Excitement Builds For Spring Play
March 24, 2022
By Megan Hutchinson
Student Writer
What are you doing on Friday, April 22, at 7 p.m.? Faith Baptist Bible College invites you to watch the performance of Pride and Prejudice for a night you won’t forget! Faith alumna Alyssa Hathcock and her assistant director Krista Brown are excited for the community to see the project that they and the cast have been investing in over the past semester.
The story follows the novel written by Jane Austen, taking place in the early 1800s in rural England. This tale will delight and amuse audiences of all ages! The pressure for one of the Bennet’s five daughters to marry into wealth and fortune takes a rollercoaster of twists and turns. Will Mr. Darcy overcome his pride? Will Elizabeth Bennet overcome her prejudice? Follow this dramatic story as the Bennet daughters find their way to “true love.”
As the premiere date draws near, everything is beginning to fall into place for the directors and cast. The progress the entire production has made over the past few months proves to be incredible. Practices typically take place Monday and Tuesday evenings for two to three hours each night. The whole show is blocked, and choreography is coming together smoothly. Once students returned from spring break, run-throughs were off-script, allowing for memory retention and growth of each character.
In an interview, Alyssa commented on the experience as a whole:
“I love this cast so much! Krista, my assistant director, and I agree that we’re going to be so sad when this is over because they’ve been so much fun, and the cast has just bonded so well.”
In Pride and Prejudice, the two main characters are Mr. Darcy (played by Jared Ball) and Elizabeth Bennet (played by Audrey Holbert).
“Audrey was such a surprise at auditions,” Alyssa admitted. “I didn’t have anybody in mind for Elizabeth; I was just praying that the Lord would provide the right people for the cast. But the second Audrey started reading, I thought ‘Oh, that’s Elizabeth! She’s perfect.’ She’s really good and has worked so hard. It’s one of her favorite works of literature, and she loves Elizabeth Bennet. She’s been working really hard to understand Elizabeth and get into her head in order to portray her well.”
Alyssa said that it was a no-brainer choosing Jared as Mr. Darcy. “Jared is one of those fantastic people that can hop in and out of the character so fast…They both have a powerful on-stage presence.”
According to Alyssa, Audrey is doing a fabulous job carrying the show and is on stage almost the entire length of the drama. Overall, the directors are delighted to see how everyone’s character develops once they get off-script.
When asked why she chose Pride and Prejudice as the spring drama, Alyssa chuckled. “It was kind of a joke how it started. We were looking at Anne of Green Gables, and I started going through scripts, but they felt choppy and not very fluid. Then, we were reading through a variety of scripts and saw a version of Pride and Prejudice.” She revealed that they read through the script just for fun, but ended up falling in love with it and deciding to go with it. Both Krista and Alyssa love the story that Jane Austen tells in her novel. “The characters are so well written; Jane Austen is ahead of her time. It’s fun to watch, and it’s fun for me to be able to help my actors to portray the characters as real people. People are going to come in with their expectations, but I’m excited for them to see this version.”
Why should you come to the play?
“I think people are going to be surprised with what we have to offer,” Alyssa said. “They might come in with expectations because this is such a well-known show. We are approaching this with a lot of caution and care because both Krista and I have such a love for this piece of literature, and we know other people do as well. We want to get it right and tell a really good story. It’s not super serious or heavy, but it’s not laugh-out-loud every two minutes. I’m excited for people to be able to see what we’ve been working so hard on. We’ve been putting our heart and soul into this play.”
The directors and cast assure you that it will be a surprising and entertaining time. Admission is free, but we are accepting donations if you feel led to give. It will be held in the Nettleton Center at 7 p.m. Unable to make it at that time? Join us for the matinee performance at 1 p.m. You won’t want to miss it! Visit our web page for more details!