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Lowville High School Drama Club to Present Pulitzer
Prize-Winning Comedy Harvey November 8th and 9th
Published: October 31, 2023
at 06:30
By: Press Release from LACS Drama Club
“P-O-O-K-A.
Pooka. From Old Celtic
mythology. A fairy spirit in animal
form. Always very large. The pooka appears here and there, now and then, to this one and that one at his own
caprice. A wise but mischievous
creature…”
– Mary Chase, Harvey
Act I Scene 2
 Mark your
calendars! November 8-9, the
Lowville High School Drama Club proudly presents the 1944 Pulitzer
Prize-winning comedy Harvey by
Mary Chase.
Jevin Ray (11th grade) plays the lead, Elwood P.
Dowd, who was famously portrayed by Jimmy Stewart in the 1950 film
adaptation and by Jim Parsons in the more recent Broadway run of Harvey. Ray describes Elwood as “a kind-hearted,
optimistic gentleman with a warm sincerity to those he addresses.”
Elwood’s best friend is the pooka Harvey, who only allows himself to be seen and heard – as
a talking rabbit over six feet tall – by select people, remaining invisible
to most of the population (as well as the audience.) This situation naturally causes folks to
assume Elwood is suffering from a mental health disorder.
Elwood’s sister Veta (played by junior Lily Exford)
grows increasingly distraught when Harvey’s presence inhibits her social
ambitions and her attempts to marry off her grown daughter, Myrtle May
(played by junior Arianna Thomas.)
Exford reports, “I’m very excited to learn to portray such a
theatrical and absurd character.
[Veta is] an oddball with anxiety – a hilarious one, at that.”
In an act of desperation, Veta attempts to have
Elwood committed to a sanitarium (a mid-20th century psychiatric hospital)
called Chumley’s Rest. Senior Connor
McCormick portrays, as he shares, the “matter-of-fact Dr. Chumley. I am
excited for this production because I get to play a character very much
after my own feelings at dealing with people. It is an opportunity to be serious in a
way I wish I could while having a lot of fun with it at the same time.”
When Veta visits with sanitarium staff – Nurse Kelly,
played by sophomore Olivia Patnode; and Dr. Sanderson, played by freshman
Ira Blauvelt – Veta’s state of distress incidentally causes Dr. Sanderson
to have Veta committed in place of her brother.
In spite of the potentially heavy topic of mental health concerns, playwright Mary
Chase spins Harvey as a
lighthearted comedy with an endearing cast of characters. In addition to those mentioned above, the
cast also includes Wyatt Cornell, Luke Patnode, Kairi Truax, Eloise
Blauvelt, Ethan Higby, and Jada Hellinger.
Junior Rachael Reynolds, assistant director, says,
“It’s a hilarious show with a fantastic cast. We’re all very excited to show everyone
what we’ve been working on!”
Exford adds, “The audience will fall in love with
this cast. No rehearsal goes by
without all of us cracking up over someone doing or saying something
ridiculous.” Ray agrees, saying he
enjoys “the acting, the friendships, and the goofiness that emanates from
rehearsals.”
It’s not only the Drama Club students who are
excited. Bill Marks comments, “I’ve
been lobbying for Harvey for
thirty years!” Mr. Marks’ little
brother played Elwood P. Dowd when they were kids. In the opinion of Cindy Richard, Drama
Club advisor and director of Harvey,
Mr. Marks seems the most likely candidate on LACS
staff to befriend a pooka himself.
Drama Club hopes to pack the house on November 8 and
9. Come on out to meet Elwood P.
Dowd and the rest of the wonderful characters. You will certainly enjoy this
family-friendly, memorable comedy – as Ray puts it, “the play about a six foot rabbit – or as Elwood would say, ‘Six feet one
and a half; let’s stick to the facts.’”
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