Darcy Goshorn's Profile

As Red Land prepares to open a very recognizable play, East Pennsboro High School students will perform that same weekend with a play notable to theater enthusiasts. “Hedda Gabler” may not ring a bell for many people, but the play, penned by playwright Henrik Ibsen, is known for its modern take on storytelling and its leading woman, whose role is so sought after that it’s dubbed the female equivalent to Hamlet.

“It’s one of my favorite plays of all time, and it’s one that I studied quite thoroughly,” said Megan Janel Zimmer, whom the high school brought in to direct the fall play. “I tell people in the theater community that I’m doing this play, and they either say, ‘Whoa, are you serious?’ or ‘Are you crazy?’ It’s one of the hardest plays of all time to do, especially at a high school level. It’s a challenge because it’s not a comedy. We’re giving people something that’s completely not funny.”

For Zimmer, a New York University trained director, simply memorizing the lines wasn’t going to cut it. The cast spent the first weeks studying the play and analyzing every line, which doesn’t always mean what is written. It was a crash course college lesson on “Hedda Gabler,” theater and what Zimmer called seeking the truth in their characters.

It was a pleasant surprise when Zimmer found that her cast was up for the challenge.

“The way they learn is kind of amazing to me,” she said. “They go from just reading their lines to giving something of palpable depth. I think they could all write a 14-page essay on who their characters are. Nicole (Ioos) grasped Hedda on a level that I didn’t expect. She’s what I hoped my Hedda would be like. The ones who are committed are 100 percent committed to pulling this off. I don’t know what the audience is going to do with themselves. If we don’t get five seconds of silence after we go to black, they haven’t done their job. I want people to be talking about this.”