Freeport Theatre Festival’s ‘The Rainmaker’ features sisters serving as director, actress
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Freeport Theatre Festival’s production of “The Rainmaker” is a family project for the Bronder sisters.
Kristy and Jen Bronder grew up watching local theater together with their parents. Now, for the first time, they’ll be working together in a local theater production at Freeport Theatre Festival this summer.
Jen Bronder is directing the theater’s production of “The Rainmaker,” which will feature Kristy playing the role of Lizzie Curry.
Jen Bronder said Rennick and Marushka Steele, the husband-and-wife duo who own and operate Freeport Theatre Festival, approached them with the idea of working together on the play last fall.
“I love to work with them, so, of course, I’m happy to do it,” said Jen Bronder, who teaches at Freeport Theatre Festival’s Junior Drama Camp. She works as a drama and language arts teacher at Knoch High School, where she has produced and directed more than 30 performances, and she holds a master’s degree in theater education from New York University.
Kristy Bronder acted in the theater’s production of “President Arthur’s Inspiration” last summer. She studied acting at Westminster College before moving to New York City to attend the School for Film and Television, now known as the Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. She holds a master’s degree in theater arts from the University of Pittsburgh, where she works.
“Jen and Kristy are remarkably talented young women,” Marushka Steele said, calling them role models.
In the play, penned by N. Richard Nash in the 1950s, Lizzie lives with her father and two brothers on a farm experiencing a severe drought during the Great Depression.
“At this time, women really needed to be married. Her brothers and her dad are really hoping they can find a husband for her so they can feel she’s going to be secure. She’s not exactly thrilled with the idea of just being married off. So there’s a little push and pull,” Kristy Bronder explained.
Then, a stranger named Starbuck comes to town, calling himself the Rainmaker. He promises — for the price of $100 — he can bring the rain and end the drought.
“He’s a character that brings hope, not just for rain that will save their farm, but a bright light or hope for the characters,” Jen Bronder said of the play’s namesake character. “The last year’s been hard for everybody. But the hope is still here. The idea to still have hope and still move forward through difficult times is something we can all relate to right now.”
The pair credited their interest in theater to their parents exposing them to the arts at a young age. Kristy Bronder pointed to a local production of “The Diary of Anne Frank” as the moment that sparked her love for theater.
“That production really stuck with me,” she said. “That prompted me saying, ‘I think I want to do this.’”
That interest in theater stuck with Kristy Bronder.
“I just loved live performance,” she said, explaining she feels a sense of “freedom” on stage. “I love the experience, the collaboration of putting a play together.”
Last year, when she took the stage for her first performance at Freeport Theatre Festival, she said, it reignited her passion.
“Theater has always been a passion of mine, but circumstances, life gets in the way,” she said. “I got away from being on the stage for a long time. Last year was an opportunity to give it a try again.”
Her sister said Kristy always was the actor of the family.
Jen Bronder said she, too, always had an interest in theater — but it wasn’t until, while in college, she did a stint student teaching with a theater teacher that she learned about directing while helping put together the school’s musical.
“Often with siblings, you’re interested in similar things, but you don’t want to be the same,” Jen Bronder said. “Acting was her thing. I found that directing and the backstage part of it was really where my strength was.”
The two sisters said they always support one another’s creative endeavors and attended each other’s shows.
Kristy Bronder said she would help get props and costumes for plays her sister was orchestrating at Knoch High School. Her sister, in turn, “saw every show that I did,” Kristy said.
The pair agreed finally working together on “The Rainmaker” fulfills a longtime goal.
“We’ve always been supportive of each other, but with this play, I get to see what it’s like to have her as a director,” Kristy Bronder said. “It’s a great experience already. It’s just fun for me to get to be in one of her shows, and I’m really enjoying the whole experience. It’s nice to have this opportunity where we both have the time. This is something that just came together. I think the timing was right.”
She added it was “kind of surprising” they hadn’t worked together on a performance sooner.
“It’s just how things worked out,” she said.
Jen Bronder said she treats her sister the same way she treats the other actors — including two of her former students, who play brothers.
“The cast is fantastic,” she said.
Because she knows her sister so well, Jen Bronder said, they can “really delve into the psychology of the character in a deep way,” highlighting what a unique character Lizzie is — particularly in the context of Great Depression America, in which the play is set.
“Even for a period piece, it really examines what Lizzie wants in her life, and how she really, even at the time, wants an equal. She wants someone who can stand up with her. Lizzie is modern for her time,” Jen Bronder said.
The Bronder sisters said their parents will be in attendance on opening night to watch the pair’s first performance together — though Jen Bronder said their parents got previews of this type of collaboration years ago.
“They saw a lot of shows in our attic with friends growing up that I’m sure were much lower quality than this one will be,” Jen Bronder said, referring to plays the two would create together as kids.
Other family members and friends also will come to support them, the sisters said.
“They’re very excited that we’re doing this together,” Kristy Bronder said. “It helps us both because it can be stressful at times, but it’s nice to have a support system. I absolutely have total trust. I trust my sister.”