Lafayette Theatre’s fall play for 2023 is Cardboard Stories: Some Assembly Required. This was a show originally performed in 2020 by Lafayette students based on the question, “How many things can you create with a cardboard box?” This year, Lafayette Theatre says it will have new concepts and ideas from the current Lafayette students. This is a non-verbal show with 14 cast members who perform on stage. There will be music in the scenarios that they portray with only cardboard props and boxes. It is a very unique show that you will have to see to appreciate fully.
We asked Sally Thalacker, a senior cast member in the show, what she is most excited for the audience to see, “I am most excited to see a show I truly believe the audience has never seen. It is very different and interesting, and the story has… well, you’ll have to see,” she said. This is a unique show because the actors can’t speak, which is how you usually portray emotions on stage to the audience.
Abigayle Stokes, a senior cast member in the show, said, “It’s really a show that you have to play off of the audience with. It is a very challenging show to do, especially using no words. It is very challenging as a performer to tell a story [and] to be limited to one of your forms of communication, which has been difficult but exciting.”
Stokes was also asked about how the show was developed and what it was like coming up from scratch, she said, “It was very different from a normal play. Every rehearsal, we just played, and every day, we did our own scenes and came up with ideas. With that, we slowly merged them into a show, and it is pretty much a bunch of our ideas put into a 45-minute play, hopefully,” she said. The development of this play was based around a cardboard box, which really challenges the actor’s skills. This show is like what Stokes said, a combination of the student’s ideas that came from cardboard and slowly developed into the play being presented in Beeler.
As someone behind the scenes, Lillian Bramble sees some problems the audience or actors may not see. She says the timing and consistency are tricky. The problems with the timing and consistency are very prominent in a show with no vocal cues. Bramble, a senior Sound Designer for the show, commented on the difficulties of this show: “Timing is very difficult in a show like this where there isn’t a set beat yet, especially since we are still figuring out how things work, so I think our biggest difficulty is timing and consistency, and I think we will whip into shape by showtime,” she said.
Overall, this show is a challenge for the actors and a different experience for the audience. The silence and the show built from the ground up all play into the show being challenging and unique. It will be a different experience for everyone involved and worth watching.
Lafayette Theatre’s fall play will be performed for the Kentucky Theatre Association on October 28th at Transylvania University. KTA is a gathering of top high school theater programs that apply to be accepted to perform for KTA and move further up from there. This is an excellent opportunity to showcase Lafayette’s amazing students to distinguished directors and educators.
Cardboard Stories will perform on Thursday, September 21st, and Friday, September 22nd, at 7:00 p.m. They will also perform on Saturday, September 23rd, at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Their school performance will be on Friday, September 22nd, during A2 and A4. You can buy tickets on their website. They are $15 for adults and $10 for students. The student tickets for the school show will be sold in the cafeteria until Wednesday, September 20th, for $5. Come out and support the Lafayette Theatre.
