ASU's 'You Can't Take It With You' plays to modern economic woes

Carolyn Cope never met a period piece she didn't like.

In her years at Augusta State University, she has produced numerous period plays, most from the mid-20th century. So it was no surprise when she chose the Depression-era comedy You Can't Take It With You as the theater department's fall production.

What was surprising was her decision to update it.

"When I started thinking about this last spring, things were really awful," she said. "It felt very reminiscent of the Great Depression. So I thought this would be timely and quite funny."

The play will be staged at 8 p.m. today through Saturday at the Grover C. Maxwell Performing Arts Theatre at Augusta State, 2500 Walton Way.

Ms. Cope said she and some enthusiastic friends stripped down the script, excising dated references. A printing press was removed from the eccentric Vanderhof family home, replaced by a computer, and the clacking of a typewriter was painfully replaced by quieter word processing.

"That one was hard," Ms. Cope said. "Other than that, it was really just managing the references and language. The hardest part was navigating the whole Russia/Soviet Union thing."

Ms. Cope, an associate professor in the Department of Communications and Professional Writing, directed the production.

Rebekah Bearden, who plays artist/writer Penny Sycamore, said cast members were skeptical when they heard Ms. Cope's plan.

"But we found that it does address the same issues we face today," she said. "In fact, I think even if it wasn't updated, it would make sense to do it today."

Ms. Bearden said the cast enjoyed the opportunity to experiment with the prose, to make the lines fit their approach to characters.

"Normally when you come into a play, it can be very rigid," she said. "But this has been very free. There has been a lot of room to experiment."

Heather Clark, who plays enthusiastic dancer Essie Carmichael, said that freedom made it much easier to reach the goal every actor aspires to:

"We were able to make this our own."

Contact Steven Uhles at (706) 823-3626 or steven.uhles@augustachronicle.com.