Argonautika

According to the program, University of Missouri's theater production of "Argonautika"by Mary Zimmerman took place "long ago and far away, in the myths of mist and memory." Directed by Cheryl Black, the adaptation of the Voyage of Jason and the Argonauts boasted a 20 person cast, which is impressive considering this all took place in the Corner Playhouse, which only seats about 125 people. With chants and raps and tattoos galore, this is not the same Jason and the Argonauts that you've heard before.

For the lighting design of the play, designer R. Dean Packard began the play in very cool blues. While a lot of us theorized as to what it could symbolize, my personal theory is it stood for the sky, as in what the argonauts would see on a day to day basis on the ship. The set was, for the most part, very well-lit and bright. The only dark points (that I really noticed) were the sea storm and when Medea is contemplating suicide. And an interesting light design choice is the representation of hell. When Medea is thinking about drinking a potion, a square beam of light appears behind her, letting the audience believe that the door to hell is opening for her. Other details like that were a very nice touch in creating a layer on the "Argonautika" set.

As for the set itself, scenic designer R. Dean Packard's set was expansive, especially considering the small space he had to work with. What the audience saw was the back of the ship, with a mast in center stage, complete with stage stairs and a door leading to the "cabins." And when the story took place off the ship (like in a throne room or a beach), it was completely believable, as the actors moved in the space in a way that let the audiences imagination take hold. One set feature I particularly like was the trap door. Towards the beginning of the play, when the trapdoor was open, it became a stream for the ill-fated Hylas to drink from, before he's pulled to the depths below. Later on, it became a fireplace for Pelias to warm himself by.

The costumes were, again, my favorite part. Costume designer Rachel Schmidt's designs were beautiful. My personal favorites were the goddesses' dresses. Hera and Athena's, in particular, were beautiful. Hera's had a nice touch to it, as the dark green dress, to me, stood for her jealousy. Hera is known for being jealous, especially of her husband's lovers, and to have it contrast nicely with the bright gold of her crown and belt was a good touch. Athena's battle gear was most inspiring, especially her owl tattoo that showed on her thigh (since Athena's familiar is an owl). I really loved that each cast member had a specific tattoo that showcased something about their character (i.e. Athena's owl, Pollux and Castor's swan tattoos).

Argonautika Sets Sail at the University of Missouri

Lighting designer R. Dean Packard created a layer to the "Argonautika" set that created a bright, colorful world. From the clear, blue of the sky over an ocean, to the deep red of the gates of Hell, the lighting added a dimension to the set that would have suffered without it. The main theme of the lighting color scheme seemed to be blue, which is appropriate considering 2/3rds of this play is on the famed Argo. But in each scene, a hint of blue is almost always added, like when Hylas is fetching water from the stream (read: trapdoor), blue light pours from the opening, creating a reflection on the doomed Hylas' face. All this and more contributes to one of the most brightly, colored plays Mizzou has featured this Spring semester.

Don Juan

Don Juan is not your typical play. For one, it took place in a non-traditional setting….a photography studio called Silverbox Studios. Don Juan, adapted by Emily Adams, takes place after World War I in Berlin. Don Juan (Jeff Conway) has come back from the war to find his beloved Edda (Matt Ingram), only to find that she is gone and cannot be found. Leaving a trail of broken hearts (consisting of Gina Drapela, Rhîan McLean and Elizabeth Braaten Palmieri) on his journey to find her, Don Juan is a dark, seductive play that intrigues the audience as much as it makes them uncomfortable.

The scenic design of the play was very minimalistic. Designed by Elizabeth Braaten Palmieri and Emily Adams, the space that the actors had to work with was very…limited. Not a lot of walking around the space was used, and if it was, the actor went behind the audience in a space between the audience and the wall. An old, metal tub sits in the middle of the acting space, with a dresser covered in bottles occupy what little room there is. A mannequin stands patiently to the side as actors use it as a place to grab various costumes or props from (if they are onstage for the current and next scene).  The audience gets a feeling of claustrophobia, as the small space is occupied by such a large story with people who have large personalities. Still, at least the actors worked with what they had. At the beginning of the play, a wooden cover is used on the tub, and it suddenly became a hospital bed for Don Juan to lie on when he seduces the nurse. And, in the very last scene, the tub suddenly becomes a grave, with Drapela and Palmieri acting as the falling snow and Ingram standing at the front of the grave as a headstone.

With the set comes the lighting, which I have even less to talk about. Designed by Elizabeth Braaten Palmieri and Emily Adams, the lights consisted of a string of Christmas lights on the ceiling and two small spotlights no bigger than my forearm. While the Christmas lights created a nice, warm glow, there wasn’t much more to the lighting, in my opinion. Two moments I could really tell the lighting differences was at the beginning, where the two small spotlights seemed to glow red, casting a hazy, seductive light on the actors, which is appropriate considering the actors were engaging in what is to be considered an orgy. And the other real moment I noticed the lighting design is in the very last scene. It was extremely dark, except for the two small spotlights were blue instead of red, which gave the audience the sense of cold and bitterness (again, appropriate considering we were at a grave).

Lastly, the costumes, were by far my favorite aspect. The girls (and sometimes Ingram) were all dressed in lingerie of some form or other. And our anti-hero Don Juan (Conway) wore a military uniform that he never seems to take off (although there were shirt removals at key points in the play). One nice moment that I liked was the stark difference in colors between the prostitutes (Ingram and Palmieri) and the rest of the girls (Drapela and McLean). The prostitutes were dressed in a dark black, which most associate with darkness or having a seductive quality, which I thought was a nice contrast to the other two women with the white or cream colored lingerie, which belies a more innocent intent. Another nice touch that I enjoyed was the torn fishnets that every girl sported. It really gave a nice indication to the audience that this Berlin was not one flush with amenities, like whole pantyhose. It seemed like the people, or women, were so desperate to look nice that they would don these torn hose just to have some semblance of normalcy.

Don Juan’s Last Stand (An Excerpt)

In a collaborative effort with the cast and director, the costumes for Don Juan belied a desperation and animalistic nature of Don Juan. With torn fishnet stockings and loosely-fitting lingerie worn by the women, the effect this has is an over-sexualization of the female characters, which can put the audience in the same mindset as our love lothario; women are just objects, a means to a very satisfying end. While our anti-hero wore a soldier’s uniform the entire time. While this uniform was worn proudly by Don Juan, this reads to the audience that he is stuck in his past, and cannot escape from it (appropriate, since he is literally chasing his past).

The Whipping Man

Blair Ussary

            Matthew Lopez’s “The Whipping Man” opened to the audience on February 19^th, 2015. The dark, twisted drama centered around Caleb DeLeon (Jean Tartiere) and his two former slaves Simon (William Cogshell) and John (David Jackson) right after the events of the Civil War in April of 1865. An injured confederate soldier, Caleb limps home on a dark, stormy night, to find that his former slave, Simon, has taken residence in the DeLeon home until Caleb’s family returns. The rain seems to hang like an ominous cloud above the cast, as the night’s gruesome events come to a head, and the next two days become the longest of Caleb DeLeon’s life.

            We’ll start with the scenic design of the play. Scenic designer Brad M. Carlson took the audience into a dark, damp world deep in the South. Even though the South is a generally agreed upon hot and humid region, Carlson’s design included a constant backdrop of rain that both soothed and unnerved. For however soothing a gentle rain can be, the fact that the rain never seemed to let up or slow down instilled eeriness across the audience. And one moment that seemed to only enhance the creepiness is the fact that not one actor ever mentions how much rain there is. It’s as if having it rain for three days straight is a completely normal thing. Another noted scenic design that I found quite fascinating is the deterioration of the house. At the beginning of the play, Caleb asks, “What happened to the house?” to which Simon dryly responds, “The same that happens everywhere.” In this, the broken windows and shattered banister is a shadow of what was once meant to be a great, southern home.

            But no set would be complete without lighting. Vincente Wiliams’ design gave the set another layer upon which the actor’s built their story on. For instance, when the gas lamps that are dotted throughout the room light up at the beginning of the third scene, the soft, yellow glow of the lamps seemed to cast haunting shadows across the faces of the sickly Caleb, which only made him look more gaunt and worn. And in the very first scene, when Caleb is sitting still and trying to drink his sorrows away, a wide, overhead light is cast down on Caleb from above, to which we see a chandelier. As I’m sure it was completely intentional, it looked exactly how I would picture that lit chandelier would gaze down at the melancholy Caleb, which was a nice touch.

            Flipping to the actor’s themselves, the costume design was one of my favorite aspects. Costume designer (and director) Clyde Ruffin’s designs were tragically beautiful. When Caleb DeLeon first stumbled into his home, the first thing that drew my eyes was the ripped hole in his right leg. And as it turns out, it was a bullet hole that betrayed a sickening wound underneath. Caleb’s once glorious captain’s uniform is now all but a funeral shroud, a cruel reminder of his cowardice. Whereas Caleb looks beaten and worn, John’s wardrobe only enhances as the play continues. What once starts out as a tatty shirt and worn pants soon comes to a beautiful climax in the last scene of the play, when we see John in a resplendent maroon coat, vest, and pants. The paradox between Caleb and John is highlighted in this moment, even though John’s clothes were most likely “liberated.”

A Whip-Smart Set (An Excerpt)

            MU Theater Production’s “The Whipping Man” would be nothing without its marvelous set, designed by Brad M. Carlson. The constant backdrop of a heavy rain is the first thing the audience will hear, and it will be a constant noise nearly the entire play. This melancholy sound would prove to be almost a foreshadow of the dark times that lay ahead for all three characters, as nobody in this play ends up happy. The broken, damp house and walls paired with the rainy weather beautifully. It seemed like the rain was an oppressive thumb that pushed against the once beautiful house, breaking his windows and its spirit. The almost furniture-less room and busted banister echoed with the sounds of the constant, heavy rain. The peeling wallpaper seemed stripped away by the moisture until all you were left with was the sense that it would hold in that rain forever.

Endgame

       The first play witnessed by the masses at the University of Missouri was Endgame, by the wonderfully confusing Sam Beckett. The interpretation of the play cannot be summed up in a few, short sentences. However, the most basic way one could understand this play is in reading between the convoluted, circling sentences. It is the end of the world, the entire world it seems, and there are only a select few left for the Earth. At the center of this is the character Hamm, a blind and lame recluse who is both hopeful and cynical at the world around him. His faithful but weary servant, Clov, is Hamm's only real companion in his dark world. Hamm's parents, Nell and Nagg, are reduced to living in garbage cans, forever sitting next to each other but unable to properly touch one another. And all of this is told in a dirty, old shoebox of an apartment, with the grey skies tormenting and teasing the characters.

      The first thing that seems to glare at the audience is the desolate and dirty apartment where we see our characters live, designed by Jon Drtina. Clov (played by Alex Givens) rips down the tatty, purple curtains to reveal what is basically a shoebox to the public. It is only when he rips off the blankets to reveal Hamm (played by Michael Bayler) do we realize that this an actual home. The walls are dirty, with what looks like old paint, or what we hope is paint, dripping carelessly down the walls. The floor is covered by sawdust and dirt, but swept into neat little piles all throughout the corners of the room, as if great care was taken to sweep the floor. Even though it seems like this might be a lost cause, there is great pride and care that seems to go into making this hellhole a home. Tiny, out-of-reach windows are covered by threadbare curtains. It seems to be a tease to the audience, and to the characters themselves. You see, the windows are too high up for the audience to see, and the only way that Clov can see out into the world is by grabbing a stepladder and peeking his head out of the window. But, as Clov tells us more than once, there is nothing to see out there.

      Speaking of Clov, he is the first living thing we see, if what these characters are doing is called living. Clov (Givens) is the one to rip down the curtains and stare into the audience with a kind of curiosity, or even awe. He lets out a soft "Huh.", as if what he saw wasn't what he expected. And who knows? Perhaps it wasn't. Maybe he thought there might be something new and exciting behind the worn curtain. Another interesting thing he does is try to clean the apartment (at this point, it's up to the audience to assume that he is the one who sweeps and cleans the place, as he is the only one who is mobile). He tells his master, Hamm (Bayler), that he likes order. That he likes to keep things in order. In a world that seems to be failing and crumbling down around them, it's interesting that this one man seems determined to keep everything in its place. Does this make Clov endearing? Or clueless? That's up to the audience to guess. On the other hand, we have Hamm, the central character to the story. A bitter, older man who refuses to get up from his chair, even to use the restroom! Now, is it because he is actually lame, or because he is so defeated by the world around him that he refuses to get up and acknowledge the end of everything he has ever known? The answer is...both. Or at least, that's the way it seems. Twice, he tries to move himself, or at least his chair, with a gaffe. Now obviously, a normal human being would assume that this is fruitless, as a gaffe can't really help with mobility. But, to Hamm, it's the only chance he has to move about himself, even if just an inch. This could mean to him that he is capable of taking care of himself, in this respect. If only he could move just a little bit....without help. Alas, his efforts prove fruitless, and he sits back down defeated, calling out for Clov. And when he calls out for Clov after his last attempt to move, and Clov doesn't respond, Hamm is silent. The silence stretches for what seems like an eternity. The entire play, Hamm has teased Clov, saying he can't or won't leave Hamm's side. Hamm is too proud to admit it, but he needs Clov more than Clov needs him. And when that silence stretches on for too long, this is when Hamm realizes his is truly, devastatingly, alone.
   
      If you're going to interpret these characters, you have to recognize their clothing. Designed by Kerri Packard, the clothes help highlight to the audiences the squalor that these characters are living in. They wear many layers, indicating that the conditions are cold (this is later confirmed by Hamm and Clov). The many layers look threadbare and tattered. There are holes and patches covering every inch of their wardrobes. There are fringes and threads at the ends of sleeves and at the bottoms of cuffs. The clothes are old and unwashed, giving the already dismal characters another layer of filth to cover themselves with. Hamm, at several points through the play, points out how smelly Clov is, which only confirms the state of the unwashed clothes. The fabrics that the characters have covered themselves with are faded, too, which makes the audience think they are old. From a different time, even. Which also begs the question: When is the play supposed to have taken place? The distant future? The recent past? Even though these questions are never really answered, the clothes never really reveal from what time period they are from, which is a nice touch.


It's the End of the Game as We Know It...(An Excerpt)

     MU Theater Production's "Endgame" by Samuel Beckett opened the spring season of the university's semester. While I may have missed a few hidden messages within the Sam Beckett play, the overarching theme was not lost on me. The minimalist dramedy gave the viewer a sense of cold, isolation. This seems to align perfectly well with a theme that we are all born and will die alone, which is the message that seemed to be the most obvious to me. Although to the regular theater goer, this play was a well-delivered performance of Beckett's dramedy, I would not recommend this to the occasional theater dabbler who is looking for a bit of light entertainment.