For its final show of the year, the Lost Flamingo Company is doing Tracy Letts’ famed August: Osage County.
The Lost Flamingo Company’s final show of the academic year has won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award for Best Play.
It’s famed playwright and stage actor Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County.
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LFC, a student theater troupe, will perform the dark comedy Saturday and Sunday in Baker University Center Theater. The play follows the turmoil of the dysfunctional, Oklahoma-based Weston family who gathers for a few weeks after the disappearance of its patriarch.
“A tragedy causes the family to come together without actually reconciling or helping each other,” said Nikki Elmer, a senior studying English and the director of the play. “It’s kind of about characters being afraid to fully admit who they are as people and realizing the fact that they can’t make each other better. They can’t fix each other because most of them can’t fix themselves or they choose not to.”
Elmer is a former Post copy editor.
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She added she wanted to give a trigger warning to the audience due to the darker and graphic concepts the play discusses.
Playing the volatile matriarch Violet, Olivia Usitalo is the LFC member who pitched doing Letts’ play after seeing the 2013 film adaptation starring Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts and other famous names.
“I had a personal connection with the show because it reminded me a lot about certain aspects of my family. It hit such a strong chord with me,” Usitalo, a senior studying strategic communications, said. “Everyone has dysfunction in their family.”
Usitalo added this show is one where audiences need to focus on the characters, rather than the plot.
“Every character in this show is complex,” said Maddy Hayes, a sophomore studying integrated language arts education who plays Barbara, the eldest Weston daughter. “I think that especially when writing a female character, it can be tempting to write always weak or always strong, but Barbara is both and I love that.”
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For those who have seen the movie, Hayes, who said she’s watched the film at least four times, said the play just goes more in depth into the plot and the characters’ motivations.
Usitalo said though it has sometimes been hard to delve into the darker Violet, she has enjoyed humanizing her and ended up actually relating to her in ways. Still, the impact of the play persists after she returns home from rehearsals.
“The She-Hulk comes out,” she said laughing.
Usitalo has been in a LFC show every semester since her freshmen year. She said she’s very blessed for August: Osage County to be her final show.
“I hope (the audience has) an emotional experience with it,” she said. “You’ll laugh, be nervous, feel awkward and really bad but in a good way. It’s a catharsis I hope they can experience. That’s how I felt when I first saw it.”
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