A Wild Ride: Behind the Scenes of The Skin of Our Teeth
“It’s a wild ride. It’s a wacky, weird play.”
That’s how Angela Brazil, director of Dean College’s upcoming production of The Skin of Our
Teeth described the show in an interview about what audiences can expect.
Brazil is an associate professor of theater and the theater program coordinator at Dean. Along with teaching acting, voice, and movement courses, she directs productions on campus. This time, she’s working with Dean students on a play that brings together comedy and some pretty big questions about the world we live in
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Written by Thornton Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth follows the Antrobus family through
different ages, with a new disaster in each act. Brazil explained that the play asks whether people deserve to survive, considering how they treat one another. While that may sound serious, the show explores the question through humor.
For Brazil, the play ultimately offers hope, but that hope depends on people taking care of each other. That’s also part of why she feels the show connects to today.
“Is it possible to reprioritize connection as a way forward?” Brazil asked. “Instead of, what can I get for me as the way forward?”
She shared that she hears students talk about how difficult it can be to navigate the world right now. The play gives her and the cast a chance to explore those concerns together.
The show also fits into a question behind this year’s theater season: What does it mean to be an American? Brazil explained that the team considered the country’s 250th anniversary when choosing the season’s two plays and two musicals. They wanted each show to explore some part of the American experience.
Something else audiences will notice is the set. There won’t be a full house onstage in the first act or a detailed boardwalk in the second. Instead, the production will use the same pieces in different arrangements to suggest each location.
Brazil explained that this approach follows Wilder’s ideas about telling a story without needing realistic scenery for everything. “All we need are the actors and the story and just the basic things that you need to tell the story,” she said.
Working with that kind of freedom also brings challenges. For Brazil, directing the show means thinking about the same questions the actors are exploring.
“What is the world I want to see? What is the world I’m in right now?” she asked. “How do I
actually come into this room in this space with love and ferocity and try to make something bold, which asks for great vulnerability?”
When asked what she would say to students who don’t normally attend plays at Dean, Brazil
pointed to the chance to see their classmates take on something challenging.
“If you come to this show, you’ll see your colleagues on campus, your classmates that you have in other classes, really throwing themselves at a huge challenge,” she said.
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She compared it to watching a student athlete on the field. Brazil explained that seeing
classmates perform can give students a different understanding of people they already know and the campus community they share.
Brazil hopes audiences will laugh, think about the questions the play raises, and recognize the work students are putting into telling this story. That work is something she continues to
appreciate throughout the process. "I’m just still inspired by the writing and inspired by the work that the actors are doing on stage.”
The Skin of Our Teeth runs October 14-18, with performances Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. If you’re curious about what your
classmates have been working on, this is your chance to see them take on what Brazil calls “a wild ride.”
