Not-So-Subtle Politics: The Performance

Today we performed the independent projects that the seniors have been devising and preparing for since the end of their junior year. There were three performances: the Commedia dell'arte piece directed by Esther and Diana, the Like Water For Chocolate piece directed by Michelle, and Not-So-Subtle Politics directed by Kermeka. Because most of the cast was in the dressing room preparing for our performance, we weren't able to watch the other two performances; however, as our classmates were walking in and out of the dressing rooms I kept hearing of the success of the Commedia piece. I think what appealed most to the audience was the humor involved in the Commedia piece. At our last dress rehearsal, I noticed that the small physical motions of the actors really enhanced the piece such as Irene's mocking behavior of Fabio in imitating his staring at Isabella's portrait.

During our performance, everything seemed to be going as we had rehearsed until the scene with the big crash and destruction. What was supposed to happen was that in the midst of Kaitlyn, Iris, and Karina, and my argument there would have been a huge crash representing an attack to the Land of the Prosperous. But when the cue for the crash passed and there still was no crash I decided to go along with the script and continue on with my lines out of panic. After saying "What in the world just happened?" I realized that the lack of a crash didn't match with what I had just said. Karina then added "Did anyone hear that?" in order to clarify to the audience what had happened. And so we continued on until the end of the scene. Once Cindy had said "Chaos breaks loose" the sound system finally kicked in and the crash appeared then. With this, we were all backstage frustrated and embarassed at what had occurred. The day before we had practiced with tech and had perfected this scene...all for nothing because in the end it was unsuccessful. After the performances, Diana who was responsible for tech/lighting claimed that the mics were plugged into the sound system that we were supposed to us for the crash. And so I don't think that it is fair to place this mishap as a fault of our director or our technical person but that it was genuinely an accident because of something that we had not accounted for. Because we had never practiced this in rehearsal, we were unaware that there would be such a conflict.

Overall, being in this production as my first performance was a really great experience. I feel that this is attributed to the fact that I had the opportunity to work with a great cast, director, and tech/make up/costume crew. I could not have asked for a better director who was able to take control of any situation and to be a true leader in this project. Kermeka's extensive experience in theatre as a result of having drama one experience as well as experience with last year's spring musical gave her the skills that she needed. Not only did she give us instructions on what we had to do, but she also gave us input and ideas on how to better characterize our roles. I feel that our cast respected Kermeka as the director because she treated the cast with respect and was extremely understanding. Our costume, make up, and props crew consisted of Anna (Ling) and Karina who also did a great job compiling the props that enhanced our performance. With the costumes that Karina had created, it helped in our characterization and gave us the chance to embrace our roles.