Grant Pearsall
Staff Writer
Mourning the death of a loved one is no simple thing. In the past several weeks, Millersville’s theater department has proven this first hand, delighting in putting audiences through the emotional wringer.
The vehicle for this catharsis has been “Rabbit Hole,” David Lindsay-Abaire’s verete pocket-drama that concerns an average American family navigating the emotionally turbulent waters of grieving and regret in the wake of an untimely death of a child. For the past several weeks the students and staff of the theater department have toiled unceasingly in Rafters Theater to bring Abaire’s moving script to life. The results have been a tremendous achievement of stagecraft and live theater. While many deserving accolades will be heaped on guest director Marion Wood O’Sullivan and the five principal actors of the production, there is an oft unseen and underappreciated force behind the success of this show and others for the company.
That force is Izzy Kainz.
Kainz is the Stage Manager for “Rabbit Hole” and has been a vital member of Millersville’s Theater department and the local performing arts community since 2011.
“It’s the theater bug that bites you,” says Kainz in pleasant, melodious tones. “I got it early.”
Originally a native of Orlando, Florida, Kainz had her first brush with theater in High School when she inexplicably found herself working behind-the-scenes on the school’s production of “Children of Eden.” As a senior in 2008, the high school took their production team to perform a show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s largest arts festival hosted annually in Edinburgh, Scotland. Once there her drama teacher put Kainz in the driver’s seat, making her impromptu Stage Manager. The experience unquestionably altered the course of her academic life.
“It’s a lot of responsibility, but at the same time you get to see so much of how important live theater is, that it just makes you feel like you’ve done something worthwhile,” says Kainz.
Despite this budding love for stagecraft, the raven-haired Kainz wound up at the College of Charleston, in Charleston S.C. studying English.
It wasn’t long before she was feeling the bite of the theater bug, this time in Central PA.
For the past several weeks Kainz has been deeply entrenched in the lead up to the premiere of “Rabbit Hole,” working tirelessly to make sure the production fired off without a hitch. As the Stage Manager, she is axially positioned at the center of the endeavor, in constant coordination with Marion Wood-O’Sullivan, the Director, Tina Stout, the Production Manager as well as the cast of student actors and the technical crew.
“I’ve heard many different analogies to what a stage manager does. It’s an interesting concept because in different theater companies it’s something else,” says Kainz. “Yes, it’s middle management, but at a certain point it becomes Mom, it becomes a trainer… there’s a little bit of everything that goes into stage management where you become more than just the management.”
Her day-to-day tasks on “Rabbit Hole’s” production have vacillated between attending meetings, coordinating with the talent, gathering paperwork, troubleshooting production design, supervising read-through sessions and even “running lines” with the talent.
The motherly aspect comes into play as the season wears on and the team finds themselves spending most of their days sequestered in Dutcher Hall. Kainz makes sure that the cast and crew are eating right, sleeping, properly nursing their illnesses and above all else staying on track with their schoolwork.
“If you don’t leave the building you don’t see anyone but your production staff all day long, so it’s a very tight knit community in our department, says Kainz. “It’s a big family in that building.”
“Rabbit Hole” capped its successful two-week run with a final performance on Sunday, February 28. From Kainz’s perspective the show has been an overwhelming success, but faced some significant challenges along the way. Namely that Abaire’s melancholy, sophisticated script trades on the emotional malaise that the death of a child brings on– something few students in their early twenties have any personal experience dealing with.
“It’s a hard show to do for various differing reasons,” says Kainz. “For the actors, the characters are not nice. [Rabbit Hole] is pretty emotionally taxing and took a lot of work [for the actors] to get there and a lot of work together.”
“Who doesn’t like watching families yell at each other?”
Meanwhile her observations of the audience reaction to the show have been heartening.
“Everyone is dying in their chair laughing [at the character Izzy] or they are crying, or they are uplifted,” Kainz notes. “Everyone has got some extreme emotion when they walk out of the theater.”
“[Audiences] have been having very strong feelings on the show and none of them have been ‘I hated it,’” she adds.
In three months time Izzy Kainz will be graduating from Millersville. She is considering several cities along the East Coast as a future home as well as possible MFA programs to apply at to continue honing her craft.
“I’m looking for somewhere to really grow with a group and work more and take what I’ve learned here [at Millersville]… and see where that takes me.” says Kainz.
“We’ve had the opportunity to do some really amazing things in our department while I’ve been here,” she says. “The department is growing, it’s changing and everyone is learning more all the time.”
“I can’t wait to see what happens.”