Pioneer Players present ‘A Doll’s House Part 2’

Wallace, Tieman, Wagner and Schuller discuss experience gained during production

The Pioneer Players performed the new sequel to “A Doll’s House” to bring a slice of Broadway to Platteville. “A Doll’s House Part 2” concluded playing on Broadway late September last year, and the students at the Center for the Arts were tasked with producing their version of the play for the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.

“The fact that this show is more recent allows you to have more artistic freedom,” senior forensic investigation major and stage manager Taylor Tieman said.

“A Doll’s House Part 2” is the continuation of protagonist Nora Hellman’s story after she left her domestic life to pursue independence. 

“The time period is 1890 and Nora wants to discover herself because she doesn’t want to just be a doll in someone’s house,” senior civil engineering major and actress Beth Wallace said. 

The original play was ahead of its time because of its progressive views on marriage and women’s rights. The sequel takes these progressive views and puts them in a modern light.

“She [Nora] has these very progressive views for her time on marriage,” Tieman said.

The play examines difficult themes like abandonment, marriage, family and how the passing of time affected them.

To illustrate how this play uses the passage of time to revisit characters in a new context after many years, the costumes were made to be a contemporary take on period fashion.

 “We’re not focusing on the past, we’re focusing on the future. A modern look with the vintage,” senior theater major and actress Abigail Wagner said.

The set added to the audience’s immersion into the play by incorporating more chairs onto the set itself and viewing the characters’ exploration of difficult events at a closer level.

“This play is unique in its construction and the way it was written,” senior theater and professional writing double major and scenic designer, Blair Schuller said.

A unique aspect of this play was that the designing and set building were entirely comprised of students. 

“We have our mentors Sarah Strange, Geoffrey Strange and Ann Farrely helping and guiding us along the way, but we do have a student scenic designer, a student costume designer and a student lighting designer. The last time that happened might have been the play “Or,” and was two years ago,” Wagner said.

“A Doll’s House Part 2” ran five times over four days last week.

 “It’s really great to see it all come together,” Lieman said.