A Nice Try

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0><script type="text/javascript" src="http://hb.lycos.com/hb.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ratings.lycos.com/ratings/lycosRating.js.php"></script> <script type="text/javascript"><![CDATA[//><!]]></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://scripts.lycos.com/catman/init.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-start.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-middle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-end.js"></script> <noscript> <img src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/img/common/ot_noscript.gif?rand=731578" alt="" width="1" height="1" />  <iframe frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" width="728" height="90" src="http://ad.yieldmanager.com/st?ad_type=iframe&ad_size=728x90&section=209094"></iframe>  </noscript> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="06c085a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>The David Kaye Web Site</b></FONT><B>    </b><B> |     </b><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The David Kaye Web Site"><U><B>home</b></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id45.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Backstreet Boys"><U>Backstreet Boys</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Closet"><U>The Closet</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id28.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Cobbler"><U>Cobbler</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Descartes Contributions to Contemporary "><U>Descartes' Contributions to Contemporary Mathematics</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Eoanthropus dawsonii"><U>Eoanthropus dawsonii</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id36.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Gays in the Military"><U>Gays in the Military</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Gonads of Leibniz"><U>The Gonads of Leibniz</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id31.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Gooey Eyes"><U>Gooey Eyes</U></A>   |   <B>A Nice Try</b>   |   <A HREF="id44.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Old Things"><U>Old Things</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id38.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Person"><U>Person</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Positive/Negative"><U>Positive/Negative</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Sermon on Masturbation"><U>A Sermon on Masturbation</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Stratfords 1999 West Side Story"><U>Stratford's 1999 West Side Story</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Sysiphean Predicament"><U>The Sysiphean Predicament</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id34.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="And This is My Beloved"><U>And This is My Beloved</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="What Would Jesus Do?"><U>What Would Jesus Do?</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Womens Fashions"><U>Women's Fashions</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="06dd2e83.jpg"> <div> David Aaron Kaye</div> <div> December 20, 1999</div> <div> DRA 170</div> <div> Tracy Komarmy</div> <div> <A HREF="mailto:dakaye@yahoo.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:dakaye@yahoo.com"><U>dakaye@yahoo.com</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>A Nice Try</I></div> <div> Ann Arbor Civic Theatre's 1999 <I>Angels in America</I></div> <bR> <div> The Ann Arbor Civic Theater’s 1999 production of <I>Angels in America</I> had many strengths and failures. A cast of amateur actors was joined by Melissa Johnson, an experienced director. The play was a difficult one for amateurs to execute, and it showed. I was first introduced to the play in 1996 in a much more effective production at Michigan State University's Warton Center. This allowed me a point of reference when viewing the AACT’s production. </div> <bR> <div> The set design was minimal, using wooden platforms that would roll on and off stage with the assistance of stage hands. Because of slow scene changes and accidents, the transitions between scenes proved to be distracting. Lighting design was adequate.</div> <bR> <div> The play opened with an old rabbi's sermon at the funeral of a main character's grandmother. Despite that fact that the actor playing the rabbi was Jewish, her Yiddish accent was powerfully fake. Seeing a little, old world rabbi with a woman's voice was nowhere near convincing, and her interpretation was not profound enough to save her.</div> <bR> <div> The actor playing Prior was well within the tradition of actors playing his role – short. For the most part, he was quite convincing. The scene in the third act in which he disrobes for the nurse to count his legions left much to be desired. Though seeing him reduced to the legions on his body from Kaposi’s Sarcoma could have created great pity for him, it seemed more routine than theatrical. However, the rest of his performance was very effective.</div> <bR> <div> The person who shined out the most was the actor playing Harper. Harper’s years of agoraphobia and mental instability were portrayed flawlessly. While her acting partner throughout all of the play, Joe, was considerably dull, she was still able to play off of him impressively.</div> <bR> <div> The final scene, split between Prior in his bedroom and Joe and Louis in Central Park proved to be half-baked. While Prior’s half had all the intensity it needed, the half between Louis and Joe lacked the intimacy required. The fact that Louis and Joe were not facing each other made it very difficult to achieve the intimacy it so badly needed.</div> <bR> <div> The scene occurring in act II in which Louis meets with an anonymous man, and has anal sex in Central Park, was done in very poor taste. I feel that it was far too graphic to be convincing. I feel that by placing it behind an object farther up stage, and going slower, it would have been more effective and in better taste.</div> <bR> <div> The costumes were not a huge task to make realistic. Since the play takes place only about ten years ago, most contemporary clothing worked. Even if they wanted to have authentic period costumes, Kiwanis would have been a good supplier. The clothing neither added nor detracted from the performance, which is ideal. Any powerfully 1980s drag would not have been appropriate.</div> <bR> <div> The actor playing Roy was quite good. He physically fit the part well, and gave an intelligent and experienced performance. One small detail that I noticed about him was that he wasn’t successful in sounding as natural in his belligerency as I would have expected from the real Roy Cohn.</div> <bR> <div> Finally, the actor playing Belize, Derrick Lanier, had both strengths and weaknesses. He physically fit the part very well. I feel that his body language, especially in reaction to what other’s were saying to him, was one of this finest contributions. However, he had extreme problems with annunciation, spoke too quickly, and didn’t put the <I>life</I> into each line that he normally does when he is not acting. When he was not facing me, I could not understand him at all. Given that he had only two weeks to prepare for his role, I feel that he did the best he could.</div> <bR> <div> The general vision of the director was to keep with the playwright’s intentions. No dramatic changes to the time period, nor to the location was used, so a drastically different interpretation is not available to critique.</div> <bR> <div> With production of such uneven proportions, as an actor viewing it, I found that it was more of a learning experience than enjoyment of fine theater.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>