Placing the right actors with the right play made Lunch Hour director’s

This archived article was written by: Zak Konakis

In spite of a trip off the blocks with not enough men, not the right humor and a Broadway revival of a long time classic, the new play season is upon the college. Lunch Hour by Jean Kerr is finally announced as the theatre season opener with Corey Ewan Ph. D. directing a new season riddled with trials and complications that are finally starting to smooth out.
The season was originally supposed to open with the musical Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore, but there were simply not enough men to fill the cast and was then replaced by Neil Simon’s Prisoner of Second Avenue. Once again the actors didn’t seem to fit.
“It was something that I had been put up against, before with They’re Playing Our Song. The actors didn’t understand the humor and it was disastrous. It’s still a point of friendly jabbing.” Ewan divulged, “I just had to pull the plug and once I put [Lunch Hour] in their hands it seemed to come together.” Neil Simon is known for taking traditionally serious subjects and then making them seem ok to laugh at, “[The actors] were just playing it like a Greek tragedy.” The third slot of the season has also been taken out from underneath them as A Man For All Seasons has been locked, because of the Broadway revival and now it’s back to the library for selections. “I have a few plays that I want to do that are on my list but it’s actually a tedious job choosing plays. We cast lots and sacrifice chickens and look at their entrails for cues.” Ewan jokes.
“What’s sad is that may be taken seriously, but we do look at what will benefit the actors as they move on, what we can afford to build, what the general interest of the public would be and if I will enjoy directing it. As sad as it may sound if I don’t enjoy it why would I force other people to watch it and why would I spend four weeks with it. I just wouldn’t do that to myself.”