An adaptation of the Tony award winning musical “Light in the Piazza” was performed at the Columbia Theatre to start the Fanfare 2012 season. The Southeastern Opera/Music Theatre Workshop put on the show on September 27 and 28 at 7:30 p.m.
According to Roy Blackwood, interim director of the Columbia Theatre, the attendance was outstanding.
“We had about 700 people to see the show each night, so this was an excellent way to kick of the Fanfare season,” said Blackwood.
“The Light in the Piazza” is set in Florence, Italy in the summer of 1953. Margaret Johnson, played by senior vocal performance major Karista Filopoulos, is enjoying the countryside with her daughter Clara, played by Bridget Zeringue, also a senior vocal performance major.
When Clara was 12 years old she was in an accident leaving her with permanent brain damage. Since then, her parents have avoided the fact that their daughter is handicapped, and Clara has had trouble maturing mentally.
While seeing the Florence countryside with her mother Clara meets Fabrizio, a Florentine boy, and they fall in love so fast that Fabrizio proposes to her. Clara does everything she can to fight her mother’s disapproval. The night of the wedding rehearsal, Clara’s secret comes out. She is actually 26 years old while Fabrizio is only 20.
 “Clara was just finally realizing at 26 she wanted more freedom from her mother. She wanted to be treated like an adult,” said Zeringue. “I think that Clara and Margaret’s relationship struggles are just like any close mother-daughter relationship, except there was more tension between them because of Clara’s situation.”
Now that Clara’s secret was out, Margaret must recognize the problem she had been running away from.
“Margaret is a woman who wants to be loved. She had been holding onto a marriage that had been a failure from the beginning, with Clara being the only thing binding Roy and Margaret together,” said Filopoulos. “I think Margaret’s inner struggle is letting go of Clara, and therefore letting go of her marriage.”
In the end, Margaret learned to let go of her past and live life to the fullest.
“As she spent more time with these free spirited Italians, she learned to let go of that 1950’s American housewife idea that had been bringing her down before. She became more of a free spirit,” Filopoulos said. “Once she was able to let go of Clara, she was able to let go of the marriage.”
Rylie Hanson, a sophomore musical performance major enjoyed the performance. “I really liked the imagery, and the music and the costumes. The whole show was a very artistic experience,” Hanson said.
The set was inspired by Florence, and designer Steven Schepker referred to many Italian architecture books over a five month period to come up with a concept. However, it was his students who really brought the set to life.
“The entire set, including furniture and props, was made by my student crew and technical theatre classes.” said Schepker.