Lily Densmore
It was a breezy, cold Thursday morning as family, friends, and students filed into the Robert and Eleanor Romadka College Center on the Essex campus excited for the show they were getting ready to witness. A small crowd began to form in the lobby before the show was set to begin.
There was a woman sitting in the booth to purchase tickets who greeted everyone very respectfully as they approached to purchase their entry into the show.
After a few minutes of anticipation in the waiting area everyone's tickets were collected and the audience members rushed into the auditorium anxious to see the performance.
As the audience sat in the theater they made small talk amongst themselves. As time ran out the room got darker for the audience as the stage lights slowly came up.
This was the scene as The Community College of Baltimore County Essex held a production of "Fabulation" that ran from March 17, 2022 until March 21, 2022.
The play was set around an extremely successful African-American woman finding out that her husband had been stealing money directly from her. During this time of tragedy for her she discovers that she is also pregnant. She decides that what would be best for her would be to go back to her roots, where she came from, the life she was raised in. Through this, she faces even more challenges.
“My favorite part of being a part of this show is being able to bring my character to life,” CCBC student Jeremiah Pearl said. “All of the actors are taking on the lives of our characters and creating a show. I love meeting new people and all of us having the common goal of telling this story. With this being my first show with CCBC it has been extremely fun and rewarding working within a new environment and a new crew and cast.”
Theater is a way that many people let themselves go and some even find themselves. They portray a whole new person to escape what they are going through and some portray a character that is exactly like them and what they are going through in real life.
“I learned that theater can be a not so kind place,” CCBC Theater major Shakiara Saunders said. “I'm using my love for theater to make it a kinder place."
With the weight of the pandemic on the shoulders of the performers and them having doubts of being able to perform again throughout being quarantined, they were all finally relieved to be back on stage again.
CCBC Theater major Lexi Metzler says that her favorite part of the show was being able to work with her friends and being able to perform one last time before graduating this semester.
The hard work and dedication from the theater department really shines through in this performance. You see talent, dedication, and strength in each of the performers. They all work hard to make the vision of this play become reality.
“My favorite part of working on the show is that it’s helped me to expand my range as an actor in a fun way,” CCBC Student Owen Taliaferro said. “I’m typically more of a laid back person but in the show I play a couple of characters who are a lot louder. Our director, Lauren Jackson, has helped me to bring more energy to these roles by having me participate in fun voice activities like yelling my lines back and forth at each other in funny ways. This exercise helped me experiment with tone and volume and helped distinguish all my characters from one another. Overall, this experience has made me a lot of new friends and helped me to expand my range as an actor.”
