Couplings

2012 · Central Presbyterian Church & St. Paul's Evangelical Free Church, Petersburg; Hoogland Center for the Arts, Springfield; Phoenix Opera House, Rushville; Playhouse on the Square, Jacksonville

Couplings is a comedy that follows the lives of eight very different couples, ranging in age from junior high all the way to the golden years. Rather than telling its stories one after another, Ken Bradbury staged all eight at once — each couple returning for a short scene in every act so the audience watches eight romances unfold simultaneously. "It's a bit unusual," Bradbury said of the debut, "in that the audience will be watching eight stories at once." He had long wanted to write a show with multiple plot lines running together: "After all, that's the way people think — going off in several directions at once."

The idea began with one of Bradbury's students, who rode with him to Springfield one night and confessed the shock of his life: his straight-laced parents had once attended Woodstock. That seed grew into a tapestry of couples — a middle-aged pair reliving their flower-power days, teenagers conducting romance over social media, children stumbling through a first relationship, a husband and wife on their third go-round of marriage, young parents trying to rekindle a spark, and a widower who visits his wife's grave with a small red dish of pudding. Tender, funny, and bittersweet by turns, the play moves through every season of love at once.

Written by the Arenzville playwright while he was teaching theatre at Lincoln Land Community College, Couplings premiered in Petersburg in 2012 and then toured Central Illinois for years, picking up new casts and a new musical setting along the way. "My original plan was to debut the new show in Springfield or Jacksonville," Bradbury recalled, "but the Yales insisted that Petersburg was the true hotbed of theatre-goers."

Scenes

Scene 1 — Marvin and Clarissa: "Rice Pudding"
Scene 2 — Susan and Rick: "We Are Stardust"
Scene 3 — Meg and Bruce: "Third Time"
Scene 4 — Jason and Lydia: "Did You Post It?"
Scene 5 — Laurie and Phil: "Woo"
Scene 6 — Max and Gina: "I Am Not Shouting"
Scene 7 — Mark and Rebecca: "You Pushed Me"
Scene 8 — Paul and Jean: "The Red Dish"

Cast

This list reflects the 2018 Jacksonville/Rushville company. Earlier productions featured many of the same performers, with John Love, Erin Washington, Cathy Colburn, Abbie Link, and Kyler Miller among those in the original Petersburg and Hoogland casts.

Marvin and Clarissa — Jim Hepworth & Marilyn Oaks
Susan and Rick — Jim & Brenda Yale
Meg and Bruce — Mary Beth Maloney & Dan McLaughlin
Jason and Lydia — Brenan Pool & Parker Carls
Laurie and Phil — Nathan & Carrie Carls
Max and Gina — Ken Bradbury & Shelly Flickinger
Mark and Rebecca — Hallie Mason & Jaxon Dion
Paul — Don Schneider (original) / Randy West (2018)

Production Notes

Couplings was written and directed by Ken Bradbury, who also cast himself opposite Shelly Flickinger as Max and Gina — "one of the perks of being a director." Original music was composed by Brock Gwaltney, with Stephanie Soltermann providing the music for the 2018 productions.

The show debuted in Petersburg on June 1 and 2, 2012, as a "Dessert Theatre" benefit for the Menard Food Pantry and the Bountiful Garden project. Audiences gathered for sweets and drinks at 6:30 each evening — at Central Presbyterian Church on the first night and across the street at St. Paul's Evangelical Free Church on the second — with the performance following dessert, and were asked to bring a food or cash donation.

The production then moved to the Hoogland Center for the Arts in Springfield in January 2013 (with dessert served at intermission, tickets $20), and returned for further runs in 2018 at the Phoenix Opera House in Rushville and the Playhouse on the Square in Jacksonville. Over its several years on Central Illinois stages, the play evolved with shifting casts while keeping its signature structure of eight interwoven love stories told all at once.