Category: Arts

As the opening chords to the ever-ethereal “Pure Imagination” sang out from the pit orchestra and the lights dimmed, the audience hushed with anticipation. Some in the audience may have been surprised to hear a female voice float out from the stage- I, for one, was excited.

Pioneer High School’s Willy Wonka challenged a lot of my prior notions of what the show should be. With the two leads, Mia Galbraith as Wonka and Bridget Roberts as Charlie, gender bent to become female characters, the fun and frothy children’s tale became a story of women dreaming big and accomplishing even bigger things. These two phenomenal young women blew away the audience with their crystal-clear vocals and undeniable charm in their respective roles. You would never have guessed that it was originally any other way.

Some other highlights of the show included the witty banter between the four Bucket family grandparents stuck in one communal bed in the poor household. Despite their bleak background, they provided an air of comedy and lightness from their mishearings to their unending support of our main character, Charlie. Francisco Fiori, a Pioneer Senior, played Grandpa Joe with a particular level of lovability from the moment he hopped out of bed to wobble hilariously across the stage. The show was riddled with hidden technical gems such as the inflation of Violet Beauregarde into a real-life blueberry and funny moments such as the “Burping Song” where Charlie and her Grandfather literally burp themselves down from flying.

Ethan Steiner as Augustus and Ayla Hoermann as Mrs. Gloop were another delightful surprise, delivering some incredibly realistic German accents and a exaggerated obsession with food that was enough to make anyone smile. I guess no one should be surprised, since Ethan Steiner was recently seen in the stage recording of Disney’s Newsies. No big deal. Of course I couldn’t not mention the Oompa Loompas and the ensemble as a whole, whose strong vocals, choreography during large group numbers, and aptly-timed entrances brought so much to the performance and really took it to the next level. And let me just gush about the set for a minute- an intricate shades-of-grey city backdrop that could turn and fold and move to become the inside of Willy Wonka’s colorful factory really took the audience with the cast on the journey of Charlie’s dismal world turned into endless possibility.

Overall, this show provided some feel-good whimsy and some serious talent not just for high school, but by any standards.

This is a student event ran by UM Slam Poetry club and is at the Kalamazoo room in the Michigan League at 7pm on November 19th.

When you go on YouTube and look up great slam poems to watch, 90% of the time it is college students. This is because unlike music or theatre slam poetry doesn’t have a large professional field. This means that the pinnacle of talent is with amateurs at college slams! I’ve attended these slams in the past and have always been blown away by the talent. If you enjoy words spoken strongly backed by emotion, then Slam Poetry is for you.

If you enjoy writing slam poetry, any one can perform at this event. Just show up a little early.

I attached a slam poem, performed by a college student (although not at the University of Michigan).

To celebrate what would have been Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday, the University Opera Theatre and University Symphony Orchestra put on a production of his famous Candide this weekend. Through Bernstein’s catchy songs performed by talented singers and orchestra members, the audience was lead on the wild ride Voltaire’s naive young man, Candide.

The wonder of Voltaire’s story is that despite the superficial optimism and lightheartedness which buoys the entire narrative, there are very serious themes at work which take on much more serious tones. The musical opera translation of this, and the performance I saw, balanced these very well. Alternating between small chalkboards with the word “GUN” and funny love songs on mismatched ideals were darker issues concerning intolerance, including sexism and classism. Of course, this satire is part of what made this production so great to experience. The audience laughed at the perpetual optimism of Pangloss, the tutor, even when he revealed his syphilis contraction which would have ended in his death at the time. Candide’s equally naive love interest, Cunegonde, has an eye rolling and amusing vapidity and superficiality until one actually considers the pain of rape and prostitution that she goes through. The main characters’ seemingly silly plights were made funny, then quickly made somber and serious only to switch back to a lighthearted mood once again.

This complexity was all accomplished through masterful singing and what can only be described as truly creative and skillful sets. An entire map of the world was drawn on a large backdrop, and with each “situation” Candide and his associates found themselves in people would climb up on ladders with their own pieces of chalk and fill in where and what happened in the story, until at the very end where audience members could see the entire expanse of what had happened. Ensemble members were dressed in grey school uniforms, which to me not only added to the “school setting” but also provided a great juxtaposition between the more brightly, some might say garishly, costumed main characters. It seemed to make an additional point: while Candide and his friends were living wild adventures and discovering so much of life, the majority of the world stayed the same and people just had to survive. Then of course there was the singing and acting themselves, which were performed wonderfully and had the audience laughing and more seriously quiet.

It was such a fantastic opportunity to be able to come see this production, and I look forward to being able to see the creativity with which the next piece is directed. Congratulations to all of the performers!