coming attractions

Out of Our Father’s House - Apr 4-8, Fallout Theater, Blocker Bldg

Othello - Apr 4-8, 26-29. Forum Theater

"Welded" review

Susan, Coach and I attended "Welded" on Feb 24 at the Forum. A student production, it was directed by Kristi Cobern, and featured James C Leary, Sarah E Kent, David C Stanley, and the girl who won’t use an initial, Sara Jane Hennessy. I already knew Ms Kent, because she was in "Alice" last fall - that made her one of My Kids.

It was the worst night I’ve ever spent in a theater, excepting the times I was involved in the productions. First, I think that this is a Bad Play. It might be the 2nd time it’s ever been produced. It’s boring - O’Neill’s worst play. Second, the blocking seemed designed to make it difficult to see and hear the actors. They spent a great deal of time in each other’s arms, nose to nose, where "projecting" means deafening your partner. They spent a lot of time with their backs to the audience, where we couldn’t see their faces and hear their words. There was just too much kissing. I like a lot of kissing myself, but they went about 25 kisses past my limit. There was a lot of cuddling and rubbing, same thing. And in one brief scene, Mr Leary held Ms Kent’s head in his hands, which is a very dramatic gesture - gripping someone’s head and giving them a shake is really powerful stuff - but it was about 30 seconds too long. Third, the costumes were all wrong. The women wore corsets from a century too early. The amount of skin that was flirting with gravity distracted at least one theater goer from the story that wasn’t there. They could have used them with shawls or something and gotten the effect without overdoing it. Fourth, the night I was there it was just flat. It felt like zombie theater.

I wondered what faculty influence was in this? The program lists Oscar Giner as Faculty Advisor, but frankly, I didn’t see his influence in this production. The choice of plays, costumes, blocking, tempo, everything was begging for some attention. Mr Giner may be trying, but he’s not succeeding. I directed a student production once and it wasn’t like this at all.

The biggest insult was that I paid full price to go. Seven dollars each to see a student production. This should have been held in an acting or directing lab class, not presented to the public for a price. No wonder the Aggie Players aren’t drawing, if this is what they are selling the public.

And finally, I’m concerned that this was the next production after Alice. Between mid November and late February, there was no production for these kids to act in. The biggest shame is that they are not growing as performers, and it looks to me like they’re not getting much help from the university.