The Connection

Tough, gritty, honest and absorbing — that’s The Alliance Theatre’s upcoming production of “Shutter.” An original work written and directed by Leslie Anne Ross, it’ll be performed Nov. 13-22 at Mountain View High.

Rebecca, a photographer, marries after a whirlwind romance. But, haunted by her past, she leaves her husband to seek out her teenage crush — her first cousin, Clay Hill. He lives in Mount Gilead, N.C., in the same town as their grandparents, the Tilsons.

As the audience meets Rebecca’s relatives, in July 1992, a picture of family dysfunctions and unresolved conflicts comes into focus. Her refusal to pretend they’re the perfect Southern family stirs up old family issues, and a painful buried secret is revealed.

Portraying Rebecca is Clifton’s Alexia Poe. “Rebecca’s strong-willed, has a fun personality, knows what she wants and goes after it,” said Poe. “She’s pretty wild, but I think that’s a good thing. She promotes women’s rights, although she grew up in a time when she was expected to be a housewife.”

Poe said it’s “fantastic playing Rebecca; I love her a lot. Leslie wrote her some great lines, and she gets to talk about feminist ideals and issues that are still prevalent today. She runs the gamut of emotions, and you get to see her at a critical time in her life.”

Calling the show entertaining and character-driven, Poe said, “These characters are so real, three-dimensional and complex, and it’s great to see this family’s interactions. It’s also important to tell people, ‘You’re not alone; everyone has family issues and you can come out the other end. You can have confrontations and the world doesn’t end.’ People need to get their feelings out there; it leads to better understanding and acceptance of others.”

Little Rocky Run’s Kathy Young plays Rebecca’s 78-year-old grandmother. “She’s about as opposite of me as possible,” said Young. “She’s a controlling, God-fearing woman, but self-righteous and not a nice person. But she won’t admit she does anything wrong. She loves her husband and son Gerald, but they’re complex relationships.”

Since Young’s mainly done musicals and comedies, she said her role’s a challenge, especially since “the grandmother is brutal and nasty with her mouth. But it’s a well-written, well-constructed show, and I like playing her because she’s so different from me. And we have a great cast.”

She said this play “will make the audience step back and think about their own relationships with their families. And it might make some people think about mending some fences of their own.”

Rebecca’s mother, Rachel, is portrayed by Chantilly’s Ellen Woodstock. “She’s a beaten-down woman who used to be vibrant and full of life,” said Woodstock. “But this family — especially her husband — has made her feel small and unimportant, so she’s become an alcoholic just to survive. She loves her daughter fiercely and would do anything to protect her.”

Woodstock, too, usually does comedy, but she loves this part. “I like being able to stretch my acting chops,” she said. “Rachel’s a good person who’s had a very rough life. She’s likeable, but is sad about everything that’s happened to her and her family.”

She said the audience will like the play’s “realness and how it shows that life isn’t all unicorns and rainbows, but is often a struggle. It’s so profound and will be relatable to many people. They’ll be able to feel and understand what the characters are going through, and it’ll make people appreciate what they have.”

Playing Rachel’s husband Gerald, Rebecca’s father, is Leland Shook. “He’s a two-horned devil — a misogynistic, hateful, verbally abusive and cruel man,” said Shook. “And he absolutely believes what he’s doing and how he’s doing it are right. Although he loves his wife and daughter in his way, he has practically no redeeming value.”

Shook said it’s a difficult role for him because “I spoil my wife and daughters in real life and would never speak to them the way Gerald does. If I can find a glimmer of humanity in him, my challenge as an actor will be to somehow convey that to the audience.” All in all, he said, “The audience will appreciate this show’s depth and honesty and the fact that it comes from someone’s reality.”

That someone is Ross, who says her cast and crew of about 20 are doing a wonderful job of breathing life into a story that, until now, was only in her head. “I wrote this 20 years ago and am able to bring it to the stage because most of the people it’s based on are dead now,” she said. “We have lots of professional, seasoned actors, plus two young children and two teenagers.”

“It’s a profound experience for me because this play’s semi-autobiographical,” she said. “The story’s fiction, but the characters are all drawn from people in my past. And it’s changed me tremendously; I won’t be the same person I was before, because writing this has been an awakening. It’s empowered me and helped me find my soul and my self-worth. It was incredibly cathartic because the relationships are all based on ones I had with my father’s family.”

And the themes are definitely for mature audiences. “Rebecca is a version of me,” said Ross. “She eventually confronts her father and they have a breakthrough in their relationship. Via flashbacks, this story covers five generations of women. And although it’s a drama about a Southern, dysfunctional family, there’s a lot of comedy in it. The characters have flaws, and they’ll remind people of relatives they know.”