The "Cry It Out" three main characters - played by Maegan Whitlock (left), Kat Wilcox (middle), and Logan Lynn (right) - discuss the hardships of being a mom.

UTC Theatre Department Performs “Cry It Out”

By: Brenna Powers

            CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (mocsnews.com) – The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Theatre department has put on yet another amazing performance.

            The UTC Theatre department performed Molly Smith Metzler’s play “Cry It Out,” which centers on three moms and the struggle of balancing babies, husbands, and work life. The three main characters were played by UTC’s very own Logan Lynn, Kat Wilcox, and Maegan Whitlock.

              The performance took place Tuesday through Saturday, Feb. 22-26 at the UTC Fine Arts Center. There was a total of six performances: one matinee showing and the rest starting at 7:30 p.m. with a ten-minute intermission. Tickets were available for purchase online via the UTC website.

            Logan Lynn – a junior at UTC – played Jessie, the kind but uptight mom of a newborn. Lynn explained that preparing for the show was a lot of work, especially since this was only the third show she has acted in at UTC.

Kat Wilcox (left) who plays Lina, and Logan Lynn (right) who plays Jessie, having a conversation during their regularly scheduled coffee time while their babies nap.

            “I have worked behind the scenes on a ton of shows here at UTC, but this is my first huge role,” Lynn said. “In the show, there are only three pages where Jessie isn’t speaking.”

            With a run time of a little over two hours, the play was filled with comedy, sadness, friendship, and hard decisions. Constantly keeping the audience on their toes, the main characters dealt with the decision of whether or not to go back to work or to take more time away from work to focus on their children. In a time of chaos, one of the moms – played by Maegan Whitlock – even got the chance to throw eggs onto the stage from where the viewers sat.

            Hannah Engelbrecht, a senior at UTC, explained that although building the set for “Cry It Out” was fun, there was still a lot to get done in a short amount of time.

            “It was definitely stressful building the set for our production,” Engelbrecht said. “The railing for Jessie’s house took forever and we were super behind because the roofs of the houses gave us issues.”

The “Cry It Out” set features Lina’s house (left) and Jessie’s house (right) as well as a baby playset where the two moms came to sit in the opening scene of the play. The set pieces were built by UTC students.

            There was a lot of work put into this performance, both on the stage and behind the scenes. Performances at UTC tend to be overlooked, but there are a lot of hardworking and dedicated people that strive to make shows possible for students – and others – to come and see.

Although the UTC performance was not filmed, there is a short video below to show a synopsis of the play and to point out the hard work that is gone into a performance, that should not be overlooked. This video shows those who are performing for the City Theatre Company.  

About Brenna Powers

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