The Horace Mann Record
March 5, 2010
Seminar Showcases Modern Drama
The Acting Seminar class presented a program of monologues and dialogues this Tuesday, with characters ranging from a ridiculously hysterical and conceited aspiring actor to a desperate, regretful woman who cannot escape the guilt she feels as a result of her husband's death. The culmination of the class's work this trimester, the presentation was made up of scenes and monologues from contemporary theatre. In the classes leading up to the performance, the Acting Seminar class had been reading works on Method acting, and the students tried to reflect that work in the performance, Acting Seminar teacher Woody Howard said."I thought everyone did a great job. It was a very entertaining afternoon. It didn't feel as long as it was," Technical and Marketing Assistant for the Theatre/Dance Departments Jonathan Nye said, as the performance lasted for nearly three hours. "There were a lot of different notes--some comedic moments, some dramatic moments."These different notes, due to the variety of characters and styles that the actors brought to the stage, were largely responsible for the success of the program. In portraying several different characters, each actor was able to switch from one extreme emotion to the next, displaying the true versatility of the performers."Coming from a theatre background, it was amazing," audience member Maia Salholz-Hillel (11) said. "I think the choice in scenes was really great. Some were talking to the audience, and some were talking to other characters. It brought us through a complete range of emotions and responses," she said.Howard announced to the audience that because this trimester's monologues and dialogues were lengthier than the Spoon River monologues from the first trimester, the actors would be presenting "hopefully deeper characterizations." The students accomplished this feat, presenting fully developed and distinct characters.One of the audience's favorite scenes was a dialogue from Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, performed by Zoe Maltby (12) and Will Dubbs (12). In this scene, Blanche (Maltby), in a new relationship with Dubbs's character Mitch, finds she cannot help remembering the night when she discovered her former husband's infidelity and blaming herself for his suicide. "I was crying. That one was really moving," Salholz-Hillel said.Audience member Ethan Levine-Weinberg (12) also enjoyed the other scene from Streetcar, in which Blanche, played by Anna Meredith (11), expresses her disapproval of her sister, played by Amelia Ross (12), in her decision to remain with her husband. In both Streetcar scenes, it was evident that the actors had put "a lot of effort in finding and forming the relationships" between the two characters in each scene, he said.On the more comical side, another audience favorite was Mark Levine-Weinberg's (12) monologue as a vulgar, sarcastic Cupid from Jeff Goode's Narcissus & Echo who dismisses the idea of Cupid's traditional bow and arrow and takes the opportunity to talk to the audience about Cupid from his own perspective.Despite the fact that "we covered a lot of material, we pulled through and did really well," Acting Seminar student Anna Meredith (11) said of today's performance."I was pleased with the work of the students overall," Howard said. "Clearly the audience was supportive and enjoyed the variety and the depth of the work and that's a good gauge as to the success of the work."