Academy’s ‘Look Homeward, Angel’ production is a relatable journey

The Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts’ latest production is one that its student actors can relate to.

“Look Homeward, Angel,” which opens Thursday and runs through Sunday at the Huntington Beach High School auditorium, follows emerging young writer Eugene Gant, who is restless to experience life and longs to go to college. However, his strict family, including a needy and controlling mother, and budding love life may get in the way of his dream.

Many of the student actors in the two dozen-member cast are seniors who are gearing up for college themselves, director and performing arts teacher Robert Rotenberry said.

Rotenberry said the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Ketti Frings, based on the largely autobiographical novel by Thomas Wolfe, was one that had been on his radar for years.

He said he likes choosing plays that his students can identify with because they can better understand the characters they are portraying.

“This is a coming-of-age story that everybody can relate to,” said Rotenberry, a Virginia native who noted that he was the first member of his family to go to college. “Either you’re getting ready to come of age or you’re an adult and you’ve already gone through that.”

Sam Johnson, a senior at Huntington Beach High who plays Ben Gant, Eugene’s older brother, in the production, said now that he is approaching college, he’s beginning to get nervous.

He said he tried to put college out of his mind until senior year, and thoughts of graduation in a few months and “Look Homeward, Angel” made him think about where he wants to go to school and what he wants to study.

“When we were younger, everybody had the mindset of going off to college,” said Sam, who plans to audition for Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle early next year. “But now that I’m at that point in my life, in my senior year, it’s euphoric and is something I’m really thinking about.”

Daniel Lesnick, a 15-year-old sophomore who plays Eugene Gant, said that although he is younger than his character and therefore not yet preparing to leave for college, he can still relate to him.

“He’s very cranial,” Daniel said. “He thinks a lot and doesn’t really express himself too often except for when he writes. I find it really easy to understand where he’s coming from because he’s the one who’s always trying to make sure everyone’s happy and everyone’s always at peace with each other. I find myself taking on that role a lot, especially with my friends. It’s very clear where Eugene is coming from.”

Even though the actors are able to relate to the play, not all of them can necessarily relate to their characters.

Grant Rincon, a senior who is playing W.O. Gant, Eugene’s father, said it has been difficult to portray an older character in the 1916 North Carolina setting.

“The posture and the way people carried themselves in those days is so different from the modern era,” he said. “When you add on the fact that a lot of these characters are much older than we are, it makes it twice as difficult. Not only do you have to take yourself back 100 years, but you also have to grow yourself 50 years.”

Rincon said he prefers a balance of playing characters he feels a kinship with and those who are out of his comfort zone so he can be a well-rounded actor.

The two-hour, three-act play’s set is modeled after the real boarding house mentioned in Wolfe’s story, which Rotenberry visited while on a trip back home to Virginia. It includes a two-sided revolving stage that becomes each of the four bedrooms in the show.

Rotenberry said he would describe the piece as powerful, moving and relatable for everybody.

“From the beginning to the end, Eugene goes on a whole transformation where he is stuck in this place because his parents won’t give him money to go to college,” he said. “Then he meets this woman, so he doesn’t want to go anyway.

“It’s a great story of how he persevered, and you shouldn’t give up just because you don’t think you’re going to get what you want. Most people have a family unit. It may not be exactly like this, but in the play, everybody has different positions in the family, which is relatable.”