The Marshall Theatre Alliance put on their second show of the season in mid October. The Good Doctor is a comedy with Music written by Neil Simon. The play is an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s short stories about the foibles of ordinary people.
Clint McElroy, guest artist, directed this production. He said it was important to him for the audience to view the play from the views of Anton Chekhov. “The overall vision I wanted to get across was seeing it as taking place in Chekhov’s mind as he examines his life, his writing, and the creative process in general,” McElroy said. McElroy said the actors had only 4 weeks to prepare for the show and in addition to scheduled rehearsals, most of the preparation was on their own time.“It was a pure joy for me to see young actors I have worked with before standing on that stage sharing their immense talents with the audiences,” McElroy said.
The show had a total of 8 actors portraying several characters each.Christian Whitt, Theatre major, said by doing this show it helped him expand his acting abilities.
“This show required a large amount of attention and discipline, not only did I play four completely separate roles, but each character was of a different type and came with its own style,” Whitt said.
Whitt said each scene was a different performance in itself, which came to be a challenge for him during the show. “The biggest challenge of this show was keeping the comedic energy up in the comedic scenes and finding away to change the focus for the dramatic scene I was in, without losing any energy,” Whitt said. “It was a welcomed challenge and I was very happy to have experienced it.”
McElroy said the show took a lot of hard work and effort but the quality of the production was at a professional level. “It’s no exaggeration that the Marshall University Theatre Department is the best game in town,” McElroy said.
