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Director talks revival of ‘The Color Purple’

The decision to perform “The Color Purple” was made to share its story of hope, courage and the ability to overcome, Â鶹´«Ã½ University Theatre Ensemble Director Annette Dees Grievous said.

“All these characters had overcome some obstacle in some way from the beginning to the end of the story,” she said. “It's important to show that there's hope, there's love and there’s courage.”

The ensemble performed the play April 11-13 at Stevenson Auditorium in Orangeburg as part of Â鶹´«Ã½’s annual CALA-Bash festival.

Grevious describes “The Color Purple” as a classic that is still relevant today.

“I felt like the story was fresh on people's minds and the story itself is a classic and still relatable to today.” she said. “It’s one of those productions where the name alone will draw people in.”

The story contains a message, Grevious said, is important, especially the life of Celie and the feeling of hope, love and joy she experienced.

“I think the story of Celie is important and it’s important by the end of the show with ‘The Color Purple’ the finale of the show that the audience feels something. They feel like they have gone through the journey with Celie and there's again this feeling of hope, love and joy at the end of the show,” she said.

Although Grevious chose a cast last semester, some actors were replaced. The chosen actors went through many rehearsals to put this show together.

“We started with individual music rehearsals last semester, then put the ensemble together and started really focusing on the movement on stage and adding technical elements and all of that during the spring semester,” Grevious said.

“At the beginning of February, through the opening of the show, we had some actors that were replaced but we really focused on the technical aspects and physical aspects of the show together,” she said.

The actors were cast based on their abilities, but there were two special abilities that they had to have, she said.

“Almost all of the roles were required to act and sing,” she said. “We went through a musical audition and asked some of the actors to act as well and the roles we had to recast were pretty much the same things.”

The most rewarding part of the experience was seeing the cast believe in themselves, Grievous said.

“Without any struggle, you really can't see any success. … The most rewarding thing is seeing all of this come together and seeing the cast realize at the end. Something I shared with the cast towards our last few rehearsals was that they had to believe in themselves,” Grevious said.