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 Hotel Cassiopeia

Last night I went to a play called "Hotel Cassiopeia" by Charles Mee and I saw it with Uncle Zach, Aunt Kerry and mommy.  And I went to see it at Filament Theatre which is the same theatre where we saw Pinocchio, but this show was performed by the North Park University Theatre. My mommy was the director of the play.

The play was about Joseph Cornell (Scott Todhunter) who was an artist who made boxes with birds and forks and pictures and things and it was also about his brother Robert (Kamren Smith) who I think had a sickness and never talked in the play but he was happy and funny sometimes.

There were three characters who wore white curly wigs and they kept talking about girls and birds and there hair was curly and white just like Joseph's hair, they were the Astronomer (Carri Stevens), Pharmacist (Raymond Hutchinson) and Herbalist (Tyler Skaffgard).  The other people in the play were the people in the movies (Annamarie Giodano, Stacey Klingberg, Olga Lebedeva, Ryan Sillins), and Joseph's mom (Bernadette Hagen) and the girls who used the puppet ballerina (Hannah Harper-Smith, Christiane Schaldemose, Emelie Ödén) there were also some silly and angry artists.

The play felt like FUN and happy and sad sometimes. It kind of seemed like it was a dream because things didn't even make sense sometimes.

There were some movies during the play and the characters in the movies came out and talked to Joseph and Robert and that was crazy because that couldn't really happen! Robert sang a song before the movies that reminded me of Star Wars and it was cool the way he sang it. And then Joseph sang a different song before the second movie.

There was one part where there was a guy with a toilet seat around his head, mommy said he was playing an artist named Duchamp (Tyler Skaffgard) who was silly and put a potty in a museum and said "this is art."  That was so silly!

The lights (by Maggie Fullilove-Nugent) were pretty and blue and sometimes red. The costumes (by Krissy Sneshkoff) were all white and blue and sometimes a little brown. The set by William Boles looked like a big box with a window, a ladder and a bed and some stools and the floor looked like the sky with stars. And one really cool thing was that I found a small square box of the set on a table in the lobby after the show it was just like the set.

There was lots of music (original music and arrangements by Michael Huey) and dancing (movement by Nicole Jordan) in the show. I heard a song in the show that I think I know from the Radio that everybody sang (well everyone except Joseph's mom) and I liked when they were stomping and clapping but that isn't in the song on the radio and at the end they said "Shhh" and that's not how the song goes on the radio but, that's ok. I loved the parts when Robert was dancing because he was a funny guy.

I liked some of the props (Archer Curry) because they were so big, I liked the huge fork and I liked the giant cups because they were very very very gigantic and so so big. One of my favorite parts was the big owl that always said "Hoot Hoot" every time he showed up in the window. There was also a ballerina puppet which was life size and it was just like a backpack but you could put in on your tummy and the girls could wear the puppet and become the ballerina. I bet it takes a lot of work to make a puppet like that, I don't even know how you do that.

My favorite part was when Robert was so excited when the guys with the wigs first came in and they were fighting over a hoop and then Robert finally got it but then the silly guy with the medicine on his head came back and ripped it out of his hands and that was so funny.

Everyone in the whole wide world should see this show because I think everyone in the whole wide world would love to know more about Joseph Cornell.

I give this show 10 points because I really liked it.

Love,
Gunnar

Hotel Cassiopeia has 3 more performances April 21, 22 and 23rd at 8pm. You can purchase tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hotel-cassiopeia-tickets-24449021682