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Times Argus Sept 8's InVite feature on LNT & Courtney Wood in The Syringa Tree. The personal side of the story!

September 08, 2016
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Features | A&E/InVite   September 8, 2016

'The Syringa Tree’
Apartheid in the eyes of a child

By JIM LOWE STAFF WRITER

 

STEFAN HARD / STAFF PHOTO Courtney Wood is Elizabeth in a scene from the Lost Nation Theater Production of “The Syringa Tree.” Wood also plays 23 other characters in the play.

   Courtney Wood was still a theater student in college when she discovered “The Syringa Tree,” Pamela Gien’s autobiographical one-woman show reflecting the explosion of apartheid in late 20th century South Africa from the point of view of the child Elizabeth. Wood performed it as her college senior project, toured it a bit, and performed it a couple of times last year at Montpelier’s Lost Nation Theater, while she was appearing in “As You Like It.”

   With time and experience, Wood’s relationship with Elizabeth has grown.

   “It’s changed a lot,” Wood says. “That’s probably been the most joyous and exciting thing about continuing to perform this show. I have grown so much, and a lot of personal experiences have happened to me in the last couple of years that have changed my view on life. So, since I first performed it, the nuances of the young girl have grown — especially when she becomes an adult, and she goes through the loss of her maid’s daughter and moving to America.

   “When Elizabeth becomes a young adult, what she is saying feels more personal,” Wood says. “I have a deeper understanding, so I can create the nuances in her character more. There’s so much to learn and discover — still.”

   Wood is revisiting Elizabeth as Lost Nation Theater presents “The Syringa Tree” Sept. 15-25 at Montpelier City Arts Center. This will be a new production, directed by Kim Bent, Lost Nation’s founding artistic director.

   “Courtney plays 20-plus characters in the course of the evening, but the main character is the young Elizabeth,” Bentsaid Monday. “So you have the opportunity to see the world through a child’s eyes. Political things are not important. She sees what’s there.

   “So you’re aware of those sides on the outside — but you’re seeing them on the inside. It’s an incredible experience,” he said.

   Weston Playhouse presented Gien in “The Syringa Tree” in 2005, and Dee Pelletier performed it for Burlington’s Vermont Stage the following year. Elizabeth is the daughter of a white Jewish atheist doctor and an “elapsed Catholic” mother, enlightened but stressed folk in that ugly time just before the end of apartheid.

   Elizabeth is tended by a nanny, and witnesses the birth of her daughter and, before the play is over, Elizabeth will have witnessed the death of that daughter in the race riots. But there are plenty of fun and funny scenes as well. “The Syringa Tree” isn’t a political statement, rather a human one.

   Wood was home in Portland, Maine, on Christmas break from Crete, Nebraska’s Doane College when she first saw the play.

   “Ever since then, it was on my mind,” Wood said. “When the opportunity presented itself in college for me to figure out what I wanted to do for my senior theater project, I decided I wanted to do ‘The Syringa Tree.’ It challenged everything I had learned.”

   Wood didn’t even have a director until a month before her performance. But, she had been working on it for a year, learning the lines, researching all the characters. It was a very fast process, but the result decided the future.

   “It was exciting — and nerve-wracking. It felt like such an accomplishment,” Wood said. “I loved that, as an actor, you could play so many different characters and tell a story in one go.”

   When preparing for the production, Wood’s set designer made it portable. That proved fortuitous because Wood’s first job after graduation was touring the show to promote Doane College’s theater program.

   “So I got a little taste of what that would feel like to take the show out on the road and tour it,” Wood said.

   Still, Wood’s performances so far have had unsophisticated productions, largely created by students. At Lost Nation, she will benefit from full professional support. (But she continues to use the original set.) “The important thing is to honor and respect all that investment that Courtney has in the show, and find a way to support those impulses and intentions, and perhaps find a way to make them more effective,” Bent said. “What we’re trying to do here is give her the opportunity to have the kind of production support for the show she hasn’t had before, in terms of lighting and sound, and perhaps suggestions about shaping the material that a fresh pair of eyes can bring to the process.” 

   Wood never fails to enjoy bringing “The Syringa Tree” to new audiences.

   “Elizabeth gets to talk directly to the audience a lot, and really bring them in, and share very personal secrets with them, like they’re her friends,” Wood said. “I love those moments when it’s just Elizabeth and the audience.”

stefan hard of The Times Argus captures Courtney as Elizabeth on her tree swing 

 Stefan Hard / Staff Photo Courtney Wood is Elizabeth in a scene from the Lost Nation Theater Production of "The Syringa Tree."

LOST NATION THEATER

   Lost Nation Theater presents Courtney Wood in “The Syringa Tree,” a one-woman show by Pamela Gien, Sept. 15-25 at City Hall Arts Center, 39 Main St. in Montpelier. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday.Tickets are $25-$35, $20-$30 for students and seniors ($15 for Sept. 15 preview); call 802-229-0492, or go online to www.lostnationtheater.org  .

 

 

 
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