The Peterborough-based Firelight Theater Workshop was recognized with multiple awards from the New Hampshire Theatrical Alliance for their recent production of “Mary Jane” by Amy Herzog.
“We were so honored that our entire cast was nominated,” said Nora Fiffer, co-founder of the Firelight Theater Workshop. “It was especially wonderful to be recognized because this was a really important play to us. We really hoped it had meaning for people and offered deep connection.”
Fiffer won Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Laura Carden won Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Jason Lambert, who directed “Mary Jane,” was nominated for Best Director, and the entire cast overall was nominated for “Best Production.”
“Mary Jane” is the story of a mother caring for her seriously ill child and how the support and connection with other women in her life, including nurses and caretakers, enables her to perservere. The all-female cast included Fiffer, Sarah Sandback, Laura Carden, Amanda Sennet and Jazmina Creamer-MacNeil, with four of the actors playing multiple roles.
Fiffer said the entire “Firelight family” was present at the Saturday night awards gala in Concord, including former casts and board members.
Fiffer said that from the start of the process of choosing their next play, the Firelight team hopes they will have an impact on their audience.
“There is this cycle with plays. You choose one, and you think, this will be amazing. Then you start working on it, and you start to worry, maybe this will be too hard, and you have those creative doubts, and that makes you work harder,” Fiffer said.
Fiffer said the process of developing and performing a play is “sort of like preparing and serving an elaborate meal.”
“You don’t know, until you present it how the audience will react, how it will taste to them; you don’t know until you actually sit down at the table if they will like it. With this play, we had that feeling right away that we were making an impact. It had so much humor and humanity, and people really connected, ” Fiffer said.
“The play is based on the playwright’s own personal experience. We weren’t sure people would want to engage with this type of material right now, when there are so many other hard things happening, but it’s a truly uplifting story,” Fiffer said. “Mary Jane meets every situation with optimism.”
Firelight partnered with Keene-based RISE for Baby and Family, Peterborough’s River Center and Monadnock Development Services to ensure the accuracy of caregiver roles in the performance.
“Then the executive director from RISE (Alycia Deaver) said they wished they could bring their whole staff to see the play. She said, ‘This is better training than anything we could offer,’ ” Fiffer said. “So then we did a whole performance where almost the entire audience was caregivers and staff. It was the perfect unison of art and life — you hope that storytelling can offer deep reflection of real life; we want the play to reach the audiences they were designed for.”
Fiffer said Firelight’s small theater space in the Guernsey building contributed to the intense experience of the audience.
“It’s such an intimate space that people felt like they were in Mary Jane’s life. We were right there with the audience, and we really felt that connection,” she said.
Fiffer says the goal of every Firelight play is to offer hope and create a true impact.
“‘Mary Jane’ is very life-affirming and that is a big watchword for us. The message is that ‘everything is worth it — it’s all worth it in the end.’ Life has challenges, but you find your way. We don’t know what we’re capable of until we have to do it,” she said.
Firelight Theater Workshop’s spring production will be “Small Mouth Sounds” by Bess Wohl, a story about six people who meet during a silent retreat. Wohl is the author of “Liberation,” an award-winning off-Broadway play.
“When we are reading through dozens of plays looking for our next project, we are always asking, what will the audience be left with? What does it mean to listen and connect and change ?” Fiffer said. ” People having trouble keeping silent; it’s about how they manage to communicate and connect, and there is a lot of physical comedy. We’re really excited about it.”
For information about Firelight Theater Workshop, go to: firelighttheatreworkshop.com.