Performance Review Emily Salamanca

Emily Salamanca

Performance Review

                  After watching the eleventh performance of The Jungle Book from the light box at Henry Clay High School’s Lassiter Theater, I became a bit more cynical of the production because I had seen it over and over. However, the musical was still endearing, childish, and fun. Even at the eleventh performance, I still bopped along to “I Wan’na Be Like You,” while “Trust In Me” continued to give me shivers.

                  At the beginning, Mowgli (Viviana Ortiz), a human boy, is found by a Panther named Bagheera (Emily Spencer). Wolves raise Mowgli until it is recognized that a man-eating tiger, Shere Khan (Yesmina Townsley), has returned to the jungle. Thus, Bagheera must take Mowgli from his home and back to the ‘man-village,’ although Mowgli resists going. Along the way, Mowgli runs off and meets Baloo (Jordan Gross), a bear who just wants Mowgli to feel better and have a good time. Mowgli and Baloo bond, which further convinces Mowgli that the jungle is the right place for him. The company falls asleep and Mowgli is taken by monkeys, led by King Louis (Jessalyn Brown), who just want to be like him, a human. Baloo interrupts and destroys the monkey civilization. Baloo informs Mowgli that he needs to go back to the Man Village since the Jungle is dangerous. Mowgli runs off, too angry with Baloo to stay. Alone, Mowgli is nearly eaten by Kaa (Anne Russell, with assistance from Jade Curless), a snake, but is saved when Shere Khan frightens Kaa enough to let Mowgli go. Alone again, Mowgli encounters the Vultures, who provide him with some friendship. However, Shere Khan interrupts the friendship and battles with Mowgli. Baloo comes to rescue Mowgli. Shere Khan is burned up in a fire after lightening strike a stick. Together again, Baloo, Mowgli, and Bagheera, encounter a human woman. Mowgli, struck by her beauty, follows her off to the village. Bagheera and Baloo rejoice that Mowgli has found his place without force. He is safe.

                  The costumes showed the most professionalism in the show. Kaa’s costume, just a snake body and austere dress-in-all-black actresses made the snake sufficiently creepy. It wasn’t laughable because it wasn’t forced. The large snake body was all there and it maneuvered well to scare elementary school kids. The costumes of Mowgli and Bagheera were not too thought provoking, but they suited the roles well. King Louis’s bright orange frock contrasted nicely with the baggy brown monkeys. The orange showed his power and pizzaz. Baloo’s costume looked fuzzy and fun, just like the characters.

                  The pit made the show. Although the intro was a bit too long for an hour-long show, it was still quite riveting. The band eased shaky transitions and provided humor, such as when the elephants ‘ran’ into the pit. Their volume prevented some people from hearing the show though, so that aspect could certainly be improved upon. The singing was also incredible. The stars in this respect were Anne and Jessalyn, who provided more emotion to their songs than any other character did in the entire show. Each played their respective role well and surprised everyone. Anne’s sharp voice reflected her creepy character. Jessalyn’s power was a perfect mirror of King Louis.

                  My personal favorite part was when Shere Khan was scared off by the lightning. The lights flashed on and off, then transitioned into a glowing red. The drums beat in a chaos. The vultures swarmed. Extras brought in fiery flags to resemble flames. This was technically the best part of the show, competing only with the monkey scenes where the ropes fell from the ceiling.

                  Since it was a high school play, there was a lack of deep emotion. It’s Disney, so it can only elicit so much guttural feeling, yet no one brought it to the stage. Maybe since there were so many performances the actors grew tired, but in general, the play seemed a bit rushed. Next year, we should try to accomplish something deeper. Regardless, I still enjoyed the production, especially comparing the two casts. It certainly was great to see everyone giving it their all.

Performance Review- The Jungle Book (Isabelle)

I was lucky enough to see Henry Clay High School's production of "The Jungle Book" twice: once last Saturday, and again during school on Friday, May 13th, 2016.

The play was directed by Kristian Junker and Kiefer Shuler. The show starred Cas Young as Baloo. Emily Spencer as Bagheera, and Raiffa Syamil as Mowgli. They portray the characters similarly to how they were presented in the original 1970 Disney film. The story revolves around Mowgli's journey as a young boy living in the jungles of India, raised by animals. The other animals fear for him, as a dangerous tiger, Shere Khan, is hunting after him. Yet Mowgli, young and naive as he is, is not afraid.

The piece as a whole was very well-choreographed. The lighting varied-- the use of different colors and spotlights helped guise the audience throughout the show as well as catch their attention. The costumes looked well put-together, and the backdrops were beautifully painted.

The actors did a wonderful job. However, at times, I could not hear the singing over the accompaniment, which was a bit frustrating. Additionally, some of the actors could sing much better than others.

Yet overall, I recommend this show to anyone. It was very entertaining and well-done.

The Jungle Book - Performance Review - Anthony Tamasi

Performance Review

Anthony Tamasi

               In the Lassiter Theater of Henry Clay High School, The Jungle Book cast members quickly brought me back to my childhood, reminiscing upon the animated movie I watched as a kid, originally based on the book by Rudyard Kipling. I was able to instantly immerse myself within the excitement and jubilance radiating from the large cast. The performance was able to add even more to my initial excitement with seeing this play from my early formative years.

               The story opens with Mowgli (Viviana Ortiz), a young boy who was adopted by a pack of wolves when he was just an infant. We fast forward several years and Mowgli is still young, seemingly pre-teen, and the return of the tiger Shere Khan (Yesmina Townsley), who hates men with a passion, threatens the “man-cub” Mowgli. A black panther, Bagheera (Emily Spencer), offers to escort him, to the nearest man village to ensure his safety from the dangerous tiger, as there is no chance of his survival in the jungle. Mowgli and Bagheera encounter a care-free bear named Baloo (Jordan Gross), who promises Mowgli that they can stay in the jungle together. However, Baloo loses Mowgli several times and Bagheera tells him that he is incapable of taking care of the child, and Mowgli needs to get to the man village before Shere Khan finds them. Mowgli runs away out of anger and eventually encounters Shere Khan. The tiger nearly eats Mowgli, but Baloo comes to his rescue, nearly dying as he fights off the tiger. Shere Khan flees after a fire erupts and lights a stick, tied to his tail, on fire. Mowgli, Baloo, and Bagheera continue to walk and eventually come upon the man village, where Mowgli becomes enthralled with a young girl he sees fetching water, whom he follows back to the village.

               What really stole the show was the use of the lights on the set. The audience was constantly kept aware of the theme of good versus evil. When Shere Khan initially emerges, we see the tiger bathed in a dark red light, painting him with emotions of fear from the audience. However, when Mowgli is dancing with Baloo, the lights on them are light and cheerful, with green and no red. Finally, we see blue tinted lights when Mowgli is walking alone, running away through the jungle and talking to the vultures. Whenever Mowgli is upset, or feeling down, the lights portray that emotion to the audience. The lights reflect the mood of the play throughout, attempting to involve the audience on an emotional level, as well as the physical level by the actors interacting with the entire theater. When Mowgli runs away, he runs up the stairs in the theater and out the door at the top of the auditorium, giving the audience the feeling that he has abandoned not only Bagheera and Baloo, but us too.

               The cast was able to get creative with the costumes as well. Kaa (Anne Russell) was my personal favorite, as the producers had actually provided a large snake costume that Ms. Russell could control with a stick. This allowed the audience to see Kaa coiling around young Mowgli, showing everyone that the jungle was not a place for Mowgli and giving us that sense of imminent danger even from those you trust.

               However, as much as I enjoyed the play, there was a lack of professionalism in some parts. I cannot place my finger on any portion, and perhaps there was some intent, but I felt as though Baloo especially failed to completely memorize his lines and show emotion for the character he portrayed. I wanted to see a more enthusiastic performance by the big bear more than others, and I feel that Mr. Gross did not completely bring that.

Overall, I enjoyed the performance not only because of the sentimental value I hold for this story, but also because of the execution. I was pleased to see this play as performed by the Henry Clay students, and I feel it was performed well enough to allow one to reminisce and not worry about the play ruining their memory of such an important work to their life. I would give this play a four out of five (4/5).

                                            

Avery Brown - Spring Semester Performane Review NAHHHHH Sa wenya!!!!!

Spring Semester Performance Review

I attended the 7:30 performance of The Lion King, on April 9^th in New York City. This was the most breath taking performance I have ever seen. Better than any film or recorded song or any other play I’ve been able to attend, The Lion King evoked every emotion you could experience into two and a half hours of acting, dancing and singing. The music and lyrics to this performance were written by Elton John and Tim Rice. The book was written by Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi. This playwright was produced by Peter Schneider and Thomas Schumacher. And finally it was directed by Julie Taymor.

Performed on Broadway, this musical was expected to hold a higher standard of theatre. The lighting reflected the mood of the scene and also inflicted the emotions into the audience as well. Also the physical stage was created to move and fit into each scene as needed. It could rise up in a spiral motion to create Pride Rock and it’ll recede into the floor to create an unevenness in the terrain of the savannah.

The costumes made the performance what it is by far. The masks that the adult lions wear can fall over their face when leaning over to make the whole body look like a lion. The puppet like costumes of the secondary actors were incredibly created to move as the animals would move.  My favorite character of all Disney movies is Rafiki and it was exciting to see the character come to life and played by an amazing African actress, Tshidi Manye.

I give this performance an overall 20 out of 10 for its overall high quality of acting, amazing vocals, bright and colorful scenes and the feeling of joy I got when I walked out of the theatre despite the unfortunate events prior to the musical.

Performance Review - The Music Man - Kate Sommer

I attended Scapa Lafayette’s production of The Music Man at 2pm on Saturday, April 30^th at the Opera House in Lexington, Kentucky. The author of the show is Meredith Willson and the director was Alberta Labrillazo. The cast is made up of SCAPA and Lafayette students including Troy Walton, Cooper Fitch, Shannon Calkins, Kurtis Brown, and Lily Rasmussen.

Synopsis

Act 1

The show follows salesman Harold Hill as he arrives in River City, Iowa. Harold Hill is known amongst salesmen for showing up in a city and promising parents to teach their kids how to play instruments. He takes orders for instruments and uniforms and once they arrive and everything is paid for he disappears. The show opens with a group of salesmen on a train discussing consumer credit and then they switch to the topic of Harold Hill. It is revealed as the train reaches River City that Harold Hill is sitting on the train with them and they don’t realize it until Harold is off the train and it has begun moving again. Harold goes to the center of the city and after meeting up with Marcellus, an old friend, he decides he’s going to need to create a problem to convince the people of River City that they need a band. He finds out that the city just got a pool table and decides that he will convince the people that this will be a source of trouble in their town. Marcellus also tells Harold that Marian Paroo, a librarian who gives piano lessons, is the only person in the city with musical training. Harold follows Marian home in an attempt to flirt with her and win over her affections but he fails.

The next day at the town’s July 4^th celebration Harold shows up saying he will save the town from the sin and corruption of the pool table by forming a boys’ band. The Mayor, who bought the pool table, gets the school board to ask Harold for his credentials but Harold distracts them by getting them to form a barbershop quartet. Harold also convinces Tommy, a young boy known to be a troublemaker and hated by the mayor, to become his assistant and sets him up with Zaneeta, who happens to be the Mayor’s eldest daughter. Harold tries and fails again to win over Marian. The board again tries to get his credentials and he throws them off again by leading them in song. The ladies of the town then find him excited about the dance committee he’s putting together and once he mentions Marian they try to convince him that she’s not the woman for him. They talk of a rumor they heard that she used to be a relationship with a man named Madison because he gave the town the library but left all the books to her.  

The next day Harold comes to the library to visit Marian and declares his unrequited love for her while leading the teenagers in the library in dance. By this time, with Tommy’s help, Harold has signed up every boy in town for the band including Marian’s little brother Winthrop. Marian finds evidence against Harold and tries to show it to the Mayor but everyone is distracted when the instruments arrive. Marian sees how excited and confident her brother is when his cornet arrives and she rips the page incriminating Harold out of the book before she gives it to the Mayor.

Act 2

Later on Marian talks to Harold about her brother and his cornet and how he says you don’t have to bother with the notes. Harold explains that this is “his revolutionary new idea” called “The Think System”. With the Think System you don’t have to worry about knowing notes, you just have to think and play. Later that night, Marian is sitting on her porch waiting for Harold to come when a salesman named Charlie Cowell shows up claiming he has evidence against Harold to deliver to the Mayor. Marian tries to flirt with Cowell in an attempt to delay him so he doesn’t have time to deliver the evidence and still make his train.

Harold then shows up and Marian confronts him about the rumor Cowell told her that Harold had a girl in every county of Indiana. Harold reminds her of the untrue rumors she heard about her and Marian decides that what Cowell told her wasn’t true. Marian and Harold later meet at the footbridge and Marcellus interrupts them saying that the band uniforms have arrived and Harold should get the money and run. Marian reveals to Harold that she’s known he’s a fraud since 3 days after he arrived and she gives him the page she tore out of the book. After they walk away from each other Harold realizes he’s in love with Marian.

Meanwhile Cowell is at the ice cream social telling the townspeople that Harold’s a fraud and they soon start to search for him. Marian and Winthrop come across Harold Winthrop tells him he wishes he never came to River City. But Marian says she believes every word Harold said because they came true in the way the kids talked and acted all summer. She and Winthrop urge Harold to get away but he decides to stay telling Marian he never fell in love until he met her and Harold is led away in handcuffs.

The Mayor holds a meeting in the gym in which he asks what they should do with Harold and asks where the band is. Marian tries to defend Harold. Tommy comes out dressed as a drum major leading a band of kids. Harold leads the kids in Minuet in G and even though the kids have limited musical ability the parents are delighted by the fact that their kids are playing music and even the Mayor is won over.

Technical Aspects

Set: Had many different backgrounds to represent different areas of the city. They had many different physical sets including a train car, the front porch of Marian’s house, a store front for the center of the city, a stage for the school gym, and a bridge. Each of the sets represented a different area of the city and all were used well by the cast. Marian slammed the door of her house, Harold ran onto the stage to get people’s attention, and at the beginning of the performance in the train the performers used the sound of the train to create a beat.

Lights: They used many different colors of lights to represent different feelings. When they were outside they used yellower lights to portray natural lighting. Often when Harold and Marian were together they used red and blue lighting together to create a feeling of romance. When they were outside at night they used blue lighting to create the sense of moonlight.

Costumes: All of the costumes were fit to the time the performance was set in: the early 1900’s. All of the girls had long dresses and many of them had fancy hats to go along. All of the boys wore long pants and a vest and most of the men wore full business suits. They made jokes in the performance that it was wrong for girls to show their ankles or for boys to let their socks fall down which calls to the thoughts of what was proper attire back then.

Music: Music was used in the performance along with other technical aspects to create mood. Music was used in the background in some scenes of walking to give an extra something to performance and also to portray lightness in the feeling of the scene. The show is a musical so music was also used to express feelings through words and dance as well. Dancing closely usually indicated intimacy and the lyrics of a song let us know what characters were thinking and feeling.

Overall the performance was very good. It was a love story but was different than most because of Harold not being truthful. But also, Marian wasn’t blindsided by the truth, in fact she knew almost the entire time, which is very different than most stories with a plot line like this. It also shows the importance of trying something new and especially the importance of music. The main plot of this musical is the goal of creating a band in this town that otherwise has very little musicality. The reactions and excitement of the children shows how important it is for children to be able to try something new and especially shows how music can positively affect children. Even though the children knew pretty much nothing about their instruments the fact that they could simply make a noise out of it excited them, and this is the main point of music. This also affected the parents because while they were opposed to Harold, the second their children began playing their instruments they became enraptured and were so proud that their children could play an instrument.

Overall I give the performance a 9 out of 10 because it was very good and well produced but, like most shows, it was not perfect and there were some volume and pronunciation issues that could be fixed. 

Siren Song 

Margaret Atwood

This is the one song everyone

would like to learn: the song

that is irresistible:

the song that forces men

to leap overboard in squadrons

even though they see the beached skulls

the song nobody knows

because anyone who has heard it

is dead, and the others can't remember.

Shall I tell you the secret

and if I do, will you get me

out of this bird suit?

I don't enjoy it here

squatting on this island

looking picturesque and mythical

with these two feathery maniacs,

I don't enjoy singing

this trio, fatal and valuable.

I will tell the secret to you,

to you, only to you.

Come closer. This song

is a cry for help: Help me!

Only you, only you can,

you are unique

at last. Alas

it is a boring song

but it works every time

Atwood's use of the siren in her poem has incredible significance. A Greek mythological beast, the sirens were feared for their ability to wreck ships and kill hundreds with nothing more than their voice, singing a "siren's song" that was said to be irresistible to even the strongest of fortitude. In this poem, the siren is not only a literal siren and the narrator, as we soon find out, but also symbolic of love itself. The poem is an allegory, as it delves deep into the effects love has on humans and the way our society handles such emotion. It suggests how easily we fall victim to the "damsel in distress" stereotype, as the siren song is nothing more than a cry for help, albeit a flattering one. The need to save the damsel evokes our suppressed warrior spirit, fueling the desire to be the knight in shining armor the author thinks lays dormant within all of us. This desire quite easily leads to rash actions, culminating in becoming yet another "beached skull". All of this is the result of love. Love is deceptive and dangerous. Like courting a siren in a rocky cove.