Rollins Welcomes Peg O'Keef to Cast of OUR TOWN

The Annie Russell Theatre continues its 82nd season with the classic Our Town. The Rollins production, directed by Thomas Ouellette, features alumna Peg O'Keef in the role of the Stage Manager.

"I wanted to use Peg because her position vis-à-vis the students mirrors the role of the Stage Manager to the other characters in the play," says director Thomas Ouellette. "The Stage Manager is meant to be an elder with a level of experience and heft."

Peg O'Keef matriculated to Rollins in 1977 as a bright-eyed seventeen-year-old. "I'd never seen anything like the Annie Russell," reflects Peg. "There's this almost ghostly sensation I still get when I'm walking down the long tile hallway that leads to the theatre. My feet fall in the same pattern they did forty years ago and suddenly, I embody my teenage self. My connection to the Annie is deep and personal."

Peg also received a lasting impression of the liberal arts philosophy of Rollins, which she has allowed to govern her career. "I believe your life is not about finding the box you fit in, but about finding the boundary-less quality of the life you can explore." To this end, Peg has made a life as an artist in Central Florida in the areas of performing, teaching, nonprofit management, and writing.

"I've had a number of conversations with students during the rehearsal process in which they express anxiety about what's going to happen with their lives. I think I'm able to salve some of that anxiety by modeling the use of a liberal arts education and theatre training to create a life of value. The old models for success are exactly that - old models."

Peg is entrepreneurial in her use of a theatrical point of view to approach projects ranging from the Florida Film Festival, where she's worked for over a decade, to writing a series of audio tours for a historical society in Texas. "What makes me qualified to do this? I'm a storyteller! That's become a valuable commodity. A story is just a revelation of a shared theme that attaches to people in a meaningful way. It's all coming from a powerful desire to communicate."

First produced in 1938, Our Town won the Pulitzer and numerous Tony Awards over the years. The three-act play provides a glimpse at life in a New England town at the turn of the century. Both Ouellete and O'Keef warn that the play is often underappreciated and misproduced. "The play is misunderstood as a piece of Americana, or a glorification of a simpler time," says Ouellette, who was hesitant to direct Our Town because it's his favorite play, even excerpted at his wedding. "I didn't want to have a bad experience!"

"Our Town asks our audience to wake up to their own lives," adds O'Keef. "And it does so in a gloriously theatrical way!"

More information on the Annie Russell Theatre's upcoming production of Our Town, including performance dates and times as well as ticket pricing, may be found at www.rollins.edu/annierussell. For more information on the Department of Theatre and Dance at Rollins College, please visit www.rollins.edu/theatredance.

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