VALDOSTA, Ga. – They didn’t have a chance to rehearse during the days leading up to the opening of “I and You.”

Hurricane Irma closed the campus of Valdosta State University Sunday through 5 p.m. Wednesday. 

As an audience waited to enter the VSU Theatre & Dance production, director H. Duke Guthrie said the last rehearsal was Saturday. With VSU closed, he recommended the two actors starring in the play rehearse off campus during the down time.

The show stars freshmen students Daniel Lennox Jr. as Anthony and Mahogany Wesley as Caroline. But Wesley said she traveled home to Atlanta. Lennox is from Tampa, Fla.; his family evacuated but they are safe and well, he said.

As the dress-rehearsal audience filed into the Lab Theatre, the cast’s two members said they felt ready. 

“I and You” is the season opener for VSU Theatre & Dance. The department always features the talents of the program’s students onstage and behind the scenes. But the 2017-18 season is scheduled to emphasize student talents, Guthrie said.

Two production designers are students. They are Clark Yang on costumes and Noah Dalton on sound, Guthrie said.

The stage manager and assistant stage manager are first-year VSU freshmen Emma Marsico and Robert Burks respectively, he said.

Guthrie is joined by faculty members Ruth A. Brandvik, scenery and projections; Genny Wynn, lighting; Jaye Beetem, technical direction.

“I and You” is a play by playwright Laura Gunderson. 

She is “the most produced living playwright in America of 2016.” 

Gunderson is also the winner of the Lanford Wilson Award and the Steinberg/ATCA new play award, a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and John Gassner Award for playwriting and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation’s three-year residency with Marin Theatre Company, according to information from VSU. 

She studied Southern literature and drama at Emory University, and dramatic writing at New York University’s Tisch School where she was a Reynolds Fellow in social entrepreneurship.

As for the show, VSU provides a synopsis from Playscripts.com: “One afternoon, Anthony arrives unexpectedly at classmate Caroline’s door bearing a beat-up copy of Walt Whitman’s ‘Leaves of Grass,’ an urgent assignment from their English teacher. Homebound due to illness, Caroline hasn’t been to school in months, but she is as sardonic as Anthony is popular. As these two let down their guards and share their secrets, this seemingly mundane poetry project unlocks a much deeper mystery that has brought them together. ‘I and You’ is an ode to youth, life, and the strange beauty of human connectedness.” 

And the characters are on stage throughout the entirety of the show, which plays without an intermission.

Are they ready?

As Guthrie said, smiling, as audience members filled the seats, “We’ll see.” 

SHOWTIME

Valdosta State University Theatre & Dance presents “I and You.”

When: Show plays 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Sept. 14-16; 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 17; 7:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, Sept. 18-20.

Where: Lab Theatre, VSU Fine Arts Building, corner of Oak and Brookwood.

Reservations, more information: Call (229) 333-5973; or visit www.valdosta.edu/comarts

NOTE: The play contains adult language and situations.