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Published: Tuesday, May. 20, 2008 / Updated: Wednesday, May. 21, 2008 09:53 AM

The happy reaper crashes wedding

Judson Abraham is rehearsing for the grimmest of roles this week - but he's having fun. The Fort Mill senior is a member of the Children's Theatre High School Ensemble, presenting Federico Garcia Lorca's "Blood Wedding" at ImaginOn, Thursday thru Saturday evenings at 7:30 p.m.

Lorca's lyrical folk tragedy leaves its amorous, hard-working groom at the altar. The bride, alas, will be rushing to the arms of Leonardo, who has prior entanglements of his own.

Here's where the fun begins for Abraham. He will be Death - but he won't be wielding that big sickle.

"Death decides to take the form of a Beggar Woman," Abraham said, "to lure the Groom to his death because the Groom has an affinity for elderly genteel women. And Death has conversations with the Moon, who is played by Julia Grigg.

The parts involve a lot of poetry, and it's sort of odd, which makes it very fun to do."

Abraham does some moonlighting of his own during "Blood Wedding," switching costumes - and genders - to portray the Father of the Bride. No, he's not exactly a champion of Leonardo's interests.

"He's very eager for the wedding," Abraham said, "because the groom's family has a lot of land that he wants to be attached to, and he is very eager for his daughter to have children because he wanted sons, but he got his daughter."

The 17-year-old actor has been involved in theatre for quite a few years. He has appeared in Fort Mill Community Playhouse productions of "Bandstand Tales 2," "Money, Murder, Lust, Revenge, and Marvelous Clothes," and a couple of FMCP's summer youth shows before that. Twice he's been part of the summer program at the Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville.

Abraham auditioned for Ensemble at the beginning of the school year and has been building his theatre skills since then - through intensive performance exercises, scene study, and talks from professional actors. Three weeks ago, "Blood Wedding" scripts were distributed to the Ensemble and Abraham prepared for another audition.

He got the part - two of them.

"We're making new realizations about the characters and what their motivations are," Abraham said. "You think it's very simple, but the more into it you get with Lorca, it's such a simple plot, but there is so much under it. He can be very complicated with a very economic style."

All tickets to "Blood Wedding" are $10.

Call (704) 973-2828, or visit www.ctcharlotte.org.