News & Events 2001-2002

Blair Academy Players Present “Excursion Fare”

The Blair Academy Players’ presented “Excursion Fare,” written by Dennis Smith, on May 1-4 in the Wean Theatre of the Armstrong-Hipkins Center for the Arts. A theatre festival winner, this play shows a way station of the dead en route to eternity that houses people whose bodies have never been found. The play asks the big questions of eternity: what comes next, and what are our choices?

While the subject may seem grim, Smith deals with the topic with humor and perception. With Amelia Earhart (senior Alex Tegenborg) Judge Crater (senior Sean Mehtani), Ambrose Bierce (senior Brian Bertrand), and Jimmy Hoffa (senior Lawson Williams-McClure) are a young man (senior Evan Paquette) whose car caromed down a mountain and a girl (senior Stephanie Leal) who fell from the Golden Gate Bridge. All have some hope for what is yet to come, even those who abandoned all hope upon entering here.

The Christian Science Monitor called this “a brilliant and provocative play…with compassionate wit, imagination and insight.” Rounding out the cast are a mysterious stranger (played by freshman Hudson Taylor), Michael Rockefeller (sophomore Michael Spadaccini) and wandering prospector Stubbs (sophomore Phil Mauriello). The student directors are seniors Virginia Case and Suzanna Silverstein; the technical director is Wayne Rasmussen, and the director is Craig Evans.

Click on images to view larger.

Return to 2001-2002 Table of Contents