The quiet murmur of polite voices filled the din of the theatre. On February 8th, I sat down in the middle row of the Amphitheatre, ready to watch “Earthquake ‘64”, a local production about a natural disaster. With Brian Cook as the Director, with a devised playwright by the cast, this was held by the Alaska Anchorage Department of Theatre and Dance in the Fine Arts Building. The general idea given on the pamphlet, that it was a “... historical experience that none of us had, and thus can only imagine.” However that’s not at all that was presented the moment the curtains were drawn. It opened with a somber showing of the entire cast of characters, speaking lines out of order of the play at key moments in the plot. Mainly to showcase each …show more content…
Every single emotive moment was undercut in one way or another by a poop joke, a funny dog gag, or having said dog figuratively urinate over the first row of the audience. All of which is played by one character, that by many in the lobby declared with glee, “Stole the show”. Becca Padrick played two characters in “Earthquake ‘64”: Coattails and Benny. Coattails is a muse-like character that arrives in between scenes and plays music about “squeezing one out during an earthquake”. Benny is the family dog of one of the most emotionally-driven points in the story, begins to talk to give a “sick burn” to her drunk owner, and at one point, ate poop which was substituted with chocolate pudding smeared across her face. Becca Patrick had, from the moment she walked onto the stage, an enormous charisma that is extremely hard to ignore. Every scene she was apart of, had me watch fixedly on her even when she was supposed to be idle in the background. Every moment she was on stage she was either the main focus, or so active that it was distracting from the main cast who were having a heartfelt …show more content…
The orange tones and dark silhouettes to present tone and emotion about fallen souls, or the shimmery patterns on the floor to represent water was phenomenal. Everything was deliciously professional about the lighting and sound, except for two specific instances. The first time was the bridge music and the second was the climactic scene where a family of five was whittled down to the parents alone amidst a tsunami. The latter example was so confusing in their song choice, that as there was a cut in the intermission, the audience continued to look around as if that was supposed to be a joke or a serious scene. “Requiem for a Dream” has been so overused in terms of dramatic tension that to use it seriously in a play caused major discomfort in the audience. Overall, despite having an overall negative outlook on this play, the people around me in the end didn’t seem too upset. When I was hung up over how “base” and “pandering” it was to the audience, and tried to prey on every emotion one could have in hopes of landing just a few notes instead of putting work into the stronger scenes they had to make the emotion more potent-- it seemed to not bother anyone but myself. People were laughing, clapping along, and even though they had the mild bout of confusion and awkward silence, didn’t seem like it ruined
Douglas Vermeeren from ReliablePlant states that “roughly 70 percent [of people] fail to achieve [their] goals” due to lack of motivation as well as being incapable of overcoming obstacles (Vermeeren). The high-school play Of Mice and Men directed by Dr. Mike Mikulics presents George and Lennie, the two protagonists, who failed to achieve their goal of purchasing a piece of land because of encountering problems at the ranch they worked at. The director illustrates that some dreams are nearly impossible to conquer, therefore having a plan B would ensure some success. The actors and actress executes the play Of Mice and Men magnificently through their ability to act, maintaining the audience’s interest, and the storyline.
The black box theater is a very intimate setting to begin with, and as I took my seat in the theater, I felt that intimacy. The theater was dark, and the audience was virtually silent before the production began. As I sat waiting for the performance to begin, I took in the lighting, the props, and the set as a whole, and I began to feel as if I were sitting just at the edge of a different time period. The design element that stood out most to me was the lighting of the river because the gobos and the selection of down lights made the river come to life, almost as if it was another character in this production. I was definitely drawn into the world of this play due to the intimacy of the black box theater and the lighting design of the
The play” Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead” was an interesting look at bullying through the eyes of teenage peanuts characters. We all remember our innocent childhood friends that walked us through the experiences of life, introducing new ideas and everyday interactions. Well, those kids grew up and Charlie Brown and the crew now show us the reality of the teenage struggles in the 21st century. The interpretation was very insightful and the characters felt real, creating a connection with childhood friends and reminding us of the reasons we loved them.
On March 16 I saw The Wedding Singer at Lawrenceville High School. Overall the Performing Arts Department did a good job with the resources they were given. The students were able to bring the characters of 70’s adults to the stage for most of the time and the costumes helped project those characters even more. Sadly the singing was only semi-decent and after intermission the amount of energy on stage went downhill fast and by the final celebratory number it was clear the majority of the actors were simply reciting lyrics and doing dance moves instead of enjoying what they were doing.
It was a risk to take but a risk well worth it. The costumes weren 't that impressive but it can be understood for such a low budget film. The dialogue in the scene is also brilliant as originally written by William shakespeare and conceived for television by Trevor Nunn. The dialogue is mainly the same as the play but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The scene also consists of two more characters the gentlewoman and the doctor.
The set design by Keely Enright aided in the dramatic action of the story by giving disorder to the stage presence and everyone on it. Things such as dirty clothing, cluttered rooms, tacky furniture and assumingly not smelling too pleasant make the scene appear as if there was a wild party here already. Queenie and Kegs’s costumes are dysfunctional, identifying with both the theme and the nature of their character. Burrs and Mr. Black’s characters were essentially polar opposites which showed in their acting and costuming. That polarity between the two lays out a complicated set of emotion and standards, which can be applied to
Savannah Live was a musical preformance held in one of the oldest continuing theater halls in the nation. The theater, appropiately named the Historic Savannah Theater, origionally opened in 1818, yet do to years of wear and tear and several fires, the modern theater was retrofitted to look like its 1940s, art-deco self. Although the stage was in the traditional Proscienim style, the play was anything but traditional. The stage hall itself seemed like something right out of the hay day of Broadway, with lights surrounding the procienian arch, red velvet chairs and carpet, the hall was like a time caplse bringing me back into the 20th centry. Mimicing the transformations of the hall throughout the years, the musical took the audience on a journey through musical, and theatrical history.
The performance was too long for me. From the director mouth it should have been longer; He was happy it had closed right before 11. I was tired and ready to go to sleep by the time I got to the car . But by far the most disappointing aspect of the play was the on stage props, or lack thereof. There was only foldable chairs for the actors to sit on and a cloth wallpaper of clouds that were simulating heaven.
The cast of the play are unaware of the audience, however, the audience is able to listen to dialogue that occurs throughout the theater, whether it is in the headsets between technicians, on stage between the actors playing their characters in the play and between the director and actors who make adjustments when necessary. The third fourth wall was at its edge of breaking, where the audience is almost unable to tell whether what they are experiencing is real or not. As an observer of the rehearsal of this play, this wall was broken when I understood that what I was watching was a rehersal of a play, of a rehearsal of a play. It was difficult to describe or understand when the cast of 10 out of 12 were actually in or out of character. The complexity of this play lies in the use of metatheatre, which has been exploited to its fullest extent
The designs, lighting, sound, makeup, and music of the play are as crucial as the play itself. The people who put the production together work just as hard as those who make the play come to life. Without production elements, the play may not obtain the intended impact than with it. Each production element has its own objective as do the actors of the play. For Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, the production element that caught my attention out of all other elements were the costumes.
The result is a sweetly earnest endeavor that does not quite overcome the challenge of substituting real actors for the animated originals. It 's difficult to recreate the dreamlike magic of the kids playing crack the whip on a stage. The set had all the scene designs on together, whether it
Before the beginning of “The Play That Goes Wrong,” I’ve noticed that actors and crew members were doing last minute touch ups with the stage and wandering around the aisles, looking for their “dog.” Initially, I was very confused about what was going on and what “dog” they were referring to. However, I come to realize that it
I liked that Paula Vogel did not hold back and let all of the emotions of the play loose. I am anticipating that I will enjoy the play. I personally think I would like it more if the characters were portrayed by only people rather that people holding puppets, but they have too much symbolic meaning to be left out. I think the puppets are meant to resemble the fact that we really have no control over our own lives as children. The release of the real people from the puppets into adults symbolizes the freedom from their
A Chorus Line was different from any of the plays that we had seen during the semester, given that it was a musical. This is definitely what I am more accustomed to from watching my friends through the years preform this style alone essentially as well as my sister playing any Broadway musical soundtrack she could get her hands on for weeks on end. This felt so drastically different from anything else we had seen in the semester because it seemed that there was no end goal or resolution, it just ended. Sure, a handful of characters grew but a lot was left to the imagination at the end of the play. One thing that always sticks out within a musical are the songs itself.
As soon as people disagree they can not stand being told their views are wrong. I did not experience any emotional moments throughout the play. It was more of a dark comedy throughout. The Raleigh family were dressed in very nice clothes. The husband was in a suit and the wife was in a seemingly expensive dress.