Over two weeks in April, the Grinnell Community Theatre produced Neil Simon’s “Rumors” in the Loft Theatre of the Grinnell Arts Center, directed by Karie Miller, visiting assistant professor of theatre, dance and performance studies (TDPS) at Grinnell College. Set in the late 80s, the farcical comedy follows four couples as they attempt to cover up a series of mishaps at an anniversary party and makes abundant use of improbable situations, exaggerated characters and slapstick.
The initial idea to perform “Rumors” came from Miller and Kate Baumgartner, assistant technical director for the TDPS Department and member of the Grinnell Community Theatre committee.
“She and I had talked about how it would be great to do a farce in the spring, during this difficult time of the world,” said Miller.
This production was Miller’s first time directing members of the Grinnell community. “It’s not considered part of a class, so they’re there to produce a show,” said Miller. “They have bigger responsibilities outside of the production than, say, college students do.”
Noelle Buehrer `26 played Officer Pudney, a rookie cop, in the production. “I was brought on kind of last minute to the show,” said Buehrer. “It was still really fun to get to work with so many actors and creative people from the broader Grinnell community. Community theater has a level of professionalism and aged experience that I think high school and college theater doesn’t quite achieve.”
Buehrer was additionally brought on as a makeup consultant for the performance, working on creating makeup looks for the cast. “It was a lot of fun to introduce some people to doing theatre makeup,” said Buehrer. “The show is set in the late 80s, so it was fun to explore what the makeup trends were in that era and try to recreate them.”
Although Buehrer’s part in the performance was minor, they said they appreciated the opportunity to embody the role.
“A lot of people see actors playing roles that don’t have a lot of lines or stage time and think, ‘Oh, that must suck, they should give you a better part next time,’” said Buehrer. “I think having so few lines gives me the opportunity to explore more of my physicality and my reactions to other things that are going on, which makes it a bigger challenge and more interesting than just making sure I have my lines memorized.”
Aisha Saparali, part-time student and Russian teaching assistant at the College, played Cassie Cooper, an obsessive trophy wife. Having mainly experienced theatre through the College prior, this was Saparali’s first time working with the greater Grinnell community.
“I really enjoyed the whole process,” said Saparali. “It was really interesting to think about my character in that sense, and also just see how people with more theatre experiences interact.”
“I was very quiet in the beginning, because I usually take a lot of time to process what I need for my character,” said Saparali. “The more we rehearsed, the more I also had more volume, and people were also noticing that.”
“My big goal was that people have a good time seeing it, and that I wanted the people making it to have a good time making it,” said Miller.
“Rumors” was staged on Saturday, April 5 at 7 p.m., Sunday, April 6 at 2 p.m., Thursday and Friday April 10 and 11 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, April 12 at 2 p.m.
