Talashia Keim-Yoder is the High School Theatre director here at Bethany. She also teaches the class Emmaus, a student directed music group. As of right now she is also in the middle of directing the play Radium Girls.
When asked what the play was about Talashia stated that it was, “Based on a true story of a situation that was pivotal in the labor movement. This story is based on a court case and it made a big difference in statute of limitations and workers comp that came from the job. The play closely follows the president of the US Corp and one of the girls who died.” Talashia pointed out that she really like this play because, “it doesn’t paint either of them as a villain or a saint.”
The play motivates people to act where our responsibilities lie. It also works hard to bring workers exploitation to attention, but in a very human way. The play is about Radium being discovered and at the time how people understood it to be was good. They only saw the short term effects, not the long term effects, and the short term effects seemed good. This is the story of the people who worked closely with it and the casualties of radium.
To Talashia one of the challenges of this play is since this play is a real story, she feels a great responsibility to portray them in such a way that the characters are honored. This show is also very heavy so they have to find the humor in it and keep bringing those humourous parts out. They have also developed an unscripted, student music ensemble. Talashia hopes this helps keep it more interesting for the audience, however it makes a lot more work because the musicians are composting and arranging all of their own music. When asked what the easiest parts were she stated, “Between the small cast, well written script, and the three directors that we have, we are able to get a lot done and give the actors more one-on-one attention. It also helps that all the actors are so responsible with memorizing all of their lines and the blocking.
The play dates this year are Thursday, February 26, Saturday, February 28, and Sunday, March 1. There will not be a Friday performance because of the Boys Basketball, who have Senior Night that night and Talashia doesn’t want to take away from the attendance at that with a Friday night performance.
The aspect of the play that Talashia is the most nervous about is if the audience will get it our not. The actors will all stay on stage the whole time and just change accessories as they change characters. She hopes that the audience gets that they are changing characters and that it doesn’t seem like some of the actors are leading double lives as the switch characters on stage. Talashia is however, very excited about the “potential for this to be a really high quality show.” She also commented that, “on and off stage we have so many talented students and its coming together beautifully so far.”
Talashia Keim-Yoder is also a quarter time pastor for Christian Formation at College Mennonite Church. As of now she is on Sabbatical. Her Sabbatical from College Mennonite started January 30th and ends May 30th. Being a pastor makes it really hard to ever totally leave the job or go on vacations so this Sabbatical is for her to really disengage. She also will be taking a leave of absence from the school from March 10th through May 10th. She is coming back on May 10th so that she can finish out the Emmaus season and hold the auditions for next years Emmaus group, as well as being able to announce what next years theatre productions will be.
While she is gone Emmaus will be in their performance season so Craig Mast will be the substitute and will definitely have fun and be able to get creative. As it is performance season though Craig will not have to come up with anything new. He will just have to help with rehearsals, provide transportation, and be more of a sponsor for the group.
Talashia also wanted to take this Sabbatical so she could spend more time with her family. Talashia, her husband, and her two boys will be spending six weeks in Kansas with her family and 2 weeks in Missouri with her husbands family. She has so many connections between her church and Bethany that its very hard to fully take a Sabbatical.
When asked if she was looking forward to it she stated, “I am looking forward to it a lot but I am also looking forward to the next month here to focus on the play. This is my only job right now so I won’t be racing from one job to the other.”
~Carissa Woolace