Category: Theatre

REVIEW: Expedition Reef

IseeUsee Leave a comment

What. A. Fantastic Show.

Do you like planetariums? Even if you don’t like planetariums this is a show you ought to check out. Expedition Reef is a new planetarium show at the Natural History Museum in Ann Arbor and it is a-ma-zing.

Expedition Reef is a 30-minute long film of sorts that takes viewers on a journey through the different coral reefs in our oceans, how they form, how they are dying etc. While the film is educational it is not boring in the least. The film is absolutely gorgeous: the realistic underwater animation shows these rainforests of the ocean to you as if you were a scuba diver. Seeing the ocean stretched out on a whole planetarium is breathtaking, to say the least. It is an immersive experience and the visuals are top-notch. It is described as an oceanic safari and it really is that diverse and fun.

Even the educational material about coral reefs is super well done. In fact, my favorite part of the film was when we are shown how reefs reproduce (they do it by expelling spores in the water which I know because I saw this awesome film). During the scene, spores fill the 180 degree screen and it is akin to watching thousands of lanterns being sent to the sky. So gorgeous! I wished this show was longer than just 30 minutes.

After this, we were given a 15 minute guided tour of our universe. A graduate student in astronomy showed us our planet’s location in the solar system, our solar system’s location in the galaxy, our galaxy’s location in the universe, and so on. The tour explained a lot of things like exoplanets, interstellar space, and more (I finally understood why Pluto was kicked out from the planet committee of our solar system). Even though we saw a lot in a short time, the presentation on the screen made it very easy to follow and also to conceptualize distances in space.

After the show ends, the viewers exit through a gallery to a science museum! It had a vast array of hands-on activities, interactive information, and really fun, elaborate nature displays.

Going to see a planetarium show with a friend followed by a museum visit as you all point to different exhibits, take pictures of a raccoon eating peanut butter will be a wholesome, serotonin-filled way to spend the weekend. The planetarium is still offering tickets for shows that you can buy at the museum for just 8 dollars. Since it is so close to home (basically in the center of the city) there is no reason for you to not go explore what all our world-renowned museums have to offer.

 

 

REVIEW: Rocky Horror Picture Show

Lucy Leave a comment

Happy Halloween everyone! This has been a great weekend, and seeing the Rocky Horror Picture show was absolutely a highlight for me. What a fantastic movie, shadow cast, and audience for my first experience with this cult classic.

To start, the movie was absolutely silly and made no sense at all. This was partly because it was just a nonsensical movie in general, but also because the crowd was shouting things over the dialogue for a good amount of the show. Sometimes, this was a bit annoying, but I understood that most of the people there had seen the movie many times before and did not need to hear the dialogue to know what was going on. But most of the things people were shouting were very raunchy and hilarious. Once I figured out some of the themes (e.g. you shout certain things when a certain person comes on screen) I was shouting right along with them. It made the movie a lot more interesting, even if it did make it harder to follow.

REVIEW: The Rocky Horror Picture Show – [art]seen

I also really enjoyed the addition of a shadow cast. This was a group of people with minimal costumes and props who were sort of acting out what the characters were doing on the screen. I thought this was a very smart addition as so many people had seen the movie before so it made it a lot more interesting. The actors also sometimes did different things than what was on screen, usually for comedic effect, so it aided the movie comedy and gave it another layer. If it had been my 20th time seeing this show I would definitely have been bored by just the movie, so they were an awesome addition. Plus they were great dancers and actors!

But one of the best parts of the entire experience was definitely the audience itself. The show was sold out, with every seat filled (except those empty for Covid spacing). I could tell everyone there was genuinely excited about the experience. There were a ton of fun costumes, interesting interpretations of many of the characters, and just some generally awesome outfits. The whole time the audience was fully engaged with the performance, and there was lots of clapping and shouting during the more memorable scenes of the movie. I had never seen it before so the movie was new to me, which made people’s commentary even better, because a lot of it was anticipatory. For example, when something silly was about to happen people started chanting for it, and were cheering and clapping when it happened. I don’t think there was a moment of silence from the crowd for the entire film. My favorite part was when everyone got up and danced to one of the songs, and I swear the entire crowd was on their feet singing and shouting.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show' gets the shadowcast treatment at Michigan Theater | The Scene

To anyone who was at the movie, thank you for sharing that experience with me. If you missed it, don’t worry, there is always next Halloween! This was one of the most fun movies I have ever been to see, and I can’t wait to go again soon.

PREVIEW: Rocky Horror Picture Show

Lucy Leave a comment

When I saw that the Rocky Horror Picture show was on for this year, I almost screamed with excitement. I am a Rocky Horror virgin, and I have been dying to see this show for years now! Rocky Horror is a 1975 cult classic, starring two sweethearts that get stuck with a flat tire in a storm, and have to take shelter at a spooky mansion. In the mansion they encounter a house that is filled with wild and wacky characters. They dance, sing, and generally get weird for about 95 minutes.

Rocky Horror is playing at the Michigan Theater on Friday October 29th at 10 pm. This performance will also feature a live music group that will be singing along with the songs in the movie! Additionally, this is a show where the crowd gets very involved- they sing along, throw things at the cast, and are generally quite rowdy. I have been looking forward to this for weeks, and can’t wait to tell you all how it goes!

Link to more info: https://michtheater.org/the-rocky-horror-picture-show

REVIEW: Basement Arts’ SLUT The Play

Madison Krumins Leave a comment

Content warning: this play and review contains topics of rape and sexual violence. 

Centered around 16-year-old Joey’s testimony about the night she was assaulted by three of her friends, Slut: the Play interweaves Joey’s interviews and the reactions of Joey’s female classmates. The play itself has a rich history, initially created by the all-girl, non-profit theatre organization The Arts Effect. Slut: the Play was eventually adapted into the Netflix Series Grand Army.

The organization of the play translated well to a Zoom format, utilizing a mix of filmed (masked) group scenes, Zoom calls, and individual recorded monologues to tell the story. The ability for monologues to be filmed in genuine locations was a powerful dynamic in Basement Arts’ adaptation. Joey’s friend Jane talking to an unseen mother in a kitchen. The sister of one of the perpetrators pleading him for answers while sitting cross-legged on her bed, laptop on her lap. 

Strong acting throughout, I was gripped by the cast’s performance. The play was difficult to watch at times, with disturbing content matter both in terms of sexual assault descriptions and some character’s reactions to the events in question. However, I think it was a brutal call to recognize the many different aspects of a toxic culture that often discourage survivors from speaking up. 

The titular word, ‘slut,’ starts off as a sex-positive term among Joey’s classmates for their dance team nicknamed “The Slut Squad,” but turns into a horrible, derogatory, blame-filled word once Joey steps forward with her story. A community reacting with victim-blaming and accusations of lying leave Joey wondering if there will ever be resolution for her, considering the way her community has responded to her coming forward. The play ends, however, with a small glimpse of hope–the words “I believe you.”

Basement Arts did a speaker series to accompany this show, including interviews with Sexual Assault Survivor Advocate Vanity Catoni-Ellis and co-creator of the play Meg McInerney, which I think was an important supplement to the show, considering the heavy content material. Overall, I believe Basement Arts handled this production well, making it work for the current circumstances in order to ensure the meaning of the material wasn’t lost.

Basement Arts asks patrons to consider donations to the following organizations in lieu of ticket prices:

First Step – https://www.firststep-mi.org
Safe House Center – https://www.safehousecenter.org

REVIEW: UC Shakespeare Trial – ‘Julius Caesar’

Madison Krumins Leave a comment

As a pre-law student who loves the arts and humanities, this event had me geeking out. In their third annual Shakespeare Trial, University of California at Irvine was able to expand their audience to people across the country like me who wanted to tune in to have a say in Marcus Brutus’ criminal trial.

“Friends, Californians, Zoomers, lend me your screens,” began the prosecuting attorney Dean Erwin Chemerinsky of Berkeley Law. Using the text of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” as evidence, and California law as the foundation of the trial, the trial centered around two questions: 1) Is Marcus Brutus guilty of the murder of Caesar? and 2) Is Marcus Brutus guilty of inciting insurrection? Professor Bernadette Meyler of Stanford Law argued that Brutus applies for the necessity defense–that he was protecting himself and the Roman Republic from immediate harm by killing his dear friend Caesar.

Prior to the official start of the trial, we were treated to monologues from the characters of Brutus and Antony, performed by the talented actors of the New Swan Shakespeare Company, to set the scene and bring the characters to life.

Completely unscripted and organized like a criminal trial, I enjoyed watching the seasoned lawyers make strong, compelling arguments in front of The Honorable Andrew Guilford Presiding. Brutus’ killing of Julius Caesar, and whether or not Brutus applies for the necessity defense, is a heavily political question. During the trial, the attorneys were not afraid of using parallels to our modern times to create an understanding of the gravity of the situation. 

I loved the concept of courtroom as theatre, audience as jury, and the idea of exploring Shakespeare through legal inquiry. What I am so interested in, in my own academic studies, is the intersection between the humanities and social sciences. Because both are things created by people, they are interconnected and important to each other. What can we learn when we examine one with the lenses we typically reserve for the other? In this specific case, what can we learn from Shakespeare putting it in this new light? How does putting Brutus on trial cause us to look more critically at the play’s text and thoughtfully formulate our own opinions about the events that occur? 

At the end of the trial, the Zoom audience voted to decide the verdict via Zoom poll. It was decided that Brutus was guilty of the murder of Julius Caesar, and by a smaller margin it was decided that he was not guilty of inciting insurrection.

I’m glad that I was able to attend this event, and I encourage those of you who miss live arts events as dearly as I to look for amazing events that would normally be restricted to geographical location, that are now accessible through online platforms.

REVIEW: Play of the Month – 4 Genres by Ron Riekki

Madison Krumins Leave a comment

‘4 Genres’ is a short play written by Ron Riekki, produced as part of the Play of the Month series through Theatre Nova. Theatre Nova gives the opportunity for new works to be performed professionally, spotlighting the voices of new playwrights and making theatre more accessible and relevant to current times. ‘4 Genres’ was a perfect example of a playwright writing for the time and medium–I felt that Riekki really used Zoom as a tool rather than simply working around it, which brought something special to the performance.

Four characters reveal that they have been trapped within four respective genres in their Zoom boxes: horror, musical theatre, slapstick, and documentary. In order for their genre experience to end, they must say what they learned during their time there. After living in their respective realms, it’s clear they don’t seem to be enjoying it that much.

One by one, our characters reveal what they’ve learned. Our documentary character encourages the others to share, before he quietly bemoans that he’s disappointed that he feels he didn’t live through anything. While the other genres experienced running from vicious werewolves, learning about the power of friendship through song and dance, or slipping on banana peels, the man in the documentary says, he’s just sat there with a camera in his face. Sound familiar? 

It took me a while for the underlying messages of this short play to sink in and really take root. Since March of last year, I’ve so often felt like I’m living in the dark and dull page of a far-off future’s history book. How many times have I wished to be elsewhere, living in another time or realm free of the troubles COVID-19 has brought with it? But just as our documentary character realized: What we are living through is important. We are brave for having lived through this time. We are resilient and we’ve learned to adapt.

Like I said before, I applaud the writer and production team for really using Zoom for what it can do, in regards to effects and lending to commentary on our current times. My only perceived drawback to live Zoom performance is technical issues–lag between cast members, differences in sound quality, inability to hear overlapping lines. These are things that seem to be natural aspects of the Zoom culture most of us are experiencing right now, but they don’t always lend well to a scripted performance where every line counts. 

However, until we are able to see live shows again in person, I continue to appreciate how artists are working to keep theatre alive and growing through these difficult times.

For information on the next Play of the Month performance, go to Theatre Nova’s website: https://www.theatrenova.org/current-show