Winter Play: Almost, Maine

2/27/2024

The Emma Willard School Theatre Department embraced the month of love in their winter production of Almost, Maine, written by John Cariani in a series of vignettes addressing themes of love and loss.

The nine scenes take place in the make-believe not-quite-town of Almost, Maine, where everyone knows everyone and outsiders are mostly there to capture a glimpse of the Northern Lights. The cast and crew of 30—under the direction of Theatre Director Faith “Flawson” Lawson and Technical Theatre Director Rachael Robison—guided the audience through the exhilarating, awkward, painful, touching, and poignant ways that love can be felt.

The format of the production, with its series of plays within a play, allowed both cast and crew to deeply engage with the characters. “They just let loose in their vignettes,” Flawson reflects. “Seeing them really show up was so fun for me, and they just lived in their scene; they were their characters. We worked a lot on owning silence and pauses and beats…it's so important, especially for comedy, because you have to let it sit a little; let it marinate. You need to let the audience just take it all in. In real life, we don't immediately speak. We don't immediately have a response. Sometimes we look away. Sometimes we walk away. Sometimes we have nothing to say, and that's still telling the story. It's the most honest way of telling the story.”

Because each scene had its own actors who were not preparing to be in another scene, students were able to truly engage with the audience for those few minutes and then relax and enjoy the rest of the show. In the Friday night performance, there was even a Revels feel, with screams from the audience as the cast of each scene was revealed. “It was so enjoyable for me to see how they appreciated the audience reactions to their scenes, and that was really empowering for them,” Flawson says.

In the show’s playbill, the cast (listed for each scene below) and crew—Eleanora B. ’25 (stage manager), Ryder C. ’26 (stage manager), Kendall B. ’26 (scenic crew and stage manager), Chloe Y. ’25 (lights), Annie P. ’27 (scenic crew), Palzom D. ’26 (props), Lisa B. ’27 (wardrobe and playbill design), Renata L. ’26 (sound), and Jiho Y. ’26 (props)—share their favorite quotes from the play. We’ve combined these with some of our own favorite quotes from each scene in the captions below, providing a glimpse into the heart of the show.