Diehl joins OUL theater cast for play
LANCASTER - The upcoming Ohio University Lancaster production of Neil Simon's romantic comedy "Barefoot in the Park" will be a unique learning experience for the student cast members.
Professional actress Anne Diehl is also in the cast and is imparting her knowledge to the five students through an actor's equity guest artist program.
"Barefoot in the Park" will run from Nov. 4-8 at the Wagner Theatre. The show will start at 7:30 p.m. the first four days and at 2 p.m. on Nov. 8.
Tickets are $12 and $10 for students, seniors and children.
This is the first time a professional has worked with OUL students, artistic director and theater lecturer Victor Jones said.
Diehl has worked in theater in New York and is an adjunct professor at Ohio State, Otterbein University and Kenyon College. She said she wants to impart the importance of the professional work ethic and discipline needed to succeed in theater to the students. Diehl said she compared that to the discipline an athlete needs.
"The athlete wouldn't come to a practice without the right shoes or equipment," she said. "The actor's equipment is the script, their mental discipline and physical discipline. All the things that the athlete or trained musician has. You don't learn how to play the violin in a heartbeat just picking it up. You have to learn the foundation. You have to learn the notes and all those extra elements. And the actor has to work the same way."
Diehl, a Bexley resident, plays the character Corie's mother, Mrs. Banks, in the play.
"I've never had the privilege of working on a Neil Simon play," she said. "I think he's just a brilliant playwright and just so comedically gifted. For me to work on a script like a Neil Simon script, because it's just so wonderfully crafted, I'm really excited."
Jones said he got the idea of the guest equity program from his student days at Otterbein.
"It was such an amazing experience for me and I always remembered that guest artist that would come in," he said. "And I thought, what an opportunity if we could do that program here, to have professional actors work with our student actors. Then you always dream about something like that and can you do it? And we were just so fortunate that we were able to do it."
Catherine Quamme plays Corie and Connor Daugherty plays Paul, a newlywed couple. Corie and Paul are trying to fix Banks and eccentric neighbor Victor Velasco up. Hunter Allen portrays Velasco, who also lives in the couple's New York City apartment building. The play is set in 1963.
"It's been really great to work with her," Quamme said of Diehl. "It's definitely a learning experience because when you're in community school or you're going to high school you don't get to work with equity actors. So it's nice to have somebody who's done it for a really long time. You can watch her, you can learn from her. She has great advice and it's just nice getting to work off of her. It's a nice energy."
Daugherty said working with Diehl is a big learning process.
"Because I've only been in smaller roles with OUL productions prior to this one," he said. "I was in the spelling bee show and I was in 'West Side Story.' And I didn't really get to develop much as an actor as far as being big and making a big presence. And a lot of the advice Anne has given me is really helping me to really come out more as an actor."
For example, Daugherty said Diehl told him to always take notes on what the director is saying and to work on his comedic timing, among other things.
The other cast members are Dakota Kiger as the telephone man and Ryan Mangus as a department store delivery man.
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