The coming theatrical production of the Mingus Union High School musical, “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,” by Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts, opens on Saturday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m.
In addition to the usual songs, dances, laughs and lavish costumes that accompany any performance from high school thespians, this production includes one addition less common among high school plays: A PG-13 rating.
“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” is, in the words of MUHS theater director James Ball, a more “mature” play. The 14 actors each play multiple characters in a series of disconnected vignettes that deal with the emotional strains of love at different ages and different stages in relationships, from young and innocent dating to dealing with in-laws and babies and the difficulty of retaining a spark after decades of marriage.
Ball describes the show as “really hysterical,” but notes that along with its mature subject matter, it comes with a more nuanced take, making room for sadness and depth alongside the laughs.
For high schoolers, many of whom are still too young to have much experience with even the early stages of romance, let alone the later stages depicted in the show, “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” presents a unique acting challenge.
Preston Chalmers — who led the spring production of “Crazy For You” as Bobby Child — just turned 18 years old. But he plays a husband more than three decades into a marriage in one of the show’s vignettes. According to Chalmers, singing the ballad “Shouldn’t I Be Less In Love With You,” about the unexpected feeling of continuing to love someone just as strongly as upon first meeting them, comes with the extra challenge of imagining 30 years of history for a short scene.
“I use a bit of method acting,” Chalmers said. “I sit there and imagine my life as it would have been if I was that character. And I go from marriage on — I imagine marrying, I imagine having kids, watching them go to college. It’s a weird experience. I do all of this in like five minutes.”
For students without the personal experience to bring to their characters, the experience of those around them can serve as its own inspiration.
“It’s the same premise as my parents getting divorced,” said Vanessa Alcala, 16, of a long monologue she has in one vignette, told by a woman whose husband is leaving her. “It’s like being ripped apart from someone, because her husband just leaves her. The line is, ‘No warning. I loved someone more. And he just left.’ It’s just about analyzing and analyzing and reading it over and over again to see who she really is and to make her a very specific person.”
Beyond the mature subject matter, the play provides a challenge in its scattershot style, with the cast members each playing a handful of characters of different age ranges and in different situations. Ball sought to highlight this feeling of diverse stories by split- ting up the directing duties. While Ball produces the show and plays piano for the musical accompaniment, he is only one of four directors, joined by Mingus English teachers Ashly Lawler and Staci Puckett, as well as math teacher
Stephen Renard, each who direct certain scenes.
“A lot of actors can commit to being one character for the night, but these kids have up to five or six characters that they have to step into,” Lawler said. “So what we actually do is we have exercises. One actor I know for one scene does jumping jacks before he comes out on stage, and that gets him into the character that he’s created, and then another time he does a small little meditation.
“We provide a lot of opportunities and strategies to find ways to get into characters, and what’s amazing is these high school students ranging from 14 to 18 years old are nailing these really hard tasks and really hard emotions that we’re asking of them.”
“They take direction really well,” Puckett said. “When I say to them, ‘As somebody who’s in my 30s, this is what dating looks like,’ they’re really responsive and really great about it. I can bring that kind of personal perspective to this.”
The directors insisted that what- ever they can bring to the show, the real magic of course comes from the actors.
“It’s like a switch flips in my head when I’m onstage,” said Mikayla Gaydon, a sophomore performing in a Mingus theater production for the first time. “It’s like I’m not even me any more so I don’t get anxious or nervous. As soon as I got on stage and got into my character it’s like that doesn’t matter anymore because I’m this person now.”
Jon Hecht can be reached at 634-8551, or email jhecht@larsonnewspapers.com
