Life, Words and Death: On the Company 51 Debut

By Cage Evinger

Running from April 29 to May 3 in the Humanities Theater, the Acting Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) sophomore class made their debut performance with Will Eno’s Middletown.

Middletown explores the lives of people in a small town who feel caught in the middle of the entire world. As longtime resident John forms a friendship with the newly encountered Mary, their lives begin to change. With interspersed vignettes of other residents’ lives, Middletown explores the world from the birth of a baby, to the death of a man and all the space in between those two monumental events.

Conor Picard as Greg, the Astronaut, somewhere out there. (Photo by Cage Evinger)

In the Acting BFA program, students spend their freshman and sophomore years refining the basics of their acting work through short scenes, trying out various techniques. At the end of their sophomore year, they have their first public performance to the world where they show off their work. This program has gone on for over fifty years now, and with this performance, Company 51 cements their place in history.

“It’s a long time coming, and it still doesn’t really feel real,” said Cameron Pitchford, who performed in the show. “I think it’s paying off: these two years. I haven’t even been on a stage since 2023, so it's really crazy, but it’s fun. It’s refreshing, getting to perform for people.”

Among the cast there is a sense of joy to finally get to perform in front of an audience, but this feeling does not only come from performance. All of the actors featured in the show also worked backstage roles, alongside two Theater Design/Technology students: Chloe Casavant and Gwendolyn Williams.

Williams said how “It was interesting navigating a show where we had zero dollars of budget and how to do things around that.” Adding that “It’s always nice to see everything come together and how the show evolves into its final form. I think everyone is really happy to be doing it and the actors are really happy to be making their debut.”

Santine Sorenson (left) and Owen Larson (right) as Mary Swanson and John Dodge. (Photo by Cage Evinger)

When asked about this being the company’s debut, Tom Romano, a junior playwriting major, said “I couldn’t tell, they seemed like professionals to me, like they’ve been doing this for years. They all did fantastic; they all gave fantastic performances.”

Romano further added, on the show itself, how “there are a lot of monologues in there, and I think they were pretty well done. It was a very thought provoking show. It leaves you with a lot to ruminate on about life, and words, and death.”

From left to right: Brady Blitz, Ari Jackson and Richard Robbins gazing up as Ananda Loizzo acts as a statue. (Photo by Cage Evinger)

As their debut closes out their sophomore year, Company 51 begins to look toward the future with many more performances to come, wondering what they will present next to Purchase College. Fernando Leyva, one of the actors, said “We're having auditions. We can't tell what we're supposed to do, but let's just say it's fun. It's definitely fun. It's a fun show.”

The company will have their next performance towards the beginning of the Fall Semester, as they welcome in their junior year. While in Middletown they may have been caught in the middle of the world, the actors are now moving right along toward new beginnings.