“The Color Purple,” originally a novel released in 1982, was adapted into a musical in 2005. Theater students got the opportunity to see this performance put on by KC Rep at Spencer Theater.
This field trip was limited to one class, Repertory and Advanced Repertory theatre. Senior Zach Connett helps explain what Repertory theatre is.
“Rep theatre is exclusive for upperclassmen, juniors and seniors,” Connett said. “You basically get access to (putting on) two extra shows each year. It’s a smaller group, so it’s a bit more intimate.”
Rep students left the theater with a powerful impact both emotionally and academically, regarding their own theatre experience.
Santana Romero, a junior, is currently working on the show “Clue” as lighting designer. Using this experience, he shares what he thinks about the use of lights for “The Color Purple.”
“It was beautiful. They lit the show so well,” Romero said. ”All of the different colors and lights helped really set the tone of the scenes and it really helped to convey the message.”
While the technical aspect of the show impacted students, so did the acting. An all black cast full of Kansas locals left a huge imprint on Olathe West theatre.
“I really do have to say Angela Wildflower as Celie (left the biggest influence),” Romero said. “It’s so much easier to write an age and character through a 300-page book than it is to act it out in a two-hour show but, you could just see all the different ways she’s learning throughout the show and you can see her growing and as an actor playing this character and it was really beautiful.”
Originally a novel, turned into a musical containing 80% music can be a risky adaptation. Yet Lydia Treff, senior, shares how the music changed and impacted the story.
“I definitely think that it gave it a more powerful impact because a lot of that culture for them was music or song or anything like that,” Treff said. “And I think that that really contributed to the overall, you know, like I said, culture or like the overall importance, I think that that was definitely something that enhanced the plot.“
Though this show made a great impression on theatre students, it also left an emotional effect on the entire audience.
“I think just the whole show really left a mark on me because it’s such an interesting and important story of how certain people lived at that specific point in time and what it was like for them and especially what it was like for women and women of color, which is always something that I enjoy getting a perspective on and that I think is really interesting and important to watch,” Treff said.
