Category: Theatre

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

REVIEW: Play of the Month – Whatcha Doin? by Jacquelyn Priskorn

Emma Pinchak Leave a comment

Though I hate being on Zoom all day just as much as the next guy, this was a refreshingly creative break from the usual soul-crushing nature of staring at a screen.

Kate Stark plays Marnie, the child actor moved to stay in the entertainment biz through voice acting, and Megan Wesner plays Raven, the interviewer. There was a little bit of a surreal quality to the setup of the play, a pre-written interview between fictional characters delivered through a computer screen to an invisible audience. This feeling of layered disconnection fit well with the subject, though, as Raven interviews a woman miles and years away from her days on set, but whose mentality through adulthood has been shaped by that period. It makes us wonder which parts of our lives can outlast time; how much control we have over such an assignment of importance. Will all our actions made to establish our evolving character be fruitful, or will some long-dead part of ourselves always surpass new identities?

I’m speculating, but it felt like Marnie was inspired by Mara Wilson, the actress who played the title character Matilda in the movie adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel. Since her childhood acting days, she’s moved on to podcasts and writing, far more removed from the limelight and everything that comes with it. While feelings of burnout and disillusionment are common amongst child actors after they grow up, Wilson is particularly similar to Marnie in how down-to-earth she is in interviews, seemingly well-adjusted with just a slight hint of neurosis. Both explore the idea of what it means to be part of the public domain, particularly at a young age; to be discussed in invasive detail by strangers who cannot see the person behind the character.

Between both the real and fictional ex-child actors, there is an understanding that one’s relationship with the world changes with early fame and adoration and the up-close nature of strangers’ perceptions of oneself. Acting can be a consumer of identity, but it may also create it. It’s a hard business to leave, being so emotionally and literally enveloping, and it can distort one’s relationships, need for approval, maybe even their sense of reality.

The interview with Marnie followed these sentiments, elevating them to extremes, but not to unrealistic heights.

Performance is both a creative expression and a lie; it builds up some character or version of something beyond oneself. Putting on a costume and makeup and a new voice and foreign mannerisms can occur anywhere from a TV set to a board meeting. It’s happening now as I write this, as I impersonate a deep-thinking intellectual with thoughts on The Psyche. Imposterism permeates the mind, and it never really leaves.

And both when the act of performance is recognized as fiction or accepted as a truthful depiction, it can affect one’s presentation of themselves, their understanding of and comfort with other people. Marnie’s discussion works to define a dissociative disorder amplified by the actor’s need to project inhuman versatility, and the creative’s need to continuously create.

PREVIEW: Play of the Month – Whatcha Doin? by Jacquelyn Priskorn

Emma Pinchak Leave a comment

Theatre Nova, while no longer putting on plays for an in-person audience, has been giving online access to live performances each month, garnering a great reception from the Ann Arbor thespian scene. The events feature original, 20-40 minute plays from new playwrights.

January’s play of the month is Whatcha Doin? by Jacquelyn Priskorn. It’s about a former child actor reflecting on their childhood career, and how her being typecast as a goofy loser has affected her throughout her life. It speaks to the effects of being an object of others’ consumption–strangers with no recognition of your own identity apart from a character.

This winter brings another season of performances for your viewing pleasure, beginning Wednesday, January 27 at 8pm via Zoom. The season continues through April. The events are performed live, but are taped and available online as well for the next month.

Find tickets to this individual play ($10) or the whole season ($30) here: bit.ly/TNPOTM1

REVIEW: Proving Up

Jenna Segal Leave a comment

Piercing vocals and eerie lighting fill the Power Center arena. Performers pace the stage, desperately chanting a seemingly impossible list of requirements for obtaining the deed to their land. Though physically distanced, each character’s life is hopelessly entangled with every other person on the stage. A show that had once started in warm yellow light devolves to a harsh inky blue, leaving audience members with a kind of uneasiness that can’t be shaken. This is emotional opera theatre in the age of a global pandemic. This is the University Opera Theatre & University Symphony Orchestra production, Proving Up.

Premiering just last night on December 16th, audiences across the region were given the chance to watch Proving Up, an opera included in SMTD’s winter digital series. Taking places in the early 1870s at the dawn of the Homestead Act, the opera follows a family of Nebraskan homesteaders in their quest to obtain the deed to their farmland– to “prove up”.

The chamber opera begins in a way that seems mostly normal to audiences. The orangey-yellow set feels warm and welcoming, inviting viewers into the family’s world and their quest for the American Dream. Almost obsessively, the family repeats the four requirements that need to be met in order to get their land deed: a house of sod, acres of grain, a five year history on the land, and a window of glass. The last requirement is the most elusive, as it is the very thing that leads to the family’s eventual demise. With every line, the atmosphere on stage grows colder– a mother makes a haunting confession, a father commits a desperate crime, and a ghostly set of sisters weave back in forth between reality and the beyond. Nothing about the world on stage is truly normal, and it is almost impossible while viewing to ignore the sense that the family is being controlled by events just outside of their sight. Though set in what may be a familiar period in American history, Proving Up is anything but expected.

As the opera continues, it becomes apparent that every creative decision made by performers and production team members alike was made with the audience’s discomfort in mind. Scenic Designer, Henry Pederson, has created a set that just slightly exposes the industrial innerworkings of the Power Center itself. Lighting Designer, Harrison Hoffert, lights the performers in a way that pointedly foreshadows their demise. Remaining in line with COVID-19 safety guidelines, the closest performers stand an achingly far 12 feet away from one another, even in times of immense emotional distress. Though subtle details exist throughout the show, it isn’t until the last two acts that audience members find such details coming together to reveal just how warped this world is. Left in an initial hazy confusion, an understanding of events doesn’t dawn on viewers until the true tragedy is centerstage.

Proving Up is a morbidly beautiful opera. The talented performers and members of the creative team work have worked harmoniously to create a cohesive yet grating environment for the heart of the show to live in. With every scene, viewers pick up on yet another detail in a complicated series of events, eventually resulting in an emotionally-charged finale that will leave some unsettled even hours after the curtain falls. This modern age opera expertly combines some of the best things that art has to offer: emotion, drama, and story-telling. Those looking for an evocative show must look no further: Proving Up draws on an intangible kind of fear that audience members will find nowhere else.

REVIEW: MUSKET’S NEWSIES

kayrenee Leave a comment

Newsies is a musical that is nostalgic and dear to my heart, and when I heard that MUSKET was going to present a virtual concert of it this year, I got so excited. And boy, did MUSKET pull through. Based on historical events of 1899, Newsies follows the stories of New York City’s newsboys as they fight against the injustices perpetuated by the city’s powerful newspaper publishers.

Theater is already a form of art that requires so much creativity and innovation, but that need for thinking outside the box reached new levels this year. Even in the most “stripped down” theater performances, actors rely on their facial expressions to convey attitude and emotion. This year, MUSKET’s actors had to navigate how to portray their characters with a mask covering their nose and mouth. While seeing actors perform in masks felt very strange, I was impressed with how the actors used their eyes and their bodies to tell their stories. Furthermore, each mask had a playful illustration of a mouth on it that matched each character’s costume, which was such a creative touch.

Another component that usually contributes to storytelling in theater is the set design, or the backgrounds where the story takes place. Usually, the cast and crew of a show have the opportunity to work with a set that is designed specifically for that show, but this year, the Newsies team had to get creative. Their utilization of local, non-traditional performances spaces worked well, and their resourceful and artful use of the outdoors was truly beautiful. These visuals and storytelling were elevated by the amazing and evocative camerawork. For example, in “Something to Believe In,” the actors were singing romantically to each other, yet for most of the song, they were socially distanced and not even in the same frame. Although the actors could not hold each other in their arms, these moments were brilliantly shot and still felt intimate and loving. 

This production was simply so fun to watch. There was hardly a moment without movement, and the choreography was outstanding. The dancers were aerobic, energetic, and graceful, notably in “Seize the Day.” In addition to the engaging choreography, the cast of Newsies delivered such strong vocal performances throughout. “Watch What Happens” stood out to me as an especially memorable performance, but there wasn’t a weak moment in the entire virtual concert. The soloists’ voices sounded full and bright, and on ensemble numbers, harmonies were clean and locked in. 

Hats off to the sound technicians for getting all the voices and orchestra synched up and balanced, especially since I’m sure recording was complicated due to COVID restrictions. Whenever the technical aspects of a production are “invisible” (meaning you don’t notice them), that’s a good sign. And the sound on Newsies was seamless.

 

Overall, was it weird to see a socially distanced, shortened version of Newsies? Yes, of course it felt strange, but I am wildly impressed with the ingenuity of the cast and crew because they put together what I didn’t think was possible. Since March, I’ve missed live music and live theater, and Newsies brought me one step closer to experiencing that again. MUSKET’s production of Newsies felt immensely joyful, and joy is something I think we could all use right now. 

The Newsies playlist link is accessible here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7jQ4ZS5Biju4Yi4MvvL6_gEz1HN9XDhj

PREVIEW: Proving Up

Jenna Segal Leave a comment

On Wednesday, December 16th, University Opera Theatre & University Symphony Orchestra will premiere a digital production of the opera, Proving Up. Composed by Missy Mazolli, this deeply unsettling work follows a family in their quest to bring their ‘American Dream’ to fruition. Taking place in 1870s Nebraska at the dawn of the Homestead Act, the chamber opera brings audience members on a thrilling rollercoaster of emotions as they watch the family desperately try to obtain a deed to their land by “proving up”.

 

The performance was filmed in early November over several nights at the Power Center for the Performing Arts. During this time, all cast and crew members followed strict health precautions according to the University of Michigan COVID-19 safety guidelines to ensure that no one was put in danger by participating. I was lucky enough to work in the lighting booth for this incredible production, and doing so gave me an inside perspective into the immense amount of work that goes into producing a show of this caliber. Every single person involved in this production poured their hearts and souls into creating a high-quality arts event despite the circumstances.

 

Proving Up will be posted to the SMTD YouTube channel on Wednesday, December 16th at 8:00pm EST and will be available to view free of charge for one month. The opera is short, running for approximately 80 minutes, and is sung entirely in English. As the semester’s finals come to a close, this intimate work is an excellent indulgence for those looking for an artistic change of pace.