Photo by Jon Gardner

Katrina Jackson as Fanny, and Roger Porres as Marius dance together in Fanny.

Many of NASAs Goddard Space Flight Centers creative brightest will illustrate the fallout from hard decisions when they put on a production of Fanny through the organizations Music and Drama club.

Set in Marseille, France, Fanny originally comes from a series of Marcel Pagnol films from the 1930s that were adapted into a musical in 1954. Fanny and a young man, Marius, fall in love, but the ocean calls to him, leaving Fanny with child and feeling forced to enter into a marriage with an older man she does not have feelings for, Panisse.

The musical holds special meaning for director Richard Richardson, who proposed the piece for this season as his directing debut. His mother grew up in Marseille, and she had married an American sailor Richardsons father after World War II, instilling an interest in the time period for him.

As a child, my mother would take me back to France to visit her parents, he said. Ive been eight times, and I grew to love the people of Marseille because theyre warm and affectionate, with a great sense of humor. This show brings out all of those qualities.

Richardson hoped the qualities that drew him to the relatively unknown musical would resonate with the group members in charge of planning the next season. They must consider the size of the staff, age-appropriateness and availability before signing off on a production

Luckily, many found the plot as intriguing as Richardson did.

The thing that drew me to the show was that concept of what if, the whole exploration, said producer Kathy Fontaine. We all make choices, and we all act in a way we think is in the best interest of everybody but how much do we really know about that interest? If we could see the consequences, what would we do?

No one had ever heard of it, Richardson added. It was kind of a gamble, they just had to give it a chance.

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NASAs Music and Drama Club presents musical 'Fanny' -- Gazette.Net