For my show and tell I will present possibly my favorite play of all time Almost, Maine. Anyone who has read Almost, Maine could make the argument that it's "too simple" to be a theatre major's favorite play. To those people I say....fuck you!
Almost, Maine is about the "kinda town" of Almost in Main USA. It follows the emotional journey of nine couples in that town at the exact same moment in time. The show can be cast with between 4-19 people, depending on if you want the same actors to play different couples, which is the general practice.
Almost, Maine takes love cliches such as, a broken heart, waiting for the other shoe to drop, getting love back, and falling in love with someone and turns them into literal events. My personal favorite is "Getting it Back" where a girl furious with her boyfriend of 10 years for not proposing barges into his house and demands for her love back. She then proceeds to "return" his love by dragging in a ton of heavy bags full of his love back into his house.
This play is extraordinary to me because it does what all theatre people aim to do, stretch the audiences minds, in a little bit more of a comedic and relatable way, then say Conduct of Life. You don't have to be a theatre major or a great lover of art even to come into Almost, Maine and understand where those characters are because we've all been there. At the same time you must broaden your mind because we aren't used to physically giving love back or actually falling down when we fall in love. You also have to be able to let go of the fact that you just saw guy A being Randy but now his name is Steve, since it is usually cast with a very small ensemble. We're asking the audience to come to Maine with us and live in this crazy upside down world, even if it's just for a little while.
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