It's what you leave behind you...

You Can’t Take it with You
By Martha Harris
You Can’t Take It With You, written by Moss Hart and directed by BU professor Michael Collins, is a joint production between the Bloomsburg Players and The Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble, BTE. It runs from Oct. 11 through Nov. 4, and admission is free with BU ID.
You Can’t Take It With You is a comedy set in 1936 in Grandpa Vanderhof’s living room, where his grand daughter, Alice Sycamore, and her rich boyfriend Tony Kirby, with his family come to dinner unexpectedly.
”Tony, is the son of the vice president on Wall St, and even though he is a part of upper crust society, he is still excentric, a free spirit,” Matt Bayer said.
”My character, Ed Carmichael, is the most excentric family member because he likes to play the xylophone a lot, making masks, use the printing press for the fun of it and deliver his wife’s candies,” Dan Acor said.
”Wilber C. Henderson is an IRS agent, and he follows normal society rules, which the Sycamores don’t abide because all they want to do is live life and be happy,” Phil Haberek said.
While Bloomsburg Players and BTE members have worked on together in the summer, this is the first joint production during the academic year because of the new lease of the Alvina Crause theater. BU students will be able to use it for three productions per year. According to faculty, there are benefits to this arrangement, mainly because it is good for the actors, and they now have enough space.
”There is no effective theatre space on campus because all performance venues, especially K.S. Gross Auditorium, are used for classes, so it’s not possible to work on scenery, lights, etc., until after those classes conclude,” theater department member Bruce Candlish said. ”The auditorium is on the second floor of Carver Hall, and there’s no freight elevator, which means students must carry heavy pieces of scenery up those stairs late at night or on weekends. There is also the problem that audiences can’t adequately see the stage, so we have modified the floor for nearly every production, sloping it so people can see. Finally, there was the lack of power and the basic structural integrity of the building and its ability to support the physical demands of theatrical production.”
”This is a rich experience for the students especially since this may be the only university in Pa that is so close to a professional theater,” Collins said. ”we have a long history of working with the ensemble and having members supporting us. The students are learning a great deal from apprenticing under seasoned, experienced performers. It is a fine opportunity to have a Pulitzer-winning play with roles made specifically for young, as well as older actors.”

to all involved, this has been a fulfilling and enjoyable experience from which participants and audience members can learn.
”It’s been on my list of plays to direct, and it’s very funny with a good philosophy,” Collins said.
”It poses questions such as when you are 40 years old, will you be happy



with what you did when you were 22?”
”It deals with things students go through, especially the love story,” Haberek said. ”There is the nervousness of meeting your girlfriend’s or boyfriend’s parents, and it is something all of us have experienced or will experience in the future.”
”I like it because it talks about escaping from society’s conventions and learning what culture and the community demands from you,” Acor said. ”People learn what makes them happy, conversation, family and love, not money and power.”

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