All seven actors in Rider’s final one-act play portray multiple characters in the “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.”

The play is based on Kate DiCamillo’s book and was adapted for stage performances by Dwayne Hartford. It involves 22 different characters, which puts lots of work on the actors when it comes to development of characters and costume changes. 

Rider performed alongside WFHS and Hirschi last Saturday for the WFISD One-Act Festival hosted at the Rider Auditorium. There will also be a public performance at Rider on March 21 before the competition at Aledo that weekend.

Rosalie Alfert has the most characters with six, while Rylee Cargal and Zachary Cartwright play five. 

Playing so many different characters allows Alfert to feel she is each person and get to know everything about them. Especially her accents, which is something her family is big on.

“I enjoy it, but what is most important about playing multiple characters is being able to make them completely different from one another,” Alfert said. “You have to change the way you talk, the way you walk, the accent, everything about yourself.”

However, you still need to stick those lines in your mind.

“Everybody has different tactics. My way is I just read it and perform the blocking,” Alfert said. “I am very visual, so I luck out that I am a visual learner.”

The story is about a young child’s toy rabbit doll named Edward, whom, throughout the show, we get to hear his inner thoughts and feelings as he gets lost and taken in by multiple different people and families. 

His journey from person to person shows his growth and understanding of what it truly means to love and care for someone.

The one-act play is only 40 minutes long. Even playing so many characters, the number of lines to memorize does not match the number for a mainstage show.

“The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane” features two lead actors for one character. Senior Keegan Potter plays the soul and music of Edward, while freshman Isaac Ferguson takes on the voice of Edward. 

Playing the soul and music of someone seems challenging, but there is a way to do it. 

“On stage, I will follow the Edward doll while playing the guitar and playing different melodies that are reminiscent of the feelings it would be feeling at the time,” Potter said.

With all of the music and sound being done live and on stage, the music played by Potter and the sound comes from various items that someone backstage will use to create the needed effects. 

Something you would not see frequently is recreating the soul and music for a character, but it could be interesting to see the actor performing said role.

“I have had to put characters in motions in sounds for different past shows, but it is a lot different when you do it for every tiny moment in a show,” Potter said. “It is a lot more intimate, it is a lot of fun.”

Ferguson said the porcelain rabbit doll named Edward doesn’t speak to any characters, but they talk to him.

“I think he can be very emotional at times and his lack of understanding of his own emotions causes him to get riled up sometimes, so he is very passionate and I think I can connect to that a little bit,” Ferguson said. “He feels everything deeply, even though he tries to act like he does not.”

Edward is a porcelain rabbit doll and Ferguson needs to react to the things done to the Edward doll. 

However, other actors cannot look at or talk to Ferguson during the play. The others can only look at and talk to the Edward doll.

Not being able to touch the doll or interact with anyone or anything on stage seems that it would be difficult to do as you typically interact with people and items on the stage.

Jackson said that the cast and crew have been working hard for performances and critiques from guest judges, who are ready to watch their art come to life.

“The cast gets to have fun playing multiple characters as they transform into the new people Edward interacts with,” Jackson said. “Also, instead of using pre-recorded music and sound effects, we are going to be performing all our sound on stage as the play happens, with Keegan Potter creating and performing on-stage original music.”