Drama depicts liberalism of the ’60s
by Ashley Clark, entertainment editor

      “Sid, everyone is their own hipster” is the line from The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window that Seth Johnston thinks best describes the complex drama opening Wednes-day, Oct. 18, on South Campus.
      “You can't really classify anyone because there’s always something that is just a little unique and a little off about every person’s character,” Johnston, who plays Sidney Brustein, said.
      An actual plot for the show is difficult to pinpoint. The scene is Greenwich Village in 1964.
      In conjunction with Tarrant County’s RetroFest celebration, each character in the story represents at least one movement from the ‘60s and each character brings a different issue.
      Sidney symbolizes the decade’s liberal artists who wanted to return to nature. A New York native, he fantasizes about living in the country and tries to include his young wife, Iris (played by Karmyn Paskey), in his fantasy.
      Johnston, a former South Campus student, was invited back as part of the theatre’s 10th anniversary celebration.
      “This play is not done very often because it is not a commercial musical or a Neil Simon comedy that everyone feels they have to see,” Johnston said.
      Radical ideas and changing ways had divided Greenwich Village into three groups: those who accepted the changing ways and wanted to get involved; those who wanted change yet were undecided about getting involved, and those who wanted things to remain as they were.
      Although Sidney is liberal, he is part of the group that did not want to get involved in the changes.
      His friend, Wally O’Hara, played by Allen Randall, campaigns for change and tries to convince the unwilling Sidney to support his causes.
      “He’s about change; he’s about rights and he voices his opinions,” Randall said. “He finally gets Sidney to come around, and everyone gets together to support this big election.”
      Mark Phillips plays David, one of Sidney’s friends who brings up the issue of homosexuality.
      “He’s gay,” Phillips said, “and at that time being gay was not something that was socially accepted. David hides from it and is dealing with not being able to express his feelings about his sexuality.”
      Max, played by Ned Record, is described as “bohemian culture before bohemian culture took off.”
      “He is seen as not having his priorities in order,” Record said, “but he represents where the other characters came from. He is the independence that they used to have. He represents free will and is pretty much the comic relief in the show.”
      Alton, played by Djemal Burris, is another one of Sidney’s friends who falls in love with his wife’s sister and brings about the issue of interracial relationships.
      “All of his friends are white,” Burris said. “Alton is a very outspoken person. He tries to get them to understand the trials and tribulations that we have gone through and were still going through at that time.”
      His love interest is Gloria, played by Tonia Phillips.
      “She’s white,” Burris said, “and during the 1960s that was a problem.
      “Alton wants to be accepted, but at the same time he wants his own identity and his own culture apart from everyone else,” he said.
      Burris stayed on South Campus for an extra semester so he could play the part of Alton.
      Alton believes that Gloria, his love interest and the youngest of three sisters, is a high-fashion model. What he does not realize is that she is a prostitute.
      Coming from a small town, Gloria dreams of living a glamorous lifestyle. She had always been told how beautiful and attractive she was, so she believes that prostitution is a gateway to a fantastic life.
      “Gloria is very lost,” Patty McCormick, director, said. “She does not know the true value of herself. She has low self-esteem and she sells herself short.”
      The middle sister is Sidney’s wife, Iris (Paskey).
      “Iris wants to make it in show business,” McCormick said. “She wants to prove herself in some way, and this is the only way she knows how. However, she does not have the talent or the belief in herself, yet, to make it happen.”
      “Sidney becomes everything to Iris,” Johnston (Sidney) said. “He takes over her life in that she wants to be successful, yet he’s comfortable with her not being that successful so that he can keep her under his thumb.
      “She’s allowed Sidney to tell her what is right and what’s real. Therefore, when things start to happen for her and she starts getting out a little more, she realizes that maybe he doesn’t know everything and that there is more of a world out there,” Johnston said. “He loses his grip on her world.”
      Perhaps the character who sews all the plots and issues together would be the oldest sister, Mavis, played by Stephanie Kelly.
      “She’s very shocked by all of this—her baby sister is a prostitute engaged to a black man; her middle sister is married to a liberal artist. How dare all of this go on. She does not know how to handle it,” Kelly said.
      “She represents the WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) at that time,” she said.
“Mavis is sort of the mainstay of the family,” McCormick said. “She married a wealthy man and moved to the city. It is a passionless marriage, and she devotes all of her time to caring about her sisters and her children.”
      “When it all comes out,” Kelly said, “she is actually married to a man who is cheating on her.”
      “This is a sign of those times,” McCormick said. “People didn’t divorce because someone was unfaithful. You made the most of a bad situation.”
      Kelly said, “I thought at first it was going to be very hard to get under her skin, but it’s actually very much the way some people still think in the back of their minds. Mavis is the one who is actually putting it out there.”
      The last song that is played before the show begins is The Times They Are a Changin’. That was the theme of the early 1960s and the theme of The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window—the changes that were occurring and how people were dealing with them.
      Corrupted politics, prostitution, substance abuse, disenfranchised people and anti-Semitism are all issues dealt with here. However, McCormick believes that the playwright expresses her views in a very intelligent way.
      “There are no violent or objectionable acts in the play, but the subject of being strong and following what you feel to be the right thing to do is questioned,” she said.
      Music, costumes and set are all true to the times as well. Sidney and Iris’ apartment scene is amazingly detailed and furnished for the times. The set designer for the show won Best Set last year at the ACTF for A Doll’s House.
      The cast will take the play to ACTF Friday, Oct. 27, at Collin County Theatre in Plano.
      Director and cast agree that the play is not only enjoyable, but also conveys a powerful message.
      “We always learn from the past,” McCormick said. “A lot of the issues that were going on back then are still going on today.”
      Showtimes are Wednesday-Saturday, Oct. 18-21, at 8 p.m. with a 2 p.m. matinee Thursday. Call 817-515-4526, 1-4 p.m. Monday through Thursday for reservations.