The official student newspaper of University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire since 1923.

The Spectator

The official student newspaper of University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire since 1923.

The Spectator

The official student newspaper of University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire since 1923.

The Spectator

    The Shadow Box

    David Taintor

    Three cabins located on the grounds of a large hospital become the setting for the final days of three terminally ill patients in an example of early hospice care. But even though the patients may be terminal, junior Charlene Lucht, who portrays Beverly, the ex-wife of one of the patients, said that isn’t what the play is about.

    “I think what (Professor Richard Nimke) said, which was a really good thing that struck me . the play is more about life and living than it is about dying.”

    “The Shadowbox,” will open at 7 p.m. this evening in Kjer Theatre.

    Before its debut this year at UW-Eau Claire, “The Shadowbox” earned critical acclaim and a Tony in 1977 for Best Play and a Pulitzer Prize in the same year for Drama, according to a university press release.

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    Set in the ’70s, the play covers the lives of three terminally ill hospice patients, their families and their experiences with the process of mortality, said associate professor of theatre arts and director Richard Nimke.

    Despite the background of impending mortality, the play isn’t morbid.

    “The play is a touching play, but at times it’s very funny,” Nimke said. “I always think, sometimes, the funniest things happen in real life during our most tragic moments.”

    Nimke said the characters throw sarcastic humor and wit into the dialogue to deal with the grieving and the loss.

    One of the premises behind the play, Nimke said, is the book written by Elisabeth Kubler Ross titled “On Death and Dying,” which explores the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

    In “The Shadowbox,” each of the three families shows different ways of addressing those stages in different parts of life.

    Other than that, Nimke added that the play deals with the universality of the characters.

    “I think that there’s a sense of showing diverse people but the commonality of experience,” Nimke said. “Because of it, it makes it more accessible to the audience.

    Senior CJ Krueger, who plays one of the terminally ill patients, Brian, agreed about the accessibility of the play to the audience.

    “That’s my favorite part of the play. How we get to know the characters, how we get to see them interact.”

    Describing his character as a writer and a philosopher, kind of like him, made it simple to connect with his character. And he may not be the only one.

    “I think everyone (in the cast) can identify with their characters so well, and because we can identify with our characters so well, everybody’s going to be able to identify with everybody,” Krueger said.

    Another way for audience members to relate to the play, Krueger said, is the experience of grief and that everyone has, in some form or another, encountered death.

    Lucht said that one way she and castmates prepared for the show was to meet with graduate nursing students in a course at the university who have had experience with this issue.

    “It was kind of interesting to sit and listen to them talk,” she said, adding that it helped with her character and the play.

    Nimke said when he considered the play for performance and reexamined the script, he realized what an interesting piece and has a lot to say to a contemporary audience.

    “I think we exist in a society that we think we are so much more comfortable talking about a variety of issues,” he said. “But I think we just think that. I think a lot of people still have difficulty expressing or talking about their own grief.”

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