The world premiere of “Morning Reckoning,” a two-act ode to the 1990s, boy bands, fandom, friendships and childhood love, took place in the Richard E. Rauh Studio Theatre last Friday. Kelly Trumbull, a playwright and teaching assistant professor, wrote the play, which Arts Administrative Officer Ashley Martin directed.
Despite premiering on Valentine’s Day, the play forgoes lovelorn ballads and instead showcases catchy, original boy-band music composed by Brad Stevenson and Addi Twigg. But audiences did not have to wait for the show to begin to hear the ‘90s actualized as a soundtrack — as the audience trickled in, hits by NSYNC, Backstreet Boys and the Spice Girls flooded the speakers. Before long, people of all ages were tapping their feet to the beat.
“Morning Reckoning” follows a group of girls and the tumultuous events that take place in their Morning Reckoning Fan Club — named in honor of their favorite boy band — over the course of multiple decades. Lola Hodgins stars as Kandace, Spade You as Trisha, Ava Hartman as April, Maddie Colucci as Emily, Advika Ravishankar as Sue and Emi Prudhoe as Nadia.
Trumbull discussed when the idea for “Morning Reckoning” came to her during a playwriting workshop and talked about how it is inspired by her own experience as a teenager.
“I took a playwriting workshop over the pandemic, and it [“Morning Reckoning”] was born out of that,” Trumbull said. “My play was originally based on a memory that I have of hanging out with my high school best friends at a sleepover in a basement and having a great time, celebrating boy bands and making up dances.”
Between the actors’ frequent lip-synced dance numbers, witty references to past and present pop culture and comical performances, “Morning Reckoning” felt undoubtedly light-hearted. However, it does deal with a range of more serious subjects, including familial estrangement, mental health issues and substance abuse.
Zoey Allen, a first-year anthropology major, said Pitt Stages brought to life the script’s depiction of Kandace’s complex relationship with her parents, but it was notably brief.
“I think they did what they could with the script,” Allen said. “I feel like they touched on Kandace’s parents a little bit in Act 1 and then a little bit at the end of Act 2, but that was all we really got.”
Allen, who is enrolled in a dramatics class that required her to attend “Morning Reckoning,” read the script prior to the performance. She praised the actors’ execution and said the play was good, albeit lengthy.
“I thought their performances were very good,” Allen said. “It was very long though, I would say, for a play like this. But other than that, it was enjoyable.”
Each act ran for a little over an hour and, even though the play was holistically entertaining, intermission felt long overdue.
Stage Manager Colin Eccher, a sophomore marketing major, said a highlight of his managerial role was watching the production evolve throughout the creative process into the final version they get to present to audiences.
“One of my favorite things of being a stage manager is getting to watch the show go from the first day of rehearsal when we’re all sitting around a table, to under sound and lights and everything,” Eccher said. “[It] was a very rewarding experience to see the story come together, and the actors come together, and watch it all come to life and be able to share that with audiences.”
An earlier, one-act version of “Morning Reckoning” debuted during the 2022-2023 Community Supported Act season at Pittsburgh’s New Hazlett Theater. Trumbull directed that production of “Morning Reckoning,” but she said her aim this time around was to relinquish directorial control and exist solely as the playwright.
“In the previous iteration of this play, which was a one-act production at the New Hazlett Theater in 2023, I directed the production. And while it was incredibly fulfilling, it also was really challenging because I had to wear two hats, and I actually stopped thinking as the playwright and started thinking more as the director and how I was telling the story,” Trumbull said. “In this production, I want to see what happens if I step away and I allow someone else’s brain to bring the play to life — in this case, Ashley Martin and the wonderful team she’s assembled.”
But while Trumbull wanted to hand over creative control, she said doing so was the hardest part of the process.
“When I’m writing [a play], I have a very vivid picture of how I see that play in my mind, how I see that living out, how I see certain characters interact and certain characters portrayed,” Trumbull said. “Stepping back and letting myself exist as the playwright, I have to let go of a lot of ideas that I have to see how other people bring them to life. So that’s been the main challenge.”
Visually, the play is quintessential ’90s — the costumes consist of multichromatic bomber jackets, neon scrunchies and knee-high socks and the set features various shades of brown. That being said, it effectively centers universal hallmarks of teendom — love and heartbreak, excitement and disappointment, a cringe-worthy obsession with a celebrity and friend groups that form, fissure and fall out — making it thematically relevant even now.
As for the impact of “Morning Reckoning,” Trumbull said she hopes it encourages audiences to reminisce about their younger years, revisit the experiences and people that made them formative and promote emotional understanding as well as holistic enjoyment.
“What I want people to take away [from “Morning Reckoning”] is a sense of reflection for their formative years, their formative experiences. I want them to walk away thinking about their high school friends and where they are now and if they still see them, and sort of just allow themselves to take a walk down memory lane,” Trumbull said. “I also hope that they walk away having empathy for some of the characters, maybe connecting to some of the characters, and also just having a good time with the production.”
“Morning Reckoning,” which runs from Friday, Feb. 14 to Sunday, Feb. 23, is not just a tribute to boy bands but the friends we listen to them with. It portrays, with heartfelt realism, how friendships evolve and ultimately suggests that it is not the love friends have for a common interest that binds them, but the love they have for each other.