“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare” [abridged] (revised) By Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield A Comedy Thetford Academy One Act Play March 6, 2018
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare is a play that brings Shakespeare’s work into a 21st century way of thinking. The script was written in away to make it more relatable to the audience, but also keeping mostly to the original story lines. The play helps highlight some of Shakespeare’s more well known work, while also introducing some of his lesser known work. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare took some of the more serious topics and made them light hearted and fun.
The set was simple, but it still went along with the play. The whole set consisted of three panels that came together to form a wall and a podium. The panels were made to be easily moved. There were three entrances, onto the stage through the wall. These entrances gave actors quick easy axis to the props behind. The color scheme was made up from browns and yellows. The basic colors kept your eyes from wandering away from the performance that was happening. The lack of set was made up by the various props that ranged from swords to heads.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare is a story about a group of three actors that are trying to get through all of the works of Shakespeare in a limited amount of time. They start off by performing a brief performance of Romeo and Juliet then moved quickly through the rest of Shakespeare’s plays. The actors occasionally stopped to talk to the audience or to have an emotional breakdown. The play is ended with multiple performances of Hamlet, each uniquely different.
The actors did a good job portraying multiple characters through the play. They seemed to easily move between roles as the play went on. The characters in the play seemed to work as pieces of a larger moving machine. The actors worked well together to create a play that moved smoothly. In parts of the play it was hard to hear because there was a lot of moving around, but over all the actors did a splendid job creating a believable performance. When the cast was performing the play Macbeth, Hallie Zens did an excellent job portraying her character. It was obvious that she put a lot of time and effort into learning how to do a scottish accent.
I thought that it was interesting how the characters would stop to talk and interact with the audience. The characters interacting with the audience is something that I don’t usually see in plays. It kept the play unique and compelling to watch. Another aspect that I found unique to the play, was that the actors played themselves. This was unique because in plays actors normally some besides themselves, but in this instance it was the actors being themselves putting on a performance. Over all I thought that the play was fascinating and the actors had a great stage presence.
A Review by Arwen Clayton “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [Revised]” — A comedy By Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield Thetford Academy’s One Act Play Club, performed on April 24, 2018
“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [Revised]” is a great comedy. It was performed by students from Thetford Academy. The three experienced actors, Malcolm Silver-Van-Meter, Hallie Zens, and Eli Kaliski brought the script to life with help from nine backstage crew members and their director Ray Chapin. The one act was fast-paced and left the audience laughing throughout the entire performance. “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [Revised]” was great to watch and showed how hard work can get you far in competition. The cast and crew performed and won the Regional Drama Festival in Hartford in March. They then advanced to the state competition which they again won so now they get to move on to the New England Drama Festival. They are the first Thetford Academy one act to advance to New Englands in eight years. In order to prepare for New Englands they performed at the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction.
The set of the one act was simple and went well with the entire play. The set had three doors but only two were used throughout the entire performance. There were four columns, one on each side of the doors. It was painted a light brownish color making the set look like it was from the time of Shakespeare. The set had to be easily assembled, taken apart, and transported due to the change in location everytime they performed. The lighting was excellent. It made certain aspects of the play more gratifying and gave some scenes a more dramatic touch. Throughout the play, there were multiple sound effects that made the play very funny and gave that perfect comedic touch.
“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [Revised]” is a parody of Shakespeare plays in an hour long production. The play follows three high school students performing shortened versions of Shakespeare's plays. Throughout the play the actors had many costume changes with help from crew members, Emma Bauer, Grace Clement, Anabel Reining, and Marion Zens. Without hard work and teamwork the one act would not of been able to be performed as professional and well done. After the performance, the cast and crew gave the audience the chance to voice their opinions the entire play. The whole interaction was very positive and there did not seem to be a single negative thing said about the production.
The three actors gave an amazing performance and worked well together. They each gave it their all and it really showed. They all had great chemistry which really helped them give a great performance. They all individually gave great performances. Although each actor did a phenomenal job, one actor really stood out. Malcolm Silver-Van-Meter gave a great performance. He had many one liners and interactions with the audience that made his characters even funnier. He portrayed his characters with ease and made each one come alive. He was very believable and his acting skills were extraordinary. During the beginning of the play, Malcolm gave a little background information on William Shakespeare but ends up messing up some of the information about Shakespeare with Adolf Hitler. This part was especially funny in my opinion.
Malcolm Silver-Van-Meter and Eli Kaliski were awarded for outstanding acting at the State Drama Festival. Grace Clement, Emma Bauer, Marian Zens, and Anabel Reining were recognized at the states for their works as dresses. Also at states, Thetford Academy was given a school award for Expression of Comedy.
At the end of the one act, the actors perform Hamlet. They perform it the way they would normally perform it and then they perform it a second time faster. They then decide to perform the play backwards including saying the lines backwards as well. This was incredible and showed how dedicated they were to the production. Not only was this part of the play very funny, it was also well done and fascinating to watch Hamlet be performed not only faster but backwards.
The cast and crew should be very proud of their performances. The production was outstanding. It was great to see how it was changed and different from the Fall Plays two act version of “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)”. This parody was great to watch and left the audience laughing and happy due to the amazing performances and help from the crew and their director Ray Chapin.
“Annie” - A musical Book by Thomas Meehan, Music by Charles Strouse, Lyrics by Martin Charnin Performed by Thetford Academy’s Musical Class May 17-19, 2018
“Annie” is a musical based off of the comic strip Little Orphan Annie. It tells the story of an orphan during the Great Depression, but has themes that remain current today and songs that have become classics, such as “Tomorrow” and “Maybe.” The main theme of the show is optimism and hope.
The set of this play was very effective. The painting of a cityscape at sunset in the background set the scene beautifully. This was complemented by three different sets of flats, displaying a general feel of the location of each scene. The flats portrayed wooden walls, brick walls, and walls decorated in art deco style for Mr. Warbucks’s house, to do so. Mr. Warbucks’s house also had windows in the background, which gave the impression of having a stunning view of New York from his penthouse apartment. A couple of other set pieces played important roles in the show. The orphanage and Mr. Warbucks’s house were the main settings. The orphanage had a desk and radio which Miss Hannigan used frequently, and Mr. Warbucks’s house had a desk and a sofa, both of which were well used by the actors.
When using the radio, the announcers had to come in at the right cue, which they managed to do quite well in every performance. There were a few other sound effects, such as a telephone ringing, all of which went smoothly. The lighting was generally effective, but there were awkward parts, such as when actors left before the lights were fully down, and when the actors started singing before the lights were up. One effect I enjoyed was the spotlight on Mr. Warbucks, Annie, and Grace, when Mr. Warbucks started singing “New York.”
Annie is an orphan living in New York City. Miss Hannigan is the caretaker of the children at the orphanage, but she has a drinking problem and abuses the children. What Annie wants most in the world is to find her parents, but when given the opportunity to get away from the orphanage for two weeks at Christmastime, and spend that time at the house of Oliver Warbucks, a billionaire, she accepts. In very little time, she causes Warbucks to fall in love with her. However, when he offers to adopt her, she is hesitant because she still wants to find her parents. Warbucks is understanding and proposes to help Annie. He offers 50000 dollars to anyone who can prove to be Annie’s parents. At the same time, Rooster Hannigan, Miss Hannigan’s brother has just been let out of jail and visits Miss Hannigan. They decide, along with Rooster’s girlfriend, Lily St. Regis, to pretend to be as Annie’s parents to get the money, and then get rid of Annie. The FBI stops them, Annie learns that her real parents are dead after all, and she gets adopted by Warbucks, and all of the other orphans get better lives as well.
As a whole the cast did well making the play believable. I only noticed an actor get out of character once. In the first two shows, there were also a couple of problems with costumes that took away from the overall effectiveness, but those were quickly fixed. There were also some difficulties with the volume at which some characters spoke. The main characters projected well, especially when singing, but there were some parts of the play where I wanted a character to say their line louder, and there were a couple of times when I wanted the orphans to sing a bit louder. I thought both Morgan Gaffney and Alden Nichols performed very well in their roles of Annie and Daddy Warbucks. I also thought Hannah Schwarz sang very well. A couple of things detracted from the show. I found Mr. Warbucks’s bald cap distracting, especially the first night when it was moving a lot, It did not really do a good job of making him look bald. Another problem was the use of a real dog in the show. The dog was cute, but it did not always act as required, which made some scenes awkward. Also, the dog first appears right before the most famous song, and the presence of a dog took away from the importance of the song. One other objection I had was in a song entitled “We’d Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover.” It is performed when Annie runs away and finds herself in a poor district of the city. The song is about how Herbert Hoover failed to fulfill his campaign promises as president. In Thetford Academy’s production, Annie sings in this song. I felt that this did not make any sense. She grew up in an orphanage, knowing very little of the outside world, so why would she be angry at Herbert Hoover?
Despite these small problems, I found the musical was performed very well overall. After the first two nights, the cast pulled everything together, and performed their best show on the third night of the show in front of a sold out house. The performance on third night was much more professional, but every night was fun for the audience, leaving them humming the tune of “Maybe,” and feeling optimistic.
“Annie” — A musical by Thomas Meehan Thetford Academy’s Spring Musical Class, At Martha Jane Rich Theater, Viewed 5/19/18 Reviewed by Garrett Shafer Annie is a story of a Orphan girl in New York City right after the great depression. Annie is chosen to spend 3 weeks over Christmas with a billionaire, Mr. Warbucks.. Annie’s stay leads to Mr. Warbuck’s realization that he was missing enjoyment and love in his life. By having Annie, an eleven year old girl, in his house, all that he was missing became clear to him. He had spent his life chasing money successfully, but forgot what was truly meaningful about life. The musical combines the helplessness of the time with a “feel good” story. The musical used songs to great effect and the placement felt natural. The story had a little bit of everything with a lovable lead character and her dog, evil orphanage director, lonely billionaire, and plenty of loveable moments. The orphans, including Annie, have this awful Orphanage director, Ms. Hannigan who drinks religiously as generally mistreats the children. Her brother shows up, straight out of prison with a plan to go to “easy street” by lying to gain the $50,000 offered for Annie’s parents to come and claim her. This plot is quickly foiled with the help of J Edgar Hoover and President Roosevelt. The set was well done with the background artwork of a bridge. This seemed to be the Brooklyn Bridge. This bridge gave a great feeling of New York. Movable set pieces of triangular panels were used to help show where the actors were during each part of the play. Each side of the triangle was painted as a different wall surface. This lead to the better integration of of the viewer. At times it was interesting how props were used. Ms. Hannigan seemed to actually drink the “alcohol”. Then Annie actually ate an apple that Mr. Warbucks bought for her. But other times, one of the wait staff (Frank), was getting directions from Mr. Warbucks and he was pretending to write it down on his hand but had no paper and no pen. When the wait staff and Mr. Warbucks were celebrating by “drinking” champagne their wasn’t anything in the glasses. It just irked me that they could not seem to care to splash some water in the glasses. Overall, the set and props were well used. Although I think the details of the props could have been improved. The set was well thought out and gave you a real sense of place.
The cast did a great job acting and singing. The songs were energetic and were performed with great voices for the most part. This made for an enjoyable watching experience. The acting in Annie was great. Many actors really seemed to find their home in the roles. They did especially good work as many of the actors were playing older and/or younger than their age. The orphans did a great job portraying their youthful exuberance. I especially thought Molly and Annie were very good. Molly was very funny. She was the youngest orphan that seemed to be new to the orphanage because she would still antagonize Ms. Hannagan. Annie’s character was full of hopefulness that her parents would come back. Her solo’s demonstrated great vocal ability. Morgan Gaffney portrayed an Annie that seemed to slowly become happier as the play went on until her “parents” came to adopt her. After this happened she was visibly distressed. This was till she found out they weren’t her real parents and Mr.Warbucks was going to adopt her. At this time she was the happiest she ever was in the play as this story is also about Annie finding her home and giving up on her dream of finding her parents. I thought Morgan Gaffney played Annie well. Alden Nichols, portraying Mr. Warbucks, did a really good job portraying Daddy Warbucks two sides, one as a ruthless businessman and other side as a lonely bachelor. By the end of the play, he was able to balance being a great businessman to being a compassionate father to Annie. The character of Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a very funny character. The fact that they were able to mix in the new deal along with President Roosevelt being a fan Annie was great. Dylan Moody~A’Ness portrayal of President Roosevelt nearly stole the show. Roosevelt was a critical role in the play as he was for the country trying to escape the depression. As many actors are very committed other actors, a small amount of actos seemed to be going through the motions. It was as if their heads were somewhere else. Overall, I would recommend this play. The set is fantastic along with a great main cast. The play portrays a great story in a hard time of the Great Depression. The songs were well performed and deserving of a viewing. Overall would say 8/10.
I went to all four performances of the musical (including their dress rehearsal for the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades), and overall I really liked it. It was interesting to me because I saw it get better over time, until the actors final, and best, performance. Because I was not doing the musical review assignment, I was not very nitpicky, but I did notice some things just from going to it four times. There were some times when some actors looked out of character, such as looking mad when there was a happy scene, but I thought in general the actors did a good job with their acting and singing. Overall, I think the choreography was good, and the dancers looked more confidant the more they performed. I agree that Alden did a good job switching between “Daddy” and “Mr.” Warbucks. I thought the set was effective, and I thought the whole show was very enjoyable, and I would recommend it.
Thank you so much for coming to the show! It was so much fin to put on and I'm glad you enjoyed the show. At first I was really skeptical of the flats (the rotating set pieces) so I am glad audience liked them. To answer your question; Ms. Hannigan was drinking ice tea out of her flasks. The reason we did not put water in the glasses is they would spill (the glasses were really light so they fell over easily).
I agree with you, Dylan Moody-A'Ness's President Roosevelt STOLE THE SHOW! I could hardly contain my laughter when I was in scenes with him. Thank you again from coming to the show. -Elle (aka. Duffy the orphan).
“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare” [abridged] (revised)
ReplyDeleteBy Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield
A Comedy
Thetford Academy One Act Play
March 6, 2018
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare is a play that brings Shakespeare’s work into a 21st century way of thinking. The script was written in away to make it more relatable to the audience, but also keeping mostly to the original story lines. The play helps highlight some of Shakespeare’s more well known work, while also introducing some of his lesser known work. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare took some of the more serious topics and made them light hearted and fun.
The set was simple, but it still went along with the play. The whole set consisted of three panels that came together to form a wall and a podium. The panels were made to be easily moved. There were three entrances, onto the stage through the wall. These entrances gave actors quick easy axis to the props behind. The color scheme was made up from browns and yellows. The basic colors kept your eyes from wandering away from the performance that was happening. The lack of set was made up by the various props that ranged from swords to heads.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare is a story about a group of three actors that are trying to get through all of the works of Shakespeare in a limited amount of time. They start off by performing a brief performance of Romeo and Juliet then moved quickly through the rest of Shakespeare’s plays. The actors occasionally stopped to talk to the audience or to have an emotional breakdown. The play is ended with multiple performances of Hamlet, each uniquely different.
The actors did a good job portraying multiple characters through the play. They seemed to easily move between roles as the play went on. The characters in the play seemed to work as pieces of a larger moving machine. The actors worked well together to create a play that moved smoothly. In parts of the play it was hard to hear because there was a lot of moving around, but over all the actors did a splendid job creating a believable performance. When the cast was performing the play Macbeth, Hallie Zens did an excellent job portraying her character. It was obvious that she put a lot of time and effort into learning how to do a scottish accent.
I thought that it was interesting how the characters would stop to talk and interact with the audience. The characters interacting with the audience is something that I don’t usually see in plays. It kept the play unique and compelling to watch. Another aspect that I found unique to the play, was that the actors played themselves. This was unique because in plays actors normally some besides themselves, but in this instance it was the actors being themselves putting on a performance. Over all I thought that the play was fascinating and the actors had a great stage presence.
Part One:
ReplyDeleteA Review by Arwen Clayton
“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [Revised]” — A comedy
By Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield
Thetford Academy’s One Act Play Club, performed on April 24, 2018
“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [Revised]” is a great comedy. It was performed by students from Thetford Academy. The three experienced actors, Malcolm Silver-Van-Meter, Hallie Zens, and Eli Kaliski brought the script to life with help from nine backstage crew members and their director Ray Chapin. The one act was fast-paced and left the audience laughing throughout the entire performance. “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [Revised]” was great to watch and showed how hard work can get you far in competition. The cast and crew performed and won the Regional Drama Festival in Hartford in March. They then advanced to the state competition which they again won so now they get to move on to the New England Drama Festival. They are the first Thetford Academy one act to advance to New Englands in eight years. In order to prepare for New Englands they performed at the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction.
The set of the one act was simple and went well with the entire play. The set had three doors but only two were used throughout the entire performance. There were four columns, one on each side of the doors. It was painted a light brownish color making the set look like it was from the time of Shakespeare. The set had to be easily assembled, taken apart, and transported due to the change in location everytime they performed. The lighting was excellent. It made certain aspects of the play more gratifying and gave some scenes a more dramatic touch. Throughout the play, there were multiple sound effects that made the play very funny and gave that perfect comedic touch.
“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [Revised]” is a parody of Shakespeare plays in an hour long production. The play follows three high school students performing shortened versions of Shakespeare's plays. Throughout the play the actors had many costume changes with help from crew members, Emma Bauer, Grace Clement, Anabel Reining, and Marion Zens. Without hard work and teamwork the one act would not of been able to be performed as professional and well done. After the performance, the cast and crew gave the audience the chance to voice their opinions the entire play. The whole interaction was very positive and there did not seem to be a single negative thing said about the production.
Part Two:
ReplyDeleteThe three actors gave an amazing performance and worked well together. They each gave it their all and it really showed. They all had great chemistry which really helped them give a great performance. They all individually gave great performances. Although each actor did a phenomenal job, one actor really stood out. Malcolm Silver-Van-Meter gave a great performance. He had many one liners and interactions with the audience that made his characters even funnier. He portrayed his characters with ease and made each one come alive. He was very believable and his acting skills were extraordinary. During the beginning of the play, Malcolm gave a little background information on William Shakespeare but ends up messing up some of the information about Shakespeare with Adolf Hitler. This part was especially funny in my opinion.
Malcolm Silver-Van-Meter and Eli Kaliski were awarded for outstanding acting at the State Drama Festival. Grace Clement, Emma Bauer, Marian Zens, and Anabel Reining were recognized at the states for their works as dresses. Also at states, Thetford Academy was given a school award for Expression of Comedy.
At the end of the one act, the actors perform Hamlet. They perform it the way they would normally perform it and then they perform it a second time faster. They then decide to perform the play backwards including saying the lines backwards as well. This was incredible and showed how dedicated they were to the production. Not only was this part of the play very funny, it was also well done and fascinating to watch Hamlet be performed not only faster but backwards.
The cast and crew should be very proud of their performances. The production was outstanding. It was great to see how it was changed and different from the Fall Plays two act version of “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)”. This parody was great to watch and left the audience laughing and happy due to the amazing performances and help from the crew and their director Ray Chapin.
“Annie” - A musical
ReplyDeleteBook by Thomas Meehan, Music by Charles Strouse, Lyrics by Martin Charnin
Performed by Thetford Academy’s Musical Class
May 17-19, 2018
“Annie” is a musical based off of the comic strip Little Orphan Annie. It tells the story of an orphan during the Great Depression, but has themes that remain current today and songs that have become classics, such as “Tomorrow” and “Maybe.” The main theme of the show is optimism and hope.
The set of this play was very effective. The painting of a cityscape at sunset in the background set the scene beautifully. This was complemented by three different sets of flats, displaying a general feel of the location of each scene. The flats portrayed wooden walls, brick walls, and walls decorated in art deco style for Mr. Warbucks’s house, to do so. Mr. Warbucks’s house also had windows in the background, which gave the impression of having a stunning view of New York from his penthouse apartment. A couple of other set pieces played important roles in the show. The orphanage and Mr. Warbucks’s house were the main settings. The orphanage had a desk and radio which Miss Hannigan used frequently, and Mr. Warbucks’s house had a desk and a sofa, both of which were well used by the actors.
When using the radio, the announcers had to come in at the right cue, which they managed to do quite well in every performance. There were a few other sound effects, such as a telephone ringing, all of which went smoothly. The lighting was generally effective, but there were awkward parts, such as when actors left before the lights were fully down, and when the actors started singing before the lights were up. One effect I enjoyed was the spotlight on Mr. Warbucks, Annie, and Grace, when Mr. Warbucks started singing “New York.”
Annie is an orphan living in New York City. Miss Hannigan is the caretaker of the children at the orphanage, but she has a drinking problem and abuses the children. What Annie wants most in the world is to find her parents, but when given the opportunity to get away from the orphanage for two weeks at Christmastime, and spend that time at the house of Oliver Warbucks, a billionaire, she accepts. In very little time, she causes Warbucks to fall in love with her. However, when he offers to adopt her, she is hesitant because she still wants to find her parents. Warbucks is understanding and proposes to help Annie. He offers 50000 dollars to anyone who can prove to be Annie’s parents. At the same time, Rooster Hannigan, Miss Hannigan’s brother has just been let out of jail and visits Miss Hannigan. They decide, along with Rooster’s girlfriend, Lily St. Regis, to pretend to be as Annie’s parents to get the money, and then get rid of Annie. The FBI stops them, Annie learns that her real parents are dead after all, and she gets adopted by Warbucks, and all of the other orphans get better lives as well.
As a whole the cast did well making the play believable. I only noticed an actor get out of character once. In the first two shows, there were also a couple of problems with costumes that took away from the overall effectiveness, but those were quickly fixed. There were also some difficulties with the volume at which some characters spoke. The main characters projected well, especially when singing, but there were some parts of the play where I wanted a character to say their line louder, and there were a couple of times when I wanted the orphans to sing a bit louder. I thought both Morgan Gaffney and Alden Nichols performed very well in their roles of Annie and Daddy Warbucks. I also thought Hannah Schwarz sang very well.
ReplyDeleteA couple of things detracted from the show. I found Mr. Warbucks’s bald cap distracting, especially the first night when it was moving a lot, It did not really do a good job of making him look bald. Another problem was the use of a real dog in the show. The dog was cute, but it did not always act as required, which made some scenes awkward. Also, the dog first appears right before the most famous song, and the presence of a dog took away from the importance of the song. One other objection I had was in a song entitled “We’d Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover.” It is performed when Annie runs away and finds herself in a poor district of the city. The song is about how Herbert Hoover failed to fulfill his campaign promises as president. In Thetford Academy’s production, Annie sings in this song. I felt that this did not make any sense. She grew up in an orphanage, knowing very little of the outside world, so why would she be angry at Herbert Hoover?
Despite these small problems, I found the musical was performed very well overall. After the first two nights, the cast pulled everything together, and performed their best show on the third night of the show in front of a sold out house. The performance on third night was much more professional, but every night was fun for the audience, leaving them humming the tune of “Maybe,” and feeling optimistic.
“Annie” — A musical by Thomas Meehan
ReplyDeleteThetford Academy’s Spring Musical Class, At Martha Jane Rich Theater,
Viewed 5/19/18
Reviewed by Garrett Shafer
Annie is a story of a Orphan girl in New York City right after the great depression. Annie is chosen to spend 3 weeks over Christmas with a billionaire, Mr. Warbucks.. Annie’s stay leads to Mr. Warbuck’s realization that he was missing enjoyment and love in his life. By having Annie, an eleven year old girl, in his house, all that he was missing became clear to him. He had spent his life chasing money successfully, but forgot what was truly meaningful about life. The musical combines the helplessness of the time with a “feel good” story. The musical used songs to great effect and the placement felt natural. The story had a little bit of everything with a lovable lead character and her dog, evil orphanage director, lonely billionaire, and plenty of loveable moments.
The orphans, including Annie, have this awful Orphanage director, Ms. Hannigan who drinks religiously as generally mistreats the children. Her brother shows up, straight out of prison with a plan to go to “easy street” by lying to gain the $50,000 offered for Annie’s parents to come and claim her. This plot is quickly foiled with the help of J Edgar Hoover and President Roosevelt.
The set was well done with the background artwork of a bridge. This seemed to be the Brooklyn Bridge. This bridge gave a great feeling of New York. Movable set pieces of triangular panels were used to help show where the actors were during each part of the play. Each side of the triangle was painted as a different wall surface. This lead to the better integration of of the viewer. At times it was interesting how props were used. Ms. Hannigan seemed to actually drink the “alcohol”. Then Annie actually ate an apple that Mr. Warbucks bought for her. But other times, one of the wait staff (Frank), was getting directions from Mr. Warbucks and he was pretending to write it down on his hand but had no paper and no pen. When the wait staff and Mr. Warbucks were celebrating by “drinking” champagne their wasn’t anything in the glasses. It just irked me that they could not seem to care to splash some water in the glasses. Overall, the set and props were well used. Although I think the details of the props could have been improved. The set was well thought out and gave you a real sense of place.
The cast did a great job acting and singing. The songs were energetic and were performed with great voices for the most part. This made for an enjoyable watching experience. The acting in Annie was great. Many actors really seemed to find their home in the roles. They did especially good work as many of the actors were playing older and/or younger than their age. The orphans did a great job portraying their youthful exuberance. I especially thought Molly and Annie were very good. Molly was very funny. She was the youngest orphan that seemed to be new to the orphanage because she would still antagonize Ms. Hannagan. Annie’s character was full of hopefulness that her parents would come back. Her solo’s demonstrated great vocal ability. Morgan Gaffney portrayed an Annie that seemed to slowly become happier as the play went on until her “parents” came to adopt her. After this happened she was visibly distressed. This was till she found out they weren’t her real parents and Mr.Warbucks was going to adopt her. At this time she was the happiest she ever was in the play as this story is also about Annie finding her home and giving up on her dream of finding her parents. I thought Morgan Gaffney played Annie well. Alden Nichols, portraying Mr. Warbucks, did a really good job portraying Daddy Warbucks two sides, one as a ruthless businessman and other side as a lonely bachelor. By the end of the play, he was able to balance being a great businessman to being a compassionate father to Annie. The character of Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a very funny character. The fact that they were able to mix in the new deal along with President Roosevelt being a fan Annie was great. Dylan Moody~A’Ness portrayal of President Roosevelt nearly stole the show. Roosevelt was a critical role in the play as he was for the country trying to escape the depression. As many actors are very committed other actors, a small amount of actos seemed to be going through the motions. It was as if their heads were somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I would recommend this play. The set is fantastic along with a great main cast. The play portrays a great story in a hard time of the Great Depression. The songs were well performed and deserving of a viewing. Overall would say 8/10.
I went to all four performances of the musical (including their dress rehearsal for the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades), and overall I really liked it. It was interesting to me because I saw it get better over time, until the actors final, and best, performance. Because I was not doing the musical review assignment, I was not very nitpicky, but I did notice some things just from going to it four times. There were some times when some actors looked out of character, such as looking mad when there was a happy scene, but I thought in general the actors did a good job with their acting and singing. Overall, I think the choreography was good, and the dancers looked more confidant the more they performed. I agree that Alden did a good job switching between “Daddy” and “Mr.” Warbucks. I thought the set was effective, and I thought the whole show was very enjoyable, and I would recommend it.
DeleteP.S.
The house managers were amazing.
Thank you so much for coming to the show! It was so much fin to put on and I'm glad you enjoyed the show. At first I was really skeptical of the flats (the rotating set pieces) so I am glad audience liked them. To answer your question; Ms. Hannigan was drinking ice tea out of her flasks. The reason we did not put water in the glasses is they would spill (the glasses were really light so they fell over easily).
DeleteI agree with you, Dylan Moody-A'Ness's President Roosevelt STOLE THE SHOW! I could hardly contain my laughter when I was in scenes with him. Thank you again from coming to the show.
-Elle (aka. Duffy the orphan).
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