Photo by Lester Smith
In the Suffield Youth Theater’s production of Burdens, Maisie, (Kayla Lazzari) reminisces about her life before she ran away and dreams of something better. Former boy-friend Tom (Dominic Colangelo), also now a wanderer, advises her to return home.
The Suffield Youth Theater (SYT) offered another successful production in early April in the Second Baptist Church fellowship hall. Burdens, a melodrama about coming-of-age angst set circa 1932 during the depths of the Great Depression, was written and directed by SYT member Leah Howard, who became familiar with the troupe through the Drama Studio in Springfield. Leah, a sophomore at Westfield High School, had evidently studied that sad period of world history, for she captured many elements of the personal and family problems of that troubled time.
Burdens concerns job layoffs, the suicide of a family provider, the need to accept serious deprivations, and the reactions of several teenagers, including a run-away and a cast-away. It’s a simple plot, but well developed and written with believable dialogue. The cast – nine teen-agers, two younger kids, and one adult – served the action well, especially Kayla Lazzari as Maisie, who runs off to escape her parents’ reactions to their economic setback, and Dominic Colangelo as Tom, Maisie’s erstwhile boyfriend. The two meet again on the road, essentially as hoboes, and agree to experience their travails together.
The play ends with Maisie back at her better-but-still-troubled home opening a letter from Tom, still away. His off-stage voice hints at a happier future: “I have a job, small, but an okay start.” Referring to some dual day-dreaming from an earlier scene on the road, he writes, “You’re the person I want to take to that Pacific island. . . . I love you.”
The founders of the Suffield Youth Theater began their bold endeavor in Suffield Middle School, and it was interesting to see Tyler Wolfson, teacher and director of the school’s recent Seussical, Jr., in the role of Maisie’s father, who resorts to speak-easy booze when he loses his job.
The play developed with nine short scenes in two acts, with minimal, but adequate, settings and quite appropriate costuming. A bounty of musical snippits, well-chosen by author Howard, included many that were especially appreciated by this reviewer; he had sung and hummed them when he was Maizie and Tom’s age.