Is this play worth watching? Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman’s comedy, You Can’t Take It With You exhibits family values with adult humor. The play tells a story of an average suburban family living in the heart of the Great Depression, where a daughter tries to keep her new, upper-class boyfriend from her embarrassing family. The play was performed at Laguna Hills High School on November 10 by the Laguna Hills Drama students and directed by Mary Belfield. It is a mediocre play where only the actor’s family would view because of its awful sound, plain set, and decent acting. The script is the main reason why the play did so poorly. The story revolves around Martin “Grandpa” Vanderhof and his absurd family, the Sycamores deep in the Great …show more content…
As a whole the acting seems decent, it is not to the point of Tony Award and not to the point absolute trainwreck. It seems like the actors did not give it their all and it shows; many people in the audience are playing on phones their or yawning. There is not much to say about the acting as a whole, but many individual either did well or they did not. Ethan Hall acting is by far one of the best out of everyone, he has charisma and the ability to actually act. His character is played excellently with a clear voice and body behaviors. By the way, he acts the audiences could tell his intentions, his qualities, and his who he is. However, it seems like his performance decrease as the play when on, he is not as convincing as before. The quality of his voice starts weakening and his performance did the same. Another actor, Teyo Jacobson, did outstanding and his the way he performs carries the play, but only for so long. Jacobson did receive an injury from the night before and that incapacitates his acting skills. The blame is not on Jacobson, but the audience did not pay to witness an unfit actor not performing with his all. Also, Jacobson has a bit of a speech impediment making his voice a little unclear and lowering his expectation. However, even with an injured knee, he still did better than many other actors on the stage. Jacobson has one of the strongest concentration to focus on his character and fight through the pain of his injured knee. Yet another actor, Ethan Ervais’, performance as Tony waver as the play when on. He has barely any emotion when he talked at the beginning which gives an impression a shy character; however, his body language gives an impression of a confident stud. The two qualities contradict each other and made it confusing to comprehend Ervais’ character. Later on, Ervais’ voice stutters, giving a sense of shyness, or it could be him failing to remember his line.
My least favorite aspect of this play was the ending. The ending confused me and was anticlimactic. It was not funny and not entertaining at all.
Their acting chops were very impressive whether it was comedic, emotional, or just stunning overall. Yet, on the other hand, some minor characters weren’t as well heard as others. I feel as the play could be better if some of the minor characters had projected their voice more, allowing their character to be known. However, although some voices were much stronger than others, all actors were full of talent, capable of dealing with script’s requirements, and did a good job
Not knowing what this play was about, I went to go see it Wednesday after noon at Holyoke Community College in the Leslie Phillips Theater. I had many mixed emotions about this play. I thought some parts were very funny, but others were a little uncomfortable because of some racia...
The actors delivered and performed their roles extremely well and made each character come to life. Jenny Bettke, actor who portrays the role of Officer Randy Osteen, gave a very believable performance of an officer that felt she wanted more for herself rather than just being a police like the rest of her family. Another aspect of her performance that was very convincing was her character’s fondness of Arthur P., Bettke’s convinced the audience through her acting that she had strong feelings for him and could possibly see them together. Joel Watson took on his role of Franco Wicks, and he brought life not only to his character but upon the entire stage. Watson’s acting helped the troubled young man he portrayed seem very high on life, enthusiastic, compassionate, and optimistic. Watson seems to identify closely with his character through internal and external acting approaches. Characters that I were not too fond of were Superior Donuts’ old and currents owners, Arthur P. and Max Tarasov. Max Tarasov, depicted by actor Fadi Magdi, stopped at nothing to get ownership of Superior Donuts and at some parts in the play became pesky. Arthur P. came off as depressing because he was either confused, hiding something, or not fighting for something he wanted. Although Niklas Abbing gave a great performance as Arthur P., I did not agree with many decisions, such as selling the shop, that the character made throughout the duration of the play.
The plot of the play was very well performed in the way that they got the point across quite well. There was only one factor that disturbed me about the plot of the play witch was that some issues were extended and made the play longer. This story was seen in my eyes as a story about a Brooklyn girl that grew up her entire life using defense mechanisms such as alcohol and sex to compensate for her bad childhood and for her unsuccessful employment life.
created the play as a comedy, showing how the world might be in the times of the
In conclusion, this production was one of my favorites that I had ever seen. The storyline was interesting and intense throughout. The designers and actors brought the message across perfectly, which made the play a great success. There were a lot of messages portrayed in this play; however, I believe the most important would be the need for justice. It is important to give the people a fair trial and that it is dangerous to be stereotypical in life.
The way he carries himself and his voice inflections really make the viewer feel like they are in the time period and can envision themselves in the scene of the play. The actor himself really seemed to believe in the play. The way he stormed out of the Ballyhoo scene, it was obvious that he was passionate about the play and really bought into the role. At other times, he spoke to everyone like a true gentleman. The kissing scene was a soft spot in the play, and he did a great job of the whole kiss and the speaking leading up to it. In addition, the actor did a great job of using a different voice in the play. Eastern European Jews were known for speaking differently that German Jews, and his voice was unique and correct for the time
This play shows the importance of the staging, gestures, and props making the atmosphere of a play. Without the development of these things through directions from the author, the whole point of the play will be missed. The dialog in this play only complements the unspoken. Words definitely do not tell the whole story.
Besides the fact that I didn't like this play, the actors did do a pretty good job with their acting and memorization of their lines. Couple times Marisol hesitated with her lines but it wasn't too bad. I like the accents they were using. It wasn't to hard to understand what they were saying, but once again there were those times when their accents did effect a little on their pronunciations and my understanding on what they were saying. Overall, I don't think they were too believable with their characters. They didn't reach me.
The role of the main character or protagonist (Edward Bloom), which was played by John Divney was one of the most important roles of the play. Edward was the central topic of the play, so John's good acting contributed to the plays success majorly. His vocal skills and ability to correctly alliterate like a true Alabama man with an appropriate accent made the play feel that much more realistic. He also did a good job of always projecting his voice in a calm manner. He even successfully improvised when part of the scenery wall pieces broke off. The act of improvising during the play showed John had strong intangible skills. For example, his lines seemed to be fully memorized,
...ay. The spoken language was written with a southern accent which was also very well done. All the characters also speak in their different social class styles. For example, the servants speak with very poor grammar and then on the other hand, Ben or Mr. Marshall speak in a very dignified manner. Besides the spoken language, the play has many written stage direction which almost all highlight the characters’ ideas. Since though there are so many stage directions though, one has to be careful to make sure that they all further and enhance the plot of the play. The intentions and meanings of the language also came through exceptionally clear. From the very beginning of the play, the reader knows exactly what every character’s ulterior motive is and almost every character has one. Because of the very clear character makeup, this enhances all themes, meanings, and intentions of the play and characters.
For a college production, the acting was outstanding. I really felt the emotions. The lead Wendla, who was played by KyLeigh Zimmerer, was amazing. I have also seen bits and pieces of the Broadway version which starred Lea Michelle, and obviously if I were to compare the acting, the Broadway version would be victorious. However, for a college production, these actors have limited past experience, but their acting was professional. Also, when they sang the song "Those You've Known," I felt chills and had goose bumps because that was such an emotional song. You could feel all the emotions and guilt Melchior, played by Ryan Ramirez, was feeling because both his best friend, Moritz, played by Justin Noblitt, and the girl he impregnated, Wendla, died and he believed he was to blame. Moritz committed suicide while Wendla died from a botch abortion her mom for...
By doing this he also provides a greater insight into the characters. In certain ways he also controls the events of the play by influencing the other characters behaviour by trying to help them. A production in Oregon (1974) actually chose to play him as a kind of stage manager. This makes him seem like the manipulator and controller of the
are still in place in today's society. The play is a comedy but to a