We were even lucky to have campus ministries by our side through the whole thing, backing us up. If they make you happy I don’t see why it’s a problem.” It’s about the people you surround yourself with and who makes you happy. Looking back from what I first thought about to the show to looking at it now I see that it is about friendships, relationships, and life and that it doesn’t matter who you’re in love with. “After almost quitting, I had a meeting with Jada and Kari and decided to go ahead with the show. However, as the show came to end, her thoughts and preconceptions changed. Just like most of us here in the midwest, Kendall grew up in a Christian home learning to hate the sin and the issue that is presented in this show, she wasn't exactly sure on how others would react and perceive her as a person. “Three weeks before we opened, I called Jada up and told her I could not do the show because I was uncomfortable with the fact that the show was about lesbians, which really intimidated me.” Kendall Says. Kendall Ward, who plays Eva, the young woman who leaves her husband, seemed to struggle the most with the content. There came a close call when a fellow cast member almost quit an hour before the first rehearsal.
I have felt God both opening and shutting doors and inviting the right people along for this journey.”Īnd when Kari said that there where times the show might not happen, it literally almost did not happen. Throughout this whole process I have felt like I am just the facilitator. The show was so powerful and beautiful to me but what if our audience didn’t feel the same way? I prayed for guidance and that God would take control. I felt a call to do this show, but I was afraid of what the reaction would be. It’s a truly beautiful show and it deserves to be seen.”Īnd even when we begun rehearsal, Kari faced fears of what the show will bring, she said, “There were many times that I thought the show might not happen, and a few times where I secretly hoped it wouldn’t. It’s about finding yourself and falling in love and losing the people closest to you. It’s about life, women of the world really, with real struggles, joys, and passions. When talking about the show, Jada mentioned that, “The thing about this play is it is so easily written off as a lesbian play and nothing more. As a cast, we wanted the campus to not only experience the show, but to talk about it as well. It was the issues that Chamber’s brought forth in her play and the relation to the characters that sparked interest in bringing this show to USF. Jada and Kari went through multiple meetings, stating their reasons for wanting to bring the play to campus. Bringing the play to campus did take a years worth of work. When Kari and Jada first mentioned the play to me, my first thoughts were, "Psh, yeah.that's not going to happen." But luckily, it did. Now hold up, you probably have questions of, "How is this taking place on a Christian campus?" and "Who would even allow USF to do a show like this?" My thoughts exactly. They began to realize that the there was something more behind the story than the two lesbian lovers who fall in love, simply wanting to show students that there is more behind the closet door than what most assume. After watching the show the idea of bringing the show to USF slowly crept and formed inside their minds.
This is what my friends, Kari Lena and Jada Plath, experienced when they first watched the show in 2014 at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in Lincoln, Nebraska. What I like about the play is that Chambers uses her writing to transform the insensitivity that society tends to have towards this matter into a tender story that transcends preconceptions. What was written well over thirty years ago still holds truth of the price that homosexuals pay when they are out of the closet. But as you read further into the script, you learn that throughout the story you begin to sympathize with the difficulties of being gay and how it affects relationships with family, friends, children, parents, and even careers. Throughout the play, Chambers walks us through the journey of a woman who leaves her husband and finds herself wandering the beach of a cove only not knowing that it is a colony made up of lesbians. These are just a few emotions the characters go through in Jane Chambers’ play, Last Summer at Bluefish Cove.Ī few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to perform a show that involved controversial issues. Love, laughter, loss, and the fear of being outed.
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