Heroes of the Fourth Turning

By Will Arbery

Directed by Carolyn Best

& Achille Vann Ricca

February 22nd-24th, 2024

at The Cherry Arts, Ithaca, NY

Direction

This production began as a self-motivated senior capstone: putting up a production from start to finish with a throw-spaghetti-at-the-wall additude; testing the skills of a four-year theatre arts BFA. I surrounded myself with the most brilliant collaborators I could imagine and we spent the better part of senior year building this show together.

Will Arbery's play felt equal parts daunting,

Dramaturgy

This project also became a place to explore

my interest in dramaturgy in the forms of a

packet, a lobby display, and audience engagement. For a play chalk full of conservative and Catholic jargon, I was very intentional about the packet focusing less on what their beliefs were and more on how/why they had them. My goal was to have my packet be tactful, readable, and a tool to help calibrate the actors. This came in the form of reading the books the characters read, providing a timeline, and exploring gender archetypes. I made a point to observe the intellectual Catholic community at Cornell and even had the opportunity to interview a former student of the college that the play is based upon, Zachary Thomas.

relevant, and exciting to work on: a perfect concoction for a project like this. Especially in an election year and within a bubble college town, a play that asks "what do you do with the love you have for people who you think are making the world worse" seemed right.

@heroesithaca