Why Hawaii isn't known for its theatre
I've gotten some stigma for being a designer from the mainland. That the theatre here didn't look to its own local talent to fill the job. But you know what. There's a reason for that. The local talent is...lacking...
Last night I went to see Master of Many Servants at the University of Hawaii--Manoa. Immediately upon sitting in the theatre I had to stifle a groan. All the legs were up. Orange cones and mylar littered the stage. Students clad in black were miming pulling nails out of the floor, sweeping, focusing lights, moving props. Crap. It felt so...academic. So cliche and overdone. The pretension of a university attempting to say "I'm doing something unique...something meta theatrical...something...Brechtian even....we'll make you aware you're watching a play."
It wasn't as well done as the pre-show for UWSP's Country Wife where the cast was actually going through their pre-show activities...warming up, putting up makeup, sweeping, etc. Nope...all mimed and rehearsed, blocked and carefully staged.
I perused the director's notes and groaned more audibly. He was making this piece into a commentary on the lack of funding for the university. Now I love topical theatre. I'm all for using an older work to shine a new light on a modern problem. Only...this play really had no relationship to that message. Aside from dragging this play out so long because it needs to please so many people...serve to many masters...
And this message of lack of funding...of rehearsals held in bathrooms, overbooked spaces, costumes stored in less than desirable locales...its not new. It's not unique to this university or this theatre. It sounded like a whining teenager. And the play hadn't even started yet.
Then it did...dancers came out to warm up. Followed closely by the cast of the show in rehearsal costumes. An argument ensued about who booked the space. And a duo from the Asian studies came in to rehearse as well. Followed by a rack of costumes because storage was full. And a theatre practice student in desperate need to fulfill his 100 hour requirement to complete the course. All inside jokes pertaining to an academic setting. My date was slightly lost...he got the gist of it...but it was elitist and alienating...
2o minutes in and the scripted play still hadn't started. Finally the "director" came in with someone from accounting to straighten thing out. A performance was to be put on, unannounced, 5 minutes from now, for a group of donors (meaning the audience apparently). And as it was a performance for donors and sponsors the show was to be littered with product placement and fulfill several requirements (more language, less profanity, more sexual content, promote family values, etc).
Finally, after a cell phone user gets thrown into the pit (Ryan, a friend of mine at that...had I not known he was an actor returned to UH as a favor this bit it would have been priceless), the show began. The cell phone bit was probably the highlight of the evening. Well, that and when during the sword fight when the door to the pit is finally opened Ryan, long forgotten, runs out and up the aisle screaming towards the exit.
Three hours later the show ended. In between were poorly executed lights, costumes and sets (the set was a graduate student's thesis, the costumes done by faculty). About an hour too long. With only two notable performances...and not by the guest local actor who engaged in a very rehearsed bit of improve. One, thankfully was the lead. The other...the bit part of the Porter.
Yeah, it was funny at points. It is a commedia piece, so inserting local references added a nice twist without taking you out of the show. But they did an excellent job of pulling you out nonetheless by stopping to promote Coke, or Newmann's dressing or Tylenol. The "epic" sword fight was underscored by themes from Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean. The lazzi of close misses was accompanied by the Benny Hill theme. All in all, a lot of cliches. Which could have been the point. Cliches to please the larger audience. But it wasn't fluid. It seemed cheap and lazy.
And a random fusion theatre incorporating Kunqu, modern dance and the servant character from the play. That 7 minutes made me feel like I must have downed a bottle of water laced with acid. But it was the most visually interesting part of the whole show...
All in all...it made me glad I had comp tickets and hadn't paid to see the show. Which is really said since the whole point was that they didn't have funding in the first place...
Last night I went to see Master of Many Servants at the University of Hawaii--Manoa. Immediately upon sitting in the theatre I had to stifle a groan. All the legs were up. Orange cones and mylar littered the stage. Students clad in black were miming pulling nails out of the floor, sweeping, focusing lights, moving props. Crap. It felt so...academic. So cliche and overdone. The pretension of a university attempting to say "I'm doing something unique...something meta theatrical...something...Brechtian even....we'll make you aware you're watching a play."
It wasn't as well done as the pre-show for UWSP's Country Wife where the cast was actually going through their pre-show activities...warming up, putting up makeup, sweeping, etc. Nope...all mimed and rehearsed, blocked and carefully staged.
I perused the director's notes and groaned more audibly. He was making this piece into a commentary on the lack of funding for the university. Now I love topical theatre. I'm all for using an older work to shine a new light on a modern problem. Only...this play really had no relationship to that message. Aside from dragging this play out so long because it needs to please so many people...serve to many masters...
And this message of lack of funding...of rehearsals held in bathrooms, overbooked spaces, costumes stored in less than desirable locales...its not new. It's not unique to this university or this theatre. It sounded like a whining teenager. And the play hadn't even started yet.
Then it did...dancers came out to warm up. Followed closely by the cast of the show in rehearsal costumes. An argument ensued about who booked the space. And a duo from the Asian studies came in to rehearse as well. Followed by a rack of costumes because storage was full. And a theatre practice student in desperate need to fulfill his 100 hour requirement to complete the course. All inside jokes pertaining to an academic setting. My date was slightly lost...he got the gist of it...but it was elitist and alienating...
2o minutes in and the scripted play still hadn't started. Finally the "director" came in with someone from accounting to straighten thing out. A performance was to be put on, unannounced, 5 minutes from now, for a group of donors (meaning the audience apparently). And as it was a performance for donors and sponsors the show was to be littered with product placement and fulfill several requirements (more language, less profanity, more sexual content, promote family values, etc).
Finally, after a cell phone user gets thrown into the pit (Ryan, a friend of mine at that...had I not known he was an actor returned to UH as a favor this bit it would have been priceless), the show began. The cell phone bit was probably the highlight of the evening. Well, that and when during the sword fight when the door to the pit is finally opened Ryan, long forgotten, runs out and up the aisle screaming towards the exit.
Three hours later the show ended. In between were poorly executed lights, costumes and sets (the set was a graduate student's thesis, the costumes done by faculty). About an hour too long. With only two notable performances...and not by the guest local actor who engaged in a very rehearsed bit of improve. One, thankfully was the lead. The other...the bit part of the Porter.
Yeah, it was funny at points. It is a commedia piece, so inserting local references added a nice twist without taking you out of the show. But they did an excellent job of pulling you out nonetheless by stopping to promote Coke, or Newmann's dressing or Tylenol. The "epic" sword fight was underscored by themes from Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean. The lazzi of close misses was accompanied by the Benny Hill theme. All in all, a lot of cliches. Which could have been the point. Cliches to please the larger audience. But it wasn't fluid. It seemed cheap and lazy.
And a random fusion theatre incorporating Kunqu, modern dance and the servant character from the play. That 7 minutes made me feel like I must have downed a bottle of water laced with acid. But it was the most visually interesting part of the whole show...
All in all...it made me glad I had comp tickets and hadn't paid to see the show. Which is really said since the whole point was that they didn't have funding in the first place...
Labels: Performances
posted by Unknown at
9:39 PM
3 Comments:
you can do a set design as a master's thesis?
For most graduate design programs, the design of a show is the master's thesis...
Yeah. I think that part of the challenge of theatre today is to do it everywhere. We don't have shiny spaces in the real world, so teachers need to make sure their students understand: when you go in the real world, if you want to do real work, you must do it wherever you can. Basements. Warehouses. Toilets. (for the record, I did a site-specific in a toilet once...) If theatre is to survive, we must adapt and do it no matter what. Yes, shops and spaces and budgets are nice and necessary after a certain point, but if you're more concerned with that than with the theatre--you are not doing theatre.
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