On May 6th, I attended the first night of one
acts presented by MSU Denver’s directing class. It was a night of seven short
plays, each one completely different from the last.
My favorite play of the night was Starfishes, starring
Trenton Bishop and Taylor Adams, directed by Kaarin Pigford. Set in a
lighthouse, the story revolves around a young and lonely asexual man who lives
by himself. He calls up a prostitute, but when she arrives, he’s completely
changed his mind about following through, which makes her very unhappy. The two
become unlikely friends and the young man comes to the conclusion that he is a
“starfish” because they reproduce without sex. The set was quite elaborate
compared to most of the others that night. There was a clear bedroom, living
room, entry way, and even stairs leading up to the top of the lighthouse. What
I enjoyed most about this play was the naturalness between the two actors. The
dialogue had such a genuine feel and flowed effortlessly without any drawn out
pauses or over acting. Aside from just being well cast, the two actors had a
great dynamic and seemed extremely comfortable with each other. The man was a
much more stiff character. When he walked, he often led with his head the top
of his head because he looked at the floor a lot. The prostitute character used
far more body movement. She led with her chest and moved with her hips across
the stage. Even when they weren’t moving, the extreme contrast of body posture
made the characters very clear. They seemed to have a very strong sense of
subtext and the underlying theme of the play. There were so many different
layers to the performance: tension, attraction, fear, confusion, humor. There
was such a truthfulness to the play, even in such strange imaginary
circumstances. The characters were not acting to their situation, they acting
themselves. It was all extremely well done.
My least favorite performance came from the play 18
Holes, directed by Peter Van Atta. The story had no plot. There was no set. The
two actors, Chris Hayes and Reino Harsh were on a golf course and at each hole,
they would stop and have a discussion about some random topic, often making
casually underhanded racist, homophobic, or otherwise offensive comments.
Setting aside the actual content of the script, the actor’s delivery was not
the best. There was plenty of energy, but when either of them spoke, the
dialogue seemed to be backed with false enthusiasm. Also, Chris Hayes had a
habit of over enunciating so much so that I was focusing less on what he was
actually saying and mostly just listening to the way he spoke. The movement was repetitive, the moved to
four points around the stage, hit the ball, and made the same gesture of
successfully getting the ball in the hole. It was funny for the first several
holes, but nothing changed and it got dull. Given the poor selection of the
play, I think the actors were doing their best but did not have much to work
with. There was no conflict or resolution, nothing. It was just two men on a
golf course chatting. Nothing was wrapped up in the ending either, they played
their 18 holes and went home.
Another play,
Chocolates in the Pillow directed by Desiree Webb-Phillips was complete blur. The
set was confusing and I couldn’t not understand what the play was about until
half way into it. The actor playing the husband, Kahlib Barton seemed to be
acting for the audience more than for the moment he was actually in. When he
had a funny line, he would grin and deliver it to the audience instead of his
scene partner, Danielle Rankin. This was particularly confusing because even
though the situation of the play was very funny to the audience (his wife
brought along her favorite doll on their honeymoon), the events were supposed
to be very serious and important to the characters. The two actors did not seem
to be on the same page. There were also some fumbles with blocking and some
projection issues where I couldn’t hear anything from the husband character. I
got the feeling that there was a lack of communication between the two actors
and between the actors and director. Kahlib did not seem to have a very clear
idea of his character’s true objective and the subtext in the script was lost.
The playwright’s meaning seemed muddled with this play. While there wasn't a lot of it, the movement seemed awkward and unrehearsed. The characters were moving in ways that seemed unauthentic to them.
Even though I wrote more about the negative than the
positive, it was overall a great night of performances. Everyone involved was
wholeheartedly giving their all and the energy in the room was fantastic from
both the audience and the performers. It was evident that each of the directors
put their own pride and effort into the process.
-Audrey Bird
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