On October 2, 2006, a lone gunman entered an Amish
schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, and opened fire. “The Amish
Project,” a 2009 play by Jessica Dickey, is a fictional retelling of that true story
— a single-actor show that reimagines the events surrounding the day.
“The Amish Project” is being presented by Hummingbird Theater
Co. through Sunday, November 10, at MuCCC on Atlantic
Avenue — a venue that, as Artistic Director Donald Bartalo
pointed out, “has a play or something every single weekend of the year.” M.J. Savastano is the sole cast member, playing seven different
characters throughout a 90-minute run with no intermission.
The plot is non-linear, beginning with Velda,
a young Amish girl, as she excitedly shares her current school lessons. From
there, the audience meets her older sister, Anna, who is almost old enough for rumspringa (the period when Amish teens explore the outside
world and decide if they want to join the Amish church or not). There’s an
overwhelming sense of hope that exudes from both characters — only in Anna’s
case, it seems she is speaking from somewhere in the future.
Savastano (they/them) is a
renaissance force in local theater circles, and has experience with directing,
writing, teaching, and acting. They’re exquisite in this production, presenting
razor-sharp characters with defined voices and physicality. But the most
powerful part of their performance is the range of emotions they unleash as the
play moves through difficult themes of forgiveness, hate, anger, sexual abuse,
and death.
There are haunting details onstage: the clock is stopped at
10:25 a.m., and the calendar is set to October 2. Savastano
uses the chalkboard as another “character” in the show, to great effect. In
many ways, the play feels like a series of interviews — characters often break
the fourth wall and address the audience directly — but in other ways, it feels
like a recounting of history.
Savastano’s portrayals of college
professor Bill North and the shooter’s widow, Carol Stuckey, are especially
heartbreaking. There’s also a distinct sense of humanization that doesn’t often
accompany such horrific tales, and with it an exploration of the grace and
forgiveness the Amish extend in what seems an unforgivable crime — as North
says, “Something about them makes you wonder: what am I?”
Music and sound design by Justin Reilly and lighting design
by Chris McCormick provide an underlying sense of place, as the characters and
scenes change quite rapidly at times. A simple set design by Bartalo is the setting for a one-room schoolhouse, a fire
department, a grocery store, and several homes. Throughout the show, Savastano wears a simple Amish dress, apron, and bonnet by
Sandra Foley. Above the set hangs an impressive, authentic Amish quilt made by
Rochester resident Peggy Braitsch, a member of
Building Community through Quilting (BCQ).
Wednesday’s performance was very well-attended, with an
immediate standing ovation from the audience before the lights even came back
up for Savastano’s bows. Tears were still being wiped
from cheeks as the applause continued. A post-show Q&A session is planned
for each evening, and the audience is welcome to stay and discuss the difficult
material in the show with the cast and crew — a rare and wise opportunity for
Hummingbird Theater Co. to offer. While “The Amish Project” joins a lineup of
heavy-hitting shows playing around town right now, it is an experience that
attendees will not soon forget, or regret.
This article appears in Nov 6-12, 2019.
