Charlie Brown Comes to Bluefield

Photo provided by Rampage student photographer Elei Haynes

Bluefield University Theatre’s first production of the season is You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Shows are at 7:30 p.m. on October 16-18 and at 3 p.m. on October 19.

Elei Haynes, a theatre major performing in Charlie Brown, describes the show as “a series of scenes that would make up a general day in Charlie Brown’s life.”

Charles Reese and Rebecca McCoy-Reese, co-chairs of the Theatre Department, typically direct productions. However, this production will be run by alumna Ashley Burton Pruitt, who previously worked as choreographer at Bluefield.

Pruitt said the production was chosen because it is near Thanksgiving and Halloween when the Charlie Brown specials run. The play goes into a typical day of Charlie Brown’s life as well as his friends and dog Snoopy, including scenes at school and at Snoopy’s iconic doghouse.

Pruitt is directing this show for her Master of Fine Arts degree. She described producing a show on her own for the first time as “really interesting to get over some of the challenges and solve problems I haven’t had to really solve.”

The cast is small, requiring the Bluefield cast and crew to be hands on as many of the actors are high schoolers. Haynes said Charlie Brown has “a very simplistic set, but it’s very interactive. We’re hoping to have a projector screen with some projections and little writings and stuff.”

Auditions were held late August. Charlie Brown is the first of four major productions that will be held in Harman Chapel. Annie, Romeo and Juliet, and Hadestown: Teen Edition will be held later this school year.

The main cast are Miles Monique as Charlie Brown, Elei Haynes as Lucy van Pelt, Deacon Goins as Linus van Pelt, Brian Fisher as Schroeder, Isabella Deel as Sally Brown, and Ariel Haynes as Snoopy.

To prepare for the show, the cast rehearsed four days a week for three hours every day. As the opening day approaches, they now practice five days a week for two to three hours a day.

Pruitt said the production is “going great.”