Melodrama to open SE season
by Brett Ater, Reporter

   A good, entertaining melodrama requires four basic elements: a good guy, a bad guy, a helpless woman in the middle and the good guy winning in the end.
   SE Campus’ theater department delivers all these in its production of Angel Street.
   The play takes place in 1880 England in the Manningham house. Mrs. Manningham, the helpless woman, struggles to keep her sanity while, at the same time, her husband, the bad guy, is trying to drive her slowly out of her mind.
   But police inspector Rough, the good guy, steps in to help.
   “Mrs. Manningham finds out things aren’t what they seem,” John Dement, SE director theater, said.
   For this production, however, the audience is in for a special treat. Dement decided to present the show as though the audience is going to see a black and white film.
   This presented a few challenges as set, costumes and makeup had to be black, white or various shades of gray, Dement said.
   “Even for the performers, it is a special challenge because realistic modern acting would clash with the visual style of the play.    Black and white is not realism,” he said.
   Brad DeBorde and Mandy Maxfield, who played husband and wife in last spring’s Life with Father, reprise their married duo, playing the not-so-happy couple.
   “He is very charming, handsome, manipulative and just downright mean,” DeBorde said of his character, Mr. Manningham.
    The villain of the play, Mr. Manningham, while appearing kind and gentle, tortures his wife into insanity several ways.
    He accuses and convinces her she has taken small items that he himself has hidden.
    Mrs. Manningham (Maxfield), is unaware of his cruel intentions and pleads with him to be gentle.
   “Mrs. Manningham is the heroine of the story and the melodramatic victim,” Dement said.
   Mrs. Manningham is nearly on the brink of losing her mind altogether when Inspector Rough, played by Nathan Autrey, visits her.
   “He’s the instigator. He comes in, gives Mrs. Manningham a reason to live and solves the case in the end,” Autrey said.
    The ensemble also includes Sarah Barnes, who plays Nancy, the ambitious young housemaid, and Robin Smith, who plays     Mrs. Manningham’s faithful housekeeper, Elizabeth. Both are making their TCC debut.
   Other members of the cast are Clemente Schaller and Greg Wilson as the policemen who come to arrest Mr. Manningham in the end.
    Angel Street opens Wednesday, Oct. 15, in the Roberson Theatre and runs through Saturday, Oct. 18. Performances are at 8 p.m. with a Saturday matinee at 2 p.m.
    Tickets are $5 for general admission, $3 for students and seniors and free for TCC students with I.D.
    For reservations, contact the SE theatre box office at 817-515-3599.