Allysa Ertz | Contributing Writer

Last week, Associate Professor of Theatre Bethany Larson and her cast performed the fall play, The Language Archive, which was performed in the Anderson Auditorium on the Buena Vista University campus Nov. 2-5.

The play begins with George, a linguist, who is consumed with the preservation of languages rather than paying any attention to his wife, Mary. Mary, who is upset at her situation, makes the difficult decision to leave her husband. He is shocked but cannot find the words, the language, to keep her from leaving. She ends up leaving him and decides to pursue her dreams.

George struggles to deal with her departure as he continues his work, researching to two natives, Resten and Alta, of a forgotten language. The two natives have issues in their own marriage, which adds a comedic element to the show, especially the refrain on Alta’s terrible cooking. The natives work everything out and end by speaking in their language, which is focused on love. George finds his wife happy and baking bread in her own shop.  He ends up going back to his linguist job, where he fails to see his assistant is in love with him.

The student actors worked hard to ensure they portrayed their characters well. Larson believes the play kept improving every time that it was performed due to the cast being able to connect and interact with the audience members better each time. The show seating was on the stage in Anderson, so the actors and audience were in close proximity to each other.

Larson said the audience is different each time that the play is performed, so it is quite a challenge to connect with divergent audiences. After Friday’s performance, Larson said she felt that the play could not have gone better. It was their best performance so far, and she only had one critique.

“My stage manager had a cough, and I kept looking for a cough drop to give him.  I need to get cough drops on hand!” joked Larson.

Larson said that fact that every cast member relied on each other made building a connection the best part of the play. She found this especially meaningful because connections between humans is a key theme of the play itself. Larson said chose this play because she was frustrated with the world today and expected it to be different as she was growing up. She wanted to gently remind her audience that everyone can be kind to each other.

“Let’s communicate. Let’s use language. Let’s love words and language rather than using them as weapons,” Larson said.

As a director, Larson wants to be moved by a performance. She wants to see something new and find a way to inspire an experience that transforms the audience.

Senior Matt Schulz, who played Resten, said the show performances all went well and were well received by the audience. His favorite part about participating in theatre at BVU is his director, Larson. Schulz said Larson makes everything fun and he always learns something new.

Schluz said he worked to balance his school schedule with play practices and performances, but the time and effort was worth it. His favorite character in the show was Alta.

“She’s my wife!  Also, she’s very funny,” said Schulz.

Schulz said he enjoyed the complexity of the pay and that every time he watched it, he found something new in it. He got that sense from even the first auditions.

“It seemed like a very exciting show to be a part of,” he said.

Larson and Schulz hope the message of connection and being kind to one another is a universal theme that came through in the play.

Photo by Emily Kenny