Ask your teacher for the assignment sheet and a student sample. A posting of your critique is due on the blog two days after the performance. For the Musical, that means it's due Mon, May 20 by 8pm. Do not choose this option if you are in the cast or crew.
You will likely need to post a Part I and a Part II because your critique will probably be too long to fit in one posting. Remember to skip a line between paragraphs on this blog.
A review by Emilia Perry
ReplyDelete“Who am I This Time”-A comedy by Christopher Sergel, based on the story by Kurt Vonnegut
Thetford Academy’s One Act Play Class, March 7, 2019
“Who am I This Time” by Christopher Sergel, is a one-act comedy play, based on the short story by Kurt Vonnegut. It was originally published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1961, and was later adapted into play form. In this case, it was performed by the Thetford Academy one act play class, under the direction of Ray Chapin. Classified as a comedy, this play puts a fun take on a rather serious note of both self-discovery, and the perils of love. This allows the audience to be drawn in to the unexpected love story between Helene Shaw and Harry Nash, as well as remain light-hearted and laughing at the jokes and plot twists and turns that remain well-spread through the duration of the play. This all culminates to bring forth the main point of the play, which is to go outside your comfort zone in order to discover yourself (even if it means falling in love with a character in a play).
The set of the play is rather simple, as it needs to be broken down and moved with ease during the one act play competition. Regardless of its simplicity, the set perfectly transports you to the town of North Crawford, New Hampshire in 1961. It begins with a semicircle of chairs , a coffee table in the center, that is meant to support the meeting of the actors as they discuss the new director and the play in which they are about to embark upon. The set up of the cairs offered an intimate feel, that made the audience feel as if they were a part of the meeting as well. The soda and coffee set out on the table made it even more convincing that this was a meeting between friends, intended make them comfortable while they interacted. Following this scene, the lighting was limited to a spotlight while the set was moved, and Newt narrated as the next set was set up in the darkness behind him. The spotlight was moved to this small set, the desk of Helene Nash, and when this was finished, they repeated this action to set up the table for the play auditions. However, following this scene they stopped using furniture for the set and had the stage as a blank canvas for the next few changes in location, as they did not require a detailed set, focusing on the actors instead. The lighting worked well throughout the play, to illuminate where the audience was to focus, as well as to allow the sets to be moved in and out. There were not many sounds effects used for the play, with the exception of the sounds of an audience clapping and cheering. Though small, this was very important, as it simulated a large group appreciating the play, and the success of the characters, that were putting on their own play. With a small cast, this was a very creative and successful way to put this message across. The stage managers Lily Welch and Gretta Koppers, light designer Fritz Junker, light board operator Emma Moore, sound board operator/spotlight Gordon Reo, and costumer Beth McGee did a fantastic job with the set and production of the play.
The play follows a drama group that, after Miss Sawyer (Morgan Gaffney) steps down, is put under the control of a new director Newt (played by Fritz Junker). This group contains a variety of male and female actors including Mary (Colleen Swasey), George (Gabe Geller), Diana (Gretta Koppers), Susanne (Mary Sithavady), Catherina (Acadia Cook), and Nancy (Lilian MacVeagh). Most notably though, is the continuous star of the show Harry Nash (Alden Nichols). He is an extremely shy and bland man, who works at the hardware store, but this demeanor completely changes with any role he receives, where he can change into any sort of person with the simplest of ease, and he becomes this person so thoroughly, that his own personality is gone until the curtain closes. Following the name of the play, with each new role he asks, “Who am I this time?” Everyone is familiar with Harry, except for the new director Newt, who is on the hunt for a female lead. When he stumbles upon Helene Shaw (Katelyn Ulman), a boring traveling worker with a telephone company, he is convinced that he has found the perfect girl. However, though he is impressed with Harry’s performance, he is far from so with Helene. But, on a hunch, he invites Harry in while he is in character, to bolster the emotion of Helene, who is desperate herself for this to happen, and is pleased with the results. As time progresses, they act phenomenally together, but, to the chagrin of Miss Sawyer, Helene falls in love with Harry, not realizing she only knew him in character. She quits her job because of this, which leads to Newt feeling rather guilty for what he has done. Following each performance, Harry leaves before the bows are even over, however, pursuing her love, Helene does not let his hand go on the final performance night, and makes him promise to stay while she gets his gift. The gift is a play, and Harry becomes that character as well. In the next week, they are married, as it works so long as they are reading a play and adopt the roles. The play concludes with the happy couple, in unison, asking “Who are we this time?”
ReplyDeleteThe actors did a phenomenal job bringing their characters to life. They effortlessly delivered both hilarious, and heart-wrenching lines, and conveyed the moods with great earnesty and conviction. They were extremely convincing in their roles, and were a delight to watch. As an ensemble, they were equally as pleasant to watch. Most notably, when the characters were not speaking, they found ways to keep their hands busy, whether it was drinking coffee or soda, or filing their nails, which added to the scene, rather than taking away from it, and made it more convincing that they were actually their characters, and not just acting out specific actions, and waiting for cues. They used volume and tone of voice extremely successfully to convey their messages, and put different energy in their movement to signify the mood of the scene. The actors certainly did not overplay their parts, and delivered their lines and actions in a way that made it extremely convincing, and smooth. Some extremely outstanding performances came from Alden Nichols and Katelyn Ulman. They had the difficult job of portraying roles within roles, and did it so effortlessly. Alden perfectly conveyed the meek demeanor of Harry, and with just as much ease and conviction, the impassioned and brash roles that Harry adapted through the course of the play. Similarly, Katelyn showed the self discovery and growth that Helene experiences, finding her strength as she refuses to give up on love. Overall, their performances were extremely delightful to watch.
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed the play. Not only was the acting phenomenal, the whole production was extremely impressive. The scene changes were seamless, especially when the initial set was moved to the desk of Helene, which happened all while Newt was narrating, and was the only part of the stage with lighting. It was a light-hearted experience, with a lot of laughs, but also with important messages such as self discovery and growth, as well as strength, and a steely will that can be connected to love. I was extremely impressed with what the cast and production staff accomplished, and it was an incredibly delightful and enjoyable experience.
Emilia, I think you did a great job of critiquing the play! I saw the play as well, but you described the plot so thoroughly and explained your ideas so articulately that I would have been able to imagine just what you were talking about even if I hadn’t. I agree with your observation that the transitions between scenes were made seamlessly, and that the use of lighting was a big part of that because it allowed a scene to continue while an actor talked even as the next scene was being assembled behind them. I also found the point you made about how Alden and Katelyn had especially difficult roles because they had to portray characters within characters very interesting. They had to think about how their characters might act as characters in their own play—a confusing concept, but they were very convincing with it. I agree that it was wonderfully-done production, and just reading your critique made me want to see it again!
DeleteOnce Upon A Mattress
ReplyDeleteMary Rodgers
A Musical
May 16, 17 and 18
Jane Rich Theatre by the Thetford Musical Class
A Play Review by Riley Burkins
Once Upon a Mattress is a musical that is a spin-off of the Princess and the Pea. It supposedly tells the “true story” of the famous fairytale in a less “perfect” demeanor. The musical was formed to show a different side of the story in a humorous and ironic way to capture the audience’s attention. I feel that both Mary Rodgers and the Thetford Musical Class did astronomically well to portray this through the writing and acting.
The musical’s set was in the castle with brick walls and two doors, one that had a staircase up and out of the stage-right, and the other leading off stage-left. The lighting was fairly consistent throughout the musical with an occasional spotlight on one or two characters in a solo scene or number. The band played cheerful music in the gaps between scenes to keep the theme alive along with various other medleys of music to cope with the various mood changes. Overall, the atmosphere was very uplifting and highly enjoyable.
The musical was about a prince named Dauntless who was needing to be married but his mother, the queen, had to put the princess’s who “applied” to be his wife through “fair” tests to test their intellect and other various aspects of their character. Another prince of the kingdom named Harry volunteered, after many unsuccessful tests by the queen, to go on a long quest to search for a worthy wife of Dauntless. He comes back with a princess from the swamp. She is slightly crazy seeming and loud, she even swam the castle’s moat to get in. The queen is not happy with how much Dauntless becomes to like this new girl. She finds her horrid and annoying, so she plans a test that she think the princess will inevitably fail. A single pea would be put under her 20 or so stacked mattresses, if she cannot sleep for reasons of discomfort, she is a true princess. Hearing this, the other royal individuals of the kingdom, who have come to quite like the swamp princess, put various other items under the mattress secretly to disturb her sleep. As planned, the princess did not sleep and was deemed the wife of Dauntless, but when she went back to take a nap after they took all the objects out, she still couldn’t sleep. As Dauntless pulls the pea from under the bed, the swamp princess falls fast asleep immediately.
ReplyDeleteI thought the acting was incredible, knowing the actors as individuals heightened the experience for me as I got to see a new side which varied greatly from their true personalities. People who were usually fairly quiet being sassy and controlling or someone laid back being loud and crazy. I felt everyone worked together quite well. I think I only saw one slip up of the lines, but even then, they just hummed for a few seconds while still dancing the number and then picked right back up seconds later in the chorus like nothing happened. The unique movements and voices of the characters to either be things like a sassy queen, or an old wizard made the musical a lot better on their own by giving help to the audience’s imagination and allowing the onlooker’s mind to delve deeper into what the musical was portraying. I felt the actors somewhat overplayed their parts but in the best way possible to make the story that much more dramatic and different compared to the original fairytale. I felt that to me, the best performances were of the queen and the princess solely for the reason that they played parts so much different to the people I had come to know them by and nailed it. For instance, during the scene wherein the pea is placed under the bed of the sleeping princess, the actress flailed around aggressively and yelling at the top of her lungs about the inability to sleep. This caused the audience to laugh hysterically as the actress seemed to be in a temper tantrum of sorts. Alternatively, the queen was always snobby and sassy to everyone she encountered to only deepen the negative views of the character being placed upon her by the playwright.
I thought the musical was really really good overall, I had an amazing time watching and talking to my friends in it after. I thought that the writing of the play was a unique and original way of looking at the Princess and the Pea by taking the original idea and morphing it into a more believable and less “perfect” way of telling the story. The actors had all of their lines and moves down to a science and would perform them with their own flare. Especially the King whom I thought, while mute, was a crucial part of the play and the unique storyline behind it. He was always goofing around and ignoring the queen which added much humor to the play along with laughs from the entire crowd. I highly enjoyed this play and thought it even better than the actors did too. Once Upon a Mattress, will go down, as of my four-year experience at Thetford Academy, as probably the best musical I have seen yet.
Riley -
DeleteThank you for your praise! I think it is interesting how you noted the characters were very different from the actors' true personalities. It was fun for all of us to embody someone different than ourselves. While reading the script, the cast came to the realization that every character in this musical was a caricature, which I think goes with you saying that some parts were overacted but in a good way because, in my mind, they had to be.
I very much like hearing your description of the production and am glad that we were able to make the audience laugh!