(no subject)
Apr. 7th, 2002 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaala[As is probably obvious, this entry was written after the fact. I had to select a time, so I chose 12pm.]
While I felt decidedly crappy all of Saturday, I couldn't miss the production of Hamlet because a) it's my favourite play and b) I know about a third of the cast members. The following are excerpts from an AIM conversation with Dad following the play:
me: I just got back from seeing it, all three hours or so (not including intermission)
Dad: How was it?
me: pretty good
me: very good for a student production
Dad: Well, as we said, "Hamlet" is worthwhile at any time
me: Professor W****, who saw it on Thursday, tells me that the interpretation of the character of Hamlet was clearly an imitation of Paul Gross's interpretation, but I can't really comment there
me: It was certainly "antic" - ridiculously so, occasionally
Dad: Hmmm ...me neither
me: it got less annoying in the second half, however
Dad: Gross wasn't called "subtle," as I recall
me: no
me: neither was this actor
me: but Gross was also called "virile" and other similar manly terms, and this Hamlet was slightly effeminate at times [not that I have any objection to that in itself]
me: something about the Hamlet production you might find interesting...
As you probably know, the male/female ratio at this school is 1:3
Dad: Yes?
me: so Polonius, Guildenstern, Bernardo, and the other guard were all played by women
me: Polonius worked extremely well, because she was a very capable (and funny!) actress
Dad: I like the idea of Polonius as a women
me: Guildenstern worked fine because Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are non-entities anyway
me: the others not quite so well
Dad: The guards might seem a bit odd
me: it seemed odd at first to refer to a woman as "Polonius", but one got used to it
me: mostly the guards were odd because they had such stupid gothic-girly costumes
me: gothic, with black make-up "tattoos" on their arms
me: but short skirts and tights
Dad: A trifle out of the ordinary
me: the names were changed to Bernada and Marcella
me: it was out of the ordinary, as well as the bizarre set
me: the whole design was a mish-mash, pretty well
me: but I learned to ignore it after a while
me: for a picture of the guard and Gertrude's costume: http://argosy.mta.ca/argosy01-02/article.php?id=340
the other person in the photo is Horatio
me: oddly enough, every single character except for the players wore a sword at his/her side
me: including Ophelia, even when she was mad
me: I couldn't resist whispering "...and get that sword away from that girl"
Dad: Did they sing the songs?
me: Ophelia sang the songs, if that's what you mean
Dad: Yes
me: in fact, the whole thing was remarkably complete, except they left out the entire grave-diggers scene (including Yorick)
me: and they left out all the Fortinbras and ambassador stuff
Dad: No Yorick?!?!?
Dad: Yucccck
me: yes, I know, great pity about Yorick
me: my friends who had never seen Hamlet were very disappointed
me: ...that they didn't get to see him with the skull and all
me: although, to be fair, I didn't realize until the end that they had cut it, which says something about the quality of the performance
Dad: I suppose
me: and I was glad that they included some of the stuff that's usually omitted, like the Player King's speech
me: (although they skipped the Hecuba bit)
me: other than that, quite a bit left in...Claudius plotting with Laertes and all, which was a nice change
me: Hamlet did speak the bit about the Player's emotion, which was...interesting...since all the players had done was come in and prance about
me: Ophelia was a complete ditz
me: played well as a ditz, but it grated on my nerves
Dad: Hmmm ... shouldn't be a ditz. She goes **mad** which is something else entirely
me: she played mad pretty well
me: the thing is, her "mad" dancing about wasn't that different from her "sane" dancing
Four things I didn't get to mention:
the fights, aside from slight technical inaccuracies (slicing motion with "foils"?) were fantastic - Laertes (played The Captain in Pirates) is a ballet dancer
Osric was an seedy, sarcastic bastard, which was a nice change from the usual obsequious moron
Osric sat in the background throughout much of the play. He had a green lollipop, which he sucked on and gestured with menacingly; I found it amusing
At both the beginning and the end, the company assembled to allow every single actor to say, "Goodnight!" before leaving the stage one by one. They exited from two lines facing the walls and directed the comment at a particular actor conducting them off stage at the beginning, and exited from a single line facing and addressing us at the end. What the...? I found it annoying. When I asked the director what effect she was trying to achieve, she said (and I should have seen this coming), "What do you think it means?"
* * *
I also couldn't miss the recital earlier that day in which Imogen made up for her (vocal) recital missed while ill. This was the second day of my serious cold, but when I woke up just forty minutes beforehand, I figured that if she could singing operatically while still recovering from pneumonia, the least I could do was to make it to the balcony (to spare the microphones my coughing) with a cold. (Though I felt bad about the noise I was making, Imogen herself was coughing onstage between songs, so I don't suspect she minded so much.)
The most interesting piece (and also the most humourous) was a performance of the minimalist opera by Tom Johnson entitled "Drawers". It's about a woman who can't find her thimble. Because the words are minimalist, it takes her fifteen minutes to explain the problem and discover that it was on her finger all the time. All of the words without repetition went something like, "Where is it? It must be around here somewhere. Where is my thimble? It is not in my pocket. It is not on the floor. Oh, look, it is on my finger. Now I do have to look any more." But the words (with appropriately minimalist music, of course) were sung something like this:
Where...
Where is...
Where is my...
Where is my thi...
Where is my thimble?...
Where is my thimble?
With several repetitions besides. I usually find minimalism music either soothing or annoying. At fifteen minutes this piece was amusing, but if the exposition had gone on much longer in this fashion I would have begun to get annoyed. As I and several other people pointed out, in the typical Classical opera this scene would have taken a minute, tops. Two people performed their condensed version of "Drawers" at the gong show. It went:
"Oh, I have lost my thimble!"
piano: V-I!
The combination of the music and Imogen's performance made it the funniest scene possible. She wore the lower half of her Mrs. Peachum costume (from The Beggar's Opera) with a blouse, and came out through the audience, bustling around and asking people, "Did you see where I put it? It must be around here somewhere!" The feature prop was a set of Tupperware drawers with assorted odds and ends inside--such as music history and theory books, a plush platypus, a fluorescent pink satin bikini, a feather boa, a glittery cowboy hat--which she sorted through a threw on the floor in every direction. As I may or may not have mentioned before, she's a tremendously good actor who throws herself whole-heartedly into every part, and this was no exception. We were kept on the edges of our seats until the...what, thrilling?...final discovery. She explained afterwards that the thimble had been on her finger the entire time, and neither I nor anybody else listening had noticed because she kept that one finger hidden without making it noticeable. A large chair was also used as a prop for her to sink into in frustration occasionally. She also had to use it to keep from passing out from exhaustion; she was barely able to stand during the reception afterwards.
Ah, yes, the reception. I was putting off going home to work, so I was one of about six people who stayed afterwards to talk for a while. Zach was away at a rehearsal for a show in the neighbouring town, and discussion of that show (that he thinks he's directing, oblivious to much of Imogen's...uh...backstage effort) devolved into a general bitching session for at least a good half hour or so. Professor W (my theory teacher) joined, and I tagged along with them to a Chinese food buffet. It was nice having the company, but also depressing how many people were in bad moods.
While I felt decidedly crappy all of Saturday, I couldn't miss the production of Hamlet because a) it's my favourite play and b) I know about a third of the cast members. The following are excerpts from an AIM conversation with Dad following the play:
me: I just got back from seeing it, all three hours or so (not including intermission)
Dad: How was it?
me: pretty good
me: very good for a student production
Dad: Well, as we said, "Hamlet" is worthwhile at any time
me: Professor W****, who saw it on Thursday, tells me that the interpretation of the character of Hamlet was clearly an imitation of Paul Gross's interpretation, but I can't really comment there
me: It was certainly "antic" - ridiculously so, occasionally
Dad: Hmmm ...me neither
me: it got less annoying in the second half, however
Dad: Gross wasn't called "subtle," as I recall
me: no
me: neither was this actor
me: but Gross was also called "virile" and other similar manly terms, and this Hamlet was slightly effeminate at times [not that I have any objection to that in itself]
me: something about the Hamlet production you might find interesting...
As you probably know, the male/female ratio at this school is 1:3
Dad: Yes?
me: so Polonius, Guildenstern, Bernardo, and the other guard were all played by women
me: Polonius worked extremely well, because she was a very capable (and funny!) actress
Dad: I like the idea of Polonius as a women
me: Guildenstern worked fine because Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are non-entities anyway
me: the others not quite so well
Dad: The guards might seem a bit odd
me: it seemed odd at first to refer to a woman as "Polonius", but one got used to it
me: mostly the guards were odd because they had such stupid gothic-girly costumes
me: gothic, with black make-up "tattoos" on their arms
me: but short skirts and tights
Dad: A trifle out of the ordinary
me: the names were changed to Bernada and Marcella
me: it was out of the ordinary, as well as the bizarre set
me: the whole design was a mish-mash, pretty well
me: but I learned to ignore it after a while
me: for a picture of the guard and Gertrude's costume: http://argosy.mta.ca/argosy01-02/article.php?id=340
the other person in the photo is Horatio
me: oddly enough, every single character except for the players wore a sword at his/her side
me: including Ophelia, even when she was mad
me: I couldn't resist whispering "...and get that sword away from that girl"
Dad: Did they sing the songs?
me: Ophelia sang the songs, if that's what you mean
Dad: Yes
me: in fact, the whole thing was remarkably complete, except they left out the entire grave-diggers scene (including Yorick)
me: and they left out all the Fortinbras and ambassador stuff
Dad: No Yorick?!?!?
Dad: Yucccck
me: yes, I know, great pity about Yorick
me: my friends who had never seen Hamlet were very disappointed
me: ...that they didn't get to see him with the skull and all
me: although, to be fair, I didn't realize until the end that they had cut it, which says something about the quality of the performance
Dad: I suppose
me: and I was glad that they included some of the stuff that's usually omitted, like the Player King's speech
me: (although they skipped the Hecuba bit)
me: other than that, quite a bit left in...Claudius plotting with Laertes and all, which was a nice change
me: Hamlet did speak the bit about the Player's emotion, which was...interesting...since all the players had done was come in and prance about
me: Ophelia was a complete ditz
me: played well as a ditz, but it grated on my nerves
Dad: Hmmm ... shouldn't be a ditz. She goes **mad** which is something else entirely
me: she played mad pretty well
me: the thing is, her "mad" dancing about wasn't that different from her "sane" dancing
Four things I didn't get to mention:
* * *
I also couldn't miss the recital earlier that day in which Imogen made up for her (vocal) recital missed while ill. This was the second day of my serious cold, but when I woke up just forty minutes beforehand, I figured that if she could singing operatically while still recovering from pneumonia, the least I could do was to make it to the balcony (to spare the microphones my coughing) with a cold. (Though I felt bad about the noise I was making, Imogen herself was coughing onstage between songs, so I don't suspect she minded so much.)
The most interesting piece (and also the most humourous) was a performance of the minimalist opera by Tom Johnson entitled "Drawers". It's about a woman who can't find her thimble. Because the words are minimalist, it takes her fifteen minutes to explain the problem and discover that it was on her finger all the time. All of the words without repetition went something like, "Where is it? It must be around here somewhere. Where is my thimble? It is not in my pocket. It is not on the floor. Oh, look, it is on my finger. Now I do have to look any more." But the words (with appropriately minimalist music, of course) were sung something like this:
Where...
Where is...
Where is my...
Where is my thi...
Where is my thimble?...
Where is my thimble?
With several repetitions besides. I usually find minimalism music either soothing or annoying. At fifteen minutes this piece was amusing, but if the exposition had gone on much longer in this fashion I would have begun to get annoyed. As I and several other people pointed out, in the typical Classical opera this scene would have taken a minute, tops. Two people performed their condensed version of "Drawers" at the gong show. It went:
"Oh, I have lost my thimble!"
piano: V-I!
The combination of the music and Imogen's performance made it the funniest scene possible. She wore the lower half of her Mrs. Peachum costume (from The Beggar's Opera) with a blouse, and came out through the audience, bustling around and asking people, "Did you see where I put it? It must be around here somewhere!" The feature prop was a set of Tupperware drawers with assorted odds and ends inside--such as music history and theory books, a plush platypus, a fluorescent pink satin bikini, a feather boa, a glittery cowboy hat--which she sorted through a threw on the floor in every direction. As I may or may not have mentioned before, she's a tremendously good actor who throws herself whole-heartedly into every part, and this was no exception. We were kept on the edges of our seats until the...what, thrilling?...final discovery. She explained afterwards that the thimble had been on her finger the entire time, and neither I nor anybody else listening had noticed because she kept that one finger hidden without making it noticeable. A large chair was also used as a prop for her to sink into in frustration occasionally. She also had to use it to keep from passing out from exhaustion; she was barely able to stand during the reception afterwards.
Ah, yes, the reception. I was putting off going home to work, so I was one of about six people who stayed afterwards to talk for a while. Zach was away at a rehearsal for a show in the neighbouring town, and discussion of that show (that he thinks he's directing, oblivious to much of Imogen's...uh...backstage effort) devolved into a general bitching session for at least a good half hour or so. Professor W (my theory teacher) joined, and I tagged along with them to a Chinese food buffet. It was nice having the company, but also depressing how many people were in bad moods.
