Elgin Community College Theater’s production of I and You, a two-person play by award-winning playwright Laura Gunderson, had its opening night on Friday, November 10, 2023. 

“The play is advertised as a haunting music box of a play that shows the beauty and poetry of life, but at its core, it’s a funny play,” said the female lead of the main cast of I and You Ava Johnson. “It’s a funny, jokey, play that puts a satirical outlook on life, and it’s really poetic too.”

The play follows two high school students, Caroline and Anthony, as they work together to finish a school project on the poet, Walt Whitman. They learn more about each other throughout the play and Caroline eventually comes to realize that the meeting between the two of them is symbolic of her life as a chronically ill teenager.

“[Laura Gunderson], fools you, lulls you into thinking that this play is just about a couple of high school students doing a project, and then little by little, she builds it to a point of reveal,” said Susan A. Robinson, the director the play.

At the end of the play, it is revealed that Anthony was Caroline’s organ donor, and their meeting was representative of the continuation of his life in hers. 

“The play is a rollercoaster, but a feel-good kind of rollercoaster,” said Thomee Bolden, the understudy for Anthony. “It’s a very funny play that gives a lot of perspective on life.”

The play had two separate casts, the lead cast and the understudy cast. The understudy cast, featuring Via Opalinski as Caroline and Bolden as Anthony, performed on Friday, November 17. 

In the lead cast, Caroline was played by Johnson, and Anthony was played by ECC alum Terry Holt. According to Johnson, Terry was hired because there were not enough people who auditioned and stayed with the show, delaying rehearsals and the production.

“We had one Anthony who made it three rehearsals, then dropped the show,” Johnson said. “I was alone, found another Anthony who made it three rehearsals, then dropped the show again. Then, they had to hire Terry to make the show happen in three weeks. Me, Via, and Thomee have been there since the beginning, but the lead Anthony has been switching throughout the show.”

The continued changing of actors for the role of Anthony showed difficulties in adjusting. As the director, Robinson expressed the pressure it put on the actors.

“I don’t think I fully realized how difficult [the change] would be,” Robinson said. “When we had an Anthony, [rehearsals] were great. It’s a beautiful play to work on, I could work on it forever. However, it has been stressful because we lost cast members, and that was very difficult for everyone as we neared the opening and we weren’t quite ready.”

Additionally, the play being cast for just two people put an additional burden on the actors.

“It has proved to be extremely complicated because it’s only a two-person play, and I think that’s an enormous amount of pressure and work to put on young actors,” Robinson said. “It’s a nice, short play of 54 pages, but that is 54 pages that they both have to memorize in a 6-week rehearsal period.”

To help coordinate the relationship between the two actors, Robinson enlisted the help of Intimacy Director Kira Nutter.

“Working with an Intimacy Director was great,” Opalinski said, “I love that it is so new in theatre. It is a powerful thing that is very different from just, ‘Go into a room and figure it out.’ Someone coaches you through it. Being comfortable with your partner and being able to work through the scenes with them is very powerful.”

During the play, there are several scenes in which Caroline and Anthony comfort each other, and part of Nutter’s job was making that connection look believable. 

“A lot of the intimacy work comes in to help with the vulnerability of presenting those emotions on stage,” Opalinski said.

For Johnson, having Nutter on set helped her work through the change in the role of Anthony.

“It was very disappointing, having to restart twice and make connections with three different people,” Johnson said. “Kira came in towards the beginning, and we did exercises talking about consent and being comfortable on set. Hiring an outside coordinator really helped.”

In the end, the cast came together to open on Friday, November 10 with the help of everyone on the team.

“[I and You] reminds us of the larger things we should be paying attention to,” Robinson said. “We are so focused on the minutiae of our lives. This play awakens us and forces us to confront the larger issues like death, dying, and connection.”