MARCH 18, 2016, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A3
Latest Celt play radiates and resonates
mother, Beatrice (played by
senior Morgan Hoag).
Purkey read the script be-
fore trying out for a role in
the play, but it hadn’t prepared
her for what happened during
the audition.
“It felt so different and I
realized how wonderful the
character is and how there is
so much inside of her,” Pur-
key said. “Even in the hard-
est and darkest situations, she
has this hope that she holds
onto for the entire show. She
chooses to see life so differ-
ently compared to how her
sister and mother view it.”
Beatrice is constantly try-
ing to sabotage Tillie’s at-
tempts to see beyond the
confi nes of their desperate
existence caring for an elderly
woman. Ruth, who has been
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
Family dyfunction crescen-
does over a science project in
the latest stage production at
McNary High School.
The Effect of Gamma Rays
on Man-in-the-Moon Mari-
golds by Paul Zindel runs Fri-
day, March 18, and Saturday,
March 19, at the Celtic’s Ken
Collins Theatre. Curtain time
is 7:30 p.m. for both shows.
Tickets are $5 and available
online at mcnarytheatre.wee-
bly.com or at the door.
The play has three leads
and two smaller roles. Annie
Purkey plays Tillie Hunsdor-
fer, the second of two daugh-
ters, who is struggling to break
free of the traps laid around
her by her sister, Ruth (played
by senior Jaida Watson), and
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diagnosed with epilepsy and
suffers seizures, plays her own
part in the turmoil.
Like Purkey, Watson found
passion for her character
through the auditioning pro-
cess.
“She acts like she doesn’t
care what people think about
her, but she cares so much.
She wants her mother to ac-
cept her and people at school
to not think she’s crazy be-
cause she’s epileptic,” Watson
said.
Ruth’s true feelings about
Tillie emerge slowly over the
course of the play.
Beatrice is a nasty piece
of work, but Hoag has found
motivation in everything she
does and says.
“She lives in the past and
chooses to see the past differ-
ently than what was actually
happening at the time,” Hoag
said. “She got married too
young, her father died and
she ended up alone with two
daughters taking care of an
old lady she doesn’t know in a
beat-up house. She takes all of
it out on everyone.”
At times, fi nding ways to
react to Beatrice as instructed
by the script has been a strug-
gle for Watson.
“She’s so harsh. There are
times when I think she’s just
being fl at out mean and my
normal reaction would be to
call her on it. It leaves you
feeling a little glum after we
do a run through and I have
to fi nd a place to just be quiet
for a while,” Watson said.
The play is far from light-
hearted, but Purkey, Watson
and Hoag were so dedicated
to the script that all three had
their lines memorized on the
fi rst day of rehearsals. It left
them time to develop even
greater insight into their re-
spective characters.
“People, when they fi rst see
the show, are going to think
Beatrice is a horrible mother
and Tillie is a perfect girl and
everything around her is hor-
rible. But you have to think
about what led up to it all the
way back to when Beatrice
was born and Ruth fi rst had
KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald
McNary junior Annie Purkey stars as Tillie Hunsdorfer in the
Celtic production of The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-
the-Moon Marigolds.
her seizures,” Hoag said.
Seeing past the tribulation,
diffi cult as it might be, has its
own rewards.
“It’s a good show if you’re
looking for a something that
can connect you to the deeper
part of yourself. It will mean
a lot of heartbreak along the
way, but the characters are so
beautiful,” Purkey said.
Boy killed while crossing River Road
An 8-year-old Salem boy
was killed last Friday evening
while attempting to cross Riv-
er Road North on the 3900
block.
Just past 7 p.m. March 11,
Keizer Police Department of-
fi cers responded to a 9-1-1 re-
port of an automobile versus
pedestrian crash in the north-
bound lanes of River Road
North.
When offi cers arrived on
scene, they confi rmed Jaren
James Nash, 8, had been struck
by a northbound 2006 Ford
Explorer driven by 31-year-
old William Andrew Wetzler
of Salem.
Paramedics responded to
the scene and took Nash to
Salem Hospital with life-
threatening injuries. Nash
was then fl own by Life Flight
the Oregon Health and Sci-
ence University in Portland,
where he was pronounced as
deceased shortly after arriving.
According to police, the
preliminary
investigation
showed Nash was accompa-
nied by his mother, Devon
Rutherford of Keizer, while
attempting to cross from west
to east when he was hit in the
northbound lanes. It was dark
and the road was wet at the
time of the incident. Wetzler
stayed on scene and cooper-
ated with authorities.
Deputy chief Jeff Kuhns
with the KPD said Ruth-
erford was not hit. Kuhns
couldn’t confi rm what color
clothing the mother and son
were wearing.
The portion of the road
where the mother and son
were crossing does not have a
crosswalk. The Oregon State
Police assisted the KPD with
the crash scene reconstruction.
The incident remains under
investigation. Anyone who
witnessed the incident is asked
to contact KPD Sergeant Dan
Kelley at 503-390-3713 ext.
3479.
Nash attended Schirle El-
ementary in Salem. Offi cials
with the Salem-Keizer School
District were notifi ed.
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