Winter Shorts Review and Seussical Review

[Katie]

I was only able to see Hadassah's play "foreplay : or the art of
fugue" for Winter Shorts due to a conflict with another play, which I
will review as well.


Foreplay:

I felt as though for a first time director Hadassah's play was for the
majority a success. Being part of the production team I knew what her
concept was. I knew going into the play that she wanted to capture
the sleazy feel of speed dating combined with the sleazy feel of glow
putt. I think her concept of the acting space and atmosphere came
across successfully . I think that her set put the audience in that
somewhat sleazy mind set easily. I really enjoyed the colors and the
I suppose contrived feeling of the space, which mimics the dates
themselves. As far as the acting and direction on blocking I think
that some work could be done to make it more successful. I know in
class we are constantly talking about actors' space and where each
character feels at home on the stage and how to develop those spaces.
I wish some more work had been done to do this. I understand that she
had the couples weaving in and out of each other, which mimics
Chuck's inability to keep the women straight but I felt that it was
distracting at times. I think she developed three exact places, one
for each couple and they only rotated through those three places, and
ended back at their original places it might have worked better.
Sometimes I felt as though the actors were more worried about running
into each other than they were about their lines and their characters
that they should be becoming. I think that the blocking might have
been helped if the set was placed a little differently. With the way
the "holes" were set up probably made it difficult to work around and
develop three distinct places. And if she couldn't develop three
distinct places I would have liked to see the couples at least being a
little further apart at sometimes. At a few points they were so close
together it was hard to see which couple was which. I think the idea
of all the dates running together would still come across. The only
other issue that I would like to see her work with her cast on as a
director was the delivery of lines and the character development. I
think the cast needed to be much more quick and on top of their
lines. I didn't feel the rapid fire that I wanted to see with the
script. Perhaps this was due to the lack of rehearsals, which I heard
as production manager, was a problem. It was pretty clear to me that
the actors didn't feel comfortable with the script and that they were
more worried about where they were moving and what they were saying
that becoming the characters. I think if she were to direct again the
concept needs to be really planed out with the set designer to make
the set and space more effective for the actors, and really really
work longer with the actors to work on character development and the
crucial timing for their delivery.



Seussical:

I was in Fairbanks Light Opera Theater's production of Seussical this
past March and had the opportunity to work with a first time
director. I feel as though the overall product was quite good with
only a few things that I would change. However, the process was quite
painful at times. Mary Vogel, the director, had great ideas and
concepts but she didn't take charge enough in my opinion. I felt like
as a director she should have stood her ground more and not let other
actors, music directors or what not walk over what she said and
wanted. This lack of power made it frustrating as an actor because it
meant that things were constantly changing and feeling within scenes
and concepts and blocking within scene was all very blurry. I wanted
her to really take pride in the directors role and embrace it more. I
also wish that when things weren't going how they should be going she
didn't confront anyone. The lighting for the show, although it was
innovative (for Fairbanks) and really exciting, was not executed to
it's full potential. As and actor I knew that I was standing in the
dark quite often and there was not a light near me to even move into.
I was able to watch a video of the show and people were constantly in
the dark. I know that Mary was frustrated with the lighting but she
didn't stand up and say anything about it which is a failure in the
role of the director. Overall though I think the play was
magnificent, we sold out 6 out of the 8 shows and being on stage for
the show was some of the most fun I've had. But the process needed to
be clearer, smoother and the director really needed to stand her
ground, communicate deadlines, concepts, blocking, and concerns
better. The lack of collaboration would have to be where the play
fell short in my opinion.