I thought it was really interesting how they used comic book art as a storyboard for the entire play as it was happening. Steve would narrate the story and when a big plot point happened he would put it up on the wall in storyboard form. It shows that he likes to express his feelings and tell his story in a certain way: through art. When he is in the courtroom he seems more terrified and less willing to share his life experiences and be present. I don't blame him for that because of course I would rather express myself through art than in a courtroom. By the end you see him get more comfortable expressing himself in the courtroom and I think his art taught him that. I also really loved the style of the art. It seemed like a superhero comic like Steve's little brother liked. I thought that was sweet to have them hint that he was thinking about his brother when he was writing his movie. His film teacher (Chris Rickett) also came into the courtroom and he was asked if Steve was a truthful kid. And he said he thought he was because of his movies. I think that helped Steve seem like a good person to the judge and jury.
Steve's mom (Alana Arenas), dad (Kenn E. Head), brother (Tevion Devin Lanier), and Steve all seemed very close. They seemed to like spending time together until Steve got into trouble on winter break. It was so heartbreaking to see his mom get so sad and mad at the police officers when they were taking Steve away. The family tried to keep the bond that they had with Steve even when they couldn't touch him because there was no touching allowed in the place where they could visit him in jail. You could see the little brother really missed him--like how he would try and wave to his big brother from outside the prison because children weren't allowed. He would play superhero with Steve and that was so cute and made it even more awful when they took Steve away. There was a scene where Steve's dad was coming for a visit and he could not handle seeing his son in jail. At the end of the scene, he walked off crying. It made it more real, and it made me cry. I feel like you see moments in this play where the people in the story pour out all their feelings at once. That makes for very intriguing characters.
It was interesting how they cast each actor, except Steve, as more than one role. It was awesome to see the huge switch in their characters that they had. Every character was so different from the others. I found that very enjoyable. I thought it was interesting how the dad also played Bobo, a person who was involved with the robbery and he seemed to be trying to get everyone else in trouble so he wasn't the only one getting in trouble. The dad was so caring and sweet and just wanted to help his son get out. The actress who played the mom also played the prosecutor and she wasn't on Steve's side. I thought it was amazing how her whole physique gained so much more posture when she was the lawyer. It was cool to see her snap into two very different characters. The actor who played the little brother also played Osvaldo who was basically bullying Steve in their neighborhood. I thought it was interesting how the same actors who played the family also played people who were against their son and brother. There was also a very poised judge and a unreliable witness cousin, which were very very different characters as you may have guessed, and they were played by the same person (Ginneh Thomas). She was King's (Namir Smallwood) cousin and his alibi and her entire testimony seemed to be mostly about her lamp. Seeing the witness become the judge after the testimony was pretty funny. I think it was good to have some comedic moments in a play that is mainly very depressing.
I almost have some sympathy for King, even though he seems to have done more wrong that Steve, because he is also not being fairly tried. And Bobo seemed to have sold him out on stuff that might not even have been truthful. I think that makes a very complicated and interesting character when you don't know how you feel about them or their situation. Also Steve's lawyer (Cheryl Graeff) fits in the same category because you have mixed feelings about her. She is doing her job well but she seems sometimes to not want to be in the same room with her client. Whenever he wants to thank her for anything, she wants to get somewhere else.
People who would like this show are people who like cool storyboards, connected families, and lamp testimony. I think that people should definitely, definitely go see this show. I thought this was a really awesome show. It was very powerful and intriguing and I really liked it.
Photos: Michael Brosilow
Vladimir, who gets called Didi, and Estragon, who gets called Gogo, meet two people while they are waiting for Godot; they are Pozzo (Christian Castro) and Lucky (Jordan Arredondo). The show implies that Pozzo is a political figure and he seems to have power over people during the apocalypse thing that is happening. I think it is interesting how they made him a political figure because a lot of political figures now are a lot like Pozzo. Some of them abuse their power. Lucky is actually much older than Pozzo and is working for him as basically his slave. Pozzo abuses his power over Lucky to scare him and make him do what he wants. I think Pozzo is a really terrifying character to the other characters in the show because they don't know who he is but he clearly has a lot of power over people. He makes Lucky do this strange dance and go into this academic paper monologue which kind of seems like it is about religious figures and then occasional bird noises. I thought that was very weird but very interesting to see what this person who never really speaks keeps in his mind. He hasn't said anything up until this point and he seems to have all these facts stored in his head. When Gogo and Didi see how Pozzo treats Lucky, they see what he can do to a person and that makes them a little more terrified of him.
In act two, near the end, there is a strange sequence where basically Didi and Gogo are swapping around different hats. For a good amount of the play the optimist is Didi and the pessimist is Gogo. Didi alaways thinks Godot will be here any minute and every time he is not. And Gogo thinks "he's never going to come, why don't we just leave?" And they start putting hats on each other's heads: Lucky's hat, Didi's hat, and Gogo's hat. (This must be a pretty terrible apocalypse because there is no fashion whatsoever.) I think it means in the final part of the play that they swap around who is the optimist and who is the pessimist. Didi basically loses hope that Godot will ever come. He's wearing Lucky's hat when he's doing this, and I think that means that he is weaker, so it is harder for him to be hopeful. And I think he might be able to see things more clearly because Lucky's hat makes you think. I would say that Beckett thinks pessimists are more likely to be right. From what I know of his work, he seems to be a pessimist.
I noticed that if you put the names Didi and Gogo together, you kind of get the name Godot. So maybe they are waiting for each other, which is adorable. They are kind of the cutest couple, but they don't really know it. I think that Gogo is actually in love with Didi, but Didi might not be in love with Gogo, but you can't be completely sure. It could be about friendship and not at all about romance. They have a close bond which you can see when Gogo is like "I'm leaving" but he comes back after a night. He clearly needs to be around Didi. They kind of don't want to leave each other's side. Even when they are talking about killing themselves, they want to do it together.
People who would like this show are people who like close relationships, swapping hats, and occasional bird noises. I thought this was a good show. I thought the actors were all very good, and I think the script is insanely weird, but I liked it for that. I think Waiting for Godot is a really interesting play to try and figure out.
Photos: Sergio Soltero
I was so happy to be chosen as a finalist for the GenZ Critics Club film review contest this year. You can read my review of Moana on their site. While you are there, check out the other great reviews!
I really liked the aesthetic of the show. I think they took inspiration from The Swing by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, which is a painting from the 18th century of a woman on a swing in a very fancy dress with a hat and surrounded by a frame of trees. And there is a guy who is getting an "accidental" view up her skirt. The set (by Kevin Depinet) has a swing, the floor looks glossy like a painting, and the background looks like it has the trees and clouds from the painting, which I think is very cool looking. The style of the play seems very romanticized. It is about attraction more than true love. And the painting's other name is The Happy Accidents of the Swing, which I think refers to what one of the men in the painting's view is. He is not really falling in love with her, he just thinks she is attractive. The costumes (by Christina Poddubiuk) also look exactly like the painting. All of the women wore flat hats and pouffy dresses. And the men wore buckle shoes and breeches. I would happily wear any of these costumes. I think they are beautiful.
My favorite scene was where Berowne had written a love letter to Rosaline and he was thinking what she may think of it. And then the King walked in talking about his lady love, even though they had all sworn not to even talk to any women. And then Berowne hides up in a tree as quickly as he possibly can, which is, of course, hilarious to see. And then Longaville enters and the King hides and Longaville talks about his lady love and says some pretty embarrassing stuff. And then Dumaine walked in and Longaville hid and Dumaine starts talking about his love. And then the King pops out and starts talking about how terrible what Dumaine and Longaville have talked about is and how Berowne would be disappointed in them for falling in love. And then Berowne pops out of the tree scaring the crap out of everyone and starts talking about how the King has also fallen in love and written this love letter to the Princess. Then Costard (Alex Goodrich), who is basically a messenger who has great comic timing and who is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, runs in with Jaquenetta (Maggie Portman) who has Berowne's letter to Rosaline. Once Berowne sees it and realizes what the contents are, he rips it up and starts to eat it. The rest of the scene is going on behind him and he is at the front of the stage eating his letter. I was dying laughing. Eventually everyone makes him spit out the letter he has been eating and they realize what it is. He's just been chastising everyone else about writing love letters, so this is a pretty embarrassing experience for him.
I noticed a few moments that seemed a lot like other Shakespeare plays. I'm going to sue Shakespeare for plagiarizing Shakespeare! Don Armado (Allen Gilmore) had fallen in love with Jaquenetta and he seemed like Orsino in Twelfth Night because he was always mourning over being in love as if it were a terrible thing. And he wants music from his page Moth (Aaron Lamm) to make him feel better about being in love. Another moment I thought was a lot like A Midsummer Night's Dream. They basically did a play within a play, about the Nine Worthies, like he will later with "the most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe" in Midsummer. They have one scared performer each: Sir Nathaniel (Greg Vinkler) and Snug the Joiner. There's the overly confident one: Don Armado and Bottom. And there's the badly cast one: Moth as Hercules and Flute as Thisbe. I also think that Rosaline seems a lot like Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing. She's witty, smart, and stands with her friends above anything, like Beatrice does with Hero. I think it is very interesting that Shakespeare would take inspiration from his own plays. Basically he tries out these characters and situations in Love's Labor's Lost, one of his earlier plays, and then he makes them more well-thought-through and more complex in the later plays.
People who would like this show are people who like eating love letters, swing "accidents," and self-plagiarism. I think people should definitely go see this show. I thought it was an absolute blast and I loved it.
Photos: Liz Lauren
There is loud hip hop music playing when you first come in. I am a fan of a lot of hip hop, so I was nodding my head and tapping my feet. It is supposed to make some people feel uncomfortable and other people feel more comfortable. I think I was in the middle. I would have liked all the songs, except I was sitting between my parents, and there were some very explicit lyrics happening. There were definitely people--not my parents--around me that really did not like the music and felt really uncomfortable. Elliott (Elliott Jenetopulos) and Will (Will Wilhelm), have been dancing around in the audience and handing out ear plugs. Then they start the show and start to talk about themselves and what pronouns they each prefer to be referred to as (they and them), and basically warning everyone that the rest of the players in the show will be straight white men. And they tell you about the experiment with the loud music. Some people seemed to feel a little betrayed by the experiment, but the program explained it as well and I found the experiment very interesting. I would like to do an experiment like this myself. They said, "If you enjoyed that music, congratulations on your moment of privilege." It made me think about how there are a lot of people who might not feel comfortable at a typical show. Basically throughout the rest of the show Elliott and Will's job is to move the actors into position to start each scene, which I think is very interesting because it reversed the usual power of pushing around people. Gender nonconforming people get to control the type of people who have been trying to control them, straight white men. (Roll credits.)
There is a very big escalation of what is at stake for this family. Near the beginning, Jake and Drew break out this old board game that their mom made called "Privilege," which was intended to make them not jerks. That is the lowest the stakes are, because they are just playing a game. But by the end everyone is talking about what makes a terrible person and who in their family abuses their privilege. Basically they are trying to figure out what is wrong with Matt when he bursts into tears at the dinner table and why he is living at home with his dad when he graduated from Harvard and has always been smart and stood up for equal rights. In a normal play with straight white men in it, they just think about themselves as people, not as straight white men, which is a cool difference about this play. There are many plays that are about the experience of being gay, a woman, or a person of color. And there are lots of plays about straight white men but they don't think of themselves as having a straight-white-man experience--they just think of it as the experience. When some people think of a show called Straight White Men written by a woman of color, they might think that it is just going to be really really mean to white men. But it is actually trying to understand them, and I think it does a pretty gosh-darn good job of it by showing a bunch of straight white men trying and sometimes failing to be good people and thinking about how to use their privilege in an effective way for the rest of the world.
I felt like the sweetest moment was after they had gotten into a fight but they decide to make up by having a dance party all together. Matt seems very shy throughout the entire show, but in this scene he busts out some cartwheels and other gymnastics moves and does the worm and it is mindblowing. It is just so sweet to see this family having so much fun together. Another fun family tradition is where Ed buys pjs for his entire family and they have a pj modeling runway, which is hilarious. Basically each of them strikes a hilarious pose, anything from album cover to fashion magazine. I thought it was hilarious and adorable to see the cute family traditions. There is this one moment where Ed spills some chips and Matt had to vacuum them up and he had also just heard everyone there talking crap about him behind his back. The spilling was very convincing; I almost thought something had gone wrong. And Matt just comes out with a vacuum cleaner and does the longest vacuum cleaning ceremony you have ever seen. He's so zoned in on his vacuuming and making everything in that section spotless. Everyone has to put up their feet and they all sit silently. That is comedy gold.
People who would like this show are people who like loud hip hop, privilege board games, and vacuum cleaning ceremonies. I thought this was a really awesome show. I think it had a great story and message. I really loved it.
Photos: Michael Brosilow
Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called The Scottsboro Boys. The book was by David Thompson and the music and lyrics were by John Kander and Fred Ebb. Direction and choreography were by Samuel G. Roberson, Jr. It was about the Scottsboro case, but it was a musical. The Scottsboro case was a case of nine African-American men and boys who were accused unfairly of rape during the Depression: Olen Montgomery (Travis Austin Wright), Andy Wright (Maurice Randle), Eugene Williams (Cameron Goode), Haywood Patterson (James Earl Jones II), Clarence Norris (Stephen Allen, Jr.), Willie Roberson (Izaiah Harris), Ozie Powell (Trequon Tate), Roy Wright (Jerome Riley, Jr.), and Charles Weems (Jos N. Banks). That certainly isn't the most fun topic for a musical, but it is a story that needs to told. It is heartbreaking, disturbing, and it made me feel really angry and sad about the injustice that was done to these people.
My favorite song was "Go Back Home." It made me cry because they all had such beautiful voices and you could feel how much they wanted to get home to what they missed. Haywood and Eugene lead this song and they have little talking sections where they talk about what they hope to see when they get home. Eugene was talking about how he was really hoping he could get home for his 12th birthday, which is really sad because he is still very young but he has still been accused of this terrible crime because of a lie someone told. And he spends many years in prison because of it. It was insane to me that a little boy would be accused of something like this. Haywood had the most tragic ending, in my opinion. I think that by the end when you think back on the song it is even more sad. Even though he was innocent and wouldn't even lie, he still never gets to go home in the show.
Victoria Price (Banks) and Ruby Bates (Tate), the accusers, were played by two of the Scottsboro Boys, but they at first did not "make friends with the truth." And Victoria never does. Even though they were terrible people, they still made pretty funny characters. Especially Ruby because she wasn't as evil; she didn't make the plan and she also tried to get them out of prison once they had been put in. Both characters had great mannerisms, like they seem to always be fanning themselves. Ruby had a mink scarf that whenever someone would get on her nerves, she would scare them away with one of the faces. I think it was appropriate to have these characters portrayed by men because the Scottsboro Boys had been stereotyped and now that they have a chance to stereotype someone else, they do. I think that is pretty satisfying. There was only one female actor in this entire show, though, but she had a very important role even though she didn't speak until the end. She played a very key role in the civil rights movement's history. I thought that was a great reveal at the end: who she was and why she was thinking of the Scottsboro Boys.
The brothers, Andy and Roy Wright, were very close and they never seemed to get mad at each other. They seemed to help each other through everything, which was a very sweet relationship to see. They were going somewhere to get jobs to help their family and now they don't know if their family can pay for everything. They both seem to try and help the rest of the Scottsboro Boys get in touch with their families. Also, because one of them was a little older than the other, they didn't get to leave the prison together. Seeing them hug when they may never see each other again was so heartbreaking. This had a lot of emotional impact on me. You got to know so much about how they missed their mom and their sister, so when one of them gets to go off and see them and the other one may die, it was really moving.
All of the Scottsboro Boys were also part of a minstrel show in this version. It was run by the Interlocutor (Larry Yando), who would basically ask everyone questions. Mr. Bones (Denzel Tsopnang) and Mr. Tambo (Mark J.P. Hood) are basically like clowns in the minstrel show and in the real story they play many of the white characters. I thought that was interesting because you kind of got to see the opposite of the blackface minstrel show, where white people played black characters. I thought that the minstrel theme sometimes was disturbing though. It seemed as if they were trying to make light out of a very very dark story. I also think that because the show was written by white men, it seemed as if instead of progressing forward in history they were taking it back to a bad time but not because the musical needed it. I think if black writers had chosen to stage a minstrel show, it would have felt more comfortable and progressive because it wouldn't have felt like the writers were doing the same thing the Interlocutor was doing in the show--that is, making African-American people perform a minstrel show. I think the writers were trying to show the story in a unique way, but they leave themselves open to being seen as unprogressive. I did think the performers and the director (and possibly the writers, but it is hard to tell) worked to make the performances in the minstrel scenes more rebellious against stereotypes of their culture. You could see by the performers' expressions during the minstrel numbers that they were not enjoying this. But whenever they would do the sincere story, they seemed to be really feeling it, identifying with their characters and wanting the story to be told.
People who would like this show are people who like touching sibling relationships, going home, and scary scarves. I think this was a good show. It had some great and touching moments and I enjoyed it. It made me want to learn a lot more about this case and it made me think a lot about injustices that are happening today and how we all need to do something about it.
Photos: Kelsey Jorissen
I thought that all of the scenes had great character connections. All the boys seemed like they had known each other for years and the new teacher, Irwin, seemed so confused around this sea of hormones and hyperactivity. I feel like you really get to see how close the boys are in the scenes with Hector. They all seem to know exactly what each other's sense of humor is and what they can do to make the others laugh. They had this tradition where they would take a movie and reenact one scene from it and see if Hector could guess what it was from. Of course, Hector was very knowledgable and knew most of the movies, but sometimes he would trick them and pretend that he didn't at first. They did a scene from Now, Voyager featuring Timms (Stephen McClure) and Lockwood (Matthew Harris) which was hilarious. They are two people who are very passionate about each other. The way Timms said "love" when he, as Charlotte, said "People who love you" was so shaky and regal at the same time and it was super funny. Lockwood was trying to be very very stoic and Lockwood did not really seem that way, so the result was that hilarity ensued. This scene showed how connected the boys were to each other and to the teacher because they have so much fun together and enjoy spending time together. That made the end all the more sad.
Posner has had a huge crush on Dakin, and Dakin knows that he does but he doesn't really seem to be mad about it or think that it is unusual. I think that relationship was very intriguing. Even though Dakin is not very nice to Posner about his affection for him, he isn't homophobic. Dakin basically never seems to take anything seriously and he uses the fact that he thinks everyone is attracted to him aggressively. He becomes a lawyer for a living which makes a lot of sense because he tricks people into being on his side even when it is not the right choice. Posner, however, doesn't seem to do as well as Dakin in love and life. He seems to be a really good person; he is nice and smart, but for some reason no one seems to care. And Posner, even though he likes Dakin, doesn't get the fairy tale ending he wanted. He gets something like it, but not what he wanted.
There are four different views on education in this play. The headmaster (Andrew Pond) thinks that all teaching should be very strict and precise. He seems to think that there are teachers and there are students and they cannot become friends or be on the same level. There is also a same-level teaching style; it is to become best friends with all of his students and have a blast all day, like Hector! This kind of closeness may lead to inappropriate relations, which is a problem with it, but it doesn't have to be that way if the teacher doesn't allow it. You can also be a parental figure like Dorothy Lintott (Lisa Savegnago). She seemed to be the sweetest teacher in the school and celebrates her students' ups and helps them when they are down. And then there's Irwin. Well, all he seems to care about is getting his students into a good school. I don't think he really wanted to befriend any of his students. It kinda seemed like he teaches for himself to get a good reputation. But by the end he seems slightly swayed by his students to become friends with them. I agree with Hector that learning should be fun and with Dorothy that you should be nice but also give students hard work, but I also agree with Irwin that sometimes you have to learn things that aren't fun for the sake of your education. I don't agree that you should lie if you are trying to get into a good college. I think you should tell the truth (which Irwin doesn't) because if the school doesn't agree with you, you don't want to go to that school.
People who would like this show are people who like unrequited crushes, different thoughts on education, and reenacting movies. I think people should go see this show. I think this is a great play and this production has a lot of really talented actors in it. I really enjoyed it.
Photos: Ian Smith, Katie Hunter
There were a lot of cool images in this play. Something that I found really cool was how they mixed dark colors with really bright colors (art direction by Lizi Breit and Dir). They also mixed the shadow screen images with live color video. Something I have always loved about Manual Cinema is how they put live action people in with puppets (designed by Breit, Dir, Miller, and Sam Deutsch). They incorporated miniatures as well (designed by Andrea Everman) because Philomenia and her sister had made many different worlds out of stuff lying around their house. I noticed a metaphor: Philomena eventually makes the best out of her situation just like she makes the best out of junk. They had a GoPro that was set up on the stage; it was there to film all of the actors not in shadow and to show you the miniatures up close. The cool thing was that they matched the projections so perfectly with the miniatures and real life characters. There was a moment that was very aesthetically pleasing to me where there was a ship that was stuck in a bottle that had a cork in it. Lucas was trying to get the little boat out. And that little sequence wasn't for nothing because Lucas used the boat to sail across to Phil-helen-ia, which is the world that Philomena and Helen created. There was also a rubber duck that seemed to be like a tugboat and I thought that was adorable and hilarious.
There were two famous historic figures in this show: Amelia Earhart (Miller) and Langston Hughes (Falls). It was fun seeing the shadow versions of them, and I thought it was cool that they were introducing these figures to kids at a young age. Amelia Earhart has always been one of my heroes, and I thought that it was awesome to see that she was a hero to Philomena in this story. I also really loved each of the scenes that they were in. Amelia Earhart gives Philomena a map. Sadly, eventually Philomena loses it. (I'd like to think I would be more careful with the map Amelia Earhart had given to me!) I thought it was cool and hilarious to see how Philomena reacted to seeing Amelia Earhart in the flesh--or in the shadow--in the Magic City. Langston Hughes was writing a poem but he was having a lot of trouble. Then Lucas decided that he was going to help. There was this little tune that Lucas played on a typewriter like it was a piano. Then Hughes and Lucas start playing a jazz song together on the typewriters. This was one of the most interesting scenes image-wise. It made me want a typewriter that was a piano; I'd write all my reviews on it.
The issue in the play is getting along and adjusting to new circumstances. I think a lot of kids have to adjust to things and a lot of pressure is placed on kids to get along with people. I think this play really shows where kids are coming from and kids can relate to it easily. Philomena-zilla is basically Philomena's inner demon, the part of her that just wants to destroy and kill everything. I think everyone has a zilla. Even Godzilla has a zilla! (So does Gamera--it gets very confusing.) Even though I did love Philomena-zilla, I did think she might have shown up too many times. I thought it was interesting how Philomena-zilla was the boss battle at the end. I think it might have been better to have just introduced her at the beginning and brought her back at the end because of all the times that they used Philomena-zilla it had gotten so that it was expected. Anger isn't defeated on the first try of course, but for the purposes of the story it would have worked better for me not to have to defeat her so many times.
People who would like this show are people who like building worlds out of junk, piano typewriters, and inner zillas. I thought this show was really fun to watch and people should definitely bring their kids to it. This is a good show that explores creativity, anger, and family in a simple but powerful way.
Photos: Charles Osgood
This show had a great aesthetic. From the moment you walked in, you could see all of the kids being mesmerized by the set. It looked a lot like geometrical building blocks. When they were covered in the snow it completely transformed the set. I noticed that they used things that would be familiar to younger kids, like the parachute that they used for the snow is a lot like parachutes that a lot of kids that age see in their school or classes. My younger friend really wanted to play on the set because it seemed like something that she recognized as a playground. (We now know you are not able to do that because we asked!) The costumes were almost exactly like the ones from the book. They even used some of the same patterns. It was amazing to see the clothes on stage that looked so much like the ones from the book. I think my favorite was probably Archie's (Felix Mayes) shirt which seemed exactly like the one in Goggles. Amy's (Kirra Silver) dress looked exactly like the one in the book; it seemed like they might have copied the pattern!
I loved how they didn't make the kids too fake-kiddie. They seemed very real. Like there was one moment when Peter was going to mail a letter to Amy inviting her to his birthday party and his mom (Sydney Charles) was putting on his raincoat and hat and he looked so mortified. You could tell he was thinking "Amy will never love me looking like this." And there was another moment in A Letter to Amy, where he was writing the letter and telling his mom about how he had to write the letter perfectly so "this way it's sorta special." And when you heard that you realized how this is basically his first crush and it is so important to him. And how he is throwing out all of these various drafts is so hilarious to see and then the outcome is just "Will you please come to my birthday party. Peter." with perfect punctuation! The mom's face when he finished reading the letter was so amazing; she just seemed to think it was adorable, which it was. And the character Archie was such a adorable nerd. He also kind of made it seem like Peter was one of his only friends at the time, which was sad but kind of cute. And Amy always seemed to want to talk to Peter, but Peter would chicken out, and the face that Amy would make--I have seen that face before on so many a seven-year-old kid.
I really liked the movement. I especially liked the puppets and how they were worked in with the movement. There was one time where Peter was making a snowman, and it looked sort of distorted, but that's because in the book The Snowy Day if you look at the snowman it looks like a lump with a creepy head on it, but still an awesome snowman. And when he made snow angels you could see the imprint of the point of his hood on the shadow, which I loved. It is also great to go back to the book after and see how many details they took from the book. Another thing I thought was adorable and exactly like a young child, was when Peter would slide down the slope he would want to go again and again and again. There was also cool movement involving people to make inanimate objects--like in Whistle for Willie they would use a few of the actors with a red, a yellow, and a green ball in their hands, and one of them had a orange glove on and they were pretending to be a traffic light. That was an amazing sequence and so awesome to watch.
People who would like this show are people who like kid love letters, people as traffic lights, and distorted snowmen. I think people should definitely take their kids to see this show. I think it is a great experience for kids of all ages and I really loved it.
Photos: Austin Oie
Vivian doesn't really have a family that she is in contact with, so the most important thing to her is her work. It seems to me that Donne is almost her family. It is kind of her job to listen to Donne, spend time with Donne, and try to understand him. She keeps quoting Holy Sonnet 6, which starts "Death, be not proud, though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so." I think that is a beautiful quote and it represents my take on the play I guess. Death in Donne's world is just another character. Donne did not seem to be afraid of Death; he stood up to Death. But in the world of the play, death is just there and is going to kill you. You can't argue with it you can't stand up to it. All you can really do is see what happens. At the beginning Vivian is trying to stand up to Death-as-a-character, but by the end she sees that death is something that can just take you at any moment.
The hospital was not always the most accommodating of places. This hospital generally treats patients more like lab rats than they do actual humans. Jason (Eduardo Xavier Curley-Carrillo) turned out to be one of Vivian's old students and he had to do a very invasive examination. I think she felt like she was being overthrown by her own student because he seems to have more power than her in this situation, She is used to people being more scared of her. But she is more of a subject than a person to him. She also feels violated by people much younger than her having the upper hand. In Vivian's career she has never been the one being helpless. That is not saying that they are mean to her; some of the workers seem to want to be helpful, like Dr Kelekian (Robert Cornelius). He seemed to always make light out of the treatment, but in Vivian's mind he seemed a little too nice. All that Vivian wanted was to get out of there. And she thinks if people are being nice to her that they think that she is being naive. But eventually she lets people into her life when she feels more vulnerable.
The last few moments of the play were the most moving, as you may have guessed. There was a moment where Vivian's professor Ashford (Millie Hurley) had come to see her. We had already seen the professor but now she was much older. The first time me meet Ashford she is acting as a teacher as well as a friend. She tells Vivian that she should go out with her friends, but Vivian just studies more and now Vivian is all alone and her old college teacher is her only visitor and friend. It shows how Vivian could have been a happier person if she had taken Ashford's advice. In the hospital, Ashford began to read a story about bunnies. Whoever thinks that a kids' book about bunnies can't be depressing--they are sooo wrong. I could not stop crying. It was so moving and sweet to see how much this teacher and her student connected on such a personal level. And of course the actors had to make it even more beautiful with their performances. When her teacher said, "It's time to go," I started ugly crying my eyes out. I never had an experience like this before. There was one nurse in all of the hospital that was truly kind to Vivian and that was Susie (Adithi Chandrashekar). Close to the end of the play, Vivian asked for a popsicle and asked if Susie wanted some. So they sat on the hospital bed and it was so moving to see Vivian make a real friend; you have never seen her really be truly nice to someone. Then they start to talk about if Vivian wants to be resuscitated, and she says no and you see in Susie's eyes that she will really miss Vivian. And when Vivian is dying, Susie protects her from being saved; it is so amazing and sad to see this nurse trying to stop people from saving her just because that's what Vivian would have wanted.
People who would like this show are people who like Donne, bunny books, and friendship popsicles. I think this is an amazing show, and I really loved it. It really moved me and i hope that everyone can see it! It closes February 19, and I don't want anyone to miss this experience!
Photos: Joe Mazza
This play doesn't seem like it would be a comedy because it is about someone dying slowly from a disease. But it actually is pretty hilarious, which when something bad finally happens makes it even sadder. The Third Man was basically like the comic relief. Even though there were other moments that were funny in the play, he was the main drive of the comedy. The doctor that they had called upon to help her get better was not the most sane of people. While he was talking to her he kept trying to resist drinking her pee in the most hilarious way possible. He would see his hand go toward the pee, and then realize what he was doing and try to stop himself by slapping his own hand away, which makes him look more insane. Eventually he cannot resist his hand anymore and he drinks the pee, which is one of the more disturbing but hilarious things I have seen in my life. Anna has many sexual encounters in Europe; each of her partners is played by The Third Man. One of the men is Dutch and has beautiful blond locks that looked like straw, because I think it was. And he was wearing slipper-clogs (costumes by Jeanine Fry) which is the most "fashionable" thing I've ever seen in my existence! He told a story about when he was a teenager and he was hanging out with all the cool kids and he kept saying all these things that sounded sexual even though they weren't. What makes it so funny is number one her face whenever he says any of those words and also his accent (dialect coach Catherine Gillespie) which was so exaggerated, but in the best way possible. The Third Man does basically every European accent. It is hilarious to see him switch between all the various accents.
The brother-sister relationship is really beautiful. They seem like best friends and they seem to take comfort in seeing each other and being around each other. I think the way that they communicated with each other was very truthful. I found it slightly unusual that they were so open with each other about their sex lives, but I think that was meant to show us how close they had always been to each other. They seem to have this connection where they always want to take care of each other. The characters seem even more empathetic when you find out what has been really going on.
There were a lot of moments that hint at what the ending is, and I think that is one of the very cool things that is incorporated in this show. Like Anna and Carl keep talking about this childhood bunny and they keep slinking around with it. They keep passing the bunny back and forth, and she keeps thinking he is smuggling things. You don't have any idea why they are doing that at the beginning, but at the end of the play you realize what that meant. At the beginning they have this moment where they switch seats when they are getting bad news, which seems just like bad blocking, but then you realize what it really means and how important it is to the entire story. At the end, you see how many things you hadn't noticed before. It is kind of like watching the play again in your head, only much shorter. They also do a slide show which is the biggest sign that something is not quite right about the way we are seeing the play. It is the biggest sign because all the slides don't really seem quite right.
People who would like this show are people who like close siblings, slipper-clogs, and smuggle bunnies. I thought this was a great show. It is a very complicated puzzle but it is a lot of fun to watch. I think people should go see this show. It is funny, heartbreaking, and weird in the best way. I really loved it.
Photos: Zach Dries
Rudi (Lane Anthony Flores) and Harry (Kyle Hatley) are a couple, but they have to hide their feelings because Harry is already married to a woman. They were not afraid of what they felt for each other, but they were afraid of what might be said about them. In one of the first scenes, Rudi shows Harry a dress that he has been working on that is completely made out of a circle. I thought there was a metaphor there. Like when people look at Harry and Rudi, they don't see a couple, they see friends. When you look at the circle dress you don't see a circle, you see a dress. But when everything unfolds you see the circle. Even if this metaphor wasn't purposeful, it was still really cool. And I thought that it was a really cool dress (costume design by Mierka van der Ploeg); it reminds me of the the dresses they wear at Beauxbatons in Harry Potter. I loved Rudi's character in general. I though he was really well developed; he was lovable but you could still see his flaws--like he would basically do whatever it took to be famous or get a good job. Rudi had been fully reconciled to his sexuality, which Harry is not yet. It is really beautiful to see Rudi help Harry discover his true self. And Harry eventually helps Rudi actually take action about injustice to the gay community. I have seen a lot of adorable relationships in shows, but this seems at first to be one of the most functional. They seem to have a system going where they listen to each other and help each other solve their problems, but that doesn't continue throughout the entire show.
Bob (Alex Weisman) was basically a player. He didn't really ever settle on one person. He seemed to be always in some kind of love octagon. Even though we only meet two of his boyfriends, Chuck (Rob Lindley) and Dale (Paul Fagen), we know that there are probably many many more. He still didn't seem to register how this would make other people feel. He would just say something along the lines of, "Why is everyone picking on sweet, funny Bob?" Dale works at a carnival and he is important to the Mattachine society because he was kind of the face of the organization because he agreed to coming out so that he could prove in court that the way that police were treating gay people was unfair. Chuck was Bob's other boyfriend and they lived together, but he agrees that Bob can see other people for the benefit of the relationship. He seems pretty sad a lot of the time. I think he and Dale should totally get together because they both know how Bob made everything kind of stupid for them. I think that Bob really wants love, but he doesn't know how to go about it in ways that won't hurt people.
The second act starts with everyone except Harry dressed up as women playing all the women in Harry's life. It was really interesting and cool because the actor who plays Rudi plays Harry's wife, which is really heartbreaking. It is interesting to see how he portrays the wife of his boyfriend. He portrays her like an actual person. If it is Rudi, and not just the actor who plays him, it would show you how Rudi feels sorry for her and how much respect he has for her. Harry's mom (Lindley) seemed to suspect or maybe even know that her son was gay, maybe because he compliments her hat one too many times. She seems to be okay with his sexuality, which I think makes a great mom. And she also really wanted to make tea--maybe too much! I thought this was a funny and emotional scene because it was about the experience of coming out to all the people that you love: how much you dread it and the crazy reactions you might get.
People who would like this show are people who like connection, circle dresses, and love octagons. I think that people should definitely go see this show. It was moving, beautiful, and hilarious. I really loved it.
Photos: Michael Brosilow
The play starts with basically a math class, taught by Ruth. Then Aninda (Anish Jethmalani) snaps his fingers and the entire scene pauses and he starts talking to you. He says, "You are probably very confused right now." I think that was perfect, because he is literally reading a lot of our thoughts. And then he did a mathematical magic trick which he also read our minds for. He said, no matter what number you pick, if you do the math correctly, then I will know what your number is. I thought that was pretty cool and crazy. I thought this character talked to us like he understood how alarmed and confused we were and he ended up making us feel a lot more welcome at this play. I really liked how he explained things more simply. String theory is looking through a lens that connects everything in the world and that's basically Aninda's job, to study string theory. His character connects things for the audience before and after they happen.
The relationship between Ruth and Al was adorable but also pretty sad. I won't tell you the reason it is so sad; you have to find out for yourself. They have their problems, but they seem to be a pretty great power couple. You can see really deep into what their lives are like, which is sometimes depressing, sometimes hopeful, and sometimes funny. Their first meeting I felt like described their relationship really well: quirky, a little sassy, adorable, and full of curiosity. She notices that he has been sitting in on all her classes and listening very intently even though he is not a college student. He says he has one number he is curious about, and that is hers. I thought that was the worst but the best pick-up line to use on a mathematician. That wasn't even my favorite adorable relationship. I think my absolute favorite relationship was between Hardy and Ramanujan. They were relationship goals. They worked so well together. What made me think Hardy was in love with Ramanujan was how much he used the word friend and how he emphasized it. I'm not saying that they were lovers but I think it is likely that Hardy liked Ramanujan as more than a friend. The other love story is between almost everyone in the play and math. Math is basically the way everyone expresses themselves. The play shows the creativity and connection that is sparked in people when they see numbers on a page or a chalkboard.
There is a scene in a hotel, which is one of the cooler scenes because Ramanujan and Al are both moving things around in their rooms, which overlap on stage, to make it feel more like home, even though they are not really in the same place or same time. Then the cleaning lady (Anu Bhatt) brings apples in, which kinds of sparks the moving of Ramanujan's and Al's stuff simultaneously--because nobody really knows what to do with those apples! That is kind of funny, but I also thought this was a cool and effective scene because you see how these two worlds cross and how two other worlds will cross in the future because the cleaning lady and Al's lives will cross again.
Al keeps talking, every few scenes, with this woman Barbara (Arya Daire) in "London" (she is actually in India) about getting his wife's number transferred to his phone. He thinks the phone number is a puzzle. I thought some of these scenes were hilarious. It is relatable because you see someone having the same troubles with a customer service representative as a lot of people. They didn't do the thing he's asked them to do, but she still acts like they've done him an enormous favor. Barbara and Al seem to get a friendship over time and they start to tell each other things that they hadn't told anyone before, even though it was a customer and a customer service representative. It shows that you can find people who will connect with you in the most unlikely places.
People who would like this show are people who like phone number puzzles, string theory, and inconvenient apples. I thought this was a beautiful show. I've never seen a show like this before that gives you so much to learn and makes it so fun. Seeing the show is like solving a big long word problem; it is very satisfying and it also tells a story.
Photos: Lara Goetsch
I really liked the fights (directed by Matt Hawkins). I thought they were super intriguing because they were very tense and precise and that made them fun to watch. The fights go from normal speed to slow motion, which is great because you can see all the cool moves they are using. Even though there aren't a huge amount of fights in the show, there is never a moment where everything breaks and stops; there is always something big happening. There are so many times when you get really invested in the story. One of the moments I was really invested in the story was when Iachimo (Jose Nateras) was trying to make Imogen fall in love with him, or at least convince Posthumus that she had betrayed him. Iachimo was also insanely creepy; he even called himself evil, which at least shows he is self-aware. Iachimo had been hiding in Imogen's room until she fell asleep, which is creepy thing number one. And then he started brushing her hair really weirdly and whispering to her, which is creepy thing number two. I saw a woman across the way and, whenever Iachimo would do anything creepy, she would put her feet up on her chair and like cringe in a ball. That just shows how invested the audience is in the story. When Imogen takes the potion later in the play, everyone is really intrigued by what is going to happen to her and her honorary brothers Arviragus (Terry Bell) and Guiderius (Dan Cobbler) and father Belarius (Martel Manning). Using -ius seems to be a pattern in this family. At one point it seems like she may be buried alive, and you feel very scared for her.
There are complex and deep relationships in this show, even though the story is more like a fairy tale. Imogen and Posthumus are very happy together until Posthumus is sent away. They seemed to really enjoy spending time together and it seemed to be a really effective relationship. Even though you don't get to see a large amount of their relationship because it is cut off so short, you still see their love for each other in the way they look at each other. They are like the first long distance relationship, though, so they have to deal with not being able to see each other but still be crazy about each other and trust each other. Cymbeline also has a very complex relationship with his daughter because he just wanted the best for her but sometimes what he wanted for her hurts her. I don't think you really see a truly happy moment between them until the end, which is a sad but valid part of the story. In the last scene, there is a lot of forgiveness. Everyone seems to get along once Imogen is reunited with her father. That shows how once an emotional connection that has been lost has been rekindled, it causes a spark in the king's mind and he sees that the world has been merciful to him and he should be merciful to others.
There were a lot of funny moments. The two brothers, Guiderius and Arviragus, seemed to acknowledge the moments where the writing didn't really make a lot of sense. It was really funny to see them make these fake discovery faces about how wonderful Imogen as a boy was and how much like a brother she was, when it was really clear that they liked her as more than just a brother. It might have just been because it was the first girl they had seen in their lives. They didn't seem to know much about women or women dressed as boys, and that was also very funny. Pisanio (Michaela Petro) is kind of like the narrator in this production. Whenever there was a moment that was slightly confusing or that you might need clarification on, Pisanio was there. Pisanio would joke around about Imogen becoming a boy, and she did a great job making fun of the annoying features of men by swaggering around. Pisanio was also a very moral character because there were a few very terrible things that Posthumus had asked her to do, but she came up with her own plan. I think that what makes a very interesting narrator for me is when they have a sense of humor but also some morals. Cymbeline has the most revealing ever in a last scene. The director lets it be very funny, which I think is a good choice. It is kind of ridiculous because everybody is so honest and basically condemning themselves just because they are inspired, which doesn't seem fully thought through. I love Cymbeline, but some of the writing is a little bit wonky.
My favorite character was Cloten (Gage Wallace). He was the really overdramatic prince who was the son of Cymbeline's new queen (Sarah Goeden). He was supposed to marry Imogen, but they didn't really seem like a great match because Imogen is a very soulful and complicated person and Cloten is basically the opposite of that. He thinks everything is amazing or terrible. He has two emotions and they both go to 100 whenever he feels a feeling. Cloten reminds me a lot of if Amy Adams' Giselle from Enchanted was evil and a man. I would totally watch a movie all about Cloten; it would be a sequel to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead called Cloten's Head is Dead. He's so excited for everything; he had one moment where he had just hired Pisanio to be his servant, and then he said "This is going to be your first thing that you do for me!" And once she finished that task, he gave a huge gasp and was like, "This will be the second thing you've done for me." And I imagine if that scene had gone on longer there would have been a lot of things she did for him and he would have done a lot of gasping about it. He has two lords (Andrés Enriquez and Shane Rhoades) who follow him around and they seem to not really "appreciate" him very much. He is most of time a jerk to them, but one of them (Rhoades) keeps his cool and the other (Enriquez) seems to forget Cloten is there and makes fun of him mercilessly. Once when they say something really bad about him, Cloten turns around with a very angry face and says, "No!" Then he says "We must go together!" and skips off giddily. Usually you don't really care when Cloten loses his head, but in this production you do because it is basically like killing a five-year-old, even if that five-year-old is kind of a jerk.
People who would like this show are people who like awesome fights, complicated relationships, and giddy headless princes. I really really loved this show. I thought it was everything I could have wanted from Cymbeline. It was awesome.
Photos:Tom McGrath/TCMcGPhotography
