“The Wife of Fabian of Vitalik” is in Production 

Three University of Idaho students are currently producing an original play entitled “The Wife of Fabian of Vitalik.” 

The play, which will be shown later this month, is about a seemingly loving relationship between a fisherman and woman with shapeshifting abilities, and their journey of love, reflection, and change during their hardest moments. 

 “The story becomes about how one loves someone in the loss of them. How does love and you as a person grow, shift, change, and continue to love through that,” stated Grace McGreevy, one of the directors. 

Inspiration is nothing new in the world of arts and literature, but not too often is it that siblings produce works in influence of one another. The play was originally a published fictional story of the same name from 2017, and was written by Mariah Montoya, a former University of Idaho grad, and the older sister of Kalyssa Montoya, one of the directors. When both Grace and Kalyssa needed ideas for their senior project, they did not need to look far. 

“Kalyssa had said that her sister wrote this short story when she was in college and that maybe we should read it and think about adapting it,” said Grace. “It’s a beautiful story about love and we decided to adapt the story into play form.” 

Not only are they adapting the story but they are adding more details and lore to the characters and story like the times of the couple’s youth, and other elements like folk dancing and music to underscore the whole piece.  

Family projects are always fun, and it turns out that Kalyssa was not the only one who gets to experience that while working on this play. When it came time to look for a cast for some of the characters in the play, Grace was able to get something of a small family reunion together.  

“It’s actually a ‘McGreevy family affair’,” said Presnell. “Grace’s father Dennis is acting in it and then her two brothers Luke and Owen are participating too.” 

 Luke is also acting in the play and Owen is overseeing most of the music in the production. Grace had recalled how when she and  Kalyssa were in the writing process, they wondered if her father Dennis could play an older version of Luke to accurately depict a time skip in the play. 

 “We asked them and then they did it,” Grace said. “And now we’re here.” 

This production has the students full of excitement, but they are fully aware of the difficulties that lie ahead. The performance will be held at The Palouse Clearwater Environmental Institute in a large greenhouse which is typically used for environmental purposes. Presnell, who is the stage manager for this production, is thinking about how to properly utilize the space they have been given for the production.  

“We are using a space that is off campus and it’s not typically used for a theater,” Presnell said. “As someone who needs to think fifteen steps ahead and be prepared for anything, I kind of get nervous thinking about making sure that when we are moved in our space that all our elements like tech and lighting are efficiently placed.” 

 Despite these concerns Presnell is still very excited for the opportunity to work in a space like that for the first time and is ready to embrace that and any other challenges.  

“The Wife of Fabian of Vitalik”,  is set for shows on April 22-24 at 7:30 p.m. The creative minds of Montoya, McGreevy, Presnell and their respective families are all very excited to put on a play about a story of love, bonds, and life all while elements of fiction and creative writing further entices the production. 

Leo Tamba can be reached at [email protected].

Correction: In a previous version of this article, Director Kalyssa Montoya’s name was spelled incorrectly.