“Ex-cellent”: Drama Club Takes on Mr. Burns, a Post Electric Play

It starts with Bart Simpson. It ends 75 years later with a full-length opera. It is the first play to be put on by the Four Rivers Drama Club post-lockdown, and it is going to change the way the Four Rivers community views the art of live theater.

This year, the Drama Club will be performing Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, written by Anne Washburn. The show follows a group of vagabonds navigating a nation-wide, apocalyptic power-outage who find solace in recounting an episode of The Simpsons. As time jumps forward between acts, we watch the stories of present-day television transform into a means of survival, and then into ancient mythology. It features fast-paced dialogue, an acapella performance, and an opera-style spectacle to tie off the show. It is an homage to the power of storytelling in the wake of disaster, which is why it makes it the perfect show for the 2020-2021 Drama Season.

“It's a great pandemic show because it starts right after an apocalypse, with these survivors at the very beginning trying to build a sense of community and using media to do that.” Leah Plath, Div 3 English teacher and 13-year Drama Club director, believes the characters’ coping mechanisms in Mr. Burns are reflected heavily in the pandemic society we are currently living in.

“I think most of us can agree that art and media have been essential to how we've survived this pandemic,” Plath writes. “We've listened to music, we've binge-watched shows and movies, we've read books. I think we can relate to how and why these characters cling to, say, TV shows as a way to maintain normalcy during and after tragedy.” Plath believes the show inherently holds a power to bring the audience together in the same way its characters are brought together by The Simpsons, because we all cling to any line of commonality in order to maintain bonds with each other during isolation. “I think people are going to watch this show and feel a connection to these characters,” she writes.

Despite the comical trademark that The Simpon’s implies for the show, Mr. Burns is not a comedy.

“It's billed as a ‘black comedy,’ or dark comedy,” a genre that the Drama Club has never taken on before, Plath explains. Given the circumstances of nuclear meltdown, violent desperation, and a sparse amount of comedic relief, Plath says, “the piece is far more dramatic than most of our other shows.”

The show’s tone isn’t the only thing that makes it a pioneer in Drama Club history. Contrary to recent shows, the narrative of Mr. Burns is carried by the 13-member ensemble rather than by a small handful of principal characters. It deals with large jumps in time rather than one continuous story, which has not been a characteristic of the plays the club has done in the past. It is also arguably the most avant-garde show to take place on the (figurative) Drama Club stage.

“This play is really weird,” writes Ivy Newcombe, 8th. “It has kind of made me view the world and the future in a really cool, interesting way that I never really had before. This play is so fun and wacky and wonderful.” Newcombe is playing the role of Lisa Simpson in the third act of the show, who she describes to be “not quite the Lisa most people are used to. It’s sort of what she has evolved into after about 75 years. She’s not really a goofy cartoon character anymore.”

Mrs. Plath agrees that the show is “experimental and strange in its form and content” in a way the Drama Club production has never been before.

Perhaps the most significant change in tradition this year is that the Drama Club performance will be held on-campus and outdoors in the Four Rivers courtyard, instead of at the Shea Theater. The show will run for two weekends instead of one to allow for more shows and a smaller audience size. Though the details of audience size are still being worked out, Plath says that she’ll be out in the courtyard mid-April, giant tape measure in hand, to ensure that both the audience and cast will have a completely safe socially-distant experience.

For the cast this year, preparing a show via Zoom rehearsals and Discord chats makes the already-difficult beginning process even harder. The challenges range from logistical inconveniences to the larger emotional toll of connecting with a cast virtually.

“Emotionally, it's been really challenging not to see my cast in person,” Plath writes. “I love the energy of a drama rehearsal and it's not the same on screens. Logistically, we can't practice singing over Zoom because of lag. People can practice their individual parts but we can't put them together.”

Sophomore Rue Savoie agrees that even the most creative solutions to virtual rehearsal can’t chalk up to the real thing. “The hardest thing so far about the play is figuring out how to do singing over Zoom to learn our parts.” Savoie will play the role of Quincy in Act 2 and the role of Itchy the mouse in Act 3.

Pandemic or not, putting on an intricate show like Mr. Burns already comes with its demands, and the Drama Club is working hard to make it a reality before the show opens in early May. Right now, the cast, officers, and director alike are busy getting the show on its metaphorical feet before they can actually get it on its feet come in-person rehearsals later in the month. This involves arranging and learning the music, character work, line memorization, and lots and lots of run-throughs.

“Right now,” writes Plath, “I'm tackling assigning vocal lines to different groups for Act 3.This weekend, I'm going to go through every song and figure out who is singing which part, and then update our music spreadsheet with that info so students can download their tracks and start practicing. My next task is to start researching sound setups that will allow us to inexpensively mic each actor so we can hear them through their masks.”

According to Plath, this year’s circumstances allow for the production process to be more collaborative than in years past. “I think we've all got a sense that we're creating something together that otherwise wouldn't exist, and while that's true every year, this year that seems even more significant.” Mrs. Plath and cast members are taking on director-like tasks to make the show happen. Annika Sturmer, 12th, is acting as stage manager and has been working to create a props list as the cast runs through the show. Rue Savoie, 10th, is choreographing the acapella medley, putting energetic dances together with nostalgic chart hits. Drama Club officers Fiona Bird, 12th, Maddy Keating, 12th, and Ella Dubin, 10th, are working with the cast to build community through drama games, character work, and creative brainstorming.

“I think my favorite part so far is designing our characters a little bit, like what they would be thinking and how they say their lines and how they interact with each other and the world,” accounts Savoie on how rehearsals are going so far.

Mr. Burns is already making Four Rivers Drama Club history. The cast encourages all members of the community to attend, if not for a love of theater, The Simpsons, or “Toxic” by Britney Spears, then to rekindle the feeling of gathering as a community to safely enjoy what we have not been able to enjoy for over a year: each other.

“Everyone's going to be talking about it and you don't want to miss out,” writes Plath on the unforgettable experience that will be Mr. Burns. “It'll make you think about life, death, and art. And most of all, [come see Mr. Burns] because live theater is a rare and precious gift that we haven't been able to enjoy for over a year.”

In the words of Ivy Newcombe, “putting this play on in a pandemic is definitely different, but I am so glad we’re making it happen.”

Mr. Burns, a Post Electric Play, will open on May 7th at 7pm. Ticket information to come.