MALLORY DUNCAN | Asst. Arts Etc. Editor 
Some of the cast of “Terminal” has revealed secrets of the show before it opens for preview.
The show runs from Feb. 19, through March 2, in Lilly Hall 168.
“Terminal,” by Susan Yankowitz, is a story of death and how people cope with it. It was written in the 1960s and has strong ties to the Vietnam War and other U.S. issues of that time. Even some Holocaust references are thrown in. There are no real main characters. Instead, the actors play multiple characters throughout the play.
For sophomore theatre major Rhett Dial, the play is difficult because of the topic of death.
“It is a challenging topic to sit there and think about how we, as the actors, have dealt with death in our lives, and also how it’s happened throughout history that death has become to be what it is,” Dial said.
But he said because every person has a different expierence with death in their own lives, they will react to the play in different ways.
“If someone has a husband who was in Vietnam, they might react a certain way to a certain part, or if someone in the audience is a mortician, then they might find some of these parts funny,” Dial said.
Humor is a part of the show, even though the overarching topic is death.
One of Dial’s characters is the Embalmer. And from this character comes Dial’s favorite line: “The body is walking thoroughly with special attention to the organs.” This line portrays the humor in the show, and shows variety, Dial said.
Like Dial, freshman theatre major Alexander Borello plays no specific part in ‘Terminal,’ but said he enjoys being in a “different kind of show that not many people have seen before.”
To him, “Terminal” is an exploration of death and dying.
“It’s about what it means when people die, how they die and what it means for us—the fact that, one day, all of us will die,” Borello said.
Borello said acting in the show is a very spirtual experience.
“There’s a lot of grief and sorrow that goes with talking about death, but there’s a lot of hope too,” Borello said. “There’s an uplifting part as well.”
Fitting with his spiritual experience, Borello said his favorite part to play is God’s servant.
Audience members will really connect with the show in their own ways, Borello said.
“A lot of people will be looking at life from a new perspective,” he said. “People will see the uplifiting part, how cool (death) can be, and how pure it can be as well.”
Borello’s favorite line comes not from himself, but from one of the main characters, Veronica. Spoken at the end of the production, he said the line is the essence of what the entire work is about.
“The judgement of your life is your life.”
