Producing a play isn’t easy, especially while being in school and dealing with the everyday responsibilities of college. But every year, LSU Theatre students produce plays that hold the attention of the LSU population and the wider Baton Rouge area. The last Lab Show of the year is “Two Sisters and a Piano.”
The Pulitzer Prize-winning play, written by Nilo Cruz, is set in 1991 and follows two sisters under house arrest during the Pan American Games. In their home of Havana, Cuba, sisters Maria Celia and Sofia, a novelist and pianist, struggle with life, love and politics inside and out of their home.
Kyrin Hardnett, a freshman double majoring in theatre performance and film and television, is not new to performing at LSU, but this is his first Lab Show. He was in “The Totality of All Things” earlier this year on LSU Mainstage, and he is now playing one of the male leads in “Two Sisters and a Piano.”
“It’s been a different kind of process this time as far as how much time you have for a Lab Show and how much time you have for a Mainstage Show,” Hardnett said. “It’s just been way less time compared to ‘The Totality of All Things.’”
Hardnett said that at its core, this play is about love, support and the importance of family. This time around, Hardnett is playing two characters: a militia guard and a man named Victor Manuel. Playing the guard has posed somewhat of a challenge for Hardnett.
He said that it was difficult to play a mean character who yells and is so different from Hardnett’s own personality. The second character he plays, Victor Manuel, is someone Hardnett relates to a lot, as Victor is a sweet character who likes to laugh.
Hardnett has worked on Mainstage, the Geaux Film “Tick” and now has entered the world of Lab Shows. Something different Hardnett noticed is the heavily collaborative nature of the Lab Shows and all of the work that goes into bringing these stories to life.
Blair Bernard is a senior theatre performance major and the director of “Two Sisters and a Piano.” The cast and crew of the show have been working on this play for the past six weeks, and Bernard admitted that the rehearsal process has been draining.
“Kudos to all the directors who have done lab shows and have done it twice,” Bernard said. “I feel like I’m really excited for people to see it because a lot of hands-on work went into it and a lot of hours.”
Bernard, with her face and arms covered in paint, talked about the days of work she and three others did painting, designing and building the set. One of the painters on the small team even handmade stamps to add designs and mosaic tiling to the set.
The play is set during Fidel Castro’s reign in Cuba, with a lot of politics and danger swarming around the characters.
“I think ultimately what was most important to me with the script was the relationship of having a sister throughout everything,” said Bernard.
Bernard’s relationship with her own sister is important to her, and she said that she doesn’t know where she’d be without her. The theme of family has made itself prominent during the process.
Creating a world on stage takes a lot of work and forethought. Though she took a directing class and has a lot of experience working on a film set, Bernard said nothing could’ve prepared her for both the amount of effort and freedom that came with directing a show.
“I think that when you read a script, you don’t understand how much freedom you actually have when creating the life of the play,” she said. “It’s been really rewarding to kind of know that, in a way, I’ve fabricated these characters personally. I had a vision for them and I have aspirations for them, and I hope they inspire people and entertain people.”
From handpainting wallpaper to building walls and a set, the entire process has been very intentional.
“It’s more tedious than I could have ever imagined,” Bernard said. “I can only imagine how the actors and the directors feel on a Mainstage.”
At the end of the day, Bernard hopes that audiences will recognize the time and effort the entire cast and crew has put into this play.
“We all are trying new things before big changes in our lives,” she said. “Trying your best is really a lost art, [because] what else can you do?”
“Two Sisters and a Piano” opens Tuesday, March 24. For tickets and more information, visit the LSU Theatre website.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source lsureveille.com ’
