Charlie Brown hits East Campus

For just a moment, curl up in your favorite chair with the Sunday comics and remember how it felt to be five years old when happiness was, as Charlie Brown sings, “anyone and anything at all that's loved by you.”

“You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown”, based on Charles Schulz's classic Peanuts comic strip, opens today in the East Duke Building. Put on by the Duke Players, the student-run group of the Department of Theater Studies, the musical is a hilarious, witty comic strip come to life.

Director Michael Ayers, a sophomore, explained that his goal for this production was to “put on a very high-quality student musical.” That high quality was brought in through professionals such as Richard Riddell, a Tony-award winning lighting director, and Jeff Storer, who played the original Charlie Brown in one of the show’s national tours. “Most of the time, [professionals] are very willing to come in and help because they… like seeing students reach out for faculty assistance,” Ayers said.

“Charlie Brown” opens with a pajama-clad Charlie, played by freshman Shaun Dozier, perching awkwardly on a lonely stool. Dozier's Charlie is shy and simple-minded, yet hopeful and resilient. His clear blue eyes sparkle with childlike innocence and boyish optimism as he faces yet another lunch hour alone, sighing, “Some psychologists say people who eat peanut butter are lonely.”

Junior Jacqueline Langheim brilliantly portrays the overbearing and loudspoken Lucy, embodying the character right down to her perpetual crush on the Beethoven-worshipping Shroeder, played by freshman Edward Wardle.

Freshman Katharine Vandergriff cited time constraints as the most difficult factor in putting on “Charlie Brown” this season. The mere three weeks of rehearsal was “half of what you usually have,” she said. We put in 10 to 12 hour days, but it was really professional and fun at the same time.” But for junior Caroline Watnick, who plays Charlie's beloved beagle Snoopy, the biggest challenge was learning how to be a dog.

This musical is unusual in its layout: instead of a conventional storyline, it is a collection of short vignettes and a few longer melodramas that give the feeling of browsing through a comic book. The scenery, complete with Snoopy's famous red doghouse and Schroeder's purple piano, is vibrant in color and effectively minimal.

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown portrays Charlie’s heartfelt mishaps and everyday successes with both humor and poignancy. Jack McDonald, a freshman who plays the blanket-toting Linus, says the best part about Duke Players is that “there's never a feeling that it's about who you know, as opposed to how good you are…there's a lot of talent here.” That talent and hard work definitely shows through.