Second update
I know that this is long, so I'm lj-cutting it.
Rumors, by Neil Simon was performed at our high school this past weekend. The play is about eight friends that get together to celebrate the anniversary of their friends Charlie and Myra. When Chris and Ken Gorman arrive, they hear a gunshot and run upstairs to find Charlie laying on his bed shot through the earlobe. Chris and Ken decide not to say anything to the others at the party, but when the doorbell rings Chris doesn’t know what to say to Claire and Lenny Ganz. As she tries to come up with a good lie, Ken interrupts and sends her upstairs. He tells the other couple, and then, what do you know, another couple comes to the door. It’s none other that Cookie and Ernie Cusack. They vow not to tell the Cusack’s, because they don’t want Cookie telling the whole world about it on her cooking show. Problem is, another gunshot goes off, deafening Ken. They find out about her bad back, and start making dinner. The door bell rings a little while later, and no one will get it. Finally Ernie goes and gets the door and is mistaken to be a butler by Cassie and Glenn Cooper. The two of them can’t even stop bickering for a dinner party, which is pretty sad. Finally though, Ernie and Cookie finish making dinner and bring it out. Everyone digs in and starts eating, ending the first act.
The second act is when everything starts to come together. Ken gets his hearing back, to his surprise finds out that everyone already knew the whole story about the gunshot (but he tells the story anyway) and what do you know, Glenn and Cassie get into another fight. Big surprise. The two of them go outside, still bickering and she punches his nose, and he bleeds. The cops come soon after that about a car crash. They think it’s about the gun shots and are really scared. As it turns out it wasn’t about that, but some one slips up and they have to talk about the gun shots. They call Lenny downstairs (who is pretending to be Charlie, Ken is being Lenny) and he tells this BIG HUGE elaborate story about maids and robbers and Myra getting locked in the basement. When he’s done, and panting, Officer Welch says, “Nice story. Too bad I don’t believe it.” He leaves, and as seven of the eight friends are heading up the stairs, they hear someone in the basement calling for help to end the play.
Some of the lessons addressed were faithfulness to one’s partner, friendship, and trust. A lot of these issues go hand in hand with each other, and a lot of the couples were having all of these issues, such as the Coopers and the Ganzes. The Cusacks didn’t seem to be having any of them. These couples were all gossipers though. They all liked to tell stories about the other people, but if someone had said something about them, there would be a whole lot of trouble. I think that Claire and Lenny display this best at the beginning of the show. They gossiped about Charlie and Myra like it was old news, but when Claire heard about what was being said about her, she went crazy. Also, there were rumors of Charlie and Myra being unfaithful, Cassie and Glenn being unfaithful and so forth. There was never any proof, but it just proved what rumors can do to people’s relationships.
Ernie Cusack was a loveable character. He was a short little nerdy man that was very big on the facts. He didn’t like to mess around, he liked getting straight to the facts. I think that Keith did a great job on articulating and projecting with this part. His voice carried enough so that you could hear him, but it was quiet enough so that Ernie’s soft-spoken take charge attitude was showing through. The energy that was given by his character made you forget that he’s Keith Brown, and just brought you into his character. When an actor does that, you know he’s doing well.
Chris Gorman was rather frazzle brained. Remember Dory from Finding Nemo? Chris reminded me a lot of her. She didn’t always remember what to say, and got confused very easily. She could always remember what to say in a court case, but when it came to anything else *poof* she didn’t know what to do. Claire did an awesome job all around with her character. She seemed very well fit for the part, and she and Nathan were a very cute married couple. Her voice clarity was perfect, not to mention that she was absolutely hilarious every time she went for a cigarette. Her voice also carried very well, and I could hear her all the way in the back of the auditorium!
The set was amazing! It wasn’t a gigantic set, and because of that, I think there was a lot of time to put into the set, not to mention money. It wasn’t super elaborate, but it was tasteful. The point, I’m guessing, was that all of these couples were rich and had very high class. Not a surprise, considering the way they were all dressed. I loved that there was a liquor stand and that there were wine glasses hanging from the ceiling. It actually looked like a real living room in a house. It was designed very well.
The costuming and make-up were pretty good. Everyone was classy enough to look rich, and Cookie was dressed bad enough to look like a cheesy TV cook. Claire Ganz’s dress wasn’t very flattering for her, but Chris’s dress looked awesome on her, as did Cassie’s. She didn’t look frumpy to me. The make-up on everyone was perfect, except for Glenn’s shadowing on his lower right neck area was causing it to look there was a black smudge on his neck in his first scene. The light and sound were great too. I loved the sound effects, who ever did those was perfectly cued and on the ball. The light board was on it too, and nobody’s face looked washed out.
I think that this was casted very well. I’m not trying to brown-nose, but I don’t think that anyone could have done such a good job on this play. The fact that these kids are all going to the competition is reason enough to love them all. They have some serious talent, and you captured that, Mrs. Quesada. Everyone was PERFECT for their parts, right down to their mannerisms.
The staging was interesting. I found that Glenn often times had his back to the audience, and it was tough to hear what he was saying at times. There was a lot of door slamming, and although that’s not horrible it’s not always great when it happens all the time. Other than that though, I think that people knew where to go and had really good spacing on the stage.
From what I could tell, the audience really drank up the play. There was a lot of laughter in parts where it needed to be, especially through Lenny/Charlie’s whole elaborate schpeal about why there were gun shots. Everyone was very into what they saw, and just went with the flow. It was the perfect play to see with friends or just about anyone.
If you couldn’t tell, I loved the play. It was so well done, and everything just went together so smoothly. I couldn’t stop laughing, and when the lies and rumors just kept coming, it was all the more reason to laugh. I think that my favorite character was Chris, for the shear reason that she was so funny with her confusion and fright. She was so cute about everything and was goofy like me. My favorite parts were probably Ken standing up and announcing what really happened, to find out that everyone knew already and when Lenny/Charlie gave that monologue at the end making everything up and really having no idea what happened to find out that the part about Myra and perhaps more of it were true.
I was in a small play like this in seventh grade, Wait Until Dark, by Fredrick Knott. The set was similar, there was only one, and was also pretty elaborate. I guess it was probably more elaborate, but that’s also because I was the only kid in the play. But, I think that the acting was also really good. Both are amateur theatre groups, and were well directed. I would love to be in/work on another play or musical. I helped do a lot on the set of WUD, and I think that to be able to paint again, or act in a real play again would be awesome. I think I love theatre more than I like myself. Great choice in actors and actresses as always!
Rumors, by Neil Simon was performed at our high school this past weekend. The play is about eight friends that get together to celebrate the anniversary of their friends Charlie and Myra. When Chris and Ken Gorman arrive, they hear a gunshot and run upstairs to find Charlie laying on his bed shot through the earlobe. Chris and Ken decide not to say anything to the others at the party, but when the doorbell rings Chris doesn’t know what to say to Claire and Lenny Ganz. As she tries to come up with a good lie, Ken interrupts and sends her upstairs. He tells the other couple, and then, what do you know, another couple comes to the door. It’s none other that Cookie and Ernie Cusack. They vow not to tell the Cusack’s, because they don’t want Cookie telling the whole world about it on her cooking show. Problem is, another gunshot goes off, deafening Ken. They find out about her bad back, and start making dinner. The door bell rings a little while later, and no one will get it. Finally Ernie goes and gets the door and is mistaken to be a butler by Cassie and Glenn Cooper. The two of them can’t even stop bickering for a dinner party, which is pretty sad. Finally though, Ernie and Cookie finish making dinner and bring it out. Everyone digs in and starts eating, ending the first act.
The second act is when everything starts to come together. Ken gets his hearing back, to his surprise finds out that everyone already knew the whole story about the gunshot (but he tells the story anyway) and what do you know, Glenn and Cassie get into another fight. Big surprise. The two of them go outside, still bickering and she punches his nose, and he bleeds. The cops come soon after that about a car crash. They think it’s about the gun shots and are really scared. As it turns out it wasn’t about that, but some one slips up and they have to talk about the gun shots. They call Lenny downstairs (who is pretending to be Charlie, Ken is being Lenny) and he tells this BIG HUGE elaborate story about maids and robbers and Myra getting locked in the basement. When he’s done, and panting, Officer Welch says, “Nice story. Too bad I don’t believe it.” He leaves, and as seven of the eight friends are heading up the stairs, they hear someone in the basement calling for help to end the play.
Some of the lessons addressed were faithfulness to one’s partner, friendship, and trust. A lot of these issues go hand in hand with each other, and a lot of the couples were having all of these issues, such as the Coopers and the Ganzes. The Cusacks didn’t seem to be having any of them. These couples were all gossipers though. They all liked to tell stories about the other people, but if someone had said something about them, there would be a whole lot of trouble. I think that Claire and Lenny display this best at the beginning of the show. They gossiped about Charlie and Myra like it was old news, but when Claire heard about what was being said about her, she went crazy. Also, there were rumors of Charlie and Myra being unfaithful, Cassie and Glenn being unfaithful and so forth. There was never any proof, but it just proved what rumors can do to people’s relationships.
Ernie Cusack was a loveable character. He was a short little nerdy man that was very big on the facts. He didn’t like to mess around, he liked getting straight to the facts. I think that Keith did a great job on articulating and projecting with this part. His voice carried enough so that you could hear him, but it was quiet enough so that Ernie’s soft-spoken take charge attitude was showing through. The energy that was given by his character made you forget that he’s Keith Brown, and just brought you into his character. When an actor does that, you know he’s doing well.
Chris Gorman was rather frazzle brained. Remember Dory from Finding Nemo? Chris reminded me a lot of her. She didn’t always remember what to say, and got confused very easily. She could always remember what to say in a court case, but when it came to anything else *poof* she didn’t know what to do. Claire did an awesome job all around with her character. She seemed very well fit for the part, and she and Nathan were a very cute married couple. Her voice clarity was perfect, not to mention that she was absolutely hilarious every time she went for a cigarette. Her voice also carried very well, and I could hear her all the way in the back of the auditorium!
The set was amazing! It wasn’t a gigantic set, and because of that, I think there was a lot of time to put into the set, not to mention money. It wasn’t super elaborate, but it was tasteful. The point, I’m guessing, was that all of these couples were rich and had very high class. Not a surprise, considering the way they were all dressed. I loved that there was a liquor stand and that there were wine glasses hanging from the ceiling. It actually looked like a real living room in a house. It was designed very well.
The costuming and make-up were pretty good. Everyone was classy enough to look rich, and Cookie was dressed bad enough to look like a cheesy TV cook. Claire Ganz’s dress wasn’t very flattering for her, but Chris’s dress looked awesome on her, as did Cassie’s. She didn’t look frumpy to me. The make-up on everyone was perfect, except for Glenn’s shadowing on his lower right neck area was causing it to look there was a black smudge on his neck in his first scene. The light and sound were great too. I loved the sound effects, who ever did those was perfectly cued and on the ball. The light board was on it too, and nobody’s face looked washed out.
I think that this was casted very well. I’m not trying to brown-nose, but I don’t think that anyone could have done such a good job on this play. The fact that these kids are all going to the competition is reason enough to love them all. They have some serious talent, and you captured that, Mrs. Quesada. Everyone was PERFECT for their parts, right down to their mannerisms.
The staging was interesting. I found that Glenn often times had his back to the audience, and it was tough to hear what he was saying at times. There was a lot of door slamming, and although that’s not horrible it’s not always great when it happens all the time. Other than that though, I think that people knew where to go and had really good spacing on the stage.
From what I could tell, the audience really drank up the play. There was a lot of laughter in parts where it needed to be, especially through Lenny/Charlie’s whole elaborate schpeal about why there were gun shots. Everyone was very into what they saw, and just went with the flow. It was the perfect play to see with friends or just about anyone.
If you couldn’t tell, I loved the play. It was so well done, and everything just went together so smoothly. I couldn’t stop laughing, and when the lies and rumors just kept coming, it was all the more reason to laugh. I think that my favorite character was Chris, for the shear reason that she was so funny with her confusion and fright. She was so cute about everything and was goofy like me. My favorite parts were probably Ken standing up and announcing what really happened, to find out that everyone knew already and when Lenny/Charlie gave that monologue at the end making everything up and really having no idea what happened to find out that the part about Myra and perhaps more of it were true.
I was in a small play like this in seventh grade, Wait Until Dark, by Fredrick Knott. The set was similar, there was only one, and was also pretty elaborate. I guess it was probably more elaborate, but that’s also because I was the only kid in the play. But, I think that the acting was also really good. Both are amateur theatre groups, and were well directed. I would love to be in/work on another play or musical. I helped do a lot on the set of WUD, and I think that to be able to paint again, or act in a real play again would be awesome. I think I love theatre more than I like myself. Great choice in actors and actresses as always!