Read or Seen

to understand and enjoy!

[readbyir]

Trying to Unpack Mothers

I wish I had not read the author’s note in the beginning, just so I can see what my own imagination can do with the script. There are a lot of ideas presented to the reader: motherhood, femininity, socio-economic status, race, and gender roles. The paragraph about how Asian-Americans have historically aligned with whiteness read me like a book. I learned about the racial triangulation theory in my ethnic minorities class last year. This theory explains the workplace acceptance of Black, Asian, and White folk based on data collected through workplace employers: superiority/inferiority and outsider/insider. This theory places Black workers further on the scale of being an insider, and Asian workers are measured to be more foreign. On the superiority scale, Asian workers measure higher than Black workers. Whether people choose to believe the theory or not, there is still a lot to be explored in the relationship of Asian and Black folks based on colorism alone (operating within each marginalized community). My familiarity of the external pressures of racial triangulation and internal pressures of colorism played a foundational role of my interpretation of the tense relationship amongst the women, man, and war in the play. Of course, so many other themes are layered into this story, motherhood being the central theme, but the intersection of race is something that I’m most sensitive to when I read plays like this.

Moench explores motherhood as a battle, which gets more complicated as the outside world explodes with rebellion and war. I think the reason Moench packs politics, race, and class into this confusing play is to show the audience that motherhood is a culmination of all these parts of the world, on top of duty and love. Definitely a play that needs a second read on my end.

[readbyir]

Empathy Towards the Rejection of Slave Play

I’ve heard a lot about this show. After reading, I went straight to Youtube to look up reviews and responses. Negative reviews by people who saw the play were met with commenters that were dissuaded by the themes that were presented. To me, this is a problem. I can’t imagine letting certain reviews stop me from seeing and forming an opinion for myself. Harris wrote the show knowing that people will want to sit down and unpack everything, so that is what he did with Act 2 and Act 3. In a lot of the negative reviews, there were critiques that expressed disgust with how Harris disrespected his ancestors by forcing a rape fantasy. 

The prospect of making an interracial couple live out a sick, racist fantasy is uncomfortable. It was written to be uncomfortable because discussing race is not easy. For many, it is hard to turn off your brain while watching this. I struggled with this as well since I am in an interracial relationship, one that also reflects the aesthetic of many years of pillaging and raping in the Philipinnes. I’m going to spend the rest of this write-up reflecting on the anger surrounding this play. I know there is a lot that is explored about interracial relationships of black and white and brown couples, and I have very little to add to the discussion. I thought it was thoughtfully and wonderfully written and actually gave a sense of completion to me.

While I disagree with the negative reviews, there is still an underlying issue that I have with my world. One of my favorite commentators discussed our society’s love of racism porn. Racist teens are posting racist comedy videos on Tik Tok for clout, and people are reposting the Tik Tok on their own timelines to shame them. The commentator remarked that she, a black woman, is sick and tired of logging onto her timeline and seeing black people being made fun of literally everyday. She expresses that she already experiences racism firsthand, and being constantly reminded of it has made a sport out of hurting black peoples’ feelings. Friends would private message her links to videos of racist behavior saying how horrible and terrible it is. Can you imagine being reminded how racist the world is while just trying to go about your day? The commentator expressed that she feels an expectation for black folk to “react” to this racism. Even if it was to shame a racist, reposting or sharing a racist act on your timeline is quickly becoming a microaggression. Last week, everyone was sharing Ahmaud’s murder video. Why do we need all of this evidence that racism still exists? It exists whether we have videos or not. The fact that it took hundreds of thousands of people, a video of a murder that happened in broad daylight, and three months to arrest murderers to get justice for one man is absolutely ridiculous to me. I have to agree with the commentator, we are making a sport out of getting black people angry. We are obsessed with reposting racism at anyone’s expense. Everyone deserves to be treated with some respect.

Again, I think the show advances the discussion of colorism and racism in America. It stands alone compared to other pieces I have read on race. Harris clearly has different intentions than racist teens posting videos online, but I empathize with those that refuse to see the show.

[readbyir]

Good Boys

This play felt dangerous to read. The image of a teen pointing a gun to the audience is daunting, especially with the rate of school shootings in America. Martin focuses our perspective on the fathers of the victim and murderer. I found the time jumps in the play very effective in its storytelling because it was set up in Ethan’s first line, “Hey, don’t sweat it, I’m dead.” We jump back to the important moments between Ethan and Marcus as Thomas and James get into what they know. The audience also gets to see the moments that the fathers do not know, which raises the stakes for them. I think this play can be done by any theatre company in any region. As controversial a play about a school shooting is, it is not polarizing. I felt that Martin had a heart for both sides of the story, while also checking the entitlement of James’. She doesn’t rule race out of the discussion completely between the two men, because exploring the experience of being a father was enough to engage the reader or audience. 

James was honest to Corin. It is hard to lie to a child, especially one whose brother you killed. Eight years after the traumatic shooting, and no one has been able to fully heal. As the play expresses, however, payback means more payback. Living with the consequence of your fatal mistakes is almost unfathomable as dying, and I am glad that Martin lets the audience see that once James learns that Corin’s gun is not loaded after taking full blame for Marcus and Ethan’s death.

[readbyir]

The Dilemma of Gideon’s Knot

“Cut it? Or figure it out?” Corryn asks the schoolteacher about Seneca’s  presentation on Gordian’s Knot. Heather, the schoolteacher, answers that taking a side is not part of the student’s assignment. Johnna Adams expresses the issue surrounding the role of our education system versus parenting in a child’s moral upbringing. While Heather believes that the moral complexity of Gordian’s Knot is not in the wheelhouse of a fifth graders comprehension, Adams shows that her students are inclined to make bold moral choices whether or not they understand the social weight of the circumstance. Gideon presents a story that places accusations on Jake, and Seneca firmly believes and supports him. Suspension and bullying ensue, and suicide is the result. Placing blame on a singular character is figuratively cutting Adams’ story short. Instead, the audience must figure out Gideon’s Knot by critically listen to two teachers argue about the problem with our current education system.  

Teachers have a tough job in educating the next generation of politicians, service workers, marketers, artists, teachers, accountants, and every other occupancy. Corryn is a professor at a university and Heather is a teacher at an elementary school. While both share a profession with its core value of competent education, the age range of their students vary their practices. Elementary school teachers take specific courses about childhood development and child psychology that begs them to pace out their lesson plans to work alongside the development of a child’s brain. College professors use their knowledge of higher education leadership and adult psychology to focus on integrating what students already know. Corryn comes from a place where she sees the long-lasting impact of elementary education on her young adult brains. She brings her opinion of primary education reflecting a communist nature into Heather’s classroom from the get-go. Heather wants Corryn to wait until the principal has arrived because of her fear of legal repercussions, but Corryn is focused on just having a conversation- teacher to teacher. It impressed me at first to see how Corryn was able to use her perspective as a mother objectively before relating to Heather as someone of the same profession. As the dialogue continued, and Gideon’s story is revealed, I realized how much the role of parenting and educating intertwine in the role of a teacher. Teachers see a different side of a student compared to how the student might act at home. It is incredibly difficult for Heather and Corryn to pin their perspectives against each other because of this. I felt that Heather’s actions reflected a sense of fear of how to properly protect her students’ innocence, but her fearful actions caused more damage than what she was protecting her kids against. Ultimately, there was a parenting opportunity that was missed out on because of the immediate suspension. Corryn could have understood how her nightly readings with Gideon had impacted his reading, and discussed the inspiration of his work. Even a, “Why did you write this about Jake?” could have sufficed on Heather’s end. No one wants their kid to imagine abuse like that, but in reality, some kids experience that kind of abuse without knowing that it is abuse. That is why it is so important to meet students like Gideon halfway, and talk to them about what is happening in their life.

(A quick anecdote) I had a classmate in my freshman acting class express her indifference in an assignment because she hasn’t been kissed/experienced, thus making the reality harder for her to live in. Our acting professor expressed that, “You are not innocent, you are just inexperienced,” to them. While this might sound like a wild, off-the-cuff assertion, I understood what my professor was trying to convey. While many of us vary in experience when it comes to physical or sexual maturation, we certainly have been exposed enough to it to activate our imaginations. Kids are curious; they ask their parents where babies come from, they understand what words are inappropriate to use, they make decisions everyday. We see and hear things on TV, the internet, our friends, in books, and out in public. And a lot of professors and teachers understand this, like my acting professor. I wonder what this mindset would be like if this happened in a fifth grade classroom, however. There has to be a better way for schools to nurture a child’s creativity and imagination that doesn’t tip the scale for them. I have the most respect for the patience of teachers, especially those who teach elementary schools. It is a huge responsibility for people to take on, knowing they will be underpaid and underserved. 

[readbyir]

My Experience (so far) With Poppy, a Play in Development

In my first year of college, I joined a student committee that produces 10 one-acts over the course of the academic year. I started behind the board: learned how to program light cues and created QLabs for these shows. Eventually, I grew confident enough to start stage managing, and then finally directing. Over the course of four years in this committee, I’ve worked with and supported talented students and their original scripts/adaptations. I’ve seen different kinds of relationships between playwrights and directors; some that have ended in indifference and some that have ended amicably. In witnessing this, I have sat on the sidelines (in regard to directing an original play) out of uncertainty and insecurity. Now, my final project as a directing student is entirely based on putting an original one-act on its feet, which, needless to say, has addressed any of these prior nerves quite directly. 

Because we have gone remote for the rest of the semester, our work on the original plays have been limited to just doing tablereads and revisions. Surprisingly, I am actually grateful that I have so much time to help develop the text instead of put it on its feet. So far, the one act has gone through three revisions and tablereads. Each reading has furthered the clarification of the protagonist’s journey, the major argument, the given circumstances, and the relationships. At the first read through, I had a cast of three. At the most recent read through, I had five actors. The addition of two actors was an idea that I brought to the playwright after interviewing him and hearing the play read aloud. It was a choice that I felt helped translate the passage of time to the audience and to the actors. I consider myself pretty lucky to work with a playwright who is excited to hear new ideas and feedback, because not only did he want to try this choice, but he has also adapted it into the final versions of the script. What is even more exciting about this process is hearing others respond to its growth. Having read through and heard the play multiple times now, I find it difficult to place where the audience’s mind is at when they hear it for the first time. A class full of intelligent and creative student directors and actors has helped guide me with their own observations and ideas. This is a part of the process where I have not been before, and is a part that I am loving. I still have yet to explore the relationship between a playwright and director past this point (aka the rehearsal room, previews, etc.), but it has been a harmonious experience so far. It also helps that the playwright is someone that I have worked with many times before as a lights/audio designer in the committee I previously mentioned. Work with collaborators you know you can trust, always.

I am sad that I won’t be able to put it on its feet this year, but much like how we are processing the losses we are going through as a society and industry, time is what we all need. I’m glad to not have rushed this process, and that I gave it a shot. 

[readbyir]

5 Posts Later = An Introduction

I have been posting here for about a month now, and it has occurred to me that I have neither 1) introduced myself nor 2) introduced this blog. For curious readers out there, this one’s for you: My name is Isabel, and this blog exists for commentary, critiques, or reviews on theatre-related works I have read or watched. I hope to develop a keener sense of my signature as an artist through my posts, so please read them with a tiny grain of salt.

Pictured above is my book stand ft. my current read: The Fervent Years by Harold Clurman.    Quick Facts: - I am about to finish my undergraduate studies from a university in Southern California with a major in Theatre and an emphasis in Stage Directing - I am a National Student Directing Finalist for the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival  - I am 21 years old

-The last play I read was Reverberation by Matthew Lopez (and I loved it!) And finally, I hope I can inspire others to explore their own artistry while we are in quarantine. Whether it’s reading a script, watching a play on BroadwayHD, or singing a song from a musical, I want our community to stay connected. 

[readbyir]

A short reaction to The Flick

This is my first Annie Baker read (I have yet to get to Circle Mirror Transformation), and I have very little words to explain how real the whole play felt to me. The language she uses is alarmingly real. I am extremely touched by the way Avery’s anxiety comes through in his short stops, pauses, his not-knowing-when-to-stop justifications, and especially his panic/repulsion in Act 2. The relationship among the three coworkers provide a glimpse into the passion and life that minimum-waged workers, like myself, infuse into their work environments, and especially the hesitation that comes with it. Working hourly in any institution- movie theatre, retail, coffee shop, restaurant, is a mini-life in itself to the individual worker. I was able to recall the highs and lows I’ve shared while working at a box office with other young adults, and watch those memories in my mind like a movie.

I recall many times where I sat at my box office window and let my wall come down to my coworkers. We would talk about the season we are selling, the money our department is losing, the horrible choices our higher-ups are making. We would dive into politics and family and relationships. Sam and Avery’s slow progression into best work buddies is evident through their movie/actor game and sharing of random personal facts. It is when Rose opens up to Avery that the characters begin to question where their friendships stand outside of the movie theatre. We’ve all come across this when going to happy hour for the first time with a coworker, or seeing their apartment for the first time. Avery’s breakthrough in his own form of repeating the Ezekiel phrases really buttons the uniqueness of his experience. The exploration of the working class’s intersection with race, mental illnesses, and relationships is what is sticking with me as I work from home in this pandemic. Feeling halfway out of a job and the friendships that came with it is where I currently stand with Avery.

[readbyir]

The Freedom of Inherit the Wind

I found this play a few months ago inside the very limited section of plays at Barnes and Noble. I had not lived through the era of the Scopes Trial, nor did I learn about it in my U.S. History and Government classes. I was not familiar with the Scopes “Monkey” Trial at all, but the sub-headline of “The powerful drama of the greatest courtroom clash of the century,” pulled me in. In hindsight, Inherit the Wind has to be my favorite random purchase in the last year. Robert Lee and Jerome Lawrence found the importance of preserving our civil liberties in this 1925 case and used it to argue how those same freedoms were at stake thirty years later during the McCarthy Trials. Lee and Lawrence implore their readers to treat their play as a piece of drama/theatre, not a retelling of the historic case in Daytona, Tennessee. That is because they used real facts, phrases, and relationships of the trial to craft their own story and characters in the ambiguous city of Hillsboro. The implications that this court case had, even though Cates was convicted, destroyed the ego of Brady and the propheticism of the Bible Belt. It goes to show how important the journey is, rather than the destination.  The birth of this controversy started with an exact goal in mind: publicity. A small mid-western town that draws the interest of a God-fearing presidential nominee and the most infamous agnostic lawyer is bound to get the attention of the greater society of the United States. Bert Cates does not have a burning passion for Darwinism, nor does he practice faith devoutly. However, he agreed to be a pawn in a huge game of debate led by those who were passionately invested in the debate of creation versus evolution. The opportunity at hand for the attorneys, Brady and Drummond, was to singlehandedly set a precedent for how we legally mitigate our values as a society. Drummond faces many obstacles, such as getting handed a whole jury of devout Christians, being denied the use of professionals like scientists or professors, and using any reference to Darwin’s book. Yet, he plays these challenges to his advantage. He focuses on the aspect of taking the holy book literally, and how it pokes holes through the prosecutor’s argument. Brady is brought to stand as a witness. Drummond gets the whole jury to look at the prophet that Brady builds himself up to be and asks them to reconsider which idol they are worshipping. The play ends with a technical loss on Drummond’s end, but a major success in how he inspired the court to open their minds up to the diversity within their own Christian denomination. Brady has fallen into his own trap, and must The first seven days could have been human-created, 24-hour days, or months, even 10 million years. Cain had a wife of an origin that readers do not know. Instead of assuming, Drummond proves to his jury that we do not have every answer. Hornbeck, journalist, ridicules Drummond for siding with Brady’s faithfulness, which further shows the empathetic human qualities Drummond holds. Drummond, unlike Brady, did not come for the great exposure he would receive for taking on this hard case. He came to defend a human’s basic right to believe, think, and challenge. This is why he was so successful in undercutting Brady, but still maintained a respect for him. There is an important lesson of humanity that readers can take away from this play. Lee and Lawrence knew this when writing the play for their own contemporaries of the McCarthy era, but now I entertain myself with all of the situations this debate would stand in our courts today. Almost one hundred years later, can we see this issue still being faced? Talking to my elder family members, I still hear the idea of how God-fearing our America should be. It goes beyond teaching evolution in schools, however. We now debate on how faith should closely reflect our political parties, our right to marry, and our right to plan our parenthood. This play is more important than ever, and all Americans should engage in the freedoms we are given as actively as we can to love thy neighbor.

[readbyir]

The responsibilities of Kinky Boots

Take Charlie- a son mourning his father’s death while managing his failing shoe factory- and Lola- a drag queen who has forged his own path after struggling with his father’s rejection- and then add Cyndi Lauper music. The result is a fast-paced, flashy presentation of what our society could be. The spectacle of this show is remarkably clear in how it tells a story to the audience at just face value. Behind it is a journey of accepting yourself by accepting others. The great challenge that is presented is spoken best in Lola’s words: I am freedom versus I am restriction. Fierstein choses a specific lens to view the protagonist’s journey while empowering the inclusion of underrepresented individuals into society that leaves the audience with satisfaction knowing that Charlie’s story has ended, but still might wonder what is left to Lola’s. In the middle of this pandemic, I turned to BroadwayHD to ease my mind with the artistry of others. This cast is filled with athletic dancers and actors who are passionate about the message of this show. Any audience member, including myself, experiencing Kinky Boots will experience total freedom from the sheer amount of diverse bodies, talents, colors, and shapes used onstage. Jerry Mitchell and his design team focused on the balance of the bland and neutral world of the shoe factory with the glittered glamour of the land of Lola. We are given one world at a time, using split focus with the two levels of the stage. The contrast between color, passion, and acceptance is clear. These two worlds exist separately as Lola and Charlie begin a friendship. As the two become vulnerable with one another and agree to become business partners, the two worlds start to become one. The most clear shift of this merge is at the end of Act 1 into Act 2. The Angels roll into the factory on treadmills-turned-conveyor-belts in high fashion and engage the entire factory into song and dance to create the perfect boot. This collaboration is affirmed when we see a factory worker hook a glittery, bright red heeled boot on top of the “Price and Son” sign. As a result, the ensemble factory workers all dress in brighter colors and more distinct patterns just like the Angels. When we are taken to Milan, all of the characters are living seamlessly (shoe pun intended!) in their red boots strutting down the same runway. This love and passion spills out to the audience as they perform their final number. It definitely is interesting to see Charlie being pushed as the protagonist and having Lola and the Angels written to be the allies to his story. Fierstein balances this by having Charlie and Lola sing a duet about how they are both not their father’s son and gives Lola a scene where she boxes the office bigot. Although this is written as Charlie’s story, I would argue that there are two protagonists. The lessons that are learned are taught only by Lola, who pushes plot forward by designing the first boot, bringing her Angels in to explain their theory of sex being in a heel, uniting the women in the factory over what a woman wants, letting Don win in the boxing match, challenging Don to accept someone for who they are, gains closure with her father by performing at his nursing home, and then ultimately saving Charlie’s fashion show by walking in with herself and her Angels. Her presence infuses every factory worker with life and ideas that Charlie never could, except for the disappointment they felt over getting fired by Charlie. Lola’s humiliation and walkout scene even encouraged the factory workers to also walkout, triggering Charlie’s “Soul of a Man” ballad to deliberate the man he is under his father’s legacy. I would assert the major dramatic question being “Can Charlie create his own legacy?” but the story’s climax still leaves unanswered questions.

Charlie’s reliance on Angel every step of his journey raises an even bigger question on the impact of this story. Who are we supposed to turn to when we cannot face ourselves and the weight we carry? To broaden out this scope, it is the experience of those in minority communities to become an educator/teacher to those who have less experience. It is not a rule, but an unspoken and recurring occasion that individuals face as they stand out in a, for lack of better words, vanilla crowd. We naturally want to learn and talk about the interesting life and cultures of those we do not know much about, but many leadership and advocacy groups have challenged me to consider the responsibility of educating ourselves. Lola had important lessons to teach, as do many of those that are members of her community, but I had to consider the ways we teach human empathy. This specific factory had a culture and attitude makeover because of Lola’s decision to take the high road and continue to push against adversity. It leaves me wondering what changes could truly be made if Lola decided to step away from this toxic environment. It ultimately is each person’s choice to pursue their own means of happiness, and it is even more valid and reasonable for Lola to step away from the whole operation. My hope is that audiences recognize the legitimacy of Lola’s story, but not make it a responsibility for all underrepresented individuals to be your mentor and teacher. This story does an amazing job at humanizing and empowering all of the Lola’s around the world, but we must take the next step at addressing the ways we choose to integrate a diverse community without tokenizing.

[readbyir]

An essay on the rules of The Moors

“Everything shall always be different now, and yet nothing changes,” Marjory reads from her diary in the final scene in The Moors by Jen Silverman. These final lines of the play validate the audience members’ shared experience for the past ninety-four minutes. Two sisters, a maid, and a mastiff welcome a governess to their home with the intent of continuing their family’s legacy and power. An unsettling departure to the play begins with a bird smashing into the window, igniting the two sisters’, Agatha and Huldey, tense relationship. The oddities do not end there as the mastiff recites poetry, a moorhen falls from the sky, a maid inhabits two personalities, and each room in the house is, in actuality, the same room. Lullabies turn into murders that are ensued by a murder ballad. There was a lot to unpack in this production of The Moors directed by Tommy Statler. The action onstage at the Hallberg Theatre showed how so much can happen to each character, and yet the system they exist within stays intact. This is how Silverman leaves her audiences with the same unsettling feeling that her show began with. The world that Silverman created in her play is unlike the reality we live in today. The women and mastiff of the house live their lives by specific rules: their maid must live as both a pregnant scullery maid and a typhus-ridden parlor maid, the same room must be treated as a parlor, scullery, and two different bedrooms, and Huldey documents each different thought as a different day of the week in her diary. When Emilie joins the household, she challenges these rules. Tommy Statler built his concept based on the conventions of Agatha’s household.  Just like Silverman, Statler conceptualized The Moors by creating his own rules of the world and then intentionally breaking them.

Originally written for a proscenium stage, The Moors presents a lot of challenges in the round: Marjory cannot disappear for her Mallory switches as she juggles her props, Agatha’s murder being believable and visible on every plane of the stage, dropping Moorhen onstage in a crash-landing, transitioning from the house to the moors, and the general staging challenge of composing and moving in theatre-in-the-round. Under Statler’s direction, every actor and designer leaned into the challenges this stage presented for the script. The first rule Statler created was creating fake walls onstage. There are three river banks on the floor of the stage. This splits the playing space onstage into three different sections. For the house scenes, the moors would occupy one section of the stage while the two other sections were the house. Edgar Alamo’s lighting design gave a visible texture that delineated the moors and the house while the actors gave the illusion of fake walls by avoiding the river banks that were next to the moors section. Agatha would sometimes break this rule by entering the house through the moors section. The texture on the floor would disappear and the other actors onstage would interact with the space that they previously ignored. Agatha did this in Scene Seven when Marjory taunted Emilie. As Marjory placed her bonnet on Emilie, Agatha broke through the moors and opened up the room so that all three sections were in use. Agatha also called on Marjory to break through the moors in Scene Four after revealing to Emilie that Branwell is dead. Depending on the chair position, the room would also spin. Mastiff was the first one to move the chair after his speech about meeting Moorhen. He picked up the chair and turned it ninety degrees from where it was originally set. Alamo’s window and moors lighting textures also shifted ninety degrees so that the actors played their focal points on different walls. The room spun again by Huldey and then Marjory. Each time the chair shifted, the room spun ninety degrees. By scene eight, the house had spun a full three hundred and sixty degrees. After the scene outside in the moors, the house appeared to stop spinning based on the chair’s placement. 

The way violence was portrayed in Statler’s concept was slow and tableau-esque. The biggest difference between Statler’s concept and Silverman’s script was the portrayal of Moorhen’s death. Silverman hints that Mastiff ate the Moorhen in scene fifteen, but it is not explained beyond his blood and feather-covered entrance. The relationship, as Silverman writes it, ends after scene thirteen. Statler continued this scene even after its dialogue ended by staging a slow movement piece to portray Moorhen’s death. Mastiff slowly pounced on top of the Moorhen and then quickly lifted her up as she tried to escape from him. She slowly fought her way onto the ground, but then had her wing swiftly snapped by Mastiff. He ripped open her rib caged and then slowly carried her offstage. There was dramatic underscoring and red lighting to this sequence. Agatha’s death was stylized as well. Instead of being beaten to death by Huldey, Agatha gets choked to death. Agatha got hit by a chair three times before falling to the ground. Accented with flashing lights, each swing of the chair took about five times longer than it would have played out in real time. Each slow swing would stop right as the chair hit Agatha’s head in a tableau, to which Agatha would react to the hit in real time. Once Agatha was on the ground, the normal rate of time resumed and Huldey would choke Agatha for a brutal minute and a half. 

One of the smaller and simple rules that gets repeated was Marjory coughing every time she gets acknowledged as the scullery maid. Marjory is the scullery maid of the household while Mallory is the parlor maid. Marjory, being loyal to her household’s rules, plays along with the different roles she has been assigned. The coughing is derived from her prescribed condition of the typhus. 

All of Tommy’s choices led up to an engaging production of The Moors. Using the river banks to split the house and the moors was successful in giving the actors’ interesting shapes and diagonals to play with. This concept was most successful in one specific moment where Marjory sat in the moors while listening to Emilie’s song in scene four. This gave me a glimpse into what Marjory connects with when she is alone and not being bullied by Agatha. She was onstage for us to see, but no one in the house saw her because she was outside their boundaries of the house. On a technical level, making the house spin gives the audience an opportunity to experience the action from every angle. In my experience, audiences like to sit on the same side as the stage management booth because they think that it is the best view of the action onstage. Statler’s use of diagonals and room-spinning makes it so that every side of the audience gets to see Agatha glare outside her window. I think it is worth to mention that the height of the fireplace obstructed the view for a few seats, however I cannot say that it was Statler’s choice. Conceptually speaking, Silverman hints multiple times in the script that the ladies are in the same room for all of the house scenes, and it was not missed by the audience’s ear everytime Emilie mentioned it. Because the chair is the only moving furniture piece onstage (and center stage for most of the play), I felt hyper-aware of its placement. Each time the chair got reset was a physical reinforcement of Huldey and Marjory’s recognition of the room being a different room, yet still maintaining the same structure that Emilie recognizes as the same room from before. It also established the chair as a symbol of power and greatness. Huldey does not sit in the chair when she is with Agatha, but does sit in it when she is with Mastiff. Marjory does not use the chair when anyone is around her, but plays with it when she is with Emilie or by herself. When Emilie comes into the last scene completely transformed, her claim of the chair spoke towards her achievement of greatness and power through the moors. Again, this was possible because Tommy made the chair a primary reference for the audience’s recognition of the spinning of the house. I did ask some of my friends what they thought about the concept of the house, and to my surprise, I learned that some audience members had not noticed it at all. What could have contributed to this are the moments where a character would break through the moors and shatter the “house versus moors” illusion. If you had not noticed the leafy lighting texture on the floor, you would miss that the specific section was meant to be outside. Even if audiences did not recognize it, it still worked well on a functional level to get the audience to see all of the action onstage.

Moorhen’s death was unsettling as an audience member and made Huldey’s immediate entrance with an axe so much more suspenseful. Moorhen’s death was the first time in the play that the audience felt the time moving differently, so it was a bit jarring to see such fluid and choreographed movements between the two animals. This did, however, make the stop-and-go timing of Agatha’s death easier to understand because we have already sat through a death. By that point, the audience had already seen the flashing red lights and the slowed down movement from Mastiff and Moorhen. I had accepted this rule and suspended my disbelief when it came to the most important death. The concept to draw violence out as long as it can be actually excites me as an audience member. Violence onstage happens fast to the audience’s eye and is over before you know it. This stylized way makes it so that no one misses these important moments of the plot. The death of Agatha and metaphorical death of Huldey allowed myself to accept Emilie as the new lady of the house. Overall, Statler’s stylistic conception of Silverman’s story was a success in the Hallberg Theatre. He gave the audience an interesting way to see Silverman’s imagery-rich script with the layout of the house, each character’s interaction with the set, and their violence.

[readbyir]

An essay on a refreshing take of Twelfth Night

“If music be the food of love, play on.” Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare’s most performed plays, and in my opinion, one of my favorites. Viola’s journey of identity has been an object of my fascination since I stumbled upon her “I left no ring with her” monologue in high school. I have now seen Twelfth Night two times; the first time was at a community theatre and the second time was at a professional theatre. The professional production that I saw was at The Old Globe in November 2019. Directed by Jesse Perez, Twelfth Night used all of the MFA Acting students currently enrolled in the Shiley Graduate Theatre Program between the University of San Diego and The Old Globe. Having worked with most of them during their summer repertory season, I was thrilled to see them take on another reimagination of Shakespeare. This production took place in the intimate space of the Shirley and Harvey White Theatre. This theatre-in-the-round space allowed for Perez and his designers to suspend the audience’s disbelief with their fun ideas of design and staging. Perez conceptualized this telling of the story to be done through a band of actors in their own rehearsal hall with scripts, fighting mats, and rehearsal furniture strewn across the floor. Perez swapped genders, incorporated music and dance, and used farcical moments to fully explore Shakespeare’s humor and relationships in this text. Overall, Perez’s meta concept encouraged the unification of a strong ensemble that wants the audience to experiment with the love and gender fluidity that has always existed in Shakespeare’s plays.

While we usually see “As above, so below” metaphors expressed through two-levelled sets, Robin Roberts designed a single level set with two ramps that lead offstage. Perez’s concept insisted that the playing space was actually where an acting troupe comes to rehearse when they are not performing. Two signs labeled “TO STAGE” hung above the ramps and onstage drawers were stuffed with props and costumes. Malvolio, Sebastian, and subordinate characters had many opportunities to enter from the house for their entrances to the story. Perez crafted his departure point with the entire ensemble portraying themselves as actors. It was when Claire Simba stood on top of a table and proclaimed her first lines through a large microphone that her fellow actors agreed to put on a production of Twelfth Night. Instantaneously, hip-hop music and colorful lights flashed onstage as the ensemble danced and began their rehearsal process of Twelfth Night. 

Perez explored two different journeys of love between Antonio and Sebastian and Orsino and Viola. Perez fully embraced Antonio’s assertion of his adoration and love for Sebastian in the script. Jonathan Wilson, who portrayed Antonio, followed Ramon Burris, who portrayed Sebastian, down onto the stage to make sure his beloved friend had a safe journey. Perez explored the act of Burris closing the distance between himself and Wilson. Antonio’s vulnerability about his emotions towards Sebastian was met with Sebastian’s vulnerability about losing a sister. Burris and Wilson stood inches apart until Burris had to bid his farewell due to his mournful state. Claire Simba portrayed Orsino, an Illyrian nobleman. Gender-bending is not new when it comes to Shakespeare. For two black women to play the romantic leads, however, is not commonly practiced in live performances unless it is prescribed in a play that centralizes itself on the black experience. Perez directed the audience’s focus onto a female Orsino that falls in love with a female Viola. Simba did not talk in a forced lower-register or dress in breeches; she was still a woman in the larger-than-life role of Orsino.This viewed Shakespeare’s primary relationship through a LGBTQ+ lens. 

Music and dance was a large part of this production as well. As already stated, the ensemble broke out into a dance in the beginning of the play. The music was of the modern hip-hop genre, creating a contemporary feel to Perez’s concept. The choreography was fast-paced, fun, grounded, and complicated. A couple of the actors seemed to struggle with keeping up with the choreography, but still showed how much of a blast they had with it. Perez used Feste to continue this light-hearted musical feeling after the production’s colorful departure point. Summer Broyhill portrayed Feste with her acoustic guitar and goofy mannerisms. Using her experience as Amiens in As You Like It, Broyhill composed her own music for the show. In her moments of playing guitar and entertaining others, Broyhill, as Feste, was also experimenting with how others would react to her acoustic folk music. When Christopher Cruz (Sir Toby) and Mason Conrad (Sir Andrew) offered their approval of her music, Broyhill was elated and gracious. Her spirit of musicality built and spread towards two other partners onstage, turning a simple moment of entertainment into a full-blown acapella trio serenading Sir Toby. Broyhill also composed this acapella piece. 

Perez’s use of farce in Malvolio’s letter scene bent the audience’s expectation of what it means to hide in plain sight. Using palm leaves, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Fabian danced and dashed across all corners of the stage to stay hidden from Malvolio. The rule that Perez and his actors structured assured that anytime an actor holds up a leaf, they are hidden from Malvolio. They bend this rule by adding a couple more ensemble members to relevé and perform traditional ballet leaps while holding their leaves as Malvolio read his letter aloud.

  I found that Perez’s exploration of LGBTQ+ relationships and gender-roles to be extremely effective within his concept. Standing in a “fuck or fight” proximity from each other, Antonio and Sebastian added a complex layer of their potentially homosexual relationship. We know Sebastian ends up with Olivia at the end, but the implication of him meeting Antonio in the middle with his emotions demands the audience to perk up and hang onto this given circumstance throughout the rest of their limited times together onstage. In the text, we do not get a lot of information on Sebastian’s whereabouts. Perez made Sebastian’s moments onstage matter to the audience by showing how his inner-turmoil from losing a sister can project onto other relationships, romantic or otherwise. Even if Perez did not choose to argue for Sebastian to be bisexual, he still built tension between two men that represented more than just a dichotomous power balance; it begged for a reconsideration of masculinity. The power dynamic between the two men did not feel as if a servant was being dismissed by a superior figure. It was a tender and truthful moment where Sebastian let his walls down to another man. I saw two men being completely honest about the things that weigh most on their heart. In the spirit of Perez’s experimental concept; I got to ask myself what I thought Sebastian would do if he were not mourning for Viola. Solely because of how Perez set up their relationship, I would accept the argument that Sebastian should end up with Antonio if he had not paired up with Olivia at the end. Additionally, I was able to reflect on how little we see masculinity portrayed like this onstage. 

Orsino and Viola’s relationship intersected the exposure of LGBTQ+ and black relationships onstage. Orsino’s identity was not played out as a breeches role. Simba is a woman who was expressed as a woman onstage. Because Orsino was originally a male, the audience was able to recognize the elements and mannerisms that made Simba passable as Orsino. As discussed in Sebastian and Antonio’s relationship, the audience’s focus was also drawn to the idea of what makes a character masculine or feminine. Simba was confident, smooth, and humorous just like the character Shakespeare wrote. She demanded respect and power through her struts and table-climbing. She still had a masculine air to her because of her raspy and lower voice. Bibi Mama’s portrayal of Viola was special because of how she portrayed femininity. Mama is a fitness trainer, which showed onstage. She was strong, coordinated, and grounded. Her alto register paired well with Simba’s raspy voice. She did not make much change between her identity as Viola versus fake-Sebastian because of the minimalistic costume design. If I was not paying close enough attention to the language, I would have missed the fact that Mama was switching between female and male onstage. To throw on a blazer was not the strongest indication to an audience member that Mama has changed her identity, especially with her muscular build. To broaden the perspective of Perez’s choice of casting, I believe a color conscious choice was made to reach across San Diego’s predominantly white theatre patron base. Perez made a speech at the opening night party stating that it was time that people agree that Orsino can, in fact, be a black woman. Putting this idea onto a stage that is dressed to look like a rehearsal hall truly serves Perez’s purpose in challenging the conventions an audience projects onto Shakespeare and other works of theatre. He framed it as actors onstage that are simply workshopping new ideas and testing out what works and what doesn’t work. I have heard stories of Old Globe patrons expressing how much they miss “traditional Shakespeare” while mistakenly assigning its likeness to an older production that was actually conceptualized as the Napoleonic Era. It seems that Perez knows the Old Globe’s audience very well and did not waste his opportunity to make this show matter on a global scale. At the time of writing this essay, The Public Theatre just wrapped their production of Measure for Measure with an all black and female cast. Black women taking the lead in Shakespeare is a choice that theatres want their audiences to see and get used to. Perez does not turn away from issue in the slightest and brings the Old Globe into the larger conversation. 

Perez’s use of music and farce elevated Shakespeare’s text. His concept broke through the fourth wall in the act of Broyhill performing as Feste. Just like Feste aimed to entertain and please through music, Broyhill might have hoped that her fellow actors and audience members enjoyed her folk guitar compositions. It added to Feste’s likability as a performing artist rather than a “clown.” Perez’s outrageously funny comedic moments, such as the letter scene, suspended the audience’s disbelief on how to accept staged conventions. Marco Antonio Vega’s portrayal of Malvolio achieved empathy from the audience because of how much we were laughing at the deception that was devised against him. 

Perez made the story of Twelfth Night bigger than what we may have originally perceived to be. He gave his actors a platform to truly play and explore the humanity of their characters by gifting them a world where anything can happen: the rehearsal room. What if Sebastian loved Antonio back? What if Orsino was a woman? How many rules can we make for the audience and then break them? What is and is not allowed to be done with Shakespeare? These are the questions actors and directors ask in the rehearsal room and determine themselves. Perez included his audience to answer that question. He gave us an authentic presentation of what theatre is by keeping this world in its “exploration stage.” This let the community bear witness to what makes our theatre artists today so devoted to their art. As an MFA class, the actors portrayed the future of theatre for all to see.