'Independence' a near flawless T300 production

In all families, people take on certain roles as the family grows. Although people grow and change, the roles seem to stay the same, adapting to fit the new person.\nThe latest T300 studio theater production of "Independence" by Lee Blessing examines these ever-changing, yet familiar dynamics. In the production, the audience is shown a small piece of the lives of the Briggs home in Independence, Iowa, where three sisters and their mother live and have lived their entire lives.\nThe play concerns three sisters: Jo, Kess and Sherry, and their mother Evelyn. Jo has asked Kess, who's been gone from the family for four years, to return to help her with their mother. Jo is pregnant and can't dedicate all her time to her mother.\nKess, an independent woman who lives in Minneapolis and is a college professor, does not want to stay in Independence. The same sentiment is held by the youngest sister Sherry, who, through her sculpting and affection for Goth style, has completely separated herself from her mother. The play surrounds these three sisters and their eventual need to become independent of their mother and Independence.\nThe beginning of the play was a little stiff, and some sound problems occurred, but they were quickly fixed. A more troubling part came at the beginning of the play, with Jo and Kess on stage staring at each other through a screen door.\nThere were few staging problems, despite that initial scene, which was confusing. In fact, most of the staging was motivated, clear and interesting.\nThe set, designed by graduate student Namok Bae, was eerily normal. The pink walls, pictures everywhere and end tables with doilies remind the audience of the home of a nice little old lady (Evelyn Briggs), while hinting at something a tad devious.\nGraduate student Rebecca Jarell's costumes worked well with the set and established the definition between the dissimilar characters.\nMorgan Brenner, a graduate student and the lighting designer, created a nicely lit interior with slight variations in each scene. Each scene shift was made with stage lights on, which helped the flow of the play.\nThe acting in the play was mostly impressive. The order of the scenes is a bit stifling because at times it disrupts a certain character's relationship with another. For instance, Jo and Evelyn do not interact between Act 2, scene 2 and scene 4, but in scene 4 Jo is very upset -- it almost seems illogical.\nEvelyn herself is an enigma as she seems to be the one character in the play who does not get enough attention or dimentionality.\nNevertheless, each actress did fine work with what they were given. Graduate student Christine Woodworth gave a nice performance as Kess, giving her character a nice strong backbone while still having heartfelt emotion at times.\nGraduate student Coryell Barlow did as well as she could with Evelyn, making her sweet at some places and genuinely heartbroken at others. She, like all actresses in her place, suffered from being too young for the role. Out of character, she became almost too vibrant at times.\nSenior Kiersten Vorheis was wonderfully comic as the rebellious Sherry. Her audacity, sarcasm and wit fit perfectly with the show and created some much-needed comic relief. But she did show her three-dimensionality in the second act. Vorheis made Sherry more than just a loud mouth tramp -- she made her a human being.\nHubbell Carothers, a junior, gave a very stirring performance as Jo. Being the sister with all the highs and lows in the show, with self esteem no bigger than an ant and being the one person who constantly cares for her mother, Carothers had a difficult role to play. But it was striking and nicely mixed between intensity and comedy.\nOverall, "Independence" was a tight production with very few flaws.