Talking Horse Productions put on the play “The Baltimore Waltz” last weekend at the Talking Horse Theatre. Sister and brother Anna, played by Elizabeth Braaten Palmieri, and Carl, played by Adam McCall, took the audience on a wild trip through Europe as an act of desperation to find a cure for Acquired Toilet Disease (ATD) and spend more time together as siblings. Although the play consisted of many different characters, only three people were cast. The three actors successfully brought us from Baltimore to all over Europe and back again, but took us out of the world of the play several times by breaking the fourth wall and addressing the audience.
Elizabeth Braaten Palmieri played the role of Anna, the protagonist and Carl’s sister. During one scene, Anna is displaying all seven stages of terminal illness. Palmieri has to change emotions quickly to display each stage one right after the other. The first stage was depression. Palmieri lay in bed very still for most of this part, her face expressionless, and her voice much softer than usual. She switches to portraying anger and starts moving around move, raising her voice and using sharp gestures with her hands. She ends the scene with acceptance, where her voice is back to the normal volume and she is moving naturally (not too much and not too little). Anna also had many sexual escapades throughout the performance. Palmieri portrayed Anna’s horniness by biting her lip, deepening her voice when talking, and moving her body very close to the man she was trying to seduce. By the end of the play, after Anna’s comical recount of her adventure in Europe (or what could have been), we switch back to a serious mood in Baltimore as the doctor delivers the bad news of her brother’s death. Palmieri portrays Anna’s acceptance by talking softly, sighing and not moving from her seat on the stool. This is in sharp contrast to the beginning of the play where Anna seems to be having trouble accepting the doctor’s verdict, asking him a lot of questions, raising her voice and moving around a lot.
Adam McCall played the role of Carl, who ultimately ends up dying from the fictional ATD. We’re first introduced to Carl as he is working at the library with children. Even though the children weren’t there, McCall stayed focused on the floor in front of him, where the children would have been, and spoke slowly than normal and in a higher pitch, as most people usually talk to children. Accompanied with the soundtrack of children laughing, it seemed as if they were really there. His voice switched to a higher pitch when he turned away from the kids to yell at his boss, who seemed to be treating him unfairly. McCall was also very animated, using hand gestures to help get across his message. When yelling angrily towards his boss, his hand movements were faster and bigger than in the rest of the performance. Carl had planned most of his and Anna’s trip to Europe on the idea that he would meet up with an Italian doctor who had experimental drugs that might help ATD. When in Europe, he and Anna often had close encounters with a sketchy Italian, and that made Carl very nervous since Anna didn’t know about it. McCall portrayed his nervousness by making his movements faster and jerky. He also talked faster and answered Anna’s questions faster than normal. He looked around him more often and tried to push Anna, and himself, away from the situation.
Nick Tittone played the role of the “third man” in the play. His character changed from a doctor, a waiter, a security guard, a mad scientist, and many more. He had some pretty quick character changes, with several of them being right on stage in front of the whole audience. He only had very minimal costume changes, like putting on a hat or a jacket or taking them off, so most of his character change relied heavily on his acting. He was able to change his voice for nearly every character. He began the performance as a doctor, delivering the news to Anna and Carl that Carl was ill and there was nothing he could do. His character then switched to a sketchy Italian, switching to an Italian accent and changing his body movements. As a doctor, he stood up straight and spoke clearly and professionally. As the Italian, he moved around more and acted more casual, with his words slurring together more and seeming more relaxed. He played a French waiter, with a comical French accent, and stood very straight and stiff, making his character much different from all his other characters. When he played the mad scientist doctor he had on a crazy wig to match his movements. He moved very stiffly, forced and jerky, making him seem crazy, and justifies Anna’s hesitation towards him. His voice matched his movements, as he spoke in a higher pitched voice and his rhythm was jerky and unsteady. All of the quick changes in his movement and voice helped us transition from character to character and remain in the world of the play.
Friday, October 25, 2013
Thursday, October 17, 2013
"Spring Awakening" - Theatrical Design
From the start, “Spring Awakening” takes us to late 19th century Germany where we go through several intense situations with all the teenage characters. The audience can tell it’s in Germany based on the character’s names, like Wendla, Ilse, Helga, Melchior and Moritz. We know it’s late 19th century based on the clothing and even the language. Wendla’s mother, played by Lynett Vallejo, uses the phrase in bloom‘ to describe puberty, which is definitely not a modern phrase. She even spoke with a German accent. Through the songs and dialogue we quickly learn how naïve and starved for knowledge the adolescents are.
The costume designer, James M. Miller did a great job with all the characters costumes. The girls wore collared white shirts buttoned up to their necks under dresses that went down to their ankles. The boys, who seemed to be in a private, religious school, wore collared shirts with vests on top, pants to their calves, and socks up to where their pants ended. During scenes when they were in class, the boys also had on blazers with ties tucked into their shirts to look like scarves. None of the characters were particularly well dressed, leading me to believe they were all middle-class. The socks the boys wore were all different colored argyle, which lead to a non-uniform look and provided a sharp contrast to their sharp looking ties and blazers, and also led to a less high-class look.
After Moritz, played by Bryson Bruce, committed suicide, all of the characters came to attend his funeral. Although there was no grave or tombstone, it was very apparent it was a funeral because the characters came in wearing black. It was also rainy, as most of them carried black umbrellas. The dark lighting, dark clothing and rainy mood helped contribute to the sadness of the loss of Moritz. Moritz’s friend Melchior, played by Brian Dresner, even had flowers to put on the ground in front of where Moritz’s grave would have been.
The basic set for Spring Awakening remained the same throughout the whole play. There was a backdrop that portrayed an outdoor scene with some trees and hills. This backdrop didn’t go all the way to the top of the stage, though, so we could still see some of the cyclorama behind it. The scenic designer, Jon Drtina, used the cyclorama to portray the color-changing sky. There was also a medium-sized platform that took up most of the center of the stage. Because the set never changed I found it difficult to tell when the characters were supposed to be in a different location and I had trouble figuring out exactly where they were. There were times when Wendla, played by Kristen Thackery, and Melchior were spending time together and I couldn’t tell where they were supposed to be. At first, I thought they were attending some sort of boarding school because they seemed to be inside somewhere after school hours. The same actors played all the adults in the play, so at first I thought Wendla and Melchior had the same mother. It wasn’t until much later I realized the same actors, Lynett Vallejo and Charles Willis, were just playing all the adults, perhaps because all the adults were basically the same people and acted the same way towards the kids. I was only able to differentiate the location of Wendla and Melchior when they specifically said they were looking at the sky or they were out by the river.
Some scenes were easy to differentiate from other scenes. When the boys were in class, they had chairs arranged in a square, resembling a classroom. It was very easy to tell they were in a classroom by their less relaxed dress (they took their blazers off after class), the arrangement of the chairs and the fact that they often were reading books and or writing something down. Other than that, I think the performance could have benefitted from a few extra props to help move the audience from place to place.
Although it was sometimes difficult to tell the location of some scenes, it was always easy to tell the time of day or mood because of the work of the lighting designer, R. Dean Packard. When it was late at night, the cyclorama behind the main backdrop would light up dark blue and spots of white would appear like stars. During the day, the main backdrop was often a much lighter blue with moving white clouds on it.
A particular scene when the lighting stood out to me was during Moritz’s suicide. After he walked off stage with the gun, we heard a gunshot and the whole stage lit up bright red, symbolizing the blood he would have shed. During his funeral in the next scene, the mood was set up by very dark lighting to reflect the depressed mood. The backdrop was also often lit up in different colors. When it was supposed to be autumn, towards the end of the play, it was lit up with reds and oranges. At the end of the play, the backdrop was lit up in brighter greens. This seemed to symbolize the end of winter and the beginning of spring, a new season and a new beginning, tying in the name of the play, Spring Awakening.
The costume designer, James M. Miller did a great job with all the characters costumes. The girls wore collared white shirts buttoned up to their necks under dresses that went down to their ankles. The boys, who seemed to be in a private, religious school, wore collared shirts with vests on top, pants to their calves, and socks up to where their pants ended. During scenes when they were in class, the boys also had on blazers with ties tucked into their shirts to look like scarves. None of the characters were particularly well dressed, leading me to believe they were all middle-class. The socks the boys wore were all different colored argyle, which lead to a non-uniform look and provided a sharp contrast to their sharp looking ties and blazers, and also led to a less high-class look.
After Moritz, played by Bryson Bruce, committed suicide, all of the characters came to attend his funeral. Although there was no grave or tombstone, it was very apparent it was a funeral because the characters came in wearing black. It was also rainy, as most of them carried black umbrellas. The dark lighting, dark clothing and rainy mood helped contribute to the sadness of the loss of Moritz. Moritz’s friend Melchior, played by Brian Dresner, even had flowers to put on the ground in front of where Moritz’s grave would have been.
The basic set for Spring Awakening remained the same throughout the whole play. There was a backdrop that portrayed an outdoor scene with some trees and hills. This backdrop didn’t go all the way to the top of the stage, though, so we could still see some of the cyclorama behind it. The scenic designer, Jon Drtina, used the cyclorama to portray the color-changing sky. There was also a medium-sized platform that took up most of the center of the stage. Because the set never changed I found it difficult to tell when the characters were supposed to be in a different location and I had trouble figuring out exactly where they were. There were times when Wendla, played by Kristen Thackery, and Melchior were spending time together and I couldn’t tell where they were supposed to be. At first, I thought they were attending some sort of boarding school because they seemed to be inside somewhere after school hours. The same actors played all the adults in the play, so at first I thought Wendla and Melchior had the same mother. It wasn’t until much later I realized the same actors, Lynett Vallejo and Charles Willis, were just playing all the adults, perhaps because all the adults were basically the same people and acted the same way towards the kids. I was only able to differentiate the location of Wendla and Melchior when they specifically said they were looking at the sky or they were out by the river.
Some scenes were easy to differentiate from other scenes. When the boys were in class, they had chairs arranged in a square, resembling a classroom. It was very easy to tell they were in a classroom by their less relaxed dress (they took their blazers off after class), the arrangement of the chairs and the fact that they often were reading books and or writing something down. Other than that, I think the performance could have benefitted from a few extra props to help move the audience from place to place.
Although it was sometimes difficult to tell the location of some scenes, it was always easy to tell the time of day or mood because of the work of the lighting designer, R. Dean Packard. When it was late at night, the cyclorama behind the main backdrop would light up dark blue and spots of white would appear like stars. During the day, the main backdrop was often a much lighter blue with moving white clouds on it.
A particular scene when the lighting stood out to me was during Moritz’s suicide. After he walked off stage with the gun, we heard a gunshot and the whole stage lit up bright red, symbolizing the blood he would have shed. During his funeral in the next scene, the mood was set up by very dark lighting to reflect the depressed mood. The backdrop was also often lit up in different colors. When it was supposed to be autumn, towards the end of the play, it was lit up with reds and oranges. At the end of the play, the backdrop was lit up in brighter greens. This seemed to symbolize the end of winter and the beginning of spring, a new season and a new beginning, tying in the name of the play, Spring Awakening.
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