STARKVILLE — For one night only, Starkville Community Theatre is reviving its award winning show “Underneath the Lintel” for local audiences to enjoy before it goes on the road to headline the Fort Worth Fringe Festival in Texas.
The show will be revived at the SCT Playhouse on Main at 7 p.m. Tuesday, according to an SCT press release. Director Paula Mabry said she is excited to bring the show back to the area, giving a local audience one last chance to see it before it is gone.
“(We) hope that people will want to see it again, even if they’ve seen it before, and also for people who haven’t seen it to enjoy seeing the work,” Mabry said.
“Underneath the Lintel” is a one-man show written by playwright Glen Berger, focusing on an eccentric librarian that discovers a book in the return bin that is 113 years overdue. The book sparks a magical quest that takes him both around the world and into the past, the release said.
Mabry said the show leaves audiences questioning the true identity of the main character, and the answer to that question is open to interpretation.
“Instead of it just being a monologue, it sort of leaves the audience with a feeling of – is this man really the wandering Jew, or is he just an eccentric librarian?” she said. “And you come away sort of pondering that question.”
In SCT’s production, associate professor of literature and philosophy at Mississippi University for Women Kris Lee stars in the role of the librarian. Being alone on stage, Lee said, presented a challenge he had never faced before as an actor.
“I have to remind myself of it every time I approach the stage because in a very literal sense, you do approach it alone,” Lee wrote in an email to The Dispatch. “You have no other cast member to rely on, turn to, or share with. And I personally, can’t forget that for a moment, or it could all unravel.”
For Mabry, directing a one-man show was also a new challenge, as she’d previously directed larger musicals and other shows. Still, Mabry and Lee both acknowledged that the show relied on many other people besides the director and the actor on stage.
“I’d argue that I’ve never been in a show that was as solidly an ensemble as this one-man show (is),” Lee wrote. “I’ve never had to have such trust in the process, in teamwork, or put such faith in others, or allow so much of myself and my vulnerability as (an) actor to be left in the hands of so many other people in my entire acting life.”
The production crew of SCT’s “Underneath The Lintel” includes Pattye Archer, Madeline Golden, Stephen Cunetto and Marsha Williams, the release said. Other show supporters included Thomas La Foe, Edwin Ellis, Lyle Tate, Gabe Smith, and more.
Together, Mabry said, the group initially produced the show as SCT’s festival entry. They brought the show to the Mississippi Theatre Association Festival in January 2023, along with the Southeastern Theatre Conference in March and then the American Association of Community Theatre Festival in June 2023.
The show won Best Production at the state and regional level, and Mabry took home Best Director at MTA and SETC. Lee won Best Actor at all three levels of the competition, the release said. Lee said winning felt good, but the success of the show reflects the efforts of the team and the artistic value of the show they created.
“It’s not a win because we’re really the ‘best’ compared to others; it’s a win because it was the best that we had to give, and that was what we rehearsed, what was consistently demanded of me and of us, every time I stepped onto the stage, and everywhere we went,” Lee said.
But as soon as they were done on the festival circuit, Mabry said, one of the judges from SETC approached her, asking if the group would bring “Underneath the Lintel” to headline the Fort Worth Fringe Festival in Texas, which runs from Sept. 6-8.
“It is something that just comes once in a lifetime, really, to have a show that wins all the way through and then is recognized to go on a little bit further,” Mabry said.
The festival is providing funds toward the group’s travel expenses, Mabry said, and the show will be performed three times for festival audiences.
“Underneath the Lintel” is also supported in part by funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts, the release said, and it is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc., NYC.
Tickets are available for the one night only performance at the Playhouse on Main at starkville-community-theatre.ticketleap.com/lintelfringe/ or at the box office at (662) 323-6855.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 29 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
