Chasing the wasp
Written and Directed by: Derek Mitchell
In the two months I have been at Pearson I have grown to truly admire the creative genius of Derek Mitchell. He emanates creative intellect and his play was in every way parallel. It was, in my opinion truly inspiring.
It is difficult to attribute the success of the play to one aspect. It was strong on many levels, from writing, casting, and even atmosphere.
I will start with his writing. It was clear that Derek was completely aware of his audience while writing the script for this piece. He managed to keep the language simple while maintaining the emotional power that the story demands. The dialect was cleverly constructed to allow us to not only apprehend characters but also connect with them within a reasonably short amount of time. By the end of the play I felt as though I knew Jimmy like a close friend. I know that I personally was stricken by emotion during the scene with Jimmy and the “dogs”. I was surprised to even find a tear in my eye. His use of symbolism was extremely effective; it brought the audience even closer to the pain and confusion within the characters. For example the wasp on the bedside table was an element that helped tie the whole thing together.
With such an incredible story and script, and limited actors it was amazing how perfectly the play was casted. This only reinforced my awareness of his vision in the piece. Derek obviously had it playing in his head as could see the final product and the tools he needed to get there. Each character on stage gave the effect that their character was practically written for them. I especially enjoyed the two main characters played by AJ and Christina. They both did an excellent job and were perfect for their part. Derek’s IP was the only one I saw, that had been so well cast. This, I expect, was due to the vision of a dedicated director and the working relationship between he and his actors.
If an excellent cast fueled by their tenacious leader and an excellent script is not enough the atmosphere that Derek created through the set, costuming, lighting, and sound was very captivating. From the living room setting with the garbage pile television set, to the classroom, to the moonfish kingdom, each setting was well thought out and artistically presented. I Especially enjoyed the costume that Lucas wore. The “moon fish” was a very interesting persona that surprised, I would guess, the entire audience including myself. Derek used the Max Bell’s space very efficiently. He had scenes all around the room on and off the stage and this was a very effective way of connecting with the audience.
One thing that went wrong was when a glass cup on stage was broken leaving pieces of glass around the stage. It was scary in the eyes of the audience as the actors were walking around mostly barefoot. They did a good job of improvising to this altercation however, they did lose their rhythm while hitting the buckets and stomping their feet. Although it was accidental it was a slight distraction during the performance. Maybe the use of a plastic glass would have avoided this problem, but it’s hard to take that into account when preparing for a production, you never really know for sure what will happen.
A Gaggle of Saints
Written By: Neil LaBute
Directed By: Amelia Redmond
In this piece I played the role of Jon a young man going to Boston College who is in love with his high school sweetheart Sue. The two are onstage separated as they recount a night in New York, which results ultimately in Jon and a couple friends beating a homosexual man to death in a public washroom.
This was my first leading role in any piece. I had never performed in a theatre piece like this before and it was a very exciting experience for me. After reading the script for the first time I had no shortage of doubts. Firstly, my character was almost impossible to relate too. Secondly, there were about eighteen minutes of lines that I needed to learn. Lastly, I couldn’t picture how to make exciting two character’s onstage seemingly oblivious to each other without interaction reading this script. Although these were problems at first, the feeling of satisfaction as the play came together was surreal. It was like a slap in the face for me, and I realized how much I truly loved theatre.
I guess the first realization was that I didn’t need to relate to my character I had to become him. When I began to really get into his character I started to have a lot of fun. I really put a lot of work into learning all of the lines and attempting to master the Boston accent. The hardest part was definitely trying to find out who my character really was and how I could become him. I tried to not think to myself “what would John do?” but rather immerse myself in his persona so as to have natural presence on stage. The accent didn’t actually hit me until about a week before the performance. I was having trouble getting into character and I felt I needed a better way to connect with John and I decided to try and pull off an accent and it stuck. As the piece progressed and began to come together I felt I not only grew as an actor but a theatrical enthusiast. I had a sudden appreciation for the work that I for so long overlooked. This was almost as fulfilling of a sensation as the final performance itself.
I thought that the final performance went well, it was our best effort yet and I think that we got the reaction from the audience that we were looking for. I think that one of the most important reasons it went so well in the end was our character progression. The general essence of the play shifted and changed many times until we came to what we thought would work best for us. The character of Sue slowly developed into a more and more obsessive individual. At first she was of of just an ignorant ditz, but as we moved foreword we decided that some of that ignorance was just obsessive stubbornness, as Sue was focused on primarily one thing, her relationship with John. Even my character of Jon became a lot more dynamic as we worked.
Looking back I would have prepared a little differently. Most of the work I did was on my own and we didn’t get a chance to work a group as often as I would have liked. I felt as though we didn’t have much direction for the most part of our preparation, we didn’t really get to know whom we actually were and what was really going on until it was too late. If we had done a little bit more “digging” into the story from the get go, I think that we would have ended up with a much more effective story.
The character of Sue I think could have been changed more. I think that Sue needed to be a little more creepy and obsessive. In the amount of practice time that we had I think that Ariana did an excellent job, but once again I would have liked to have more practices together so that we could really evolve her character a little bit more. Because there aren’t really any props and there isn’t a lot of character interaction, there is an even higher importance for having interesting characters.
All in all it was a wonderful learning experience, and I was very happy to have participated. I was even sad to be over with it, it was hard to say goodbye to a character that I put so much work into. The feedback that I got back from the audience was for the most part positive and that was an exciting feeling.
Lady Sings the Blues
By: Emily Bailey
This play was interesting and took a creative approach to looking at the life of Billie Holliday, a jazz singer in the 1920’s and ‘30’s. Analyzing this piece was very difficult for me, mainly because I was not familiar with the story.
Before attending the independent project I really didn’t know who Billie Holliday was. I feel as though this was a major disadvantage for me when watching in the audience, but from investigation I know that there were a lot of other students in the exact same position. I feel as thought the story that Emily told would have been appreciated a lot more by an audience who actually knew what was going on. Through the entire performance I was not really given an explanation of who this was and what she was going through. Any information I gathered on Billie Holliday was through Wikipedia afterwards and I wish I had have researched her before attending the performance. Now maybe, the point of the performance wasn’t as much about getting to know the Jazz musician, but instead to just watch and enjoy the music and dance. But I think it is important to keep in mind those who will be watching your play.
The way that Emily structured her piece was very interesting. I really enjoyed how she incorporated the use of some of the remarkable skills available around campus. She was very resourceful. It was exciting to have skilled dancers, vocalists and musicians preforming live in front of us. The band was effective in creating a very classical ambience. The dancing was well choreographed and the singing was excellent but I think that the one thing lacking most in the presentation was lighting. The stage in the Max Bell is small, but I do not feel as though it was used as effectively as possible. At times the stage felt congested and there wasn’t enough separation between what was important to the scene and what wasn’t. I would have maybe tried to put the band off stage with a separate light. Although it added to the environment it became an unnecessary distraction at times. If the musicians were a bit more isolated, it would have made the odd interaction between Billie and the band more powerful.
The dancers in the play had obviously been choreographer well, and their performance, in terms of dancing, was excellent. They lacked however, life and enthusiasm it seemed. They seemed unemotional and if it was meant to be like that, I think it was a mistake. The few splashes of character and emotion from the dancers were a breath of fresh air for the audience and there needed to be more of it. From my position the dancers were dancers and not actors. It was almost as if it were just another rehearsal, as it was missing that final performance “flare” that it so desperately needed.
I am sure that someone a bit more informed about the plot of the story would have appreciated this project a lot more than I did.
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