. But permission finally came through in time to make Hamill’s adaptation the opening production of the 2018-19 season.
Adding to the considerable complications of a found space, a contemporary adaptation of a famous Jane Austen novel presents other demands. Actor/playwright Hamill refers to herself as a collaborator with the famous novelist. Throughout “Sense,” Hamill incorporates Austen’s text, often shortening long passages into essential thoughts. She also tracks the story in 45 fairly fast-paced scenes, clearly a contemporary practice for modern audiences. Multiple locations must be imagined, and many cast members fill multiple roles.
The story centers on the Dashwood family whose recently deceased father has left his entire estate to the eldest son, John (Miles Batchelder). John reneges on his promise to provide for his mother (Mandy Gardner) and his three sisters, Elinor (Mary-Catherine McAlvany), Marianne (Gyana Gomar) and Margaret (Anna Klumpenhower). Fortunately, Sir John Middleton (Marc Arbeeny), a distant relation, steps in with the offer of a modest cottage for his poor relations, and the uncertainties of the future unfold one suitor at a time.
Central to Hamill’s adaptation is the incorporation of town gossips. Their busy-body machinations substitute for Austen’s use of a narrator and provide the social framework for encounters, actions and decisions that shape the fate of the entire Dashwood family.
The production quickly sold out, Wood-Patterson said, so the company scheduled one additional performance for Oct. 3. Then Ford realized he could add six seats per performance, and so there are tickets available. Call 949-8585 to inquire.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
A tour of the Old Fort
When community members tell Mona Wood-Patterson, artistic director of Merely Players, about interesting places to perform, she listens.
“Last spring, Roy Horvath told me about the Old Fort as a possible found space,” she said. “We went out to see it, and Roy walked us all around. He described the fort itself, which predated the Indian School and the college acquiring the site. When we saw the library, a 1938 WPA (Works Progress Administration) project, we knew it would be perfect for ‘Sense and Sensibility.’”
Horvath is a Durango native, retired network manager at Fort Lewis College and father of two children who came through Wood-Patterson’s Durango High School Drama Program. He volunteered to take interested theater-goers on a 30-minute tour of the site starting at 6:15 p.m., shortly before sundown.
“It will be a limited tour,” Horvath said. “The site is 6,300 acres in all. Only 25 acres are in use today, but it’s absolutely unique – first for its altitude, second, for its river frontage and, of course, for its history.”
Horvath will have maps and a printed history for visitors to peruse before the performance. He will describe the property, point out the military parade ground, the buildings to the south, the garden area, the office and the WPA Library itself.
Named for Lt. Col. William H. Lewis, Fort Lewis-Hesperus was established in 1880.
If you go
WHAT:
“Sense and Sensibility,” Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel, performed by Merely Players, directed by Mona Wood-Patterson.
WHEN:
7 p.m. Friday, Saturday, Oct. 3, 4, 5, 6; and 1 p.m. Oct. 6 and 7.
WHERE:
Old Fort Lewis Library, 18683 Colorado Highway 140 in Hesperus.
TICKETS:
Individual tickets: $25, season passes and flex passes available.
MORE INFORMATION:
Visit http://www.merelyplayers.us or call 749-8585.
