MU Theatre production of Hamlet 

a unique take on centuries old masterpiece

Something is just weird about the State of Denmark. The MU Theatre production of Hamlet, open through April 29 at Rhynsburger Theatre, leaves audiences questioning everything they knew about this classic drama. This production of the play takes place in Denmark during a post-decline era in “the not-so-distant future,” - a bold change from the play’s traditional setting of Denmark in the Elizabethan era. The play follows Hamlet (played by Brian Scanlan), the son of a king that was recently murdered by his brother Claudius (played by Peter Smith) who now occupies the throne. For centuries, this play has been showing audiences that revenge is not always so sweet and this production is no different. Although there are stumbles along the way, MU Theatre brings a unique voice to William Shakespeare, showing audiences a since of tragedy and the meaning behind it. 

The production featured student actors as part of MU Theatre’s 2011-2012 season, which ends with this play. Acting varies throughout but overall, the message is seen and heard by the audience well. Each student’s tackles the task of reciting Shakespeare beautifully, however, it is often at the cost of delivery. For example, in playing Hamlet, Scanlan never misses a beat when reciting his lines but, often, they are painfully over-acted. Scanlan’s enthusiasm for the role is evident and he really makes the audience feel the action of the play but it often leads to over-dramatic moments that reduce the play’s believability. During the scene in which Hamlet meets his father’s ghost, Scanlan calls out to the figure with such unnecessary drama that it leads to the opposite of the desired effect and is only worthy of eye-rolls rather than applause. However, the excess melo-drama reminds the audience that Hamlet is still in his adolescence, a fact many forget when just reading the play. 

Director Kevin Brown leads the production of this play outside of convention. The decision to pull the setting of the play out of the 17th century and into the future was an underwhelming element of the play. A problem that can be mostly attributed to design elements discussed below. In this production, Brown takes his inexperienced student-actors and, in terms of blocking and staging, directs them well. The most noticeable elements of direction come in the content that was cut from the play. Normally a five hour show, this production of Hamlet was cut down to just over three hours, requiring some large scene cuts and rearranging. For example, Hamlet’s famous “to be or not to be” speech is the opening scene in the first act. For those familiar with the play, this is an unusual twist from its normal placement at the start of act three. In addition, staple characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are completely eliminated from the script while a long, slow scene featuring the banter of two grave diggers remains.   

The change of the play’s setting creates an expectation for audience members that they will be seeing Hamlet in a whole new light. This notion falls flat, however, with design elements never showing obvious changes. Costumes, while excellently made, looked to have little departure from the play’s original Elizabethan style. Further, set design never had any indication that it was a “castle in Denmark in the not-so-distant future.” In fact, with several pieces of scaffolding and its tall platforms, the set could have been just a construction site in present-day Akron. 

In this production, MU Theatre calls upon its creative license to make changes throughout the course of the play. However, many of these changes fall flat and are seen as just change for change sake. For those interested in Shakespeare, seeing this production would not be a waste of time. For those that are not, better wait until next season. 

Top Girls

In the Stephen’s College Warehouse Theatre Company production of Top Girls, director Ally Poole perceives the play in a unique sense. While the setting of the play is somewhat near the present, many of the characters that appear in the earlier scenes are from the far-reaching past. In order to adapt the production to this unusual character set, Poole uses a minimalist approach that allows for little stray from the status quo. For example, in the dinner scene, each of the characters says their piece with little fanfare or reverence. The scene is just a typical dinner conversation with little reliance on outside props or characters. This holds true for most of the play. However, as the play progresses and the plot becomes more complicated, so does the directing of scenes and dialogues.

The staging and blocking direction in this production leave something to be desired. I found the blocking to be of no use to telling the story, symbolic or otherwise. In fact, throughout the play there were moments that an actor’s back was turned while delivering a line or an actor would be standing in front of another blocking the audience’s view of facial expressions. This proved most evident in the first act during the scene in which Angie and Kit are playing in the yard. Throughout the scene, the actress that played Angie (Alex Molnar) continually moved around the stage, often stopping to talk to Kit (Mariah Larkin) in a way that would obstruct the audience’s view of Larkin. Many times, depending on where in the audience you were seated, this resulted in Molnar’s back turned to the audience.

There were moments in the play that I found the casting to be effective and other moments where it was completely ineffective. For example, the casting of Alex Molnar as Pope Joan was very effective. She presents a purity and regalness that a pope, no matter the gender, ought to have. In addition, she made a very easy transition to the bossy Angie in her very next scene. However, the casting of Malia Wirtel as Lady Nijo was horribly ineffective. Her performance seemed forced, especially in her speaking parts. Her attempt at speaking in a Japanese accent consisted of dropping all the L’s and N’s from her lines. It was so difficult to understand her that I often found myself tuning her out.

Justice Served

In the MU Theatre production of Justice Served, an acting element that stands out was Milbre Burch’s monologue, Sometimes I Sing. This portion of the show was written and performed in a way that allowed the audience to really connect with Minnie Wright and allows her to explain her reasoning for what might have happened in Trifles. Burch’s emotional performance was a powerful conclusion to a very powerful play. When Burch describes her husband killing her canary, the monologue takes a turn to pull in the audience to her cause. Speaking to a friend, her performance left the audience sympathetic to her situation and asking themselves what they might do faced with the same challenges. Simply, her performance justified murder.

In The Devil’s Own, Lindsay Murray delivers the performance of Sykes Jones in a way that shows the audience the terrible situation that Delia is in. His performance conveyed clearly the hate and indifference Sykes has for his wife. With Murray’s performance, the audience could feel Deila’s pain and connect with her in a way that allowed for them to celebrate his death with her. He shows this type of abuse and indifference in the scene when Delia walks in on him and Pansy. His almost non-response gives the audience a reason to feel disgust toward him and truly understand the situation Deila is in.

Finally, stage direction in The Devil’s Own was an impressive element in these selections. With such an open set and limited space, the director was able to guide actors to positions best suited to audience engagement. Although different settings of the play (i.e. the store, the church, Delia’s home) shared space on the stage, the audience always understood what was taking place. Characters transitioned from setting to setting seamlessly and without confusion, a feat that many plays cannot accomplish.

Task Based Writing:

In each of the three plays, the set was simple with minimal frills but was always enough. The sets, often just wooden walls with few items to help the audience understand the setting, were realistic of the character’s situations and time periods. The costumes followed in this by using simplicity but elegance to show the strong nature of the characters (especially the women) while still keeping true to the settings. As a contrast, lighting for the production was often too low and did not contribute much to the design.

In the Heights

In this traveling production of Broadway's In the Heights, the design aspect that stuck out the most to me was the scenic design. Upon taking their seats, the audience knows immediately the type of setting in which the play will take place. From the subway entrance to Abuela Claudia’s stoop, the special attention to detail that the set designers took is evident. Even with space constraints, designers and actors were able to make it work by having moveable parts that could be adjusted depending on the scene’s requirements. The detailed set instantly reminded me of the Manhattan New York neighborhoods that it was trying to portray.

An area that always impresses me in a musical or play such as this is the costume design. In In the Heights, all of the costumes were just common street clothes and nothing particularly memorable. However, it is because of this that I find the costume design to be impressive. Too often costumes in musicals and plays such as this have costumes that are too over the top or do not necessarily match the situation. In this musical, not only did they do that, but they also allowed for the audience to be comfortable and identify with the main characters. The exception, of course, was the Rosario parents but the business formal costumes of those characters added to the necessary persona of the musical.

Finally, another area that I found to be satisfactory, was the sound design. Much like costume design, it is hard to pull off well and be remembered for being good, not bad. This musical’s sound design went beyond that by fitting so well into each scene that it seemed that music was part of their everyday conversation.

PLOT SUMMARY: Originally from the Dominican Republic, a man, now living in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, makes it part of his life’s mission to return to his homeland. When an unexpected opportunity arises, he must choose between leaving behind everything he has ever known or returning to the island he loves.

IDEA SUMMARY: Sometimes home is where you least expect it.

Money Lectures

This week’s lectures presented some interesting facts on how money plays a major role in the creation of theatre, art and music. One of the common themes in all three lectures that stuck out to me was love. Each lecture expressed how important money is to its respective art but all three explained that actors, artists and musicians all do it for love first and foremost. Although money is what makes the creative industry run and it is important to the creatives, it is not why they do it. It was clear in the art and music lecture that many artists and musicians don’t even make money until after they’re dead. Why else would they do it? They love it.

Another interesting point taken away from the lectures is the commercialization of art. Thomas Kincade has made a fortune painting colorful pictures and selling them in malls, often with Bible verses on added. While the paintings and other merchandise are a success and clearly somebody somewhere likes them, we call into question Kincade’s motives. The lecture brought into perspective exactly how far we can stretch his, and any other similar artist’s, motives until we believe they are no longer pure. For me, this idea is highlighted in the Thomas Kincade towns.

Finally, it is interesting to me the different roles that money plays in art verses music and theatre. In art, most of the money involved is dealt with after the painting is sold. In music and theatre, however, a good portion of the money involved goes into the production and producing of the medium. This creates a barrier for those wanting to enter those artistic fields - especially music.

The images of money and economics in popular culture are, to me, being portrayed as necessary. With all of the reality and fictional television featuring wealthy or appearing to be wealthy people, it is hard for society not to think that having money in the world is the only way to be happy.

There is a role for artists in a capitalistic society. People are always going to love buying or funding art, music and theatre no matter how much or little money they have. I think the challenge for artists in this society is going beyond just the painting, the play or the music Creatives must share it with the world, and then maybe they can survive on what they make.

Monsieur Baptiste: The Con Man

In MU Theatre’s production of Monsieur Baptiste: The Con Man, one of the main things that stuck out to me was the the delivery of dialogue. Throughout the production, the actors attempted to use a Cajun accent that would resemble the play’s mid-1800s New Orleans setting. However, each actor seemed to have their own version of what they thought was a Cajun accent, only distracting from the play. While, on paper the accents would have added to the quality of production, in reality the accents sounded like anything from Haitian to South Asian, depending on who was speaking. I don’t believe that anything would have been missing had the actors delivered their lines in their normal voices.

An impressive element of the production was the set. The set provided enough detail that it could be immediately understood that the play would take place in a large Southern home. The high walls and impressive staircase provided extra details that helped show the Alvarez family’s wealth and social class without much imagination from the audience. In addition, the veranda upstage was a unique addition to the set and provided more details into the home’s elegance and class.

Finally, an element that I found to be disappointing was the directing. More than once during the duration of the play, one or more of the actors had their back to the audience. Not only does this make it difficult on the audience to understand the emotions of the character, it makes it very difficult to hear lines being delivered. Often, during scenes that took place upstage, the audience would miss lines because the actor was facing the veranda rather than the audience. Along these same lines, during opening scenes of each act, actors would begin their lines even before the loud introduction music would stop. This proved especially true in the very first scene when the loud music more than covered up the actor’s voices, leading the audience just to guess what happened in the first minute of the play.

Plot Summary: A corrupt, religious boarder wins over the father and grandmother of the family with whom he is staying but does not fool anyone else. When this man begins to interfere with the lives of the family, a father must learn the hard way to always trust the instincts of his family.

Idea Summary: Sometimes your first impressions about a person should be reevaluated.

Identity Lectures

This week’s lectures presented powerful points on identity as it is portrayed in the arts. From the lectures, the most important points that I took away were: identity is not always something that can be performed on stage, music itself is identity and that social norms are not always the building blocks for identity. The reflection on identity, particularly African-American identity, in these three main arts is incredibly important in understanding their meaning and how they shaped cultures of all types.

Identity is conveyed differently in each of the artistic fields just by the nature of the field. While theatre identity can be conveyed by transporting the audience into the characters world, music must convey all of this without visual aids leaving the audience to imagine. A Jazz audience, for example, without background knowledge, would not understand its history in the African-American culture. With that knowledge, however, the listener can really feel the identity of a culture come out.

A point that really hit home for me was the story of the Plano, Texas production of Hairspray. While I don’t think that company’s racial make-up is an accurate representation of the city it reminds me of the small town where I grew up. With most of the kids that could afford to be in theatre being white, we had to be sensitive to the play that we chose. I remember having to pass on plays because we could not “historically represent” the play. Because of the play’s historical message, I found the theatre company was being irresponsible in allowing the play to continue.

I am Greg Loeffler -- that is all I choose to identify myself by. I feel that giving myself an identity this early in my life limits me in what I can be. Later in life I may be able to put words to who I am but for now I’m happy just being me.

Spamalot

In the travelling production of Monty Python's Spamalot, the element of the play that stuck out the most to me was the acting. It takes a lot to sing, dance and deliver lines of such a strange nature while still keeping composure. The actors delivered a serious performance of a musical that is far from serious with the enthusiasm that the writers clearly envisioned. Characters such as The Lady of the Lake, played by Brittany Woodrow, delivered a performance that did justice the part of a fairy while still bringing a satirical Cher to the table. The actor's ability to deliver the message is this way is central to the play's message (which may or may not be anything).

Another aspect of the play that struck me were the costumes. Not just the type of clothes they were wearing or how they were designed, but more about how they tied the musical together. Throughout the musical, there are several references to popular culture while still remaining in the period of the Middle Ages. Part of what reminds the audience of this are the costumes. When Sir Robin is singing about needing Jews to be successful on Broadway, the audience can forget that the setting is still Middle Ages England. Robin's chainmail and other medieval git-up tie together the entire scene and really make the audience laugh because it makes absolutely no sense.

Finally, music is another central element to the show, one that truly makes its presence known throughout. If it was accompanying a song or or just conveying an actor's emotion, the music in this show was truly central to the themes of the play. The diversity of the music was also evident. From a slow, almost mellow sound in "The Song That Goes Like This" to the exciting and loud "His Name is Lancelot", the music provided the foundation for how the audience should feel during a scene.

Introduction:

The University of Missouri Concert Series hosted Monty Python's Spamalot at Jesse Auditorium on Sunday night. The musical, produced by Phoenix Entertainment and written by Eric Idle and John Du Prez, brought musical humor to a packed audience. Set in medieval England, the play is a look that is well worth it on popular culture and the legend of King Arther and his Knights of the Round Table.