The Jamestown Community College Uncommoners production of LEAR also has another twist – it is double cast.

Director Emily Drew got the idea to double cast the production after seeing the actors audition for the characters. While watching and listening to auditions, Drew noticed that when reading and performing different monologues of the characters for which they were auditioning, the actors revealed parts of themselves.

“I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if we can have these actors bring themselves, and then affect each other in different ways depending on the combination of actors that we have on stage,” Drew said.

The goal of the double casting, Drew added, is not having actors and understudies – but to have actors share roles completely.

Warren Butcher rehearses a scene in Jamestown Community College Uncommoners production of LEAR. P-J photo by Michael Zabrodsky

“They will each take different combinations in live performances so that we can see different relationships happen on stage because this play is so much about relationships,” Drew noted.

The director added that in different shows there will be different combinations of actors. Because different actors bring different experiences to the roles, the dynamic of the character shifts, and the audience is going to see a different performance.

“I feel like it’s like we are playing two different versions of Cordelia, but I like seeing the other option,” said Rachel LeRoy. “I like her energy. I think that she has, like, such confidence about her. I remember watching a production of it, and I was like, wow, she is crazy.”

LEAR cast members include Warren Butcher of South Dayton, portraying King Lear; Rachel Davis of Lakewood, portraying Goneril/Okwui/April; Colin Drayer of Warren, Pa., portraying Edmund/Big Bird/Pete; Camden Drayer of Warren portraying Edgar/Paul/Gordon; Summer Jones of Buffalo, portraying Regan/April/Susan; Rachel LeRoy of Lakewood, portraying Cordelia/Amelia/Olivia; Sunnhi Suber of Bemus Point, portraying Goneril/Okwui/April; Keaton Noller of Portville, portraying Cordelia/Amelia/Olivia; James DiStrola of Allegany, who is the stage manager; Alyson Danielson of Busti, who is a design apprentice; and Cinthia Sanchez is providing the lighting design.

Colin Drayer, who has acted for Drew in the past, said he auditioned for his role because Drew helped him grow as an actor.

“I think I have grown as an actor in her shows more than I have in any other performances I’ve ever done. And, plus, I think she’s a great director, and I like the way she takes things (guides) in shows,” Colin Drayer said. “So, I knew that it would be really fun, and good for my personal growth as an actor as well.”

Intentionally, Drew cast Colin and his younger brother Camden as brothers in the play as well. Both brothers admit that their dynamic as “stage” brothers and brothers in real life do intersect. In the play both have to act mean to each other with a level of comfort, but Camden said, it can’t be done unless the actors have known each other for a lengthy period of time.

“The chemistry is there,” Camden Drayer said.

According to sunyjcc.edu, the production is a spinoff of Shakespeare’s King Lear by playwright Young Jean Lee. The play is an absurdist tragedy familial piety, despair, and the end of life. LEAR also is a collision among King Lear, Sesame Street, and Lee’s take on the theme of dealing with a father’s mortality.

LEAR is scheduled to be performed at 7 p.m. JCC’s Scharmann Theatre Thursday, Friday, Saturday, April 3, April 4, and April 5. For ticket information email ScharmannTheatre@mail.sunyjcc.edu or call (716) 338-1166. Drew said LEAR contains explicit language and allusions to explicit sexual situations.

“The language is used intentionally by the playwright to emphasize the absurdity and emotional chaos of the sibling relationship within the context of losing a parent. While we believe it is important we share that this content can at times be jarring, it serves as a powerful tool to convey the complexities of grief, inheritance, and personal identity,” Drew said.