The first time on the Red Carpet Community Theatre’s stage Shaden Foresman will be portraying con man Mike Talman in their production of “Wait Until Dark.” This is the first time he has taken on a serious role that has required him to tone his character down. He usually plays a more comic role.
“Just getting into the more serious character, sticking to it and not putting in little jokes and stuff, has been very hard for me,” Foresman said.
His ability to adapt to the character is something he has worked on.
“Mike’s a con man. He is the brains of the operation when it comes to the con men who are working together. They work for Lisa their old boss, and we do this job to get a little money. Mike obviously has some kind of heart because he ends up giving in to Susy at the end and wanting to be more of a friend than anything,” Foresman said.
As he went through the script, Foresman picked Mike in the audition. He didn’t know anything about the play, but when he went through the script Foresman wanted to know more about the character.
“It was really cool to find out everything that was going on (in the script). The more we all learned our characters and actually started acting things out, we found more hidden meanings everything had. You’re like, ‘What? Oh, that makes sense.’ We found all the little hidden details. I thought it was really neat how, even though he (Mike) is calling Susy the whole time, he actually starts to feel something, like a friendship. I thought that was really cool,” Foresman explained.
When he describes the play to friends and family, Foresman tells them how exciting it is going to be. The play is a thriller and maybe considered scary, but he doesn’t see it that way.
“It’s not as scary as it is exciting. It is very suspenseful. It is very dark. The crazy thing about this show is in the lighting. I’ve never seen a show like this where there’s so much technicality to it, because lighting plays such a big role. At the end I usually tell them that the main character, which is Suzy, is blind and it brings a whole new dynamic to the story,” he continued.
Foresman has invited all of his family and friends to travel to Elk City to see the show. He is originally from Laverne and went to college in Alva. He majored in Business Administration and theatre. Although he did not finish his degree, he was in several productions.
When he left college, he went in to ranching and then into the oilfield. Now he owns his own semi and has been trucking. Recently he has had mechanical issues with the truck and has returned to work in the oilfield.
Foresman has three children from a previous marriage Kahrdon, Ezhmee, and Jehntli. He is married to Chelsie, and they are expecting a child soon. They make their home in Sayre. When they went to see “Barefoot in the Park” Chelsie encouraged him to audition for this new show. After thinking it over, he decided to step back into the theatre.
To make reservations for “Wait Until Dark” go to www. rcct.org.
