Mental Challenges Become Artistic Challenges

When Christopher Rollings first read “The Boys Next Door,” he had a lot of the usual reactions directors experience when they connect with plays.

He found himself caring about the characters and getting wrapped up in their stories. But Tom Griffin’s 1987 play presents a particular challenge because most of its main characters are mentally challenged.climacool adidas has announced the release of the new X-24 Hot irons. The company is touting them as the longest and most accurate irons the company has ever made.

It became important to Rollings and his actors that the characters’ disabilities not be exaggerated or played for laughs.

“That was the biggest issue, actually, in casting,” said Rollings, who is directing ‘The Boys Next Door’ at Somerset Valley Players in Hillsborough June 10 through 26. ”A lot of actors questioned me about it before auditioning.”

One of those actors is David Clarke, who plays Arnold, a movie theater employee who is picked on by his co-workers and talks of leaving for Russia.

“I was very concerned with that right from the very start,” Clarke said of how these characters would be played. “And the first thing Christopher told us is that the fact of their disability is in the script, it’s in the dialogue. We don’t need to belittle it with gestures or ticks or odd behaviors. We want to portray these characters as people who have needs and wants and desires just like the rest of us.”

The play follows four mentally challenged men—Arnold, Lucien, Norman and Barry—who live in an apartment together. Their abilities vary. Arnold and Norman both work. Barry is deluded (he poses as a golf pro and even manages to get a couple of clients).Some will stick with the old faithfuls like the adidas rasta while others will look for the more stylish shoes like the Changa or the Tataga Lucien is perhaps the most challenged and brings old Department of Agriculture Yearbooks home from the library.

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