Wren Walker is not one to resist a dare. One day, her best friend Jimmy—‘Slim’— tells her that the old lady who lives across the river is actually a ghost. He is ultimately unable to prove that since he is afraid of crossing the river. In an attempt to prove that Slim is wrong and to push him outside his comfort zone, Wren crosses the river and befriends the ‘ghost’ and struggles to fulfill the traditional roles of womanhood as her 13th birthday approaches.
When a dancing river, separating a lonely and elderly blind woman from the center of her Kansas town, dries up, the mood of the town starts to stir. 12-year-old Wren bridges the gap between the town that oppresses her and an old woman who is said to be cursing the town with a drought that withers their crops. The wind begins to howl and hunger strikes leaving the townspeople angry, and looking for someone to blame. Twenty-one-year-old Emily Cerwonka is a senior Drama and Psychology double major from Columbia, Maryland. But, when she’s on stage, she dons a yellow dress with buttons, splits her hair down the middle and wears her hair in braided pigtails to become 12-year-old Wren during the performance of River Like Sin.
“My favorite part was being able to create a beautiful piece of art with all of my fellow actors. It was a very collaborative process, so a lot of the decisions about the show we made together,” Cerwonka said. “That is the great thing about doing a new play– having the playwright in the room, you can ask so many more questions and get a deeper insight into the world you are creating.”
Lindsay Adams, a third-year Catholic University Master’s of Fine Arts in Playwriting candidate, wrote River Like Sin. It is inspired by the experiences the playwright had while growing up in the Midwest and is based upon a folktale written by the playwright, according to the playwright’s note in the playbill.
The production is also inspired by conservative, Catholic, religious communities of the 20th Century and features a young girl, Wren Walker, “on the brink of becoming a woman,” according to the dramaturge’s note in the playbill.
“I approached playing Wren just like how I would approach any character. I do not so much think about her age, but her range of experience. She has lived in the same place her whole life, she has never been to another state, and she lives in a small-town, so on and so forth,” Cerwonka said. “Her inexperience plays into her naivety and innocence throughout the beginning of the play, and a big part of her journey is learning that the world has so much more to offer than what is right in front of her.”
The production featured two directors, Shanara Gabrielle and Lee Cromwel, wrote the production of River Like Sin. The production currently shares the stage with The Knot. River Like Sin will run on February 22nd at 7:30, on Saturday February 24th at 7:30 PM, and Sunday the 25th at 2 PM.
“I will miss everything about the show– but most I will miss experiencing the on-stage relationships, especially with John, who plays my best friend Slim in the show, and Danielle, who plays the old woman that I become very close to,” Cerwonka said.