Put on a show in a theater undergoing renovation. You cannot use the curtains. You cannot use most of the stage lighting. You have to extend the stage out into the orchestra area. You also have to make the actors stand in front of the audio speakers while wearing headset microphones, so that feedback is constantly hovering like a squadron of mosquitos on a sultry, summer night.

The student members of Shippensburg University’s Act V Productions theater group solved all these issues quite neatly. They ingeniously integrated the problem into their production of the rock musical “Next to Normal,” which was held in the university’s Memorial Auditorium from Thursday, April 3 through Sunday April 6. The acting and singing were high caliber. All cast members have quite a bit of acting and singing experience, and it showed in the level of performance. Do consider it “R” rated, however, as the language and subject matter was not be suitable for younger children.

There were no traditional theater sets on the stage. At the front of the stage was a dining room table and chairs on the left, and a rocking chair with a table and lamp on the right — sparse props that match the set itself. Scaffolding was draped in semi-sheer fabric lit primarily from behind by lighting designer Cory Stevens. His use of colored washes of lighting helped the audience to see a home, a nightclub or a hospital.

This was Stevens’ first time designing lighting for Act V.

“For this show, the really important idea is the separation of the characters; how they’re all distanced from each other. I wanted to represent each character with a color, which also represented the emotion of that character,” Stevens said.

He went on to say, “It’s one of the most complex things I’ve ever done. The lack of front lighting (due to the stage position) is really difficult. You get a lot of shadows on the face. But I kind of turned that around, and I think that it works for this show. There’s a lot of darkness inside the characters, and it is kind of shown by how little their faces are lit up.”

The musical is a dark comedy about a seemingly typical family struggling to function in the face of one family member’s mental illness. We see them trying to understand and hold onto the “normal” that is so elusive, despite their efforts. They struggle with the fallout and repercussions of mental illness individually and together. The gigantic, shocking plot twist midway through the first act both explained and muddied the family struggle.

We met the family at 4 a.m. Those not dealing with insomnia are awakened by those who are. The mother, Diana, played perfectly by sophomore Gabrielle Sheller, is trying to keep it together.
Sheller never sang in front of people before her freshman year. She said she had “years and years of listening and practicing alone, singing into my hairbrush.” Now, in addition to Act V performances, she sings in the concert choir and the madrigal singers, and is a Brother in the music fraternity Pi Nu Epsilon.

Freshman Arden Campbell played Gabe, the 17-year-old son. In the playbill the phrase “genius controls the chaos” was used for his character. He was almost a one-man Greek chorus, observing and commenting on the family. Campbell’s astonishing vocal range handled the role’s challenging singing with ease.

Campbell got his acting start in third grade, playing a munchkin member of the Lollypop Guild in a high school production of “The Wizard of Oz.” His acting career also included roles in “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Annie Get Your Gun” and “Aida.” He plays trombone in the marching band, the concert band and the jazz ensemble. He is one of three drum majors for next season.
Campbell almost did not get involved in the show. He said, “It was the last night of tryouts. I was really debating if I wanted to [audition] or not. My grades are a big priority. I just went. I don’t think I had the best audition, [but] I got a callback, got cast, and I had this awesome experience working with these people.”
The daughter, Natalie, portrayed by freshman Dallas Johnson, nailed the difficult emotions of someone who deals with her world falling apart by staying rigidly in control. We saw more of that when she meets Henry, her romantic interest at school. Henry, played by sophomore Tim Hippensteel, is a bold but low-key teen who finds Natalie fascinating. She, on the other hand, cannot let anything or anyone into her life that might interfere with her illusion of coping. The two actors had a chemistry together that was utterly believable and tangible. The level of comfort with each other on stage belied the relative youth of the two actors.
Johnson had some formal voice training, and has a long history of music theatre prior to her Act V debut. Her summer job was performing in children’s theater, and she has sung in choirs since the fourth grade.
Hippensteel also has extensive music theater experience. He said that one of his most significant roles was “in my senior year of high school, I got my first lead roll. I was Julian Marsh in ‘42nd Street.’ Because it was a big deal for me at the time, that one’s always been one of my favorites.” Last semester he directed Act V’s “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” a play written by actor/comedian Steve Martin. Hippensteel added , “I’ll probably keep it [acting] as a hobby all my life.”

The other romance in the show was between Diana and her husband Dan. We got a better sense of their relationship when we see them meeting with Diana’s therapist. Diana wants to get better, and Dan, played by Matthew Peck, desperately wants Diana to be the woman he loved when they first got married. Peck may have had the toughest job on stage, as his character is kind a “schmuck.” Dan feels he has to be the stable father figure and maintain what Peck calls the “perfect white picket fence life.”

The last member of the ensemble actually had two roles. Actor Jen Bedford portrayed two different psychiatrists —Dr. Fine and Dr. Madden — who are desperately trying to get Diana “next to normal.” Bedford uses her voice and her physical bearing to give subtle differences to the two characters, although they are in fact cut from the same cloth. She also has one of the funniest lines in the show.

Bedford sings with the Concert Choir and the Madrigal Singers, and has sung for the Jazz Ensemble. This is Bedford’s final performance at the university, as she will graduate in May.

The music is all performed live by the pit band, under the nuanced direction of Carley Heck. The talented musicians are: Piano – Stuart Martin Vitus Ryerse; Percussion – Andrew Mowen; guitar – Brad Barkdoll; Bass – Tyler Lee; Cello – James Barciz; and the sound was designed and mixed by Brett Warfle.
It turns out that while Heck has a background in singing and piano, it was her first effort at conducting. In all honesty, the music was outstanding. Heck says that conducting is “harder than being on stage. I worried about everyone and everything.”

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