by Tamara Jackson

The production was based on a book written by Marsha Norman, who won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for her drama. On March 31, 1983, “Night, Mother” opened on Broadway.

“It allows people to experience emotions that they do not run into every day,” said senior theater major, Jeanne Peake, who directed the production. This represents the first time, Cornerstone has allowed a student to choose a script and conduct a full stage production.

“I feel like theater is about revealing truth, and I feel that as Christians that is what we are ultimately called to do, to reveal truth,” said Peake. “Sometimes as Christians we shy away from the topics that are hard to deal with.”

In the production, the story centers on the relationship of the two main characters, Mama and Jessie. As the story unfolds in the comfort of their kitchen and living room setting, Jessie expresses her hopelessness, anger and frustration to her mother and reveals her future plans of committing suicide. In a struggle for her daughter’s life, Mama desperately tries to challenge and change Jessie’s state of mind on the issue.

“I am really excited that Cornerstone was allowing it because I think that it opens up the opportunity to discuss this kind of issue because suicide is real for everyone,” said Melissa Baker, who played the role of Jessie. “I think it is something that the Christian community should address.”

Baker is a senior at Cornerstone and is majoring in elementary education. Even though she is not a theater major or minor, Baker has enjoyed being involved in theater whether it is acting, backstage or stage managing.

“In the beginning, Jessie is determined that she can convince Mama to still let her go, but over time she realizes that’s not going to happen, she then has to make a decision whether she is going to stay for Mama or do it anyway,” said Baker.

Also co-starring with Baker is Sherryl Despres, a local Grand Rapids actress who played Mama in her first Cornerstone theater production. Despres first heard about the role opportunity while working with Jennifer Hunter in “Bunnicula” at Civic Theater and in “Snow White” at Circle Theater.

“I have not done a role like this,” said Despres, who actually cried in the role of Mama. “This was 60 pages of text and only two people in the show that never leave the stage. It is so brilliantly written that even if we don’t do our job, people are still going to leave here entertained.”

In doing this production, it is also the first time that Cornerstone has done a partnership with another organization other than another college. Following each production of “Night, Mother,” a panel discussion organized by the Healthy Kent 2010 Suicide Prevention Coalition answered questions and educated the audience toward greater awareness of suicide.

“I wanted to be able to reveal a different kind of brokenness without being offensive or in people’s faces, but still giving people the opportunity to get insight into a broken person’s life,” said Peake.

Peake describes Mama and Jessie as being normal people in the same way that everyone is broken in some way. She believes that it is important to show the devastation that suicide leaves behind when taking society’s view of an “easy way out.”

“It is not worth it. That is something that we need now more than ever, we need to see that hope,” said Peake. “And yeah things get hard and stuff happens, but you move on and see what happens next.”