Through live camera feed and screen projections, The Central New York Playhouse immerses audience members in American history.

Peter Morgan’s drama “Frost/Nixon” opens at the CNY Playhouse on Friday at 8 p.m. Tickets are available for $17 on CNY Playhouse’s website.

The play tells the story of the infamous interviews between British journalist David Frost and former United States President Richard Nixon in the late 1970s.

The show is directed by Justin Polly, a local history teacher. Polly was drawn to the script because of the historical plot and “media-centric theme” of the show.

“What I liked about this particular show was that the cameras were almost like a second and third character at all times,” Polly said.

The stage is designed to emulate a “working, closed-circuit broadcast studio of the 1970s,” said William Edward White, the show’s set and lighting designer. It features “two towers of three television sets each, two projection screens and three cameras feeding everything.”

Aside from his roles in production, White also plays the character of Swifty Lazar in the show and serves as the production’s television director.

“I’m in about three scenes, but the rest of the time I’m actually calling the show as the television director would,” White said. “The headsets on the cameras will function so the actors — camera operators — will be in communication with me in the booth.”

Jeremiah Thompson and Tom Minion lead the show as Frost and Nixon. When casting the role of Nixon, Polly said he searched for an actor who captured his essence, acknowledging that finding a carbon copy would be nearly impossible.

Many of Nixon’s lines are from actual interviews, speeches and meetings, and the show added some fictional lines to develop the story. To capture Nixon’s character, Minion said he aims to be true to the script, particularly because audience members may be familiar with the quotes.

“I appreciated the script as it was written in that (Nixon) is not a villain in this show; he’s a character,” Polly said. “That means there’s positive elements and there’s negative elements… it’s a mixture of the two.”

Minion echoed Polly’s statements that the show fairly presents both sides that opposed Nixon and his side. In today’s political climate, the director said one of his goals is presenting the story without bias.

“If people make the connection to today, I think that’s great,” Polly said. “If people decide that was then and this is now, that’s fine, too. Our job is just to show the story.”

Published on November 5, 2017 at 9:16 pm

Contact Haley: hrober03@syr.edu