Julia Weber
Staff Writer
Chautauqua Theater Company continues its world-premiere performance run of The Witnesses at 2 and 7:30 p.m. today in Bratton Theater.
The Witnesses, written by playwright C.A. Johnson, chronicles a peer support group finding a chosen community as an apocalyptic pandemic destroys the world around them. The play was commissioned two years ago by CTC Producing Artistic Director Jade King Carroll and made its first appearance in Bratton last season as a New Play Workshop titled Tell Me You’re Dying.
In The Witnesses, CTC Guest Actor Alicia Pilgrim plays the role of Tori, a teenage girl seeking family and connection amid disaster. Pilgrim recalled a serendipitous encounter with Johnson before she later auditioned for the role.
“I met C.A. a year ago in New Orleans, just living my life,” she said. Pilgrim said a mutual friend introduced the two when they crossed paths and when she later walked into the audition, they both recognized each other. During the audition process, they made the connection that Pilgrim had attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts while Johnson was teaching at the school, and the rest was history.
When Pilgrim takes on a new role, she explores each character differently depending on how they present themselves or what their role is within the world they live in.
“I always want to give that character justice; I always want to figure out what their role is as far as in the dynamic of that play or in the world of that play,” she said. “Do we know people similar to this? Would they feel seen? I always want to make sure that people either feel seen by the character, but my hope is to always shed light on humanity and how we are very different, but also very similar.”
While Tori is a fictional character, many of her traits are familiar to Pilgrim. She said she knows Tori because she sees similarities to the character both in herself and in those around her.
“It’s nice to be able to breathe life into a character who shows love in a different way, who is caring in a different way and also brightens up the ways in which we show up for one another,” she said.
Pilgrim said she is thankful for the work actors did on the role of Tori during last summer’s NPW process, because it was developmental in establishing the role she took on.
“We wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for that collaboration,” she said.
Pilgrim said she is grateful to Johnson for including a character like Tori in the play because “it shows the complexities of loving someone or showing up or being.”
“What does it look like to care for other people and be in community for other people?” she asked.
Pilgrim said that while Tori has a “hard exterior, there’s still something so soft with even the way she decides to show up continuously,” which she said she feels “honored” to be a part of.
As the play wraps up its run this weekend, Pilgrim finds herself wondering how we come together as a community to love and care for one another — even when it isn’t easy. She said she thinks Chautauquans who see the play will leave contemplating many similar questions as a naturally curious audience.
To Pilgrim, The Witnesses provides an opportunity to “look at multiple different perspectives at a time and look at how these people love, how these people address and move through and community.”
