Austen Hunzeker
Reporter
The ISU Theater and Dance Department began the 2024-2025 school year of productions last weekend on Friday, Oct. 4th and 5th, with The Imaginary Invalid. This performance was the first of four productions slated for the year and had its final showings this weekend on Oct. 10th, 11th, and 12th.
The Imaginary Invalid is a modern adaptation of the 18th-century play by Moliere, and all showings took place at 7:30 p.m. at the Black Box Theater in the Stephens Performing Arts Center. Director Jef Petersen, who’s starting his second year as an assistant professor with the ISU Theater and Dance Department, describes the play as a slapstick comedy all about a hypochondriac who’s taken advantage of financially by his doctors and attempts to manipulate his daughter’s marriage to benefit himself.
“The show, as goofy and silly and crazy as it is, is really about our human failings to connect with the people around us,” Petersen said. “What we’re hoping [the audience] will get out of it is an incredibly good time.”
Petersen went on to say there have been moments, even in rehearsals, when he laughed to tears with his students.
“Laughter is the best medicine, of course,” Petersen said. “[It’s] just a reminder to be present with those around us that love us.”
Auditions for the play took place during the first week of school, and rehearsals started during the second week of school this semester.
“It feels like it’s been a very brief rehearsal period,” Petersen said. “It’s a very energetic and slapstick comedy which takes a whole lot more time to rehearse than almost anything else that we do in the theater. Musicals with dancing and music are probably the other thing that is comparable to the amount of time that it takes to do this.”
This show, despite not being a musical, has quite a few musical numbers, according to Petersen. The show partnered with Dr. Geoffrey Friedley from the Department of Music at ISU to make the music additions happen.
“It’s felt like a sprint since the beginning of school,” Petersen said.
Rehearsals for the cast and crew have occurred five times a week since the beginning of the semester, each rehearsal taking three to four hours. Petersen estimates that a couple of thousand hours have been spent pulling this production together between the 60 individuals involved.
“It’s a pretty substantial time commitment for everybody that’s involved in the show,” Petersen said. “Outside of that as well, there’s also all of the designers who are designing costumes and set and lights and sound and then all of the people that it takes to create all of those things.”
James Baum, a junior studying theater at ISU, plays the main character, Argan, in the show and has been doing theater for most of his life. Baum started theater as an eight-year-old and has been in a variety of different shows, including three ISU productions from the 2023-2024 season.
“Despite the bawdy, crude humor, The Imaginary Invalid is also very much about the struggles of a family,” Baum said. “It’s about fighting for love, be it your own or someone else’s, and it’s about being present in your life to appreciate and fulfill it.”
Mireya Soto, a junior studying theater and English Literature at ISU, recalls the process of being cast as the character Louison in the show.
“Our director, Jeff Petersen, had us all dancing around, making ridiculous faces and noises, and playing with these really exaggerated emotions,” Soto said regarding the audition process. “It was silly and vulnerable and surprisingly very helpful for developing my character and the mood of the production because that’s how this show is: hilarious, exaggerated, and touching in an unexpected way.”
Soto wanted everyone who watched the show to open up their hearts and let themselves experience emotions, whether it be from laughter or tears.
“Let yourself experience the joy of theater, and I hope that experience means something to you the way it does for us,” Soto stated.
