The Daily’s Alex Ewald sat down with two of the people behind the production of “As It is in Heaven.” The play was one of the three plays with scenes performed tonight as part of the annual President’s Festival of the Arts.

Drama junior Michelle Roberts played the lead role of “Fanny,” and drama junior Heather Boothby was the dramaturg, who researched the play’s background to present to the cast in rehearsals.

Alex: So could you describe the unique setting of the play “As It Is in Heaven”?

Heather: Well, the actual play is set in Pleasantville, Kent., and … but we set it in the Gilson, which is an old round theater. The place still exists today but it’s more of like a go-visit tourist site and you can see old artifacts and stuff from that time and everything, but it’s still around.

Michelle: The play is set in the 1830s.

Heather: Yes, 1838.

Alex: So what makes it kind of a different setting than most plays, I mean, or besides just the time period?

Michelle: Well, this particular community of people they’re kind of, they’re the Shakers — where it’s a religious community and everything’s just stripped down to the basics. Like, they’re very simple people — they’re devoted to just working, and it’s completely different than the rest of society around them.

H: That went into the play, the play is supposed to be very simple.

A: Like the set design?

H: The set design was very simple — all we had was six benches.

M: [interrupting] … that were used for multiple events.

H: One was used for a chicken coop one time — sometimes it was a table. We sat on them like, normal benches and we had bare, minimum lights. We had a pop-up light for the angels and then we had a few props like baskets of laundry and brooms and that was about it.

M: That was about it – it was just very minimalist.

A: Why don’t you describe who the Shakers are because I don’t think many listeners know who they are.

H: OK, the Shakers they’re, um, a religious [group], they broke off from the Quakers in England, and [the group’s founder] Mother Ann Lee is their … she’s kind of like Jesus the second time around

(M [interrupting]: To them.)

H: They believe she came and she’s Jesus the second time.

M: They truly believe that she was the second human form of God.

A: The second Messiah?

Both: Yes.

H: And so it’s (pause) the United Society of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and Mother Ann came over to America in the late 1700s and started founding these communities. And they believe they are living in the last manifestation of the last coming before God. So they believe they are creating heaven here on Earth because to prepare. God is coming back because they believed he was coming back any time.

A [checks phone, interrupting]: The United Society of Believers in Christ’s 2nd Coming

M: So they were all about just making everything simple and just focusing on creating a heaven on Earth because they believed that.

A: What was it about minimalism that was important to them?

H: Because they didn’t want there to be stuff in the way for your mind to think on anything else; they wanted you to think fully on that.

A: So somewhat like Puritans but just more simple?

H: Yeah – they were also celibate.

M: Yeah men and women weren’t allowed to look at each other, they both coexisted in the same community. We talk about it some in the play just like interaction with the men like, accidentally, like if you accidentally just caught a man’s eye or something it was really bad and you have to confess and just no interaction whatsoever.

A: How did they have children?

H: They recruited. And that’s why the play is set in the certain time of the manifestation era where all these kids have grown up and left because they didn’t — kids would run away from their families or if whole families would join these communities because

(M [interrupting]: They had nowhere else.)

H: … living conditions were just too bad outside and the shakers were very prosperous and so they would come in. But this plays set in the time when all these kids have grown up and left, and so they’re coming back and these girls are starting to see visions and get gifts from Mother Ann because she’s been dead for like 40 years.

A: Now your character, Michelle, she sees visions. Is she the only one who sees visions or is she…

M [interrupting]: At first — what happens is my character has come into this community, kind of like what she was talking about, my life was awful before so I wanted to live here.

A [interrupting]: What’s your character’s name?

M: “Fanny.” I start seeing visions of angels and spirits and I keep it secret for a while, and I then start telling one of the other younger girls in the community and she starts to see them and then another girl starts to see them and then towards the end of the play everyone of the community can see them besides the leader, which is kind of what it’s all about and then it causes this big conflict.

A: Now, what is that — why would that be a conflict?

H: Because the older generation wanted to stay true to what Mother Ann taught, and keep their beliefs, and they did not believe in this. It was just too modern, and the girls wanted to break off into singing with harmony and they were receiving these gifts and the older generation was like this is not, she would appear to us first and she’s not and this can’t be true but the only way they knew, the shakers instead decided to accept this so that their community wouldn’t die out. I mean both young and old generations were fighting to keep ???

A: So this, did this actually happen?

M: Yes.

H: This is based on true events but these are not actual real people or characters

M: But this whole kind of overthrow of the old way — there was an old way of how their communities worked, and then there was a time whenever young girls started seeing visions …

(H [interrupting]: Called a “manifestation.”)

M: … yes, and then everything kind of changed and then havoc.

A: So it starts with your character. What conflict does she … what initial conflicts does she find herself in?

M: She doesn’t want … I mean she’s new to the community, she doesn’t want to get kicked out — she wants people there to like her, she doesn’t want people to think that she’s different.

A: How old is she?

M: She’s about our age, she’s about 20

A: So she’s roughly the age of a college student.

M: Yes, in her early 20s.

A: So she doesn’t want to be kicked out?

M: Yeah, she wants to feel accepted by this group of people because she’s never been accepted by anything else before, and so she starts seeing these visions …

(H [interrupting]: She’s got nowhere else to go.)

M: … and she realizes it’s going to cause a bunch of conflict in the community and she wants to avoid that.

A: Then why do you think she tells the first girl?

M: She just needs someone to confide in?

A: Do you think she just couldn’t handle the stress anymore?

M: She needed to just like, tell someone and then, I think whenever she … and towards the end of the play there’s a scene when everyone’s on stage and everyone starts to see them [the angels] at the same time — that’s the scene we were doing tonight — and I think that’s the big sense of relief for her that she knows everyone else is seeing what she’s seeing and she’s not alone anymore.

A: It’s written as a play, the play?

Both: Yes.

A: It wasn’t written as a novel first, like “To Kill a Mockingbird”?

Both: No.

A: Has it been adapted to a film?

M: Not that I know of.

H: I don’t think so.

A [interrupting]: … like “Steel Magnolias”?

[pause]

A: What makes it stand out, from the three that are being performed — because there’s Steel Magnolias” and “To Kill a Mockingbird,” scenes from those? What makes this one … Is it the first one, is it the last one?

Both: It’s the last?

A: Why is it the last one, do you think?

H: We just closed a week ago and I think that kind of has to do with it. And also it’s very … the show, we all, as people, as actors, grew very close because of how, it’s a spiritual experience, not necessary religious, but just like a very spiritual experience and I think it fits the theme [“Saints and Sinners”] out of the three probably the best and our entire cast is doing it and the entire casts are not doing it from the other shows.

M: I think it’s just a very good summary of what tonight is supposed to be so I think that’s why they put us last.

A: How did you [Michelle] find inspiration, because I know actors — I wouldn’t know — I know actors have to find inspiration somewhere, they find a way to portray the character.

M: I just had to think of what really helped me is really thinking about times when I felt isolated and I that I was the only person who felt a certain way, and just kind of how I dealt with that. And also kind of whenever I came here — came to college — trying to becoming a member in a completely new group of people, just how I had to just like, mold into that and become a part of something bigger, and mainly focusing on times when I felt alienated and different really kind of inspired me.

A: How long have you worked with the play?

H: I’ve been working with this play since August … Probably before that because I got my assignment as the dramaturg.

A: What is that?

H: That’s the person who does all the research — that’s why I know all about this. So I’m the person who provides all the actors with the actor packets, so I did that and I auditioned for all the shows and then I got cast in it as well. But I’ve been working on it for about a year

A: So you’ve learned a lot, obviously.

H: Yes.

M: We’ve all learned so much about it. Our first rehearsal she gave us this big presentation where we just learned everything about the Shakers.

A: Besides the facts you learned, what “lessons” have you taken away the past year — I mean, you could probably talk for awhile — but if you could sum it up?

H: About these people?

A: Yeah, about the story itself.

H: I would say, sometimes we have to, I would say the biggest thing is that both people, like both Fannie, who is Michelle, and then Hannah was the elder of this generation, so she represents the older generation and Fannie represents the younger — I would say one of the biggest themes is fighting for something you belong in and these two are fighting for the same thing and so you have to accept other people’s way of looking at things and even if it makes you uncomfortable and even if its something you’re not used to and try to learn from that.

A: Yeah – Rena Cook, she directed?

Both: Alisa Milare directed.

A: What did Rena do?

M: She’s a vocal coach, for dialects.

H: But she’s the one who’s kind of in charge of the thing tonight.

A: She said the audience could learn how they could “take the high road.” How do you think the characters in this play — specifically yours, Michelle — how do you think they take the higher road or that they impart something from what they do, from what they’re experiencing?

M: Like learned from like, what my character learned?

A: Yes.

M: She just learned, I think, just to not doubt herself and things are happening to her and the fact that she can, she could create positive change out of something that could be seen as negative, and it really helped her come into her own and really grow as a person and realize that she is significant and she can be important … and does that answer your question?

A: Yes.

H: That was good.