Royal Purple

Issue date: 11/20/07 Section: Arts & Lifestyle

Media Credit: Joy Kowald Senior Marti Gobel and sophomore Savannah Hardyman practice a scene from the play "The Desk Set" at a rehearsal.

When the executives of a broadcasting company hire an "efficiency expert" to evaluate the research department, the office gets turned upside down in the upcoming play "The Desk Set."

The play, scheduled to appear in the Barnett Theatre Nov. 27 - Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m., is set in the 1950s when the computer was just becoming a part of business life. The efficiency expert's job is to evaluate the staff of the network's research department, so he can either recommend the computer or the personnel.

One such researcher is the star of the show, Bunny Watson, played by senior Shannon Davis.

"Bunny is the head of her department," Davis said. "She is very witty and funny and loveable as a character. You can tell that the women working for her love and trust her."

But Bunny's office is thrown for a loop when Richard Somner, played by senior Eric Nameth, comes looking to install the "Emmirac," a highly advanced computer.

The scenes between Bunny and Richard are very fast-paced and contain sharp-witted comedy. Bunny is portrayed as a very level-headed woman, until her boyfriend Abe comes around.

"She has a sort of school girl crush on him, so when he comes around, she kind of turns into Jell-O," Davis said.

But Abe, played by junior Christopher Warren, doesn't always live up to the role of best boyfriend.

"He has a real fear of commitment," Warren said. "He [has] been Bunny's boss for about seven years, and I kind of think she does a lot of his work for him."

The women working for her are a healthy mix of sharp sarcasm and flirty fun, from the veteran employee to the newbie.

Peg Costello, played by senior Marti Gobel, is best friends with Bunny.

"She's the mother hen of the group," Gobel said. "She's been with the company almost as long as Bunny."

Senior Sarah Bartow plays Sadel Meyer, the sarcastic girl of the group.

"She [has] been with the company for 10 years or so, and she has a real New York attitude," Bartow said. "She's always cracking jokes."

Ruthie Saylor, played by sophomore Savannah Hardyman, is the new girl in the office, working with the reference department for about only one year.

"She's really na've, young, doesn't really know a lot about the world yet," Hardyman said. "She's kind of a Southern sexpot, flirting with some of the guys in the office. She gets a real crush for Richard throughout the play."

To prepare for the roles, the actors worked on their dialect by watching movies from the time period.

"We just wanted to make sure we got the style right," Davis said. "The way people talked to each other was very different then the way it is today. I loved the movie with Katherine Hepburn, but I didn't play Bunny the same way at all. We all wanted our own takes on our characters."

And a lot of the practice came from studying the script.

"It really has become a compromise between what the actor thinks it should be and what the director wants to see happen," Nameth said. "I think a lot of the preparation comes from just reading the script over and over again."

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