The Drowsy Chaperone PDF

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The School of Theater and Dance at the University of Florida performed an entertaining adaptation of The Drowsy Chaperone enriched with notable design elements, including costume and set design. Kayla Lopez’s work as costume designer helped emphasize the characters’ traits and Tim Castell’s as set designer facilitated the mood and drama of the play. Lopez successfully showcased the characters of the play by reflecting their personalities in what they wore and how they appeared. The drowsy chaperone’s costume complete with a loose, floor length dress with droopy sleeves complemented her sloppiness and drunkenness throughout the production. I couldn’t picture someone like the chaperone, whiney and lazy, putting up with the restraints of a tight dress so I found Lopez’s choice of costume fitting. Janet Van De Graaff’s frequently sparkly, tight, and brightly colored ensembles echoed her sarcastic reluctance to showing off. Another touch that matched the character’s flashy personality was a quick-change number during her song “Show Off” in which she was covered with a sheet for less than a few seconds and reappeared in a new, more scantly-clad outfit. I found this addition by Lopez charming and I thought it added to the production’s emphasis on Janet Van De Graaff’s persistently theatrical persona. With a cigar in hand at all times and disheveled greaser hair, Feldzeig and his slimy, scheming personality were also complemented by a costume that I could imagine a man who deals with gangsters wearing. Another instance of excellent costuming on Lopez’s part was exhibited in Aldolpho’s dramatic matador-esque outfit. His exaggerated costume including a black and gold cape, bright red shirt, and prominent cane reminded me of the time period the original production was supposed to have taken place in and the stereotypes about Latino people that existed back then. The costume also worked to convey Aldolpho’s flamboyancy and grandiosity which would otherwise only be portrayed through his lines and gestures. Kayla Lopez’s success at assigning appropriate costuming to each character on stage

truly benefitted the production by allowing the characters’ traits to be not only conveyed through acting, but visually represented. Equally successful were Tim Castell’s numerous contributions as set designer. His work furthered the atmosphere of the musical and immediately set the tone for the rest of the production. I immediately noticed the posters of musicals like Oklahoma! and Les Misérables all over the walls of the narrator’s apartment before the main curtain to the rest of the stage was lifted and before the performance even began. These posters allowed me to anticipate what was to come and immediately set the stage for a comedy about musicals. Once the red curtain was raised, a beautiful, pastel-colored stage was revealed which undoubtedly contrasted with the man’s drab apartment in mostly shades of brown. The juxtaposition of the two scenes fostered the notion that the man used the records of musical soundtracks to escape from his bleak house and life. The use of these two very different scenes also helped me understand the type of production I was watching, a performance within a performance. The curtain lift also revealed a huge structure in the center of the stage with quite a few stairs leading up to a door surrounded by an enormous archway. This set design allowed for dramatic entrances and exits, especially by the bride when she is first introduced and during her “Show Off” sequence, which added an element of slight over exaggeration and drama that comes along with seeing a musical. In the real world, it isn’t typical to make an appearance by bursting through a doorway and tap dancing down a set of stairs but in the musical world, it is more than acceptable. Castell’s set design allowed for the theatrical atmosphere that accompanies seeing a musical and sanctioned an escape from reality for the man in the chair and the viewer, myself, alike. Both costume designer Kayla Lopez and set designer Tim Castell facilitated a magnificently theatrical performance of The Drowsy Chaperone through alternative depictions of the characters’ qualities through costuming and extensive reiteration of the tone of the

production, respectively, and the entire performance would not have been nearly the same without the impressive design techniques of these two artists.

The University of Florida’s School of Theater and Dance’s interpretation of The Golden Dragon by Robert Schimmelpfennig enhanced the original play through impressive design techniques. Nicole Bianco’s work as set designer and Tiana Alderson’s as lighting designer both metaphorically conveyed the message of the play and enriched the actors’ performances and the script’s impact, but the lighting much more obviously than the set. Bianco’s set design added meaning to the performance through visual representations of the message the production tried to communicate. The use of a black box theater with all sides of the actors’ performances in view and no room to hide contributed to the idea that the characters in the play could not hide who they are and who they wished to be. The red paper lanterns above the set allowed audience members to make assumptions about the play’s setting, characters, and actors before the play began, reinforcing the notion that hiding who you are is difficult when it is easy to make assumptions. The most striking but difficult to interpret element of Bianco’s set design were the four leaning pillars that surrounded the set’s kitchen area. The true significance of these pillars can only be inferred. One pillar was completely surrounded by kitchen utensilsspatulas, pizza cutters, ladles- and I could only assume it represented the kitchen at The Golden Dragon restaurant. The second and third were slightly more obscure in their meaning and were coated with baby toys, possibly signifying the unexpected pregnancy, and household items (a pill bottle, a fork, a hanger, etc.) which probably indicated the apartment the couple lived in or the shopkeeper’s place. The last pillar made the least amount of sense, and was covered by technical equipment which never made an appearance in the production. I thought it might have symbolized the relationship between the cricket and the ant, which was mainly shown on screens which required this technical equipment, but I couldn’t be sure. The pillars were an interesting addition to the set but did not pack the same punch as Bianco’s other set elements, which easily

conveyed what the performance was attempting to get across to viewers. The majority of Bianco’s set design work was effective but parts were ineffective because they were too figurative and challenging to understand. Tiana Alderson’s lighting design, like the set design, added further emphasis to the play’s message and overall impact, but in a much more clear and audience-friendly way. Alderson used lighting to direct attention across the performance area; for example, she used incredibly bright and sudden lights on the kitchen area whenever a scene began there. With little inferring required, I knew where I was supposed to be looking and that the lights, reminiscent of a hospital, were made bright to complement the theater’s design by making everything plainly in view. The lighting also worked to assist me in ignoring the parts of the stage that were not being used. In the case of the middle aged man arguing with his estranged wife in his apartment, spotlights shone on the area to the side of the stage and the kitchen area fell dark, setting the scene in a new area. Dark lighting was also used to set a mood during the production and signify terror or dark times. When the young man’s dead body was making its way back home to China, the whole stage fell very dark which highlighted a motif about immigration throughout the production; the journey that immigrants take is not an painless one, and they aren’t always greeted with open arms, but darkness. Not only did Alderson’s lighting convey a message, but it indicated what scenes were during the day and which were at night which contributed to the realism of the performance and added to her overall effective and understandable work as lighting designer. The set design executed by Nicole Bianco mainly enriched the production of The Golden Dragon besides a few overly metaphorical elements which detracted from the performance, while Tiana Alderson’s lighting design exclusively enhanced it through techniques that clearly

and concisely showcased the production’s intended impression and added to a notable reproduction of The Golden Dragon.

Peter and the Starcatcher, a play by Rick Elice performed by the Hippodrome Acting Company and a few talented students from the University of Florida, surprised and delighted me as a production jam-packed with smart references to its popular sequel, amusing (to say the least) costuming, and most importantly, memorable acting. I thoroughly enjoyed the performances of several, if not all, of the actors on stage, but a couple stood out to me especially as very entertaining and convincing of their roles. Molly Aster, as played by Marissa Toogood, as well as Black Stache, portrayed by David Patrick Ford, captivated through dramatic interpretations of their parts, Toogood more successfully in act one and Ford in act two. I don’t believe it to be an overstatement to consider Marissa Toogood’s portrayal of Molly as the star performance of the show, specifically in act one. I found her actions and pattern of speech to be so animated and energetic that I was downright stunned after reading her brief biography in the program and realizing her depiction of a thirteen-year-old girl was not natural considering she’s old enough to be a college graduate. The way she carried herself during the scene where she snuck into the orphan boys’ quarters and began asserting her dominance as the new leader was definitely reminiscent of a young girl’s demeanor. She consistently walked with her chin up and her hands on her hips, speaking loudly, to make herself appear older and like an authority figure- I could picture a real life preadolescent (maybe even my past self) doing the same in a similar situation. I was less fond though of Toogood’s performance in the second act of Peter and the Starcatcher where, although still an excellent and entertaining enactment, she seemed to have fallen victim to a bit of overacting. During a few scenes in act two, including when Molly finds out she’s now a starcatcher and when she fights to bring Peter home with her, Toogood’s voice was raised a bit too loud and her actions slightly over animated, which made for an entertaining scene to watch, but downplayed the production’s realistic quality. Obviously the play is fictitious, but a sense of realism still exists in watching actors who reflect real people

in real life. This sense of realness would be furthered by a bit of restraint on Toogood’s part during act two to mirror her controlled performance in act one. Equally as convincing and dramatic, David Patrick Ford’s depiction of Black Stache blew me away almost as much as Toogood’s of Molly. He seemed incredibly committed to his persona right out of the gate, projecting a sly and vicious pirate-like personality as soon as he was introduced. His grandiose gestures like repeatedly hopping on top of the trunk and waving his arms in big motions as he spoke during the scene he was trying to get the key from Lord Aster helped portray an image of an overly confident and flamboyant character. This dedication to maintaining his character’s persona was also exemplified in how Ford handled a few hair malfunctions I noticed during act two. Typically, I think glitches like these in productions take away from actors’ performances, but in Ford’s case, his recovery did the opposite and enhanced his portrayal of Black Stache, making his part in act two even more successful than the first. His gel began to fail him and strands of hair started falling into his line of vision, but instead of breaking character or distracting the audience with an awkward brush of his forehead, he raised both of his arms in a grand pirate gesticulation and with a flick of the elbows, swept the strands back into his crop of mane. It was a small action, that Ford might not have thought twice about, but I sensed it told a lot about who Ford was as an actor and how accustomed he was to staying in Black Stache’s character. It pushed Ford’s performance to the next level for me and I was convinced after act two that he was no doubt the right actor for the part. The acting ability showcased in Peter and the Starcatcher surpassed my expectations and, through the impressive and dramatic performances of Marissa Toogood and David Patrick Ford, fostered a true theatrical experience I undeniably wouldn’t mind kicking back and enjoying again. The few errors, Toogood’s slight overacting in act two and Ford’s mane mishaps, were completely overshadowed by the obvious amount of heart these actors invested in their roles and

subsequent performances. !...