On Nov. 7 and 8, the Underground Theatre showed their production of “Kodachrome”. Published in 2019 by Adam Szymkowicz, this play explores the interplay of the relationships between 16 characters in the small town of Colchester, Connecticut.
Samford’s Underground Theatre is a completely student-run organization, from the directing, producing, casting, costuming and lighting design. They typically have smaller casts and incorporate more intimate audience interaction. Productions used to be held in the basement of the theater building before undergoing renovations, hence the name.
“It’s still that same heart of the Underground, which is student-led projects that maybe you wouldn’t see on the main stage,” said Jackson Griffee, director of Kodachrome.
Griffee is a senior musical theater major who stepped into directing in the spring with his one act production of “Tick Tick Boom” for his advanced directing class. After this, he quickly began searching for scripts to apply to be a director for the next Underground production.
“It took me forever to find one that I really loved, and when I found this one, I was like, this is it,” he said. “What drives the story is the relationships, and I thought this would be so cool in such an intimate space for the Underground.”
Griffee proposed his script and his vision to the Underground Committee, which is composed of three representatives from the sophomore, junior and senior classes. Kodachrome was chosen, and the work officially began when the actors were cast in late September.
“The thing about this show is that it would be nothing without these incredible actors,” Griffee said. “Dealing with the heavier stuff was challenging, but when you have mature actors and mature people, it takes that challenge and dwindles it down.”
Covington Reardon, a junior musical theater major played the lead character, Suzanne, or “the photographer”. She never leaves the stage for the entirety of the play, as Suzanne is a ghost watching the characters in the town interact. Suzanne witnesses the full range of the human experience: falling in and out of love and marriage. Those who love their job, those who hate it and the loss of a spouse or an unborn child.
“There’s a lot of loss and heartbreak that happens in the show that is real and that’s real life,” Reardon said. “And so, getting to put that on the stage in a way that gets to be cathartic, but also a reminder of like there is hope because there is love and there is so much beauty and ultimately this is a very hopeful show.”
Reardon doesn’t directly interact with the other characters during the majority of the show, and this pushed her to find new ways of telling her story.
“It’s allowed me to kind of take a different approach to the way I’m telling the story, which has been really cool as an actor, but it’s also made me be able to realize that, like, the audience gets to be my scene partners in some places,” she said.
The production was lit with string lights extending out to the audience. The changes in lighting were minimal, but seamlessly communicated the jumps between past and present, the real world and realm where ghosts can be seen and heard. The play led the audience to connect the dots themselves, without being muddled or confusing.
Everyone will relate to a character in the show, from the hopeless romantic to the daughter whose parents are getting divorced to the young man searching for how to be vulnerable and love completely.
In the talk-back portion after the show, Reardon said that learning her character in this show helped her realize that life truly is about people and the way they love one another.
Kodachrome is a production that breaks up the tears of loss and longing with chuckles and laughter from the charming, endearing characters. The final message of the show leaves the audience with hope of moving on after the deepest heartbreak and finding joy again after grief.
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