to see THE SECRET GARDEN

Photo Credit: Time Stops Photography

On November 17th, 2024, we went to go to see theo’s masterpiece of a production of The Secret Garden. This show was directed by Christopher Pazdernik, and was based on the book by Frances Hodgson Burnett with music and lyrics by Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon. 

The Secret Garden is a play about an orphan girl named Mary Lennox (Joryhebel Ginorio) sent to live with her uncle Archibald. Her aunt, Lily, (Brennan Martinez) who passed away, had a garden, (a SECRET garden) that was beautiful in every way. Mary was told about this garden by one of the groundskeepers, Dickon (Lincoln J. Skoien). Its entrance was hidden and so was the key. Her uncle had a secret son named Colin (Kailey Azure Green) with a strong sickness. Mary finds him in a bedroom and they bond. Mary finds the key and door to the garden, which reveals a dark, gloomy and unkept garden. Mary and her friends work together to restore the garden in time for spring. 

This is a beautiful play about discovering yourself and bonding with others. There were many differences from the book and the play. They added a character named neville, (the talented Jeffrey Charles) who is Archibald’s brother. He is a villain type who wants the estate for himself after Colin dies. Another difference was there were ghosts, like Mary’s deceased family (Rachel Guth, Nicholas Ian, and Maliha Sayed) and Lily. The ghosts were very interesting because they came in suddenly in all white to sing with angelic voices. The ghosts seemed stuck in their ghostly world  especially Lily, who seemed to always be floating and never spoke, only sang (with a heavenly voice like non-other). Brenna Martinez who played Mary, the star of the show, was absolutely fantastic, not only did she look incredibly young (my sister thought she was actually a kid), she was also an incredible actor, so perfect for the role! Me and Margot especially liked the part where Mary absolutely PACKS the headmistress. 

Will Koski, who played Archibald, was one of my favorites, he was incredible. My sister and I have seen Will before in Into the Woods at Paramount Theater, but he was even more fantastic in this production because he was able to display his immense range in both acting and singing, hitting notes I never expected and showing a vast array of emotions depending on the given moment. We were so happy to see another one of our favorite Paramount actors from Into the Woods and Billy Elliott, Dakota Hughes, who played Martha in this production. It really is delightful to see an actor like Dakota playing such wildly different roles in so many productions over the last two years. We particularly enjoyed getting to see them break the 4th wall in this play, and nobody could do it better than Dakota, the true Deadpool. Martha’s scene partners included a massive chunk of the audience in this performance, which made Martha a very likable and funny character. 

I want to emphasize again that this play was an absolute masterpiece (and made my mom cry a bunch). Part of what made this play so good was the scenic design by Rose Johnson. There were minimal props or set aside from the permanent wall and door surrounding the audience. The minimal design was so impressive because so little  was needed to let you know where they are without even changing a single thing about the set. This has a lot to do with incredible direction by Christopher Pazdernik, his direction made me feel like I was watching a movie and I was the camera. Theo’s theatre is very small, so the seats are intertwined on and around the stage, allowing you to truly feel like you are a part of the play. Everything pieces together like a puzzle and fits perfectly, not a single piece was missed or out of place. I felt immersed in the music, like it was a part of me and flowing inside me. All of the storm songs were so dramatic and layered.  And the duets in this musical are all showstoppers, like ‘How Could I Ever Know’ and ‘Lily’s Eyes’, and’ Come to My Garden’.  A Bit of Earth was another stand out performance for me, Will Kiosk’s voice is unmatched. The Secret Garden is an absolute must see. Normally I would say who should see this play, and list some groups of people, but not now. Everyone should see this play because it’s a banger. I rate The Secret Garden 10 keys into 10 doors because it’s the Best Play of the Year.

Bye bye now, Gunnar

To see The Danish Play

 Here is our Review of the Three Crows Theatre production of "The Danish Play" by Sonny Mills, directed by our mom, Kirstin Franklin, and featuring our step dad, Dolph Paulsen. This is our first review without any adult supervision or editing. 

to see BILLY ELLIOT

We reviewed Paramount's current production of Billy Elliot. Check it out:

 

to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

 Gunnar Reviews Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Paramount Theatre with his sister, Margot, from Margot Muses. 

to see SCHOOL OF ROCK at Paramount

 My sister and I are trying a new format and sharing the reviewing responsibility on a VLOG. Please comment to let us know if you like hearing our voices and seeing our faces. 

Go see SCHOOL OF ROCK! Playing now through June 4th. Tickets available at www.paramountaurora.com 

to see The Three Penny Opera

 On Saturday, March 25th, I went to see Theo’s production of  Kurt Weil and Bertolt Brecht’s The Three Penny Opera. This play was directed by Fred Anzevino. The play takes place in Victorian London and is about a dude named Macheath who is a criminal and gets lots of women and cheats on them every time he sees someone else. UH OH because the police are after him and he has to run away. (but lucky for him, he's friends with the commissioner and he doesn't actually want him to go to jail or be hanged.) We follow him and his gang around all his troubles and wait to see if he will ever get caught.

The main character, Macheath, was played by Carl Herzog and he did an outstanding job of acting this character out. He was sly and charming and very funny, I actually thought he was Macheath because he was so good. Thomas M Shea played Mr. Peachum, and I thought he did a very good job as well! I think that he fits the character of a penny pinching dad and boss really well. This was a very good debut for him. Mrs. Peachum was played by Megan Elk and I think they did a very good job. I loved their expression and acting they clearly didn't want their daughter marrying Macheath. Chamaya Moody played Polly Peachum, and I thought she had a beautiful singing voice and good acting too. Next up is Michael Mejia, and they played Tiger Brown (aka the Commissioner) and I thought they showed a lot of mixed emotion between trying to do their job and being a friend.  Lucy Brown, played by Nathe Rowbotham, was a character that I really liked, they came out of no-where and you were like, woah another lady for Macheath??? and I loved how they had a lot of emotion in Barbara song. Liz Bollar played Jenny and she set the tone for the play with the opening number, she seemed like the one who really got things done around town, great acting.  I am starting to notice a pattern here that every single actor was great. (Hmmmmmmmmm why do I think this though? You'll have to see for yourselves cuz I don't like to give things away) Grant Garriker played Filch and Rev. Kimball. I thought that he was maybe the funniest actor in the show. Next is the ensemble, which includes Tyler DeLoatch, Isabel Garcia, Peter Stielstra, and Luiza Vitucci all fantastic and adding a lot of flavor to this unsavory world. 

The lighting was done by Maggie Fullilove-Nugent, it was super clever, and mostly all of these antique lampshades hanging from the ceiling, and honestly, they looked really cool. Or warm. Probably mostly warm. The super skimpy costumes were basically your average victorian bri’ish outfits with lots of slits and see-through parts and they were designed by Cincy Moon. The staging was fun in such a small space...though I couldn't see everything in my seat because I'm too small. 

 I think this play is about mostly about how when people are poor its because all the rich people like Jeff Bezos are hogging all of the money >:( and that’s capitalism. People have to be criminals to survive and that's fine because that’s the way it is in capitalist societies. (Boooo!) I think that people around the age of 12 or older should see this because they swear a bunch so little kids shouldn't see it. I rate this play 99 pennies out of 100 because ….REALLY good play.                               

Bye bye fellow theater lovers

   

Photo Credit: Time Stop Photography

to see An Inspector Calls

  On February 24th, I went to see the FSU/Asolo Conservatory production of An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley, and the fun thing about this play is that my MOM directed it! (I think that she did an unbelievably fantastical job so thx mom 😀 ) This play is about a family celebrating their daughter's (Brielle Rivera) engagement with a rich guy (Jordan Rich - ‘Rich?’ that's funny haha) when suddenly an inspector (Mikhail Roberts) calls and tells everyone that a girl committed suicide and he came to investigate why she killed herself.  He asks them questions and they think that they have never heard of her before but no… they all actually know her really and they have some sort of mysterious connection with this girl. 

The lighting was spot on because it matched what was happening in the story, for example when they were having the party, it was all rosy and it was normal, but when the inspector arrives, it's bright white because the interrogation lights come on and it's like, they need that light not only because it was kind of hard to see with the rosy light but also because it made a lot of sense because it matched the intensity of the situation. The lighting was designed by Cristopher McVicker, who also designed the set. Ok so now we will talk about the set. Who designed the set again? Oh, right, the same guy who designed the lights! The set basically was set in a nondescript room with fancy furnishings. This room also had broken stuff, like broken floors and broken trims, and broken paintings and I think this symbolizes something like how this experience will break up how things were and create the realization of certain actions that some people may or may not have done. 

The father was played by Brian Zane and I liked his moooooostache. It was very good. I also thought that he was very funny. One of his lines made me laugh out loud, it was like…“A friend of mine is going on the ‘titanic’. It's UNSINKABLE!” like… ummmm, wait til he learns it’s not!!! The mom was played by Brooke Turner and I thought it was funny how through most of the play she was like “I DIDN'T DO IT I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT” I believed her, but also, we all knew she must have done something and so it was also funny. I also think that one of the best actors was Brielle Rivera because she was the one who understood the situation best, I felt her sad scenes and they looked very very realistic. Jordan Rich was also good. The brother was played by Jackson Purdy and I thought he did a really good job at pretending to be funny, drunk and frustrated throughout the play, it seemed very truthful. AND FINALLY THE MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTER….. THE INSPECTOR; Mikhail Roberts did a very good job at being an inspector because even I felt like I was being interrogated even though HE WAS TALKING TO people on the stage. I think he did a very good job at sniffing out the squad. 

I believe that this play is about how we are all connected in a way and taking a deeper look at what we do and how we impact others no matter how significant it is, and all of this makes it a very meaningful play, an important play. It should make us all think…how can we do better? I think that all people over the age of 9 should go see this play. I would give this play 17 inspector hats out of 18 because I really like this play. 

Bye bye for now, Gunnar

An Inspector Calls Runs Tues-Sunday - March 11th

Ticket information: Asolo/Conservatory Season

Photo Credit: Frank Artura