{"id":14021,"date":"2017-05-17T09:00:48","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T16:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=14021"},"modified":"2017-05-29T09:34:32","modified_gmt":"2017-05-29T16:34:32","slug":"born-yesterdays-reboot-shows-timeless-themes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2017\/05\/17\/born-yesterdays-reboot-shows-timeless-themes\/","title":{"rendered":"Born Yesterday<\/em>\u2019s reboot shows timeless themes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reboots are currently seeing a grand renaissance, and for good reason. The familiarity of a classic story combined with the thrill of something novel makes for an exciting experience.<\/p>\n

But this is nothing new: the theatre world has been capitalizing on this mentality for most of its history. Born Yesterday<\/i> debuted on Broadway in 1946; in 1950, it was adapted for film, and actress Judy Holliday won an Academy Award for her role as Emma \u201cBillie\u201d Dawn, the story\u2019s heroine. The play is now part of the program for Blue Bridge Theatre\u2019s 2017 People\u2019s Choice Season, which was decided on by votes from the public.<\/p>\n

Kassiani Austen, who will be playing Dawn in Born Yesterday<\/i>, is excited for the opportunity to be part of the show.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great role. The preliminary work I\u2019ve been doing has been really fun,\u201d says Austen. \u201cI did watch Judy Holliday\u2019s Oscar-winning performance, and I\u2019m sure there\u2019ll be some inspiration from that, but I really do believe that the strength is in the writing. When you work on a script like this that\u2019s well written with strong characters, it\u2019s going to be a really good production.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Kassiani Austen plays Emma \u201cBillie\u201d Dawn in Blue Bridge Theatre\u2019s adaptation of Born Yesterday<\/em> (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The show\u2019s story revolves around Dawn and a man named Harry Brock, who plans to buy up politics in Washington to achieve his desire for power and money.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe character that I play, she\u2019s a showgirl who\u2019s been with this Harry Brock character for about 10 years,\u201d says Austen. \u201cThey\u2019ve been in this long-term relationship and they come to Washington together. She\u2019s not dumb; she\u2019s ignorant, blissfully and happily so. She chooses to be ignorant. She doesn\u2019t want anything other than what she has.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Brock decides that Dawn needs a bit of an education so she can hold a conversation with the politicians he\u2019s trying to woo, an opportunity for character development presents itself. Dawn surprises even herself as she sheds the chains of ignorance and shucks her passive role in favour of taking action.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat ends up happening is that she ends up being extremely bright, and she learns so much and through the process of the play tries to set wrong to right with Harry, because she becomes so smart she sees through his plan,\u201d says Austen. \u201cShe goes through a huge character development; I think the most satisfying thing in the show is her growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although it was written in the \u201940s, the plot and ideas of the play hold up to the test of time. Austen says she thinks the themes of political corruption, purposeful ignorance, and overcoming the feeling of helplessness are particularity relevant today in regards to the political landscape we\u2019re facing. She hopes that the voters\u2019 choice of this play for this season is a sign that the public is aware of what\u2019s going on and hasn\u2019t given up the fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think it\u2019s satisfying for the audience to see someone actively try to change their life and to become stronger,\u201d says Austen. \u201cPeople just sort of watch the whole system collapse, and that\u2019s what\u2019s going on today; half the stuff that\u2019s happening would never fly normally, and people can\u2019t even catch up with it. There\u2019s a burden that comes with education, with shedding ignorance. You have to act on it; you can\u2019t just be a passive bystander. Billie, she acts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born Yesterday
\n<\/i>Various times, Tuesday, May 30 to Sunday, June 11
\nVarious prices, Blue Bridge Theatre at the Roxy
\nbluebridgetheatre.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reboots are currently seeing a grand renaissance, and for good reason. The familiarity of a classic story combined with the thrill of something novel makes for an exciting experience. But this is nothing new: the theatre world has been capitalizing on this mentality for most of its history. Born Yesterday debuted on Broadway in 1946; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-may-17-2017"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14021"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14101,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14021\/revisions\/14101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}