Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Theater encourages you to take a trip with them “Around the World in 80 Days” Friday, Nov. 10, Saturday, Nov. 11 and Sunday, Nov. 12.
Tickets for each show are $10, available online at mvlct.com or at the door, with the Friday and Saturday shows curtain times of 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
The show is directed by Jasper Rood, in his first time directing a show with MVLCT.
“I am almost always on the acting side of the theater world,” Rood said. “It’s quite the experience to play for the other team as someone who doesn’t have as much time dedicated to directing as other artists in the corridor. The challenge of something new is always the most fun for me. (Also bragging to my director friends at the University of Iowa that I got a community theater show).”
Rood said he highly recommends people come out and see the show, based on the plot of the classic Jules Verne novel.
“Some of the more colorful descriptions are lost, due to the focus of the piece being on the characters for this specific production, but I assure you that you will hardly notice,” Rood said.
Rood heard about the opportunity to direct this show when talking to his mom about the slate of upcoming shows. MVLCT has had roughly six years since their last radio play/elevated reading, but were struggling to find a director.
“I then said before I thought about it ‘I could direct it,’” Rood said. “I enjoy radio plays, I have a bit of experience and I need more, and I get to work with fantastic people. Why wouldn’t I take an amazing opportunity like that?”
Rood has worked as an actor with MVLCT since he was a child, both in front and behind the scenes. He has had previous experience directing with the Mount Vernon Speech team, helping to direct solo mime his junior year and a “Waitress” musical theater piece his senior year.
“For me, the biggest challenge has been focusing almost exclusively on voice,” Rood said. “Most of the things that I have directed were heavily movement based before. Thank goodness I have such a talented cast when it comes to voicework.”
Alongside the actors, he commends Lenn Struttmann for the sound effects that really help the show come to life, as well as Braden and Pat Struttmann for giving him this opportunity.
“For those who know theater artists in the community, you will see familiar faces doing things that they can do better than anyone,” Rood said. “And for a crowd that isn’t so much into theater, it’s a good story, with some of the most talented people around, showing anyone who buys a ticket what a good time looks like.”