Courtesy photo “Is He Dead?” cast members, from left, Tony Hartu, Ashley Spear, Ian Maryfield, Freddy Anderson, Liz Atwater start dress rehearsal for the play that opens Oct. 29 and runs through Oct. 31 in the Wylie High School  auditorium.

Theater department presents lighthearted play this weekend

By Judy Truesdell
Staff Writer

Theater students from Wylie High School will take to the stage at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29 through Saturday, Oct. 31 with their production of “Is He Dead?” a “lost work” of Mark Twain. According to director Brendan Kelley, they’ll be making history; although the play was performed on Broadway in 2007, this will be only the second time the play has been performed in Texas.

The play involves a real-life painter, Jean-Francois Millet (played by Tony Hartu), who is struggling financially, and whose love interest is about to marry Millet’s archrival. The ringleader of Millet’s close-knit group of friends hatches a plot: Millet will pretend to die, will “come back” as his widowed sister, and paint under a different identity. When he is assumed to be dead, the price of his paintings will skyrocket.

Although the story is, according to Kelley, completely fictional, it does represent a time in Twain’s life when he was in dire straits similar to his lead character. According to Shelley Fisher Fishkin of Stanford University, Twain wrote the script at the end of a dark period of his life. For financial reasons, he had been forced to give up his home in the U.S. and embark on a worldwide lecture tour to pay his creditors. While he was abroad, his youngest daughter died suddenly. This play, described by Fishkin as a “hilarious, over-the-top comedy,” marks Twain’s escape from the gloom that had enveloped him and demonstrates his ability to transform “death and debt” into the raw material for a comedic play.

According to Kelley, Twain was also drawn to Millet’s work because of Millet’s custom of painting peasants and working-class people and treating them with “majesty and reverence normally reserved for kings and queens.” Twain and Millet both had deep affection for the “common folk,” Kelley’s summary said.

WHS cast members are Freddy Anderson, Liz Atwater, Lena Chesnut, Alexis David, Joe Dodd, Madilynn Garcia, Andrew Harris, Ashly Jonason, Ian Maryfield, Aaron Olabarrieta, Xandrea Rhodes, Ashley Spear and Braedon Taylor.

The WHS art department will join in the celebration of art and “common folk.” Before the show and during intermission, art teacher Susan West’s students will exhibit paintings that were inspired by Millet’s subjects. “The paintings aren’t in Millet’s style, but they reflect his philosophy,” Kelley said.

Admission is $7 for adults and $5 for children and senior citizens. To reserve tickets, visit the WHS Web page, click on Fine Arts, and then click on the Theatre Arts link.