Letter-crossed lovers: the Theater department presents “She Loves Me”

There’s something special about handwritten letters: seeing where the pen’s ink starts to dry, the tremble of a hand in a letter’s shape or the knowledge that another is thinking of you. Or, well, the idea of you. In “She Loves Me,” by Joe Masteroff, neither Amalia nor Georg knows what the other looks like, except they do; they work together in a perfume shop as clerks but can’t stand each other. Fortunately, they don’t know they’re writing to each other and falling in love with each other’s personas. Unfortunately, they’ll need to find out at some point.

Until then, the Hungarian postal service is putting in the work, and they aren’t the only ones.

CSB freshman Evelyn Gould who plays the part of Amalia Balash — one of the two letter-cross lovers — has been working on her part since August.

“My vocal instructor Gyehyun [Dr. Gyehyun Jung], who is also the vocal director here for the musical, had me working on “Vanilla Ice Cream,” which is one of Amalia’s big songs,” Gould said. “Once the cast list came out in December, I was like, ‘okay, I got to start learning all the music right away.’”

SJU sophomore Leo Krueger who plays the perfumery store’s boss Mr. Maraczek has also been working on his role before winter break but has hit the ground running after spring break ended. He says a large part of his drive for performing in “She Loves Me” comes back to his enjoyment of acting in musicals and acting in general since middle school.

“After doing my initial research for it [“She Loves Me”], like, ‘oh, do I want to try out for this?’ and then…finding out my role and then doing more research in to the show, I realized that it would be a fun show,” Krueger said.

“She Loves Me” will be directed by Sean Dooley and concludes the fine arts performance for the season from the Theater Department.

Their previous works this academic year included “they say…” a devised piece directed by Jeffrey Beam and “Smash” by Jeffrey Hatcher and directed by Sean Dooley.

Some actors from “Smash” are returning for “She Loves Me,” including SJU senior Caiden Gerhardson who plays Georg Nowack — the other letter-crossed lover — in his last performance in his undergraduate career. Gerhardson spoke about what he enjoys in musical plays that differ from regular productions.

“Musicals give you an opportunity to be very expressive as compared to regular plays, like straight plays. In straight plays, you sometimes have to play realistic while musicals you play realistic, but the absurd realistic, and that’s something that’s very fun, especially with comedy,” Gerhardson said.

Though the only musical the Theater Department has put on this academic season, cast members such as SJU freshman Lai Chang who plays Arpad Laszlo, a delivery boy for Mr. Maraczek, finds “She Loves Me” to be very unique in its styling of acts.

“The first have of the first act, you see how they [the characters] are, right? You see how they’re very dynamic….and in the second half, they completely change. It’s completely off,” Chang said.

“She Loves Me” will be performed on April 24, 25 and 26, and May 1, 3 and 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the Gorecki Theater.

There will be a matinee on April 27 at 2 p.m. For more information, please visit the CSB+SJU Fine Arts Performances website.