CCP’s ‘Woman in Black’Is An Intriguing ThrillerWith Creepy Special Effects
By Betsy Reason
Todd Isaac of Zionsville as the Actor (left) and Earl Campbell of Noblesville as Kipps, a lawyer obsessed with a curse, rehearse for Carmel Community Players’ “The Woman in Black,” a theatrical thriller opening Friday at The Cat in Carmel.
Want TO GO?
What: Carmel Community Players presents “The Woman in Black,” a theatrical thriller by Stephen Malatraff based on the novel by Susan Hill.
When: Aug. 16-25. Showtimes at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays (Aug. 16, 17, 23, 24) and Thursday (Aug. 22) and Sundays (Aug. 18 and 25).
Where: The Cat in Carmel, 254 Veterans Way, Carmel.
How much: $18, Friday, Saturday and Sunday; $13 Thursday. No ticket fee charged if purchased online.
Tickets: https://carmelplayers.org/ or 317-815-9387.
MEET THE CAST:
Actor, Todd Isaac, Zionsville; Kipps, Earl Campbell, Noblesville; and Woman in Black, Megan Janning, Brownsburg.
MEET THE CREW
Producer, Margot Everitt, Carmel; director, Lori Raffel, Carmel, light design, Karissa Monson, Indianapolis; costume design, Cathie Morgan, Westfield; effects coordinator, Eric Matters, New Palestine; stage manager 1, Samantha Kelly, Indianapolis; stage manager 2, Chloe Vann, Carmel; backstage, Grace Kelly and Gloria Merrell, both of Carmel; Woman in Black creation, Hannah Janowicz, Carmel; and dialect coach, Sally Carter, Zionsville.
An audience feels very connected in the small, intimate theater space of The Cat in Carmel.
The cozy, 110-seat venue is the perfect size and compactness for containing nervous energy, reminding audiences not only that actors on stage have nowhere to run, but the audience has nowhere to run.
“By dimming the lights, adding haze, playing soft, creepy, almost unintelligible sounds, we are able to disrupt the patrons’ normal viewing and cause dread or unease at not knowing what is next and where it will come from,” said Eric Matters, a master of special effects, who has created the feeling of creepiness for Carmel Community Players’ final show in the 2023-24 season, “The Woman in Black,” a theatrical thriller opening Friday and continuing through Aug. 25.
“As one person becomes uncomfortable, their feelings spread like a pall over those around them. This goes on and on until the whole audience is disquieted to their core,” Matters said.
With minimal lighting, there are dark corners and figure-shaped set pieces that remind the audience of being in an empty building or a child falling to sleep in the dark. The sound effects are as important as guiding the story, said Hanna Janowicz, the show’s artistic director. The mere volume or sharpness of the sounds curates where the audiences might grow uneasy or anxious, she said.
The Carmel resident is the creator of the Woman in Black character. “My role was to design what the woman would look like, visually, including makeup design, costume design and construction,” said Janowicz, who has years of experience working in haunted houses. “So creating striking silhouettes and visuals are my specialty.”
The Woman in Black is seen only for brief moments throughout the show. “Since her costume is entirely black for an already dimly lit environment, I played with textures and layers in the costume to give her some dimension,” she said. “There’s a great blend of moments where her shape and silhouette are apparent, and other times she eerily blends into the scenery, leaving you as a viewer wondering if you even saw her to begin with.”
Janowicz said, “I spoke with Megan (Janning), who plays the Woman, to get an idea of her movements and expression. The woman is described as having ‘a wasted face.’ While her face is mostly concealed, the makeup design acts to enhance her features and dissolve some of her ‘human-ness,’ should you happen to meet her eyes.”
While the Woman in Black appears on stage, she does not speak. Nonetheless, why was the role so popular during auditions?
Janowicz said “The Woman” role “seems intriguing, just being the titular character. CCP has seen in the past when the character descriptions are more broad on physique, age and other requirements, more people tend to show up out of curiosity.”
She said, “All of the actors auditioning for the women brought something different to the table. Despite the simple blocking given during the audition scenes, Megan (Janning) managed to do a lot through expression and stature, which made her a great choice for the role.”
“It’s not an easy project to take on — for me as the director — and certainly for the actors who do most of the heavy lifting with lines and blocking and special effects,” said Carmel’s Lori Raffel, who had been wanting to bring “The Woman in Black” to the stage since she proposed the play to CCP five years ago.
Raffel has a college degree in theater with a concentration in directing from Indiana University in Bloomington and has done everything from acting to directing in nearly 80 shows, including 27 professionally managed theaters. She said rights to “The Woman in Black” play have been tied up by a Chicago theater for the past three years. “And after checking every morning for the past year, I discovered it was available, and I proposed it again.”
Raffel said, “We are the first theater in Central Indiana to undertake this production.”
The 1987 stage play by Stephen Malatraff is based on a 1983 novel by English author Susan Hill. Other than the Woman in Black, the play features only two other actors, who are both on stage with lines during the entire play.
The play was first performed in 1987 at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, England, and opened in London’s West End in 1989, being performed there 13,232 performances until March 2023, reportedly being the second longest-running non-musical play in West End history, after Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap.”
Set at the turn of the century, in an empty Victorian theater in London, a lawyer, Arthur Kipps (played by Earl Campbell of Noblesville) is obsessed with a curse that he believes has been cast over him and his family by the spectre of a Woman in Black. He engages a skeptical young actor (played by Todd Isaac of Zionsville) to help him tell his “terrifying story and exorcise the fear that grips his soul,” Raffel said. The stage is set to show that a theatrical production recently closed on the stage with set pieces and furniture on the stage.
While there are scary and surprising elements throughout the show, Raffel said, “I have concentrated on the telling of the story because I think that is what theater is about.”
The show’s costume designer, Cathie Morgan of Carmel, has created costumes for the two male actors who are on stage at all times.
Kipps (Earl Campbell) plays six different characters without ever leaving the stage. “I was challenged to find ways that he could alter his appearance quickly and in full view of the audience,” Morgan said.
“This meant using as few pieces as possible all the while having them be iconic in nature so the audience could have some ‘ah-ha’ moments as they realized they knew exactly what kind of character each person was simplifying by looking at him in costume.”
While only one actor changes character, the other actor’s costume pieces “needed to reflect the passage of time or a change in location which was sometimes harder to do than changing a character,” Morgan said.
She created two of the Victorian frock coats and coordinating vests. The rest of the costumes she put together from Goodwill or Ebay and altered to look more of a universal period. There are 14 costumes, including Woman in Black.
Morgan set herself a goal to use the costumes to show that the ghost story was actually “timeless, and anyone could fall afoul of the Woman in Black, even in modern times.”