This past weekend, I had the amazing opportunity to be involved with the show, “Harvey”, at my high school. I am going to take some time in this post to talk a little bit about the show. Here is a brief storyline from the author, Mary Chase, “When Elwood P. Dowd starts to introduce his imaginary friend Harvey, a six and a half foot rabbit, to guests at a dinner party, his sister, Veta, has seen as much of his eccentric behavior as she can tolerate. She decides to have him committed to a sanitarium to spare her daughter, Myrtle Mae, and their family, from future embarrassment. Problems arise, however, when Veta herself is mistakenly assumed to be on the fringe of lunacy when she explains to doctors that years of living with Elwood's hallucination have caused her to see Harvey also! The doctors commit Veta instead of Elwood, but when the truth comes out, the search is on for Elwood and his invisible companion. When he shows up at the sanitarium looking for his lost friend Harvey it seems that the mild-mannered Elwood's delusion has had a strange influence on more than one of the doctors. Only at the end does Veta realize that maybe Harvey isn't so bad after all.” It is truly a phenomenal piece of literature! For more on my thoughts about the script see my post, “Book Review: ‘Harvey’”.
Elwood P. Dowd is a very hard role to capture. He encompasses this very soft and easy-going attitude throughout the show. In our interpretation of this show, Elwood was played by, Shane Neilsen. Shane is arguably one of the greatest actors to grace the stage at Kennedy High School. This role was leaps and bounds different than any of the other roles he has had in his time at Kennedy. In his role as Elwood, we got to see the more seriously and softer side of Shane, versus his usual goofy self.
Kylie Hanschman played the role of Veta Louise Simmons, Elwood’s sister. Kylie has acted most prominently in Playtime Poppy children’s shows, so, like Shane, this was a very different stage for her. She far exceeded any expectations that everyone had. Veta is, in my opinion, the most important role in this show. She is also the hardest to play. Kylie perfected the right amount of quirkiness and calmness that was needed to give of the right impression of Veta. I was thoroughly impressed with her performance.
The entire cast performed very well and made the audience smile. I would like to extend a huge “Thank you!” to the entire cast, directors, and crew for making this a truly amazing experience.
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