Love, loss and tragedy in a box is the story of “Vigils,” the play produced by University of Idaho students and alumni and performed at the Prichard Art Gallery last week.
The show, a quirky dark comedy about a woman who loses her husband and can”t let go of his memory while trying to move on, was directed by UI senior Kadin McGreevy and ran Aug. 19-21.
“The play centers around a woman who loses her husband in a fire––his soul leaves his body and starts to rise to Heaven,” McGreevy said. “His wife pulls his soul back down and keeps him in a box because she”s not ready to let go.”
Kadin McGreevy | Courtesy
UI Theater students Kevin O”Connell, Maiya Corral and alumnus Micheal Smith perform Noah Haidle”s “Vigils” at the Prichard Art Gallery.
“The soul and the body are still there, they”ve just been living in her memories for two years,” he said. “All of these things finally come to the present moment when she goes on a date with a good friend of her late husband”s from the fire department “¦ It”s a big mess of a thing that plays a lot with the rules of death.”McGreevy said the play and its central conflicts begin two years after the death of the widow”s husband, when she decides to go on her first date since the fire.
McGreevy first directed a scene from “Vigils” at the region seven Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, where he won the regional award for the scene.
From regionals, McGreevy went on to receive a Stage Directing and Choreographers National Directing Fellowship at the national level as well as a week-long internship with the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
“I was kind of the Dwight Schrute of this playwriting internship,” McGreevy said. “I would learn and watch these directors do work with writers, but I”d mostly just watch and be quiet and observe the process.”
McGreevy said the more work intensive sides of the internship helped him develop the full “Vigils” performance in two weeks.
“At night, we had these four hour long director intensives where we would have three minutes to create a one minute play,” he said. “We didn”t solidify the cast of “Vigils” until two weeks before we opened which was terrifying and really intense but coming off of learning how to make a play in two minutes, two weeks feels like a long time.”
The Kennedy American College Theater Festival is where Maiya Corral, the cast member who played the role of the widow, first became friends with McGreevy.
“I had met Kadin briefly a year before and in a really magical moment we both directed the same scene from Vigils for the festival,” she said. “We connected when it came to working on the play because we both love it so much.”
Corral, a BFA theater student who transferred to UI just this year, said her role in the play challenged her as a performer.
“During rehearsal, I would have to sort of turn off my director brain, the analytical part of me, and live in the heart of the character,” Corral said. “I”ve been focused on directing for years so that was a challenge but I love the story so much I feel like I can understand the characters.”
Kadin McGreevy | Courtesy
Maiya Corral, in scene with Michael Brandt and Kevin O”Connell, plays the role of a widow who can”t let go of her husband”s memory in the play “Vigils.”
“For this performance, I”m most excited for the audience to be a part of the story because I think it”s extremely accessible,” she said. “It”s sort of a fairytale, otherworldly type story but there”s so much in it that really connects to our hearts.”Corral said she was excited to see how the audience responded to such a personal play performed in a space as intimate as the one provided by the Prichard.
Corral, who moved to Moscow two weeks before joining the “Vigils” cast, said one of the highlights of the play has been the overwhelming support she and her cast members have received from the community.
“It”s amazing to me how much I”ve been welcomed here, I”ve never been so welcomed into a community before,” she said. “The faculty and students are so supportive of the arts and theater and the community has shown nothing but love and support for us.”
McGreevy said both the community support and the support from his fellow cast members has been the best part of producing and performing the play.
“This cast has challenged me completely and shaken everything I knew about theater,” he said. “The entire play was a collaboration and it has created a better story because it”s everyone who has contributed to this play and it”s an honor to be working with these people.”
McGreevy said the performance differed from anything he and the other cast members have ever done because of how independently driven the play”s development was.
“The process has been entirely our own which has been pretty crazy, especially when you”ve invested your heart and you”ve worked every single bit of it and it”s become this collective thing,” he said. “The hardest part of being a director is letting that collaborative process happen and letting the actors take over the performance when your heart is in it too.”
McGreevy said the experience of producing “Vigils” was all about the cast members and those involved in the collaborative process.
“My experience in Washington D.C. was great and because of it, the play has kind of been drawn back to me but it”s not about me at all,” he said. “Everyone I”m working with, this play is really their thing and I”m just a part of it, maybe even a voice for it, but it”s really about them––my people.”
Corrin Bond can be reached at [email protected]