Almost, Maine Extra Credit

Almost, Maine is a play set in Maine at 9:00 pm about unrelated love stories, which are happy, sad, and funny.  The play seems to vaguely exist in a realistic world, although there are many elements where that is not the case.

The costume designs by Terri Rohlfing blended well in the play.  The idea of the costumes was to show that it was set in Maine, which means that it was very cold out.  However, there was a way this could have seemed like the designer really wanted the audience to know instead of just collecting natural costumes that don't draw attention to the fact that it's winter.  In outdoor weather, the cast wore heavy, thick winter coats, sometimes winter head gear, and usually gloves.  When they were indoors, they wore clothes you would expect any American to wear.  It was simplistic, but that's what it needed to be.

The scenic design by Gregory J. Owen was extremely minimal, which became almost charming.  If you're going to have a low budget on sets, you might as well go all out and get as few sets as physically possible.  I think only pieces that were absolutely necessary were used.  I thought the doorway intruding on the stage was an odd choice.  Of the eight plays, most of them didn't use the doorway.  Hell, the play where the couple are arguing about giving and taking love from each other seemed set up for the doorway... and they ignored it.  It's not a large complaint, but it was a weird choice when the rest of the play was so minimal.

The acting in the play was good.  Chad Hardesty stood out to me in the play in particular.  Each role he played was well-acted and just different enough from the rest of the characters.  You didn't get the sense that he was trying too hard to distinguish the characters, which I got from a couple others.  Jason Cavallone's first role as the spurned ex-boyfriend wasn't badly-acted, he just choice a really obnoxious voice that sort of ruined the performance for me.  His other roles were more normal and were refreshing to me.  It sort of highlighted that he was trying too hard to make the roles seem different.  On the women's side, Michele Curry provided the same steady performance across all three roles that Hardesty did for the boys.  When she was in the sketch, I knew I could rely on her performance.  Jillian Dent, on the other hand, was way too overexcited on stage.  In her sketch with Hardesty, it really stood out to me, because his performance was more nuanced and in control.  She seemed to really emphasize each line.  Again, her subsequent performances were much better so it could simply have been another case of trying to make the characters different from each other.

Mini-Review

For an upcoming, small theater company, it seems almost a requirement to perform Almost, Maine due its emphasis on acting and minimal amount of set work required.  The Talking Horse Productions were the latest small company to tackle this musical at Talking Horse Theatre.  The play featured eight different set-ups with six actors doing triple duty, some of them back-to-back.  The play featured good performances from all the actors, with a slight misstep here or there, but overall the acting held the play together.  The set work is adorably minimal with only the absolute necessary aspects brought on stage.  The costumes are virtually indistinguishable from everyday life, but that's the point.  But the sets, costumes, and scenic design are not the point of the play, but the ability of the actors to showcase their ability.  On that note, Almost, Maine works really well with an audience who laughing most of the play.

Fifth of July brings new life into old play

With evocative costumes reminiscent of the 1970s, Fifth of July does the sparkling dialogue justice, creating a fully realized world in Lebanon, Missouri.

The University of Missouri Theatre brings life into the old play by the late Lanford Wilson at Rhynsburger Theatre.

Fifth of July revolves around the Talley family and reveals itself to be a reflection of the impact of the Vietnam War on this small town family.  This is most obviously reflected in Kenneth Talley (Joshua Johnson), a gay paraplegic veteran.  Before the war, he seemed to be a passionate school teacher.  Afterward, he's having trouble going back to the school due to his condition.

 Talley and Jed Jenkins (Jarrod Beck), his lover, are both gay, but it's a peripheral part of the play.  It's a relatively inconsequential aspect of the play except for its uniqueness.  They are treated in Wilson's script as any other heterosexual couple has been treated in pop culture works of art.  This is not a surprise for people familiar with Wilson's history.  He was openly homosexual and it was a major theme in most of his plays.

The strength of the play without a doubt is in its ability to depict 1970s Missouri.  This is mostly due to the costume design of Kerri S. Packard.  Her costumes are fun and most importantly era-appropriate.  The men of the play get the most inspired costumes, whether by choice or accident.  They wore the typical hairy-chested, open-shirted button-down shirts with short shorts.  John Landis (Scott McDonald) gets the best costumes with his lookalike Miami Vice suit and big sunglasses and slicked back hair.  Then there's the almost obligatory hippie character in Weston Hurley (Jeffrey Simpson), who lives up the stereotypical look with his long hair and excess of facial hair.  Jenkins mostly gives the specific "hick" Missouri look with his worn-down shirt and blue overalls.

With such a dialogue-driven play, it's hard to overstate the importance of the performances of the actors.  Johnson as Kenneth Talley gave a sneaky, understated performance who nonetheless is able to connect with the audience thanks to an emotional scene.  (Tears were shed)  Rachel Bauer, as Sally Friedman, probably gives the best performance of the cast who somehow convinces as a much older woman.  McDonald also hits the right notes as the smug, overconfident businessman.  It may have not been difficult for Simpson to play the dumb, perpetually stoned hippie, but he really has a great sense of comedic timing generating laughs with nearly every line.  Lastly, Blair Ussary probably should have toned it down a bit as she really hams up her performance as the smarter than her age teenage girl.

It may not seem like an important aspect, but the direction and staging of the play is vital to maintaining the audience's interest.  Nobody wants to watch two hours of people just sitting and talking.  Thankfully, David Crespy helps keep the action going by having the characters constantly moving.  Despite the constant movement, the staging felt natural and yet never interfered with the audience's ability to see the characters.

Scenic Designer Brad M. Carlson helps bring about the Missouri aspect of the play.  The walls are an off-color yellow and everything seems a bit more colorful.  It's not immediately obvious what period the play is set in from the scenic design by itself, but it definitely gives the sense that its set in Missouri, an aspect that was lacking in the costume design.  The sets compliment the costumes and neither would truly achieve its purpose without the other.

The lighting design by R. Dean Packard had a two-fold effect.  It helped contribute to the 70s aspect of the play by having an almost airy atmosphere.  It also had a pretty clever way to show the characters were outside by having one portion of the side significantly brighter than the other portions of the stage.

A script penned by a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, great production, and good performances led to an enjoyable experience despite running perhaps a little long.

Sherlock Homes: The Final Adventure

Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure is a play based on Arthur Conan Doyle's original 1899 play.  It will be instantly recognizable to any mild Sherlock Holmes fan.  This production seems to sort of model itself after the television series, Sherlock, at least based off each act beginning and ending with the theme to that series.

A key component to the success of this play was the acting.  There were several memorable performances, but unfortunately neither were the main characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson.  Neither were bad, and in fact, both were quite good at times, but it's impossible not to compare them to the great performances of past people who have played these characters.  Jason Herman, who played Sherlock, seemed to consistently speak in the same manner with the same accent while Kristopher Pettey at times struggled to maintain a British accent.  Jason Wayne Christian stood out from his first scene on stage.  His first appearance, where he introduces himself, was an instant scene stealer.  He had a booming voice that commanded the audience's attention.  Despite barely being in the first act, his introduction made the audience aware of his impending arrival and what that meant for the characters.  Two other actors who stood out were Charlie Wilkerson, as James Larrabee, and Chelsea Christian, as Madge Larrabee.  Despite little character backstory, the actors were able to convey who they were as people.

Since this is a play about Sherlock Holmes in the late 1800s, an important aspect to nail down is the costumes.  The costumes were serviceable but not remarkable.  Sherlock Holmes wears various disguises in this play, most of them very slight changes that make for a convincing disguise.  When he dresses up as a priest, he simply puts on a floppy hat and an alb (I believe that's the term).  Obviously, there are enough limits to completely fool the audience, but very little changes like that make for a world of credibility with the audience.  Also, speaking as a person unaware of the clothing popularity of the late 1800s, they were convincing as clothes from Britain back then.  I thought the King of Bohemia's costume was the least effective.  It did the job of portraying his importance, but it looks too cheap for a king.  It looks like it was either plucked from a costume room or made from scratch, which is very well might have been.  It wasn't that harmful, because like I said, it got the point across.

The lighting design mostly focused on making sure the audience was paying attention to the right part of the stage given that only half of the stage was used at any moment.  An unrealistic wish from myself would be that the other side wouldn't be seen at all, but given the monetary constraints, that's not a realistic complaint.  Still, the lighting did the job in showing where the audience can look and nothing stood out for pointing the lighting in a confusing way.  The one impressive feature from lighting that had to have been planned was when the King of Bohemia walks on stage looking for Sherlock.  He's checking places where he could be and you can see the king's shadow on both walls, the wall to his right and in front of him.  I'm not sure if there was any significance to this decision, but it made for a cool visual.

Mini-Review

The Columbia Entertainment Company Theatre recently premiered Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, a play based on the original 1899 play.  Director Jim Yelton clearly is a fan of the popular series.  The acts were preceded by the theme song of the British TV series, Sherlock.  Since they were aiming high for this play, the costumes were a vital part of the play.  Costume Mistresses Beth Key and Mary Shaw did not do any amazing work, but they were believable and in the right time period.  If there's a weakness to this play is that the supporting players were better acted than the main performances of Sherlock Holmes (Jason Herman) and Dr. Watson (Kristopher Pettey).  However, this may not be their fault, because it's near impossible to not compare them with previous adaptations, which have been blessed with some great actors.  The plot of the play is most likely well-known and easy to follow.  Any fans of Sherlock Holmes will be satisfied by this play.

Memphis Assignment

Memphis is a musical play set in 1950s Memphis during a time of racial problems.  Specifically set in Beale Street, it represents an era of underrepresented and hidden black musicians forced to play in poor bars.  The music was generally worthy of popular acclaim, but was ignored due to being played by African Americans.  That is the setting when a white man discovers the music and is more forgiving of skin color.

The lighting design in Memphis by Howell Binkley was frankly incredible.  There aren't enough ways to praise its magnificence.  It used the large Jesse Auditorium as it was able to make whatever part of the stage they wanted pitch black.  That goes a long way towards allowing scenery changes, an easy fixation for the audience, and a really sweet visual.  (Aesthetics aren't that important, but they certainly factor into one's enjoyment of a play.)  Once specific lighting choice stuck out to me though I suppose I could just reference the entire play.  In setting for the bar, the props itself weren't what made the bar convincing as a 1950s underground blues bar, though they certainly did the job.  What made the bar so utterly realistic was the lighting of it.  It had a blue tint that colored the scenes with the sort of stereotypical underground bar.  It looks shady, and yet alluring.  The lights clue the audience into the bar almost by itself.  Another great lighting designs was the opening scene when the white DJ plays the white song.  The entire stage is black except for the radio setting.  Since that was the only thing the audience was able to see thanks to the rest of the stage being pitch black, it felt more realistic than it probably should have been.

Another necessary aspect of the play to compliment is the costume design by Paul Tazewell.  Being born well after the setting, I can only speak as to my general idea of what 1950s Memphis would have looked like.  The costumes more than accomplished in that regard.  The black characters seemed to dress in snappy, extremely high fashion.  One complain about that is that given the character's financial status, the clothing choices were well out of the price range in my opinion.  These clothes were very sharp, expensive clothes and in the play, Delray actually mentions the unsuccessful nature of his bar.  It's a small complaint and relatively unimportant.  They also seemed to really emphasize the difference in clothing choices between the black characters and the white ones.  The white characters outside of Huey all dressed in extremely preppy, higher class clothes.  A specific example was characters who wore polos with khaki pants.  The business men were dressed in the same vein as the Mad Men characters - that's not a complaint, just an observation.  One completely unverified thing is that the costumes seem a bit unrealistic as well.  It strikes me the same way as how certain shows or movies nowadays show 80s fashion, but only pick the most outrageous things that most people didn't actually were.  I got that sense from the clothing designs.  It didn't bother me and I would never write that in an actual review, but that's just the feeling I got.

Lastly, the acting and singing of the play were top-notch.  It's a little tough to pick out specific examples given the position of my seat, but I'll attempt.  Ramond Thomas as Delray effectively portrayed a proud, cynical man who has lived life in a racist culture and has perhaps ironically decided what his views are and won't change them.  His comic timing was precise as none of the jokes in the play he made - mostly about a white man stepping out of bounds - weren't original, but Thomas made them funny.  Jasmin Richardson was another actor who was good from my distance.  She sold me as a sweet, somewhat naive woman who still has hopes for her future.  Lastly, Joey Elrose plays Huey by creating an animated, slow yet endearing lead.  Of course, the acting and singing go hand in hand so I would be remiss not to mention that every single person who sings has an amazing voice.

Mini-Review
Memphis, a nationally touring Broadway musical, provides audiences with infectious songs, a gripping story, and an introspective look at racial tensions in the 1950s.  Set in Memphis, a poor, uneducated white man happens upon an underground blues bar on Beale Street.  He is so infatuated with the music of his soul, that he seems to be able to ignore that the bar is an all-black bar.  Part of this acceptance is due to his love for a patron of the bar, Felicia.  He makes it his personal mission to get Felicia on the radio.  He is met with some resistance from the owner of the bar and Felicia's sister and caretaker, Delray.  The sets are intricate and seamlessly moved from scene to scene helped immensely by the fantastic lighting of the play, which frequently lit only a single part of the stage while the rest was pitch black.  Every single actor can sing their hearts out and deploy dancing moves that manage to surprise the audience.  Overall, it is a very satisfying and enjoyable play.

The Summer in Gossensass Assignment

The Summer in Gossensass is a play set in 1891 London about an actress obsessed with bringing the play "Hedda Gabler" to life.  She becomes infatuated with the main character of the play, Hedda, and her desire is to portray her as nothing less than a representation of a new way for women in the world.  The entirety of the play takes place in the home of Elizabeth Robins as she strives to create this play by whatever means.

Two casting choices by the director, Barbara Salvadori-Heritage, stood out.  The first was for the main character Elizabeth Robins, played by Hannah Atencio.  It's clear that Salvadori-Heritage picked an actress who could effectively display her emotions.  Atencio certainly was able to do that.  The problem was that she couldn't show her emotions in a realistic way.  She needed to overact.  Perhaps overacting in the play was kind of the point, but her overacting tended to give notice that she WAS acting, not playing a character.  She wasn't the only one overacting, lending me to believe that was the direction.  Kelsey Clark, who played Marion Lea, also overacted, but she tended to tone down her performance and I bought that she was that character.  She wasn't necessarily overacting, she was the snobby character who emphasized moreso than the average person.  Clark was a good piece of casting, because she was able to do what the director required while I think Robins didn't.

The staging of the play seemed poor from my perspective.  By the table, there were two chairs placed in the worst possible way.  Whenever the two characters sitting at the chairs talked to each other, I ended up not seeing either character's face.  The character closest to me had her back to me while she faced the other character when they had a conversation.  The other character was completely blocked by the person closest to me.  Thus, it was the equivalent for me of watching a play where both characters talked with their backs faced to me.  This also happened more than just once in the play.  In the part of the play where the characters speak about how the English rights to the play "Hedda Gabler" have been sold, there was another scene where a person was speaking and I was blocked by the placement of the character.  Overall, the director was not able to take into account that the audience was viewing the play from three sides and adjusting accordingly in my opinion.

I could see what Salvadori-Heritage was trying to do in her direction of the actors.  Sometimes it worked, other times it didn't.  An instance where it didn't work was mentioned above in Hannah Atencio's acting of Elizabeth Robins.  I believe that Atencio accomplished what Salvadori-Heritage wanted her to do, but I don't think she quite pulled it off.  In the first scene, when she is seen pacing the room before she ultimately kills herself, she overacts.  She emphasizes her every movement, she places unnecessary emphasis on her words, she tries to hard to show that she's in grief.  She basically has a flair for the dramatic as if an audience is watching her.  I think Kelsey Clark better achieved this by being slightly more subtle and realizing when to emphasize her words and when not.  One actor who's direction I appreciated was Dylan Bainter, who seemed to be cast and used to his talents.  He successfully portrayed a too smart for his own good, clumsy know-it-all.  His head seemed perpetually slightly raised as if to portray an air of dignity that he had no business having.  His physical comedy was surprisingly convincing as well.  He didn't telegraph that he was about to fall or trip.

Review
Director Barbara Salvadori-Heritage had a very clear, distinct vision for this play.  Unfortunately, she did not pay as close of attention to the staging of the actors who frequently ended up having conversations that invariably blocked out a whole side of the audience.  Her decision to have the characters overact in order to emphasize emotion or snobbery was not a bad decision, but her casting of Hannah Atencio did not help as her requirements seemed to be out of her range as an actress.  Overall, despite a clear vision, the direction of the play could have been better.

Baltimore Waltz Assignment

The Baltimore Waltz is a play about a brother and sister who decide to take a vacation in news of the sister having contracted a terminal illness.  The sister essentially seeks companionship the entire vacation and the brother seeks help for her sister to cure the illness.  The tone of the play is comic, although there are plenty of sad or serious moments making it tough to apply to one specific genre.

Adam McCall decides to go in an interesting direction with Carl.  From my perspective, he's playing Carl as a gay character in that he has a very feminine voice, plays Carl with his head perpetually slightly tilted, and seems to have most of the mannerisms a typical gay character has in films or television.  I'm assuming this was a directorial choice because of the scene in the play when the two men are stroking the rabbits pretty ferociously next to each other.  I will say that McCall managed to infect some life and personality into this character as he really put all of his effort into this performance.

Elizabeth Braaten Palmieri plays Anna as a neurotic, fast-talking woman who never really knows when to slow down.  Throughout the play she speaks with a fast pace which matches the dialogue where she seemingly says every thought that comes across her head.  She also plays her worried as the more she starts talking, the faster she talks to emphasize that she's getting worried.  Her body movement is quick and reactionary as if she's expecting somebody to jump and scare her all the time.  Overall, she fits a very specific archetype and Palmieri definitely nails down that archetype.

Nick Tittone was very impressive as he needed to play about ten different characters.  He managed to mostly successfully differentiate the characters enough for the audience to realize it.  First, he plays the doctor who relays the news to Anna about her ATD.  He seems to over-act a bit her, but not terribly and it's also easy to see why as he needs to differentiate this character.  His voice is smug and slightly condescending and the tone indicates little empathy.  His posture and delivery is confident and he seems vaguely aware of his patient.  The other doctor he plays almost the complete opposite.  He plays him with deep breathing, a nervous excitedness.  He also plays a mad scientist in which he purposefully over-acts, but not to a fault.  He widens his eyes, constantly puts his one hand towards the girl and then slapping it away with his other hand, and truly achieves that stereotypical image of a mad scientist.  But in this case stereotypes aren't really bad, because he needs to find a way to separate his characters and there's just two minutes that each character goes on screen.  There's not enough time to flesh out these characters.  He plays a French waiter as a smug, confident person indicated by an upright posture and a confident delivery.  He plays a Dutch person completely different by hunching over, constantly rubbing his nipples, and his voice indicates he's excited and fascinated by everything.  Overall, I was impressed by Tittone's ability to play so many characters and put a different spin on all of them in a convincing way.

Review
In the Baltimore Waltz, Nick Tittone steals the show as he plays about ten different characters convincingly with about two minutes of stage time for each.  He transitions between being a condescending, smug doctor and a nervous, excited one and between being a confident, suave French waiter to a overenthusiastic Dutch man.  The other two actors, Adam McCall and Elizabeth Braaten Palmieri, pale in comparison, but both manage to play sympathetic, if somewhat broad characters.

Spring Awakening Assignment

The Spring Awakening creates an interesting world that the audience quickly learns about.  It's evident that it's focused on teenagers within an oppressive school system that avoids talking about sex rather than educating about sex.  It's also a musical so people express through feelings through song and hide them in regular dialogue.

The scenic design for The Spring Awakening brought to my mind the idea of fall rather than spring to me.  The leaves missing from the tree, the reddish-yellow background, and the appearance - if on purpose or on accident - of leaves on the ground through the lights gave me this idea.  The use of chairs on the stage was used for maximum effect as they were basically the only "design" on stage using them for a classroom, or to hide characters outside of a scene.  The three "doors" in the back of the stage was used effectively to bring characters in and out.  Also in one scene, they used the doors combined with the lighting to make the parents seem separated from the students.

The costumes made it clear that this was a world where creativity or individuality was shunned.  All the girls and boys in the play had the same uniform on for most of the play.  Girls wore spring dresses, only different in color from the rest of the girls.  Boys wore "prep school" clothes indistinguishable from the rest of the boys.  The clothes included high black socks, dress shoes, a button down shirt with a loose tie (unsure of what kind of tie), and a black coat.

The lighting design also contributed to the world of the play.  For one, the lighting dictated where the audience was supposed to look.  With many characters on screen and seemingly random times when the actors would start to sing, the lights gave the audience a clear idea of which part of the stage to pay attention to.  The best example of this in the play is when one of the characters is writing a letter to another on one side of the stage, and on the other side of the stage is the person reading the letter.  The lights alternate between both sides of the stage when one of the characters' mother interrupts her to talk to her while he's reading.  In another scene the parents ask a character to go to bed and they stand right behind the visible doorways.  The light intentionally hides the faces of the parents to show how distant they are from their kids.  They are in shadow as if they don't really understand what is going on (and the play would support that they don't).

Review
With limited resources, scenic designer Jon Dritna does the best with what he's got.  He surrounds the stage with a red and yellow background including trees without leaves.  It seems like it's meant to convey the fall season.  Costume designer James M. Miller creates preppy school uniforms for the students to show that this is a world focused on unity rather than individuality.  The adults in the play wear professional clothes that help show they have long since resigned themselves to the "follow the rules" conformity of the world.  Overall, the costumes and scenic design work together to provide a clear, dystopian world.

Almost, Maine Assignment

Almost, Maine is a play that is set at 9:00 p.m. in a fictional town of Maine with several stories that are vaguely related.  It is a representational play, but it has a low level of verisimilitude and is clearly a theatrical production.

The scenery done by the Resident Scenic Designer Ryan J. Zirngibl helps the audience figure out the world of the play in the Stephens College version.  The blue background with sprinkles of stars indicated that the characters were outdoors at night in front of a clear blue sky.  When the play moved to a bar, the colors changed to a bar atmosphere by the background as well.  It was shaded more brown and blunt like most bars.  When the play moved to a laundry room, the colors switched in the background to reflect a sort of bland color.  The movement of the actors helps indicate the scenery as well.  When the characters are in a bar, they isolate one table and the waitress only appears on screen when she talks to the patron.  It indicates that the stage should be showing just that table and that the rest of the bar is off stage.  There were a couple plays held outside of the front door of someone's house.  It was clear that the stage was their front yard.

Another thing to help integrate the audience to the world of the play was the costumes.  The Resident Costume Designer Cynda Galikin helped feature costumes to integrate the audience in the environment.  In plays that were outdoors, such as the Prologue, Interlogue, and Epilogue, the characters wore heavy amounts of winter clothing to show that the world of the play is in a cold place.  At the bar, the characters wore regular clothing to indicate they were indoors, but it's still winter clothing in the sense that these were not T-shirts and shorts.  The waitress in the bar wore clothes that the audience could see being worn in any restaurant to indicate her employment.   In the scene at the laundry room, the characters wore extremely casual clothes to show the characters were in that type of setting.  Lastly, the characters took off ice skates to help the audience realize they had just finished ice skating and were going home.

Lastly, the sound design helped the audience get acquainted with the world of the play.  In the triumphant parts of the play, the sound designer played inspirational music to help create the mood that they were striding for.  At the end of certain plays, music played a sort of outdoor music to emphasize the setting.  Combined with the blue background and music, the audience felt like they were outdoors.  In the bar, the sound achieved the sound of bar music slightly in the background.  It also had the waitress raise her voice to show that the bar was crowded almost emphasizing the main character's loneliness.

Review

The combination of sound and lighting design in "Almost, Maine" immediately put the audience in the world of the play.  It was not difficult to figure out where certain scenes took place despite the play frequently changing scenes.  Outdoor scenes were effectively conveyed with a blue, starry background and the sound of clear gusts of winds.  Scenes at a bar featured realistic bar music playing in the background and the colors were bland and depressing.  The lighting design by Jennifer Kilgore became dark and ominous in outdoors which juxtaposed with the brighter colors achieved indoors.  Overall, the lighting and sound allowed the audience to imagine themselves in that environment.

Life & Literature Play

MU Theatre presented the Life & Literature Performance Series at Corner Playhouse from September 12-16.  It featured a series of performances by different students of classic literature ranging from "The Raven" to "Tug of War."  It also featured an excerpt of a film made called Isla.

Since the performances were mostly just the students reciting the play with minimal movement (there were some exceptions), the acting was the thing that stood out the most.  I thought the actress that stood out the most was Sarah Senff, who knocked out both plays she appeared in, "Lament" and "My Left Breast."  I was completely convinced that Senff had experienced what happened in "Lament" until I realized it was a performance.  That's how good of a performance it was.  She was similarly great in "My Left Breast."  Melissa Jackson Burns was hilarious in "Back Bird" to the point where I found every moment of it funny.  Lastly, Lawrence Chiteri & Jeremiah Chiteri made it easy to see why they were the finale.  They engaged the audience and were constantly entertaining.

The set design was minimal due to the space, but each time it changed, you took notice.  In "Back Bird," this was most evident.  They used a guitar, which provided two songs.  I found both songs hilarious.  They also used tookies, I mean, cookies and a piece of clothing that she used to put over her back and "fly around."  In "The Raven," they provided just a book and two blocks.  This worked better than the other plays because it shows the character in isolation, a theme of the poem.

The costume design was impressive in "Tug of War" as they wore convincing African attire.  They even addressed this in the play as he said he needed to tell the story in African attire.  That was the most notable and obvious costume design.  Not to say the others didn't have a purpose, they were just less notable.

Part 2

Students performed adaptations of literature September 12-16 at the Corner Playhouse presented by MU Theatre.  The Life & Literature Performance Series featured seven live performances and an excerpt from an artistic film.  Working with a mostly empty stage, the plays depended on the performances of the students, which were almost uniformly excellent.