When senior Sarah Fons decided to direct a play this fall, she didn’t have to go far to find one.
The senior from Stoughton, Wis., directs “Time Wasted” by E.H. Lupton of Madison, Wis., at North Central College. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 6-8 and at 2 p.m. Oct. 8-9 in the college’s Madden Theatre.
“It was actually written by my cousin-in-law. She actually has a master’s in library science so I originally went to her and asked if she could help me find a play that would be useful to me, that dealt with certain subjects because that’s what she does,” Fons said. “Then I called her an hour later and asked if she would like to write a play for me because she’s a professional writer. So I’ve been with the play every step of the way, from when she wrote the first draft to the final copy.”
The story is about the relationship between a woman named Julia and her alcoholic mother Nancy.
“Julia’s father died about six months before the play begins, and it’s about her and her mother’s relationship,” Fons said. “Before they began, they did not have a very good, easily communicative relationship. When her father died, she was forced to come home and spend a lot more time with her mother. So it’s about them dealing with those issues and the impetus of the play is that she is going to get married to a woman named Skyler, and her mother has to deal with both her learned homophobia and also the fact that Julia is finally stepping out and confronting her about her alcoholism, which has been (present) throughout her whole life but she has never talked with her mother about. Those are the two main conflicts of the play.”
Being with the play from the beginning, Fons has developed a personal relationship with the characters.
“I think that a lot of children of alcoholics, or just addicts in general, share a lot of traits that are very similar,” she said. “Having had experience with people who have dealt with that, I think that Julia — the daughter character — is a character in and of herself, but I think that she is also somewhat of an archetype, which is important so that people who have dealt with addiction in their lives can relate to her. I feel very strongly connected to the daughter figure.”
She is excited to present this play because North Central College has never shied away from staging plays ripe with issues people may not be comfortable talking about, she said.
“We’ve dealt with depression and mental illness a lot in the past couple of years that I’ve been here, and I’m a senior,” she said. “We’ve done a really good job of dealing with those issues. Since I know so much about this topic, it was something I wasn’t really seeing portrayed accurately. Not that we’ve done plays about alcoholism that have been wrong, but I wasn’t really seeing this addiction from the other people’s point of view. We were seeing the play from the main character’s point of view … not from the family members’ or loved ones’ point of view. I thought it would be a really interesting addition to our season.”
The play does a thorough job of tackling the alcoholism head-on, she said.
“One of the scenes in the play is an intervention for the mother and it doesn’t go super well,” she said. “But I think it accurately portrays … how the daughter feels. There are a couple of lines that stand out for me that are very indicative of how children of addicts feel,” she said. “Children of addicts often feel that it’s their fault. It’s something they don’t grow out of for a long time.”
There are four people in the cast, and she calls them “very talented” actors.
People will see an accurate depiction of what children of addicts experience, she said.
“I think that we all have some relation to addiction in our lives,” she said. “It may not be a direct relation, but I find that when I talk to people about any sort of addiction … I find almost everyone has a story. I think for a lot of people that’s hard to admit. It’s a scary thing to tell someone. By seeing this play, it will start a dialogue that’s really important to have.”
Annie Alleman is a freelance writer.
“Time Wasted”
When: Oct. 6-9
Where: Madden Theatre at North Central College’s Fine Arts Center, 171 E. Chicago Ave., Naperville
Tickets: $5-$10
Information: 630-637-7469; Northcentralcollege.edu/show
