By Kathleen Weir

March has just begun and theater savvy people know that means it's time for every high school, college and community theater to put on a play; Buffalo State College is no exception. Meredith Collins, Joellen Parry and Afrim Djonbalic are three of the Buffalo State actors who will be in The Heidi Chronicles throughout the month.

Casting Hall Productions is producing The Heidi Chronicles , directed by Donn Youngstrom . The performances will be on March 8-13 and March 17-20. According to Youngstrom, he chose to do The Heidi Chronicles because it was done last year as a class project in THA350 (Directing I), so the theater department already had some knowledge of the show.

In the show, there are eight members of the cast and 18 characters. Most of the actors play multiple roles. According to Youngstrom, the cast consists of all theater majors, although several of them were not theater majors when they first began at Buffalo State .

The lead role of Heidi Holland is played by senior Meredith Collins . Collins described her character Heidi as, “a good, loyal person with strong convictions.” She also said that this play takes place from 1965 until 1989 and Heidi visits each year/era as the show progresses.

The show's stage manager, Emily Vredenburg , a junior, said that while there is no singing or dancing in the show, “music is used to help move from one year or decade to the next.” Vredenburg said that while Heidi's costume is very simple, the rest of the costumes are very trendy for the era in which they represent to help the audience distinguish between the time periods.

When asked what some of the themes are that he hopes the audience gets out of the show, Youngstrom smiled and said, “If the message isn't clear, then I haven't done my job.”

He followed that up by saying that the show focuses on the importance of women's rights. Youngstrom believes that this is a timely issue because it seems as though women have gone from a radical view of “wanting it all,” to an attitude of giving up on their dream. He thinks that this is an issue that today's women should be concerned about.

Tickets range anywhere from six to ten dollars and can be purchased from the Rockwell Hall Box Office Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. They can also be purchased by phone at (716)878-3005. For more information, visit http://www.buffalostate.edu/performingarts/x678.xml?month=03&year=2005 .

The Heidi Chronicles

March 8-12 & March 17-19 8:00 p.m.

March 13 & 20 at 2:00 p.m.

March 8 & 9 half-price previews at 8:00 p.m.

Tickets: $6 for students

$8 for faculty, staff, seniors, alumni

$10 for the general public

Kathleen Weir can be contacted at Weirka50@buffalostate.edu