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