By: Sidney Dills, Diversions Editor
“The Sweetest Swing in Baseball” is a play about the journey of a character, Dana, who must overcome many obstacles in order to not only better understand herself, but to triumph in a world in which criticism is never ending. This definitely sounds like the classic growing up story that young adults and college students can relate to. You will not want to miss this play when Furman’s Theatre Department performs it.
The story is more intriguing than your classic coming-of-age story, in fact, the background and setting are rather provoking. Dana, the main character, has a breakdown and ends up in a mental ward. She finds comfort in being there, but in order to stay, she must come up with a scheme to be diagnosed as psychotic. She comes up with her other personality, a baseball star that has seen struggles that parallel her own.
Furman students graduate and begin their professional career each year, yet unbeknownst to most, the challenges of college are vastly different from those that they will encounter in the professional world outside the Furman bubble. “The Sweetest Swing in Baseball” highlights some of these challenges in unfortunate, but often honest ways.
The cast and department have been preparing for the show for about two weeks according to Director Jason Adkins. However, actors have been working individually with Adkins for over a month.
“The five actors in the production are adhering to strict professional standards and in only two weeks of rehearsal have already accomplished what most other university students can hope to accomplish by the time they open,” Adkins said.
“We’ve had plays in the past where we have really been pushed by age and emotional boundaries, but this play is relatively within the grasp of the actors,” said Sam Feigenbaum, senior and actor playing the roles of Brian and Michael.
The lead role of Dana is played by senior Caitlin Cain. “While only leaving the stage for a total of 45 seconds, she navigates the journey of artist, Dana, with the honesty and courageousness rarely seen in a young actor,” Adkins said.
“The most delightful part of the play is probably when Dana makes the choice to become her alternate personality, Darryl Strawberry,” said Senior Sam Feigenbaum, also playing Michael and Brian in the play.
In fact, Darryl Strawberry is a roughly 6’4” African-American baseball player, so to see Caitlin portray the change in both her voice and physical movements should be interesting.
“All of the actors have been working really hard and most are off-book roughly a week earlier than expected,” Feigenbaum said. You can catch this story of growth and overcoming challenges Nov. 12-15 and 19- 22 at 8:00 p.m. in the Playhouse. There will also be a matinee show Nov. 16 at 3:00 p.m.
