‘Rabbit Hole’ cast tenderly approached play’s themes of grief, acceptance
Syracuse University’s Black Box Players’ latest play, “Rabbit Hole,” centers around dark themes, specifically navigating grief. To balance the play’s heavy subjects, the cast makes sure they are connected with their emotions before and after rehearsals. Courtesy of Emma Yee
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Melancholic music reverberates through Clark Theatre at Syracuse Stage. The lights shine on Gabby Samuels, folding up children’s clothes in the show “Rabbit Hole”.
In another scene, she’s taking drawings off a wall that Danny, her young son in the play, drew before his death.
“It’s such an important (play) to show how different people deal with grief,” said Samuels, a junior studying acting and musical theatre who plays Becca Corbett. “Not everyone is on the same journey.”
Syracuse University’s Black Box Players performed their final show of “Rabbit Hole,” on Saturday. Directed by SU junior Grace Mineiro, “Rabbit Hole” is based on the 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by David Lindsay-Abaire. The play focuses on the aftermath of grief, following Becca and Howie Corbett eight months after their son Danny was fatally hit by a car driven by 17-year-old Jason.
Mineiro, artistic director for Black Box Players, started planning for the 2026 season with former artistic director Weller Dorff in February 2025. At the time, Mineiro was taking an acting class where she first encountered “Rabbit Hole.”
After reading the material for a few weeks, Mineiro knew she wanted to direct the piece and suggested it to Dorff. “Rabbit Hole” follows Black Box Players’ “Alice in Wonderland” theme for the 2025-26 season, focusing on self discovery, Black Box Players’ campus engagement director Jack Wyant said.
Before rehearsals, Mineiro read the script “again and again” as she researched case studies about grieving parents to gain a deeper understanding of it. Throughout rehearsals, Mineiro tried to make sure cast members felt supported as they prepared the show.
“Rabbit Hole,” Syracuse University’s Black Box Players’ latest play, is about a couple navigating grief after the sudden death of their son. To ensure the cast was not too emotionally affected by the play’s dark nature, director Grace Mineiro made sure rehearsals were in a safe space. Courtesy of Emma Yee
“We did what we could to help keep the space lighthearted and fun despite it being a heavy show,” Mineiro said.
Wyant, a sophomore who played Jason and understudies Howie, said Mineiro created a safe space for emotions. Mineiro said she made sure the cast connected to their emotions before and after rehearsals.
Since Wyant’s character didn’t appear onstage with the main cast until the second act, Wyant said he mostly rehearsed away from everyone else. But, when his character connected with the main characters for the first time, the moment allowed the cast to bond even when the topic was serious.
“It’s what led us to being such a tight cast,” Wyant said. “We’re all such good friends.”
Due to the heavy source material, students tried to make rehearsals feel lighthearted; it helped them as actors, Samuels said. In one of their first rehearsals together as a cast, they practiced an emotionally tense scene. Instead of fully embracing the scene’s dark nature, the cast found humor in it, Samuels said.
“Everything was super funny,” Samuels said. “We couldn’t hold in our laughs.”
Evan Leone, who plays Howie, first heard about “Rabbit Hole” when he spent a semester in London. Leone already knew the source material, and when he learned about the chance to perform in the show, he jumped at the opportunity to play Howie, he said.
To prepare for the show, Leone said he traveled to Larchmont, New York, where the play takes place, to understand where the characters come from. Leone hopes audiences will leave the show understanding how to handle grief when an unexpected death happens.
“The play ends in a very different way than other plays, where it just kind of ends with the unknown,” Leone said. “We don’t know how we’re going to go on, but we’re gonna figure it out.”
As college students are still discovering themselves, it’s important for people to find spaces to discover who they are, and theater can serve as a space for self-discovery, Wyant said. He hopes audiences will leave considering others with different perspectives.
“You’re not meant to root or hate anyone,” Wyant said. “You’re meant to understand them.”
