produced by Saint Mary's University of Minnesota School of the Arts
playwright: Jane Martin
director: Gary Diomandes
cast: students from Saint Mary's University
set designer: Tim Schmall
costume designer: Caitlin Murphy
lighting designer: Ben Jarrett
Eleven monologues by eleven different female characters.
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I will fully admit that I wasn't looking forward to an evening of eleven different monologues. I expected it to be about as entertaining as an evening of clipping toe-nails. I happily admit that I was wrong. This was a splendid, well-performed, beautiful production.
The monologues themselves varied, creating a wonderful assortment. Some of the performances were rather pedestrian but some were absolutely outstanding, keeping me tuned in to the entire evening. The two strongest performances came from the character who was dressed as a character from the Oz books. The costume was tremendously fabulous and the performance was appropriately edgy and touching.
(As a point of information...I no longer identify student performances in my blogs.)
But the most outstanding performance was the young lady in the monologue titled "Audition." It was either the most brilliant piece of type-casting, or one of the best acting performances I've ever seen. (I learned later, in speaking with the director, that this was not typical for the actress.) Making the performance even more challenging, the actress had to deal with a live cat on the stage. The combination of 'ditzy' and intensely wise was wonderfully played, leaving the audience to have to choose which one the character actually was.
The scenic and lighting elements were simple but effective. Costuming was in line with the rest of the show (the Oz character costume was brilliant).
Overall...I'm glad to have gone, and it managed to force me to admit that my initial expectations were totally wrong.
Brilliant production.
