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Printer-Friendly ModeCast's hard work pays off
April 21, 2008 —
SVSU students took the stage this weekend for the opening of their performance of William Shakespeare's As You Like It.
The play, directed by Steven Erickson, is a comedy about love, heartbreak, and more love. As the entire script is written in Elizabethan English, the 25 cast members relied heavily on body and facial movements and were more than successful in portraying the humor of the play.
Two characters in particular, cousins Rosalind (Bethany Champion) and Celia (Erinn Holm), did an outstanding job showing their close personal relationship with one another. Although some of the audience may not have known if they were bickering or swapping secrets from the dialogue, they certainly could understand by the way they moved on stage. The actresses played well off of one another, and their hard work was shown in the play.
Shakespeare's plays prove to be difficult to act out, especially since plenty of practice time is spent by simply understanding what the script means, while trying to get an audience to understand it as well. Characters Phebe (Jennifer Wilk) and Silvius (Tyler Frank) perfected that equation and successfully portrayed their love-hate relationship. Frank's portrayal of the very cute, yet very dumb, Silvius actually made the audience sympathize with him after being constantly rejected by Phebe during the show.
Touchstone the Clown (Kurt McCool) added more lightheartedness to an already lighthearted play. Each time McCool set foot on stage, the audience was in laughter. It was helpful that he, along with every other character, understood the words they were reciting and could use their acting skills to help the audience comprehend the meaning.
Although all lines were memorized and the actors used the stage well, there was much more stumbling over words and lines than almost any other play I've been to at SVSU. Several times, characters had to start their lines over completely.
Characters were also hard to hear at times, as some either spoke too fast, too quietly, or both. Many characters were forced into three-quarter turns and full-back stances, hiding their much-needed facial expressions and causing lines to get lost to the audience. Some scenes also seemed too cluttered with people, and it was sometimes difficult to figure out who I was supposed to be concentrating on.
As You Like It continues this weekend with show times Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. in the Malcolm Field Theatre for Performing Arts. Admission is $5 for students and $7 for the general public.