College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Emma's child

Next ISU Theatre production is student-produced play of a family in crisis.
When she was a high school student at Cedar Rapids' Linn-Mar High School, Amanda Mayfield became enchanted with the theatre.

She developed and founded a high school theatre camp as a project for the Girls Scouts, a project that continues to this day.

She also began reading play after play, keeping copies of the scripts around.

It was then that she first came across "Emma’s Child," a play written by Kristine Thatcher.

So when ISU Theatre called for proposals for the 2003-04 season, Mayfield, a senior performing arts major, decided to submit "Emma's Child."

"The department allows student directors to propose one show per season," she said. "The student-produced show is given a budget of $500. In the proposal, the students go through a step-by-step process of forming a production team, the projected budget for the show to determine how feasible the show is, cast, rehearsals and all the other elements that go into making a show happen."

The faculty in ISU Theatre thought enough of Mayfield's proposal that the drama will be presented Thursday, March 25 through Saturday, March 27, at 7:30 p.m. A 2 p.m. Sunday (March 28) matinee is also scheduled. All performances will be held in Fisher Theater.

Tickets are $4 for adults and seniors and $2 for students and are available at the Iowa State Center Ticket Office and all TicketMaster locations.

Mayfield will direct the story of Jean and Henry Farrell who, after years of unsuccessfully attempting to have a baby of their own, decide to adopt. When the baby is born hydrocephalic (water on the brain) and does not have long to live, the marriage of the Farrells is tested.

"The Farrells find out after the baby is born that the child has this disease," Mayfield said. "Henry not only doesn't want to see the child, but he doesn't want to adopt it. Jean goes to see the child after the birth and falls in love with it immediately."

The couple struggles with coming to terms that this child has been born with hydrocephalus and separates with Jean still wanting to adopt the child. The play chronicles the struggle of the wife to deal with the child and the husband’s despair of wanting to be with his wife, but not wanting the child. In the end they have to pick up the pieces and start the process all over again.

Mayfield says "Emma's Child" initially appealed to her because of the struggles the couple faces.

"Although I haven't been through this type of situation, I can relate to Jean on some level," Mayfield said. "She has this concept that love conquers all. She has a great big heart with that 'I can make this work' attitude. It's a philosophy that I myself have.

" I think that the audience will be able to relate to one of the characters," she said. "It's about having faith in yourself and each other, trusting the ones you love, having hope that things will get better, and being able to support one another in the best of times and the worst of times."

The play was originally produced at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 1994. It includes a cast of nine including Melanie Snow and Nathan Zobel as Jean and Henry Farrell. Laura Williams plays Emma Miller, the birth mother of the child the Farrells plan to adopt.