From Candace & Edwin Higginbotham (local performers/technical directors/theatre supporters for many years), who attended Friday night performance: Candace: The young actors had great energy, letting no scenes die. Cues were picked up pretty well for the most part. They also seemed to have a good sense of ensemble, so important in a show such as this. Concentration is important and often difficult in a production with multiple levels of activity and plot, but they didn’t seem to lose focus or momentum for the most part. Character development when you are playing a parody of a fairy tale character must be difficult, but there were definite signs of growth on the part of some of the characters. The intensity of the more dramatic roles was noteworthy. They seemed to know even a witch, a princess or a baker can’t have a single superficial persona. Emotions like anger or fear must clearly build in a character, not just turned on and off. If you start out at the top of the emotion, there is nowhere to go, and we need to see how the character got there. Dramatic intensity is best presented in a wide range of expression. I never got the impression I was looking at the individual person. Character focus was very good. There were numerous truly lovely musical moments, giving a good rendering to Sondheim. This is clearly a cast of actors full of growth potential. We look forward to seeing them onstage again. Overall, it was a delightful show and an admirable job. Bravo, everyone! Edwin’s comments: First of all, the top of the show knocked my socks off. I didn’t know there was something wrong with the music, and when they started, a capella, belting out the music on key and on pitch I was amazed. Here was a bunch of kids sounding better than a lot of seasoned professionals do these days. I like the human voice un-amplified. To me that is the art of the musical: voices so strong that they stand alone without any embellishment. When the problem was repaired and the sound reinforcement was working I was a little disappointed: The sound lacked directivity and I didn’t know whether to look at the actors or the speakers. The singing was still very, very good, but they relaxed a little and it just didn’t sound quite as good as when they started out. The only other comment I can make is that the stage blacks could have been trimmed better. The borders were too high and exposed the top of the rear drop, and the legs should have been adjusted to clean up the sight lines, especially in the stage left wing. If I sound overly picky, remember that I am a technical director by profession and things like this are a part of my job; I don’t imagine anybody else paid much attention to them. All in all the show was outstanding. I am usually fidgety while in the house side of the stage, but not last night; I was enthralled. The timing was spot-on and I thoroughly enjoyed my evening. These kids are great and I can’t imagine what heights they can reach with more experience and education. Here is a great big bravo to everyone from a very tough critic.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 04:52:42 +0000