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Credit: Josephine Velo

Sophomore Edward Aguilar (left), and senior Jilian Dantes (right) in the prologue.

On Thursday, Feb. 16, the John Cariani play, “Almost, Maine,” a lovey-dovey story that tugged on the heartstrings of everyone in the audience, was showcased by Loy Norrix Performing Arts. 

The play opened with a couple sitting on a bench discussing how if the Earth is round and they are sitting next to each other, they are actually as far away from each other as possible. The show then takes the audience through several different love scenes. We see everything from past-lovers who are meeting up again, friends who are falling in love for the first time, couples going through a rough patch and even two strangers finding love. 

The only critique for this production is that it felt like a bit of a tease, simply because we were waiting for all of the scenes to connect in the end and come together, but they never did. The number of unrelated scenes made the play hard to follow. 

With that being said, the actors in the show did an exquisite job playing their roles. They made the audience feel every emotion you can think of, from love to sadness to anger. 

“I was very pleased with the performance…they were nailing their scenes,” said director and drama teacher Dan Lafferty. 

One favorite scene in particular was in act two with Rhonda played by Hana Westrick and Dave played by Braeden Davis. 

The scene is about two friends who have just spent the day together and Dave wants to go inside Rhonda’s house to continue hanging out, but she won’t let him. Dave gives Rhonda a painting and confesses his love to her. Rhonda is unsure about her feelings and can’t tell what the painting is of. She ends up coming around but confesses to Dave that she has never kissed anyone before. The two end up kissing and then take off an absurd amount of clothing to prepare for “what comes next,” and Rhonda is finally able to see what the painting is. 

Westrick said that preparing for this “stage kiss” was one of her biggest challenges when preparing for this show. 

One aspect of this show that really stood out was the fact that, for the most part, all of the actors had equal stage time. There are eight different scenes, each with a unique storyline. The scenes all occur at the same time, in different places.

“I thought this would be a good play because… everyone who’s in it gets like a full scene” said Lafferty. “There’s not really like lead roles and there’s not really tiny roles”.  

Other actors also stated their appreciation for the equal amount of stage time that each actor received.

“Everyone had their own kind of role, which I thought was really nice,” said junior Ellen Terzino, who played the lead in the musical earlier this year. “Nobody was on stage any more than other people, which we thought was just a really nice way of splitting up the whole play.”

Even members of the audience liked how different and notable the play was.

“I thought the play was very well done, and I liked how unique it was. It’s definitely different than I was expecting, but I’m glad I went,” said senior Reesah Link.

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