STORY THEATRE -- Rushford-Peterson High School

directors: Elizabeth Wessa & Kathryn Edson

A collection of short skits, together for a "Story Theatre" production.

"The Little Peasant"
"The Bremen Town Musicians"
"The Robber Bridegroom"
"Henny Penny"
"The Master Thief"
"The Fisherman and His Wife"
"The Golden Goose"

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This production was slightly better than I expected.  I'm not too big on fables/fairy tales as theatre, but the students did a good job of playing 'real' characters rather than being goofy because they were embarassed.

This is generally what I expect to see when I watch high school theatre.

CAMELOT -- Ordway Center for the Performing arts

Book & Lyrics: Allan Jay Lerner

Music: Frederick Loewe
Additional Materials: Michael A.M. Lerner
director: Glenn Casale
cast: Michael York, Rachel York, James Barbour, Shannon Stoeke, Time Winters, Eric Anderson, Tavis Danz, Stuart Ambrose, Daniel Guzman, Robert J. Townsend, Shannon Warne, Suzanne Carlton, Venny Carranza, Sandi DeGeorge, Sandy Hawker, Joanna Louise, Monica Louwerens, Grant Rosen, Joseph Stark, Leah Seminario, Megan Swanson, Jill Townsend, Alan M-L Wager, John B Williford, Vincent Zamora
set design: John Iocavelli
costume design: Marcy Froehlich
lighting design: Tom Ruzika
sound design: Julie Ferrin
fight direction: Sean Boyd
wig design: Mitchell Hale
orchestra direction: Craig Barna
choreography: Dan Mojica

The classic musical detailing the fall of Camelot and its principle architects, Arthur, Guenevere, and Lancelot.

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While the sets and cotumes were bright and colorful and everything a delightful musical should be, the staging and acting lacked color.

James Barbour as Lancelot, and Rachel York as Guenevere, both had nice singing voices, but the acting couldn't have been much more wooden. I'm not certain this was the actor's fault, but director Casale's lack of imagination and strength.

Blocking was incredibly static, and the extent of Michael York's acting was a clenched fist and short arm movement which served for both "frustration" and "joyous" emotions.

The pacing was hectic, perhaps to not give us time to reflect on how dull the previous scene was. But by moving along too quickly, we enever got to enjoy any of the show. Would it be too terrible to laugh at "C'est Moi" or "Take Me To The Fair"? If not, then why not play up the humor a little? Let the actors act a little and play with the song? Instead, they sang through their pieces as if at a recital... good strength and volume, but no emotion.

Not helping the work was the awful sound. The orchestra drowned out Michael York in his opening song, establishing a terrible precendent. We should be able to chuckle at what Arthur is singing about, but since we can't hear the words, we aren't able to be drawn in. Then, though the orchestra did pull back near the end of the song, the sound quality on York's mic always came across as slightly muffled and too obviously amplified.

The worst part of the show, however, was the make-up and hair. Michael York's make-up couldn't have been blander. I realize he's probably trying not to look his actual age, but he still needs definition over the base. He was a pinkish-orange bowl. There was nothing to bring out his eyes, his cheeks, or in any way define any of his fetures. I was sitting only six or seven rows from the edge of the stage, and if I had a problem with this, I can only imagine what those in the balcony seats were seeing.

And the hair .... I don't have a problem with anyone having a mohawk, though it did strike me as odd -- it seemed so "native american" for a Dark Ages knight, though. Then there was the knight whose hair looked SO much like the movie/comic book character "Wolverine" from the X-Men -- sort of a flat top which feathered out to wind-blown spikes along the top sides. And Sir Lionel, whose long hair, some in tight braids, was constantly in his face. And Mordred. First, he wore a strange little hat the first few times we saw him that was the exact color of his hair, and actually made it look like he had one of the oddest hairdos I've ever seen. Interestingly, it was my first thought that it was his hair style, and after the show, my wife made the same comment about Mordred's odd hairstyle. It really was so odd that I wasn't paying attention to the character or what he was doing -- I was trying to understand what was on his head. Then, in a later appearance, the hat was gone, but he still managed to have an unusual hair style in which his hair seemed to be feathered back so that it creted a "ridge" at the back of his head.

One should never notice hair and make-up in a play. It should be just a natural part of each character and compliment the costuming. That I noticed it at all is not a good sign. That I noticed and even dwelled on it shows a lack of director control over the show's "look." The fact that I noticed it and thought how awful it was speaks poorly for the production.

Despite all of this, I think that my children enjoyed themselves. It is always good to get children out to see plays other than their local high school productions. Too bad it couldn't have been a more stellar production.