Venea King and Grace Siplon practice for the drama departments newest production ‘Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter’.
Drama department stages ‘Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter’
LINDA CUMMINS
Multimedia Staff
icummins@unca.edu
UNC Asheville’s newest theater
production follows former United
States Marine Jenny Sutter heads
to the most unmilitary post left on
Earth to do the one thing no one
else can — heal herself.
Slab City, a decommissioned
military outpost consisting of sand,
slab foundations and an assortment
of society’s outcasts provides the
healing ground for Sutter in a new
theatrical production at Belk The
ater.
In order to bring military authen
ticity to the production, the drama
team worked with former Marine
Caitlin Kelleher, who is now a ju
nior health and wellness promotion
student at UNC Asheville.
“1 did some stage combat stuff
with them,” Kelleher said. “There is
a scene in the play where the main
character has a post traumatic stress
disorder reaction and she dives onto
another actor to cover them, they go
down hard, they land on the wood
en stage floor.”
Sutter’s PTSD becomes ignited
by an lED explosion that blew up
her leg while serving in Iraq. The
cast had many questions about the
ways PTSD manifests physically,
and is something the director Lise
Kloeppel intends upon being au
thentic about, Kelleher said.
As the veteran liaison and advi
sor, Kelleher led a bootcamp work
out with the cast.
“They were really great sports. I
did some of the yelling at them like
a drill instructor. Taught them how
to stand at the position of attention,
how to hold their bodies at atten
tion,” Kelleher said. “When they
were calling me ma’am it was real
ly hard not to laugh. It was funny.”
Kloeppel said that having a stu
dent veteran serve as an adviser on
the production was incredibly valu
able to the process.
“Even though the play is fiction
al, the character’s experiences are
very real,” Kloeppel said, “We as
pire to honor this truth.”
Kelleher advised the cast on ev
erything military: uniforms, march
ing, even haircuts.
“There’s a scene when two Ma
rines walk out onto stage in-step so
we practiced how to do that and the
difference is noticeable. One of the
guys in the play has to actually get a
high and tight haircut for the play,”
Kelleher said.
Venea King, a junior psychology
student, plays Sutter and is relative
ly new to the drama scene. This is
her first lead role, with two other
productions under her belt.
“I really enjoy the character Jen
ny,” King said. “I did a little re
search before, much more after I
got the part.”
Part of King’s research dealt with
the acting process.
“I looked up the play to see what
other people have done. I found
a really good character analysis
where each actor in the play was
talking about their character and
what it was like to play them,” King
said.
The other part of King’s research
dealt with the healing process Sut
ter endured.
“I’ve done research on amputees,
how they think day to day, what it
feels like to have a prosthetic limb
and their body movements,” King
said.
The costume department cast her
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