By Ashley Dodd and Stephanie Kissell GUEST COLUMNISTS
For the first time in its 12-year history, Big Sky Community Theater is preparing to mount its second show of the season. “On the Face of It,” directed by Jeremy Blyth, will premiere Wednesday, May 21 at 7 p.m. at the Warren Miller Performing Arts Center. This will be the first time that the local community theater troupe has produced something entirely conceptualized, created, produced and performed by the Big Sky community.
The production’s original inception stemmed from a conversation between Blyth and Jonathan Gans regarding BSCT’s desire to produce a spring show of one-acts. After sharing their own stories of life in the mountains, Blyth knew they were on to something.
“That discussion was one of the moments in collective theater work that I treasure,” Blyth said. “It was simply very clear that a spark had started and we could make it a flame if we fanned it. So we started writing stories about life in the mountains of Big Sky, and we asked other people to write scripts, and after a while we had too many and had to start making decisions about what ones to cut.”
The main theme of the production is risks and rewards; navigating living in mountain towns and relationships with the outdoors, tourists and cost of living.
“Any event, any time outdoors when it’s you with the elements, can thrust you into situations that are not what they might seem,” Gans elaborated.
This is how the show’s title, “On the Face of It,” originated.
Steven Chernausek and Laura Seyfang joined Blyth and Gans, forming a team to write, collect and edit vignette submissions. While having extensive experience writing scientific articles, this was Chernausek’s first foray into script writing. Undaunted by the different writing style, Chernausek dove right in and found it to be a meaningful and worthwhile endeavor, becoming most excited about the process of the unfolding relationship between the script, the actor and the director.
“It has been exceptionally rewarding to see how the director and actors take the words put down on paper and bring them to life in a way you didn’t expect,” Chernausek said.
While the production is a series of short fictional scenes, each one is based on the imagined, or in some cases very real experiences that many in Big Sky have had. Some are humorous, some serious, some are relatable to many, and others may touch on a facet of mountain life that could be new or less explored. However, all of the scenes reach out with heart, calling to mind the numerous reasons Big Sky is home to many. Despite growing pains, inevitable risks, and even the logistical difficulties of navigating a small town existence in a sparsely populated and often harsh environment, all can find common ground. There are reasons many came here, and there are reasons many stay.
“On the Face of It” will have its audience laughing, nodding, and remembering why they have fierce loyalty to this beautiful place, even as the snow falls in May.
