{"id":10568,"date":"2019-02-06T19:41:54","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T19:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=10568"},"modified":"2019-02-06T19:41:54","modified_gmt":"2019-02-06T19:41:54","slug":"4000-miles-and-years-apart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/06\/4000-miles-and-years-apart\/","title":{"rendered":"4000 Miles And Years Apart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Company of Fools to present \u201c4000 Miles,\u201d a play by Amy Herzog<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

BY DANA DUGAN<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
In a scene from\u201c4000 Miles,\u201d Vera and Leo, grandmother and grandson, work through their preconceived notions. Photo by Kirsten Shultz, courtesy of Company of Fools<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, Amy Herzog\u2019s \u201c4000 Miles\u201d takes a familiar story\u2014a family reunion\u2014and turns it on its head. Sometimes relatives showing up at your door are not all that welcome, as 91-year-old Vera Joseph finds out when her grandson Leo knocks on her door in the middle of the night. He\u2019s just ridden across the country on his bike.<\/p>\n

Vera, played by Jana Arnold, lives alone in a small apartment in New York City. She\u2019s a political activist and her solitary existence in New York is entirely shaken by Leo\u2019s appearance. Adam Turck, a Richmond, Va.-based actor, will make his debut with Company of Fools, as Leo.<\/p>\n

Directed by Gary Hopper, also from Richmond, the play was suggested to COF season producer R.L. Rowsey a few years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI put a flea in R.L.\u2019s ear,\u201d Hopper said. \u201cI thought this would be a great play for us. But I\u2019d only come if Jana plays Vera,\u201d whom he calls \u201cLady J.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a season that has been all about love, from Woody Guthrie\u2019s patriotic love and passion, to Edward Tulane\u2019s quest for love, we couldn\u2019t ignore this mystery of love within the family,\u201d Rowsey said of choosing the play. \u201cThe questions of why we connect with people in our bloodline, how we express that love, and what is the power of the bond that pushes us past the easy out of escape into something that is much richer and more profound were just too fascinating not to explore.\u201d<\/p>\n

With COF, Hopper also directed \u201cVanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike\u201d in 2014, as well as \u201cGod of Carnage\u201d in 2011.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jana Arnold, as Vera, is surprised by the appearance of her grandson, Leo, played by Adam Turck, who arrives via bike. Photo by Kirsten Shultz, courtesy of Company of Fools<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are more connections in this show. Hopper\u2019s wife, Elizabeth Weiss Hopper, is the costume designer and has worked with COF on about 18 different shows.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re the dynamic duo,\u201d Hopper said of their collaborations. \u201cWe have long sessions talking about the characters and her design to help the character and the actor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other actor returning to the Liberty is Maggie Horan, from New York City. She was also in \u201cVanya,\u201d and Hopper has also worked with her in other shows in Richmond. Her character, Bec, is Leo\u2019s girlfriend.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s very relatable and is written in such a lovely and well-rounded way that makes it easy for me as the actor to find the humor and sadness and everything in between,\u201d Horan said.<\/p>\n

Returning to the Valley is a \u201cdream come true,\u201d she added. \u201cThere is no other place like it. The people involved with COF, as well as our fearless leader, Gary, are the reason why I will never hesitate coming back here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jessi Zhang, a New York City-based actor, is new to COF and Hopper. She recently graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from Pace University in New York, and this is her first big show out of town. She nabbed the part after a taped audition process with Hopper.<\/p>\n

\u201cI notice an instant chemistry of all of us,\u201d she said during an interview, surrounded by her cast mates at the Liberty. \u201cEveryone is passionate about the play.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two young women play the love interests of Leo. There are other off-stage characters that are of importance, in particular Leo\u2019s friend Micah, who was killed on the bike trip, his sister and mother, and Vera\u2019s neighbor. But it\u2019s Leo and Vera\u2019s story of reckoning and the healing power of trust that maintains the flow.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s running from everything all the time, so doesn\u2019t want to admit he\u2019s made mistakes,\u201d Turck said. \u201cThe interactions force him to open up and grow up a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turck also admits that while he didn\u2019t like the character at first, he\u2019s found his way into it and recognized his own journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful piece,\u201d Arnold said. \u201cI realized this is a play of subtleties. It\u2019s not a play of highs and lows. Vera is not your grey-bun grandmother. She has a social and political background, a lefty. It\u2019s about two very different generations and approaches to life. So it\u2019s a slice of life, an evolution from beginning to end.\u201d<\/p>\n

The play covers about eight weeks of time, and by the end of the play Vera and Leo are very different people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have some rough patches,\u201d Arnold said, though the play has a lot of humor and energy in it, she added.<\/p>\n

Hopper said he\u2019s drawn to plays that have a journey that \u201cmust end in hope and redemption. If an audience sits there for 90 minutes, you want them to end with some feeling of hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c4000 Miles\u201d will be staged from Wednesday, Feb. 13, through Saturday, March 2. For tickets and more information, visit sunvalleycenter.org or call (208) 726-9491.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Company of Fools to present \u201c4000 Miles,\u201d a play by Amy Herzog BY DANA DUGAN A finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, Amy Herzog\u2019s \u201c4000 Miles\u201d takes a familiar story\u2014a family reunion\u2014and turns it on its head. Sometimes relatives showing up at your door are not all that welcome, as 91-year-old Vera Joseph […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,68,53],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-art","8":"category-calendar-2","9":"category-calendar-feature"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}