Tacoma Teen Reviews

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R+J Old and Tired or New and Relevant?

ACT Theatre’s Romeo and Juliet touched the heart and tickled the soul. The actors continuously took the audience from laughing to holding their breath in suspense. I was constantly on the edge of my seat, waiting for what came next. In a play as familiar as Romeo and Juliet, there were vulnerable moments and heart-wrenching scenes that came as a surprise.

Chain link fence, tarp, and concrete surrounded the audience and stage. The set reminded me of the immigrant detention center in Tacoma, where I have witnessed children travel hundreds of miles to spend a few minutes with an exiled parent. Like immigrants in the detention center, Romeo and Juliet had a hard choice to make. They could leave their homes and families for a better life together. A life without fighting and death. Leaving means losing the life they have known. If they stay, their true love could be killed in the cross-fire, but they would have their family and parents around them.

As a teenager myself, I don’t know how Romeo and Juliet had the courage to choose one or the other. To stay or flee.

There were some amazing stunts on the fences. At one point, Romeo hopped a full size chain link fence to see Juliet, and on his way back down, they met at the top and shared a kiss. A kiss on top of the fence and on top of the world.

In this production, Romeo and the Friar were both deaf, and spoke in ASL (American Sign Language). This made the divide between Romeo and Juliet more tangible and real. One of the sweetest, most realistic scenes was when Juliet rushed into the bedroom where her nurse was folding laundry and asked to learn ASL for Romeo. The nurse grudgingly agreed, and when Juliet spewed out a perfect Shakespearean monologue for translation, the nurse just shook her head in disbelief. As if saying, teenagers can be so difficult. There were several down to earth moments like that where the audience remembered Romeo and Juliet were just kids.  

The story of Romeo and Juliet existed long before Shakespeare and continues to inspire people today. Clearly, everyone wants to find the person who makes them feel the way Romeo and Juliet did for each other, but is it even possible? And would we really want that? Because we might lose them. They may be killed, or move away, or just wake up one morning and realize they do not love you anymore. Is it worth it? Is it worth going through the pain of losing the person you love for that time when you can be together? Romeo and Juliet definitely thought so. They were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to be with each other. To leave everything behind: family, possessions, community, even breath. How much more in love can you be than that?

Which brings up a whole new question, Romeo and Juliet met only three days before committing suicide. Would they have lasted? Were they really meant to be? People say opposites attract, and that’s definitely true for magnets, but Romeo and Juliet came from different worlds. It would be like a boy from a very conservative, Trump supporting family, falling in love with a liberal, Bernie Sanders girl. It would be hard, they would always be compromising, avoiding subjects, and giving up or hiding their beliefs for each other. Would it ever really work out? Who knows, but the story hits home. It is a story about love that is worth breaking society’s rules and risking everything for.

-Kessa

age 15

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WE FOUND A DOG, HELP US FIND HER HOME On April 12 at about 1:45, we found this little cutie attempting to cross Jackson St near N 15th in Tacoma WA. If anyone has information about her origins, please contact us.Please re-blog this and share it with your friends.Thanks!

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A Dance With No Music

With no music, this excerpt from “Dearest Home” used bustling, crowded Seattle as music. I could hear every rustle of paper, every honking car, and every dim cell phone. This piece set itself apart from all other dance I have seen before and made the point that everything is music. This piece was meant to be set against a backdrop of silence, but the thin walls of the theater brought in all the city noises. Dance company Abraham In Motion (A.I.M.) presented four contemporary dance pieces to much applause at the Moore Theater on the night of Friday, March 29 and 30.

“Dearest Home”  featured two African American performers, Tamisha Guy and Jeremy “Jae” Neal, who acted like a couple who has just realised they like each other or had just broken up, but still had secret feelings for each other. Guy and Neal would push each other down, then become so wrapped up in each other as to almost kiss. Most of this dance was in unison with periods where Guy and Neal would mirror each other. They were in such perfect unison without music or a beat that it seemed like they were one. This dance felt private, almost as if we had walked in on a rehearsal. At one point, Guy and Neal both took off their shirts and threw them off stage. Even the set looked like a rehearsal room. It was completely bare without even wings on the sides. All the lights (designed by Dan Scully) were exposed, giving the dance a more normal, everyday, pedestrian feel.

You can’t dance to nothing. This piece took the sounds that we tune out, the sounds that we don’t think of as music and made them the sound track. No one notices the noises we hear all day every day, but when those sounds are the music, we listen and hear. Likewise, “Dearest Home” took actions that we do every day and made them a dance, rhythmic and flowing. This piece took a magnifying glass and focused it on the things we don’t notice. Stop for a minute, right now, and listen. What do you hear? Your first response might be “nothing,” so listen closer. What do you hear? What is the dance that you are participating in right now? Listen, you can hear it. I can.

Kessa Claire-Woldt

age 15

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3 Ballets, 3 Moods, 3 Composers

Pacific Northwest Ballet’s “Director's Choice” program featured three ballets. Bacchus, The Trees The Trees, and In the Countenance of Kings portrayed different moods, styles, costumes, and emotions.

The dancers in Bacchus wore flowing, watery costumes in a dark wine purple, referring to the fact that Bacchus is the Roman God of wine. In this piece, the girls all wore skirts and the boys wore pants and flowing jackets. Their costumes, made by Mark Zappone, were very gender traditional and which seemed the right choice for this piece. Since Bacchus is a Roman God, the traditional gender roles fit the overall mood. Each of the ballet’s seven sections had a different mood and energy and the backdrop changed color to  reflect the joy and fear of the dancers.

I felt that Bacchus was a love story. Starting with the joy of new love, then moving on to overcome that challenges that all relationships pose. The dancers movements were synchronized, usually with one couple at the focus. The dancers used their arms to propel them through space and feelings. In each section, the music (composed by Oliver Davis) would have a different style and tempo. At one point it seemed the two dancers were waltzing across the stage. In another, I felt they were fighting for their lives, for everything they hold dear.

The most powerful part in this ballet was when the orchestra stopped playing and the dancers kept going. They moved in perfect harmony. It was like pulling back the cover to expose the raw bones. Each footfall resounded off the theater. It was like moving into the soul of the dance, raw and unfiltered.

For a god of merriment, wine, and abundance, there was a lot of pain and fear. But, like anything in life, what goes up must come down, and down it came. The second section of Bacchus presented a gray backdrop and dim lighting, created by lighting designer Randall G. Chiarelli. The characters movements were more jagged and raw. At point, the dancer folded in on himself abruptly like he was in pain. The whole effect made me feel emotion, deep, and powerful. I think that’s what good dance, good music does: it makes you feel.

In The Trees The Trees (choreographed by Robyn Mineko Williams), the curtain rises to reveal a room. The floor, ceiling and furniture are all white. In the middle of the stage is a couch or bed, it’s very abstract. On it, doze two people. A boy and a girl both wearing pj style pants and tops. To the left are three other pieces of abstract furniture: a chair, a tree, and what might be a fireplace. A woman (Alicia Walter) walks on stage, begins to sing, and the second ballet begins.

The dance style in this piece was very different from Bacchus. The movements in this ballet were modern, jazzy, and just a little sexy. The Trees The Trees was also divided into five sections, each section a different poem. Walter sang the whole time. Between the singing, the set, and the costumes, this was definitely not a traditional ballet. The costumes were unique for each dancer. Most of the girls wore dresses, but one wore pants. What really set these girls apart from your average ballerina was that none of them wore leotards. All the girls wore a sports bra and shorts instead. I think that design choice definitely pushed this piece into the category of modern ballet. Sometimes, I found the singing detracted from the dancing. A word would pop out at me like “microwave”  or “hunk of beef”. These words made me and other audience member stifle their laughs. Other times, I was trying so hard to understand the words that I lost track of the dancers. This piece was definitely abstract, modern, and outside of the box.

In an attempt to be modern, In the Countenance of Kings, ended up a dated look. The dancers wore white leotards with black leggings, designed by Ellen Warren. The girls wore short ballet skirts most of the piece, which contributed to a more traditional look. All of the tops had stripes of color, perhaps in an attempt to make the costumes look more modern. Unfortunately, this gave the costumes a more dated look, like an 80s aerobic class.

The choreography, by Justin Peck, in this piece reminded me of the wind. There were multiple parts moving at the same time, but somehow they all moved together. The choreography was probably more difficult, with showy tricks and lifts. Unfortunately, the complexity was mostly lost on me. Audience members less familiar with ballet did not appreciate this piece as much. Maybe serious dancers were able to appreciate this piece more.

This piece, unlike the first two, didn’t make me feel any strong emotions. The darker moods and energies spoke to me in the first two pieces. None of these things are inherently good or bad, but I did not enjoy this piece as much as the first two.

Kessa Claire-Woldt

age 15