Preview of 'A Lesson Before Dying' at Chase Collegiate

It’s quite the leap of faith for a director to recruit novice actors for a play. But Chase Collegiate’s Theater Director, Bob Cutrofello, had faith in a group of students with more experience backstage than on stage. On October 25, the budding actors and Naugatuck residents Matt McClain and Billy Robinson, who are recent additions to the School’s award-winning Highlander Theater Company, will debut in A Lesson Before Dying.

The play, while revolving around 1940s racial injustices, is equally about how people find ways to inspire others or be inspiring even in unforeseen places and circumstances. Based in 1948 backwoods Louisiana, the innocent, young Jefferson is condemned to death. Treated and referred to as an “old hog,” Jefferson insists that he will be dragged like that hog to his death in the electric chair. Concerned, his godmother begs reluctant school teacher, Grant Wiggins, to teach him to die like a man.

In a preview of the play, an audience member called it “humbling,” and was moved by the performances.  “It’s rare to feel that energy, that emotion from actors. I can’t believe this is a first-time public appearance for many of them,” says Cutrofello. “It’s a great play, and offers the intensity and literary style we try to keep the Highlander Theater revolving around.”

The director had been thinking of doing A Lesson Before Dying for a while. The play was written by Romulus Linney, who was Cutrofello’s mentor at Sewanee Writers Conference the year the play premiered. Linney adapted the play from a book by Ernest Gaines. “I knew how it came to pass and the friendship between the novelist Ernest Gaines and Romulus,” said Cutrofello, who, years
later, started thinking about putting on Linney’s play again after taking a few students to see Denzel Washington perform in August Wilson's Fences. With him was senior Billy Robinson, who was so inspired by the day that his teacher began suggesting he try out for a play. It took almost a year until Robinson was ready, and on October 25, he will play one of the two leads in A Lesson Before Dying. 

Robinson is joined on stage by another newbie, junior Matt McClain, also of Naugatuck. “They both have great charisma and are invested in seeing this succeed,” says Cutrofello. Other new actors include sophomore Oneisha Clark of Waterbury and junior Josh Singleton of Waterbury. The cast is anchored by veterans of the Highlander Theater Company, senior Kristen Scheuermann of Southbury, sophomore Hayden Hall of Woodbury and junior Jeff Zoldy of Watertown.

 “These performances really embody what Chase is all about, and, I think, what our role as educators is: to show students new opportunities out there, empower them to have the courage to take new risks and to provide them with the skills to succeed,” says Cutrofello.

I had the pleasure of attending the larger musical production of The Scarlet Pimpernel at this school last April and was very impressed by the quality of the show.  The Highlander Theater Company clearly wants to expose the students at Chase to a well-rounded theatre experience. Mr. Cutrofello does not take the easy way out when choosing their season and I hope to be able to attend a performance of this straight play.

A Lesson Before Dying will run from Thursday, October 25-Saturday, October 27 at 7:00 p.m. All shows at the Fulkerson Arts Center, Chase Collegiate School, 565 Chase Parkway, Waterbury. Tickets are $12; Chase student tickets are $5. All tickets are available by calling the Box Office at 203-236-9545. For more information, visit www.chasecollegiate.org.