Angels Fall production

The College Theatre at West Virginia University at Parkersburg will present Angels Fall, a poetic drama by Lanford Wilson, on Thursday (Dec. 4) through Saturday (Dec. 6).

Curtain time is 8 p.m., Thursday (Dec. 4) and Friday (Dec. 5), and 2 pm., Saturday (Dec. 6), in the college theatre. The play is intended for mature audiences.

"This moving piece by one of America’s foremost playwrights is set in an impoverished Catholic mission in rural New Mexico where are a group of disparate individuals gather due to an accident at a nearby nuclear facility," noted Andrew Clovis, the play's director. "In it, Wilson explores character, conflict and the individual’s ethical responsibility to their society."

Niles Harris, played by Jeffrey Wilson of Parkersburg, arrives at the mission on his way to a mental health treatment facility. A recent “traumatic nervous breakthrough” has caused him to reexamine his life’s work and possibly cost him his job. With him is his much younger wife, Vita, portrayed by WVU Parkersburg student Jolene Taylor of Belpre, who is creative in her own right but labors under her husband’s mental strain.

Salvatore “Zappy” Zappala, played by WVU Parkersburg’s Shawn Smith of Parkersburg, is a young tennis ace and hypochondriac, who joins them. Zappy, extremely pumped for his upcoming match, seeks solace and guidance from his older lover, Marion Clay played by Shielia Blackwell of Parkersburg. The “handsome and well turned out” Marion, recently widowed, longs to leave the area due to past associations and painful memories.

While there, the four encounter the partially Native American reservation doctor, Don Tabala, an “intense” young man who also longs to leave his current life behind. Jason Gwynn, a WVU Parkersburg student, portrays Tabaha. The elderly parish priest, Father William Doherty, played by Clovis, seeks to find meaning for each of these individuals as well as for himself in the search for a higher moral purpose. Humorous, sometimes befuddled, but always loving and firm in his convictions, Father attempts to get each individual to “always do what his heart knows is right.”

Clovis, who directs the production, stepped into the role of Father Doherty due to an illness. Sarah Brown of Mineral Wells is the production’s assistant director. Production assistants include Robert Decker of St. Marys, Patrick Garvey of Parkersburg, Barb Moore of St. Marys and Heather Wriston, also from Parkersburg.

Lanford Wilson, who has authored some fifty plays, has received Off Broadway Theatre Awards for Outstanding Drama for The Hot L Baltimore (1973), The Mound Builders (1975), and Sympathetic Magic (1997). In addition, Wilson received the Obie for Sustained Achievement in the Theatre. Some of the Lanford Wilson’s other highly acclaimed works include Balm in Gilead (1964), Thymus Vulgaris (1982), A Poster of the Cosmos (1987) and Burn This (1987). Among his most recent works are Abstinence and By the Sea By the Beautiful Sea.

Tickets for the production are $5.00 for adults and $3.00 for students. WVU Parkersburg faculty, staff and students may purchase tickets in advance for $1.00 each. Contact the college Business office for ticket information.