Performing Arts Department to present Violet: A Musical Pilgrimage April 21 to 30

It’s 1964. An embittered yet deeply religious young woman, disfigured by childhood injury, boards a bus for the Deep South, in search of a TV evangelist who claims to possess healing powers.

So begins Violet: A Musical Pilgrimage, one of the most acclaimed off-Broadway shows of the last decade and surprise winner of the 1996-97 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical. (It beat out Titanic and other mainstream Broadway shows).

This month, Washington University’s Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences will present six performances of Violet in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre. Shows begin at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 21 and 22; and at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 23. Shows continue the following weekend at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, April 27 and 28; and at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 30. (There will be no Saturday performance.)

Tickets are $15 — $9 for students, senior citizens and Washington University faculty and staff — and are available through the Edison Theatre Box Office, (314) 935-6543, and all MetroTix outlets. The Hotchner Theatre is located in the Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd. For more information, call (314) 935-6543.

Based on Doris Betts’ short story “The Ugliest Pilgrim,” Violet was adapted to the stage by Brian Crawley, who wrote the book and lyrics. Music, by Jeanine Tesori, is original yet true to its ’60s setting, drawing on blues and bluegrass as well as rock, country and gospel.

The story opens in a kind of flashback. The young, 13-year-old Violet (played by sophomore Elizabeth Birkenmeier) is singing while her father (senior Justin Huebener) chops wood. Suddenly the axe blade flies loose, striking the girl across the face. Twelve years later, Violet (now played by junior Carolina Reiter) boards a Greyhound bound for Tulsa, Oklahoma, home to a televangelist she believes will be able to heal her scars.

Yet along the way Violet becomes unlikely traveling companion to a pair of soldiers — the cocky, womanizing (and white) Monty (senior Benjamin Ogilvie) and the African-American sergeant Flick (senior Chauncy Thomas).

“Violet is immediately drawn to Monty, who is gorgeous,” says director Annamaria Pileggi, senior lecturer in the PAD, who directs the cast of 13. “But she connects on a much deeper, more substantive level with Flick. Monty talks about his motorcycle; Flick touches Violet’s scar and asks ‘does that ever hurt you?’

“In a way, Monty and Flick symbolize Violet’s own inner turmoil,” Pileggi adds. “Monty represents her longing for the conventional while Flick reflects her outsider status. By the end of the play, I think that Violet is able to bring these two parts of herself together and find a measure of self-acceptance.”

Pileggi notes that depicting a road trip on stage presents a variety of technical challenges — challenges ably met by set designer Megan Eder, a senior in architecture, who devised the intricate yet flexible multi-level tableau.

“This is a complicated show,” Pileggi explains. “It takes place in a bus, at a bus stop, in a chapel, in a restaurant, at a rest stop, on a mountain. But Megan has done an amazing job. A counter-top becomes a bed, suitcases become bus seats. It’s an ever-evolving world that is transformed throughout the play.”

Indeed, the changing stage becomes something of a metaphor for Violet’s own journey.

“Violet thinks that she wants to change the way she looks, but what she really wants is to change the way she is perceived,” Pileggi concludes. “The staging brings the audience along on that journey of perception, challenging them to see things in new ways.”

Rounding out the technical crew are Lisa Campbell, lecturer in music in Arts & Sciences, who serves as musical director. Christine Knoblauch-O’Neal, senior lecturer in the PAD’s Dance Program and director of the Ballet Program, is choreographer and staging consultant. Costumes are by junior Katheryn Casale.