WELCOME

    When looking back at the experience of working on Beautiful Thing, I will always remember the abnormal amount of fond memories that we created together.  By all means, this shouldn't be the type of play I'd enjoy.  Normally I'd rather work on a heavy, dark drama but I decided to take a chance with a British comedy that's absolutely full of energy and heart.  I'll admit I had seen the movie (produced by Channel 4 Films in 1996) and I was really into the way that the movie portrayed the lives of these five inhabitants of Thamesmead.  After reading the play, I was absolutely shocked at how different it was compared to the movie!  It's so fast paced, and I knew the energy would really light up the stage.
    I don't pretend to say that I had all the answers to this show.  I know that I was shocked by my inability to really talk about the show before casting.  I was frightened about telling people that one of the central plots lines to the story is the coming of age tale of two boys that find each other, and in the process find themselves.  So in the casting process I knew it was going to take two actors that would be comfortable enough to bring to life these complex characters.
    After the casting, I was completely excited but frightened.  I knew I'd put together an amazing cast and crew, but the looming fear came around the fact that we had two weeks and five days until opening night.  We had to move fast.  We rehearsed 6 days a week, and oddly enough we were so dedicated that on our one free day we chose to hang out with each other.
    One of our most entertaining stories comes from the night we decided to go to a gay club  in order to get a feel for the lifestyle we were trying to represent.  This was the best idea I could come up with, and I felt it would be advantageous because in the play the two boys take a trip to the Glouster (another gay club) and they absolutely hate it.  It just happened to be that the night we went to Legends was also an amateur drag night!  By the end of the night, we had been kicked out for general craziness not once, but twice.
    As for the production, we were extremely amazed by the audiences.  They absolutely responded to the play and our particular production.  We gave it our all and I honestly feel that we have so much to be proud of with this show.  We gained praise by many different sources, and below I'm putting a few that we got during our production week.
    I think that what I'm most proud of with this production is that we didn't fall into the trap of making this a gay play.  I looked equally at the stories between Sandra and Jaime, Leah and the boys, Leah and Sandra, and Sandra and Tony.  I feel that if we had not worked as hard as we did on all the relationships, the play would have been weak.  I also think that we had so much great material to work with, and we owe so much to Jonathan Harvey for his talent.  The play is subtitled as an Urban Fairytale, but he gives so much for us to stay grounded with-- especially with the abuse that Ste has to deal with, and this abuse always loomed as a constant reminder of the honest fears that people face because of being different.  I also think the play stays grounded through the ending.  In our production we ended the play with the the two boys dancing together (alongside Leah and Sandra) as a disco ball starts up... it's a beautiful scene, but the ending is actually bittersweet.  If you pay close attention to the final scene, you realize that the two boys are getting ready to be separated because Jaime and Sandra are moving away.  It's a tragic ending, but a real winner because that aside, all the characters have learned so much about themselves and are willing to walk right out into the open courtyard just to prove to the world that they aren't interested in how others label them.
    As you look at the following pictures, I know it's impossible for them to truly give to you what it was like to see this performance.  At a glimpse I hope you will see the optimism that this show brought to audiences, and if you did see our production I hope it reminds you of a good time you had with the show.  In conclusion I'd like to quote a song used in our production (the music all came from Mama Cass and The Mama's and the Papa's).  This song was a central theme to all the complex relationships in the show-- how a mother would react to a son's coming out, how two boys forge a relationship in a harsh world, or even how a mother responds to having to start her love life all over again... but on a more personal level, it reaches out to us all, letting us know:

Please email your comments on this page or the production to bbradfor@email.unc.edu