By
A staged reading of Anne Nelson’s powerful play, “The Guys,” which honors New York City firefighters, will be presented on campus on Sept. 11 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
Produced by the Theatre Department and the College of Arts and Sciences, the play — which takes place at 7 p.m. in Gasson 100 and is free and open to the public — is a poignant portrayal of a fire department captain who lost eight men in the World Trade Center attacks, and the writer who helps to eulogize them.
Directed by Associate Professor of Theatre John Houchin, the two-person production features husband-and-wife actors David Anderson Lewis of BC’s Information Technology Services Department and a member of Actors’ Equity and actor/director Patricia Riggin, a Theatre Department faculty member.
Riggin, who grew up in New York City, said she and Lewis lived and worked in theatre there, and have close friends who were directly connected to the tragedy. She described being moved by the New York Times’ “Portraits of Grief” tributes which gave “human faces to the numbing statistics of the tragedy.”
Playwright Anne Nelson, she said, “approaches the event in a similar way.
“As the fire captain shares stories of his men, he gives the audience a sense of their lives, their families, their hobbies, their personalities. Through his words, we get to know these firefighters and the connection becomes personal.
“Theater that both moves and illuminates an audience is something I look for,” Riggin added. “’The Guys’ has this profound combination.”
A post-performance reflection will be moderated by Erik Owens, associate director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life and a Theology Department faculty member.