Ascension Community Theatre’s ‘August: Osage County’ puts the ‘fun’ in family dysfunction – The Advocate

Director Keith Dixon sums up Tracy Letts' "August: Osage County" in one sentence.

"We put the fun in family dysfunction," Dixon says.

He can't help laughing, partly because of his quip and partly because of some comic moments produced by the dysfunction in Letts' Pulitzer Prize-winning play.

The show is billed as a dark comedy, though its dramatic moments can sometimes overshadow the laughter. Audiences can judge for themselves when Ascension Community Theatre opens "August: Osage County" on Thursday.

"This story is about a lot of things," Dixon says. "It's about adult children's relationships with their parents, it's about what happens when you hold secrets for a long time without airing grievances, and it's about how it doesn't always mean you're the winner if you're the last one standing."

The play is Dixon's return to directing area community theater since leaving his job as Theatre Baton Rouge's artistic director in 2014 to take the same position at Spokane Civic Theatre in Spokane, Washington.

He returned to Baton Rouge in 2016, where he's now the communications and development director at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum.

"It feels good to be back directing in a theater," he says. "And this isn't just any play this is a big one."

The play will be performed on a thrust stage, where the audience is positioned three-quarters of the way around the stage.

"It's like we're making them a part of the family, too," Dixon says.

"August: Osage County"

won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, along with six Tony Awards, including one for Best Play, in the same year.

"Some of our audience members might know the play from the (2013) movie starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts," Dixon says.

The story takes place over several weeks, opening with patriarch Beverly Weston hiring a young Native American woman as a caregiver for his drug-addicted wife, Violet. Beverly disappears, the family gathers, personalities clash and secrets surface.

Then comes the bombshell of Beverly's whereabouts.

"I don't want to give away a spoiler," Dixon says. "But it's a major turning point in the play."

The story calls for seven actresses and six actors, who all play a big part in the story. Dixon has only praise for his cast.

"I have seven amazing women in this show, which is primarily about them," Dixon says. "But I don't want to take away from the men in the family, because they play an integral role in driving the plot. The six men I have in these roles are great."

Dixon also cautions his potential audiences that the play has strong language.

"It's definitely an adult play, but even though the situation is extreme, the audience will be able to relate to it, because it's about family and family conflict," he says.

It's a gathering where parents still see their adult children as young children, where siblings forge mixed relationships of love and resentment and where addiction is an obvious, yet hidden, issue.

"They've been holding on to so much," Dixon says. "And in the end, it's also about letting go."

An Ascension Community Theatre production

WHEN: Thursdays through Sundays, Aug. 3-6 and Aug. 10-13. Performances at 7 p.m.;Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.

WHERE: Ascension Community Theatre, 823 Felicity St., Gonzales

TICKETS/INFO:$22.50-$25. (225) 647-1230 or actgonzalesla.wixsite.com/actsite.

Follow Robin Miller on Twitter, @rmillerbr.

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Ascension Community Theatre's 'August: Osage County' puts the 'fun' in family dysfunction - The Advocate