{"id":13089,"date":"2020-02-18T17:58:46","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T00:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=13089"},"modified":"2020-02-18T17:58:46","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T00:58:46","slug":"what-matters-history-or-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2020\/02\/18\/what-matters-history-or-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"What Matters \u2013 History Or Experience?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Company of Fools To Stage \u2018The Niceties\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

BY DANA DUGAN<\/p>\n

\"\"
Alexis Ulrich, right, and Claudia McCain play a student and professor, respectively, in \u201cThe Niceties,\u201d presented by Company of Fools. Photo credit: Kirsten Shultz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We all have been, or known, that one student who asks too many questions, disrupts classes with arguments, and generally challenges professors. \u201cThe Niceties,\u201d by Eleanor Burgess, brings us something akin to that sticky situation but in a way that raises the audience\u2019s own level of awareness.<\/p>\n

Directed by Company of Fools Producing Artistic Director Scott Palmer, the play will be presented at the Liberty Theatre in Hailey from Wednesday, Feb. 19, to Saturday, March 7.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say enough about Burgess as a writer,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cIt\u2019s funny, too\u2014a very real, cleverly constructed, remarkable piece of theater. It feels profoundly realistic. There\u2019s a legitimacy of perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janine Bosco, played by Claudia McCain, is an acclaimed history professor at an elite university in the last year of the Obama presidency. Zoe Reed, a brilliant young African American student, is played by Alexis Ulrich. During the course of the action, the women meet to discuss a paper Zoe is writing about the American Revolution.<\/p>\n

The conversations have imbedded in them a myriad of issues: gender, class, age, race, revolution, American history and the academic process. It\u2019s heady stuff that plays with the idea of history as written by the victors, while ignoring the story of the oppressed. This insightful play allows audiences to alternate between both sides in this fast-evolving debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cZoe wants to get her final paper in early, which is something I would do,\u201d said Ulrich, who is majoring in theatre at Idaho State University. She most recently appeared in COF\u2019s production of \u201cMiss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s close to me, I question things,\u201d Ulrich said. \u201cI also relate to her as being a student of color, and a junior in college, so it\u2019s very familiar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI show my black excellence to the world, and I hope, I hope, that the world sees it,\u201d Zoe says in the play. The setup unspools with electricity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve dealt with some of these issues and conversations my entire life,\u201d Ulrich said. \u201cI want to do work that inspires conversation. It\u2019s powerful for me. That\u2019s why I went into theatre.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ongoing heated conversation between these women envelops the play in language and perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so important to listen to this play,\u201d McCain said. \u201cThere is no grey area for both of them. They\u2019re both so invested in their belief systems. They both have important things to say and they don\u2019t listen to each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had maybe three or four really challenging roles\u2014this is among the top,\u201d McClain said. \u201cIt is dense, layered and packed with so much. There\u2019s been a lot of research, which is great for an actor. I\u2019m indebted to Scott [Palmer] for entrusting me with this. He\u2019s really brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u201cThe Niceties\u201d is a two-person drama now being staged at the Liberty Theatre in Hailey. Photo credit: Kirsten Shultz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This COF season has been dedicated to the idea of family. So how does this play between two very smart but ideologically disparate women come into that idea?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the family that we choose,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cThese two women should be on the same side but are so similar to each other. It can be frustrating to realize how close they are, and if they could just listen, they could be family. But they\u2019re defensive. There\u2019s a moment in the second act where they are close to understanding each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like life, we miss opportunities daily to be nicer to each other due to vanity, pride and a lack of empathy. The title is, in fact, scathing. Ultimately, there are no niceties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an intersectionality about this,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cIt\u2019d be easy to say this is about race, but it\u2019s not. It\u2019s intergenerational. It\u2019s gender, and different forms of feminism. So much of the time we know who the good guy and bad guy is. This is more complicated. The starting point is that conversation. What is a footnote, and what is appropriate? What is white supremacy, who gets to tell the history of America? Neither is right but neither is wrong, either.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Company of Fools To Stage \u2018The Niceties\u2019 BY DANA DUGAN We all have been, or known, that one student who asks too many questions, disrupts classes with arguments, and generally challenges professors. \u201cThe Niceties,\u201d by Eleanor Burgess, brings us something akin to that sticky situation but in a way that raises the audience\u2019s own level […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13090,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,68,4,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-art","category-calendar-2","category-entertainment","category-calendar-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13089","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}