CCU Theater supports hurricane victims

The Coastal Carolina University’s theater department has performed the play, ‘Our Town’, throughout the past two weeks in the Edwards Theater. However, on Saturday, Nov. 10, the department did a special performance for free at the Horry County Historical Museum in downtown Conway.

Senior Kiarra Donnelly, acting major who played Julia Gibbs in ‘Our Town’ gave some insight on how it worked out.

“We dedicated our Saturday night performance to hurricane relief efforts, so we took our show into downtown Conway, and we performed for that community. Anyone who attended the show wasn’t charged ticket admission; we just asked for donations to go towards hurricane relief efforts in our community,” Donnelly said.

Donnelly described what it was like to perform in the historic building and if she thought the change of venue would have any effect on the turnout for the performance.

“It was interesting because the building we were performing in was built in the 1930s and our show takes place in the early 20th century, so it was interesting to perform in a space that is a little more fitting to the show,” she said. “Saturday is usually our most popular night, the highest revenue night and we just decided that we would use that for hurricane relief. The turnout was pretty good. It was a lot of people that I don’t think normally would make it to campus to see a show, but that were intrigued by the fact that it was taking place in their own backyard.”

While Saturdays are typically a popular night, Donnelly gave her thoughts as to why the show had a large attendance.

“A lot of people that maybe don’t usually have access to the theater or who wouldn’t normally come to see a show but were interested by the concept of helping out the community,” said Donnelly.

She believes it was a fitting performance for this effort.

“I think this is important, “Our Town’ is a lot about community and how members of a town can come together to help each other through the ups and downs of life, and so I think this show in particular was really useful to use for the hurricane relief efforts because I think our community, here in the 21st century in Conway, has had to go through a similar situation and really bond together to help out one another,” she said.