A Wrinkle In Time
A Wrinkle In Time
First Stage
Milwaukee WI
January 29, 2012
Cast:
Father/Mrs. Which - Aaron Christensen
Mrs. Whatsit/Man with Red Eyes - Matt Daniels
Mother/Mrs. Who - Erica Elam
Foley Artist/Aunt Beast - Marcella Kearns
Meg Murry: Erin Stapleton
Charles Wallace: James Mullooly
Calvin: Nathan Kluge
Camazotz kids: Spencer Tomich, Abby Hanna, Meguire Hennes, Ella Frank
First Stage has done a Wrinkle In Time before, back in 2000, (Wow, twelve years ago. I feel old. And impressed that I still have some memories of it), so I was looking forward to seeing what they were going to do this time. Now, admittedly, the first one was twelve years ago, so I don't remember it crystal clear, but I do remember some parts that were better the first time, and then other parts that were better this time, so I think it evened out.
I had seen pictures online of the set, but they didn't really do it justice. There was a giant dome in the center of the stage, it looked like a gigantic piece of playground equipment. Off to the right side of the stage, we had a platform raised up high. To the left was another platform, with stairs leading up it, as well as a sort of rock climbing wall, but laying at about a sixty degree angle from the floor. There was a pole that the actors used to slide down.
I'm not entirely sure how big of a fan I was of the giant dome, to be honest. It took up way too much of the stage, and I feel like if we had been sitting off to the side, instead of in front, we would have missed some of the action. Most of the time, they stayed out of the inside of the Dome. It seemed that going inside the dome meant that they were tessering. Also, when the actors were climbing all over it, I was a tiny bit worried that someone might fall. I always worry about that when there's a lot of climbing around on things though. During the talk back, I was tempted to ask if any of them were scared to climb up that thing in the dark.
I raised my eyebrows a bit when I saw the name "Matt" next to the name Mrs. Whatsit, and then grinned when I saw "Daniels", for I have seen him in a lot of things, in gender bending roles before. Then when I saw Marcella Kearns I was even more entertained because I have seen Daniels and Kearns in a show together before.
As I listed above, Kearns was listed as the Foley artist, and that part was admittedly kind of cool. They had a lot of sound effects provided by her, with lots of toys. For example, the wind was blowing, and we could see her turning a wind machine thing to make that noise. Or the door slammed, and she had a small door that she opened and slammed. I stopped watching her after awhile though because it was a little hard to see her courtesy of the large dome that was in the way. That and I wasn't really supposed to be watching her anyway.
I'm not going to worry about plot spoilers, because if you have read the book, then you'd know the story. The play was pretty true to the book, it just cut out a few things that honestly, I always thought sort of dragged the story out longer anyway.
The way they told the story was sort of neat. All of the adults did double duty playing whatever character was convenient at the time, and they took turns narrating. For example, Aaron Christensen who played the Father and Mrs. Which also played Meg's principal and a cupboard. (Meg went to get some bread to make Mrs. Whatsit a sandwich and vented a bit to the cupboard about "some people". It was sort of funny, that he nodded in agreement with her.
One thing that I think makes it somewhat difficult to translate this book to a stage show was that it would require a lot of special effects. On the other hand, a great deal of the action in the book actually takes place in the minds of the main characters, so I'm not sure how well that would translate either. I have seen First Stage do some pretty amazing things with puppets, but for this show, they opted to take more of a bare bones approach. They had a lot of sound effects, as I said before, and a lot with light. With the exception of Aunt Beast, the costumes were not super elaborate. The director's notes said that the idea was to rely on people's imaginations a bit more than anything else.
Costumes for the most part weren't super exciting. Meg, Calvin and Charles Wallace were wearing some pretty normal clothes. The Father and Mother were also dressed rather ordinary. On Camazotz, everyone was dressed in the same grey outfits with the same grey boxy hats, which fit the scene perfectly. Aunt Beast was interesting, it was a very tall costume, which folded neatly when they exited the stage. It looked like a large haystack, to be honest. Two of the kids were dressed in the same brown color, and they were 'attached' to the main costume. (Aunt Beast, of course, is described in the book as a large furry creature with lots of tentacles. I always pictured her in the book as a large fuzzy octopus.) Aunt Beast was one way that I thought this production was better than the previous one.
Mrs. Whatzit and Mrs. Who on the other hand, had fun costumes, as they are described in great detail in the book. They wouldn't be the Mrs. W's if they weren't wearing way too many clothes. I liked Mrs. Who's outfit a bit better, she was wearing this awesome pink shawl. Mrs. Whatizt had a purple coat with a boa sort of thing. Mrs. Which never materialized, she was a light on the end of a stick. In the book, she spends most of her time as just a voice anyway, so it worked.
When they would teleport (tesser), they brought the lights down, and used a strobe effect, playing the thunder sound effect, while the narrators called out what it was like to go through the tesseract: Darkness. Nothing. Silence. The characters would sort of run around inside of the dome. It was very dramatic. It was very chaotic. I didn't like it. I know that tessering is a traumatic and difficult thing, but I just didn't really like it. In the production in 2000, they used a large piece of fabric across the stage that they lifted up and ran around with. I liked that better.
The kids on Camazotz were adorable. I think they were all first through third grade if I remember correctly. They just looked very cute with their little grey hats on. They didn't do a ton in the show, but the people on Camazotz are mostly being autotons anyway.
All of the three main kids, Meg, Calvin and Charles Wallace did a good job. Two out of the three, (Meg and Calvin) I am fairly certain I have seen in other shows. Out of the three of them, my favorite character had to have been Calvin. Out of the three actors, I don't think I could pick my favorite.
The reason that Calvin was my favorite was because he had the most fantastic lines. They go on some rather extreme adventures, and he has awesome reactions. While I wouldn't say that he takes everything in stride, he does seem to handle the strange things pretty well, except that he gives voice to the things that any reasonable person would be thinking. It was a little bit of stating the obvious, but not exactly. It also helped to set the scene. One of my favorite lines was when Aunt Beast came out. If you hadn't read the book, you wouldn't really know what she was supposed to be, but thanks to Calvin: "There's a… thing… coming. A really big thing. With tentacles. Lots of… tentacles." He also had an awesome high pitched scream when somebody startled him, and a cute silly grin once he decided to just start going with the flow. On Camazotz, they had to put their "S-papers" in the "B-slot." He thinks for a moment, then said "Alright," and put a piece of paper in the "slot." And we had the door opening sound effect. When Meg asked what he used, he said, rather cheerfully, "My math homework."
Charles Wallace in the book always kinda annoyed me, being far too smart and almost a bit cocky about it. By the same logic, I was a little annoyed with the on-stage Charles Wallace, but that was a good thing! The actor portrayed that tiny bit of arrogance without making it seem too forced, or completely unlikeable. He also did a good job at making It-possessed Charles Wallace seem very different from regular Charles Wallace, so that was cool. Also, he was just really cute.
I am almost positive that I saw Meg's actress before in a different show. This time, she was playing a very different character. Somehow, Meg has to come off as an upset and generally angry sort of person without being unlikeable, and I think that she did a pretty good job at that. She had her temper tantrums, but calmed down from them pretty quickly. Almost super-quickly, but I don't really think watching Meg sulk around for awhile would have been particularly entertaining anyway. For a good chunk of the show, she had a fantastic "Wait, what?" expression at various and assorted things. But she's also the only person who was pretty much completely confident of what was a good idea and what was a bad idea. Not that people listened to her all the time, but she usually ended up being right in the long run.
Onto the adults, in particular, the Mrs. Ws. I liked them. Out of the three of them, Mrs. Who was my favorite. (She is in the book too). They are supposed to be rather odd people, and they were played pretty well that way. They cut Mrs. Which's part down a lot, which was acceptable, since she was basically just a light on a stick.
Mrs. Who was my favorite just because of the way she talked. In the book, she talks by means of a lot of famous quotations, but I liked the way they had her talk in the play. She was very fond of a lot of technobabble. She'd rattle off something very complicated sounding, and the children would respond with blank looks, so then she'd sort of mutter something else. She was funny.
Mrs. Whatsit's entrance was pretty much straight out of the book, as she comes into the Murry house and basically makes herself at home. She has this line that is supposed to astonish Mrs. Murry: "There is such a thing as a tesseract," And the way she said it, it was sort of hard to understand. Then she repeated it, so it was easier to hear. I think that overall, Matt Daniels did a pretty good job as Mrs. Whatsit. Admittedly though, I couldn't help but think of Lottie from Scrooge in Rouge.
The ladies say that they cannot join the children on Camazotz, but they can't seem to stay away. First, Mrs. Whatsit comes to give them each gifts - she strengthens their natural gifts. Then she starts to leave, when there's a sound. She tries to run off, but its Mrs. Who, who also couldn't stay away. She gives Meg the gift of her glasses. She starts off giving this technobabble explanation about what the glasses do, and then finally says "Oh they're magic!" Then she and Mrs. Whatsit hear something and start to hurry off, but its Mrs. Which. ("And baby makes three!" Calvin declares). Mrs. Which is there to give them some advice - stay together. It was a pretty funny scene. It was kinda nice, broke up the tension.
I do not remember if/how they did this next bit the first time they did the play. If they did, it was clearly not memorable. In the book, Mrs. Whatsit transforms into this winged centaur creature. They did this in the play this time around. It was pretty interesting. Mrs. Whatsit shed her coat and underneath, revealed this sort of white body suit. Matt Daniels carried himself differently when he was 'transformed', he held his shoulders higher, and further back, and spoke in an incredibly deep voice. The children followed behind him, pretending to be "riding" him, when he flew them up to the high mountain. I probably was not supposed to find this funny. It kind of was. He went from speaking in a high-pitched voice to a very deep voice.
I liked how the people on Camazotz were very robotic for the most part, but every once and awhile, they would have more expression in their voices when they were upset.
Speaking of Camazotz, and also of Matt Daniels, the other role that he played was the Man With The Red Eyes. I remembered that role being very creepy last time, so I was expecting it to be creepy this time. And yes, he was very creepy. He is, after all, the only visible bad guy in the play. He was dressed in all black, with a black bowler hat. He wore red glasses, with red LED lights on the arms. His lines were done as a voice over, because in the book, he speaks directly into their heads. So while his lines were being played over the speaker, he just had the creepiest grin on his face. It was really creepy and it was really awesome.
The real villain of the show is "It." In the book, "It" is a gigantic brain that controls the minds of everyone on the planet. In the previous production, "It" was not a gigantic brain, because (as they said in the talk back) they thought it would look stupid. So it was a plasma ball sort of thing on a chain. This time around, "It" was the gigantic dome with all of the actors hanging off it, or hanging out under it in the case of the children. They'd all groan in unison being the voice of "It."
To be honest, I'm not sure how I would have done this scene. But probably not like that.
The play ended sort of abruptly, but nicely. Granted, the book ends that way too. They opted to end the play with a happy reunion of the family, and not with the end of the book. The book ends with a happy ending for the family, but the absolute last bit of the book is Mrs. Whatsit saying, "We'd like to stay but we have to-" and then they were gone.
First Stage
Milwaukee WI
January 29, 2012
Cast:
Father/Mrs. Which - Aaron Christensen
Mrs. Whatsit/Man with Red Eyes - Matt Daniels
Mother/Mrs. Who - Erica Elam
Foley Artist/Aunt Beast - Marcella Kearns
Meg Murry: Erin Stapleton
Charles Wallace: James Mullooly
Calvin: Nathan Kluge
Camazotz kids: Spencer Tomich, Abby Hanna, Meguire Hennes, Ella Frank
First Stage has done a Wrinkle In Time before, back in 2000, (Wow, twelve years ago. I feel old. And impressed that I still have some memories of it), so I was looking forward to seeing what they were going to do this time. Now, admittedly, the first one was twelve years ago, so I don't remember it crystal clear, but I do remember some parts that were better the first time, and then other parts that were better this time, so I think it evened out.
I had seen pictures online of the set, but they didn't really do it justice. There was a giant dome in the center of the stage, it looked like a gigantic piece of playground equipment. Off to the right side of the stage, we had a platform raised up high. To the left was another platform, with stairs leading up it, as well as a sort of rock climbing wall, but laying at about a sixty degree angle from the floor. There was a pole that the actors used to slide down.
I'm not entirely sure how big of a fan I was of the giant dome, to be honest. It took up way too much of the stage, and I feel like if we had been sitting off to the side, instead of in front, we would have missed some of the action. Most of the time, they stayed out of the inside of the Dome. It seemed that going inside the dome meant that they were tessering. Also, when the actors were climbing all over it, I was a tiny bit worried that someone might fall. I always worry about that when there's a lot of climbing around on things though. During the talk back, I was tempted to ask if any of them were scared to climb up that thing in the dark.
I raised my eyebrows a bit when I saw the name "Matt" next to the name Mrs. Whatsit, and then grinned when I saw "Daniels", for I have seen him in a lot of things, in gender bending roles before. Then when I saw Marcella Kearns I was even more entertained because I have seen Daniels and Kearns in a show together before.
As I listed above, Kearns was listed as the Foley artist, and that part was admittedly kind of cool. They had a lot of sound effects provided by her, with lots of toys. For example, the wind was blowing, and we could see her turning a wind machine thing to make that noise. Or the door slammed, and she had a small door that she opened and slammed. I stopped watching her after awhile though because it was a little hard to see her courtesy of the large dome that was in the way. That and I wasn't really supposed to be watching her anyway.
I'm not going to worry about plot spoilers, because if you have read the book, then you'd know the story. The play was pretty true to the book, it just cut out a few things that honestly, I always thought sort of dragged the story out longer anyway.
The way they told the story was sort of neat. All of the adults did double duty playing whatever character was convenient at the time, and they took turns narrating. For example, Aaron Christensen who played the Father and Mrs. Which also played Meg's principal and a cupboard. (Meg went to get some bread to make Mrs. Whatsit a sandwich and vented a bit to the cupboard about "some people". It was sort of funny, that he nodded in agreement with her.
One thing that I think makes it somewhat difficult to translate this book to a stage show was that it would require a lot of special effects. On the other hand, a great deal of the action in the book actually takes place in the minds of the main characters, so I'm not sure how well that would translate either. I have seen First Stage do some pretty amazing things with puppets, but for this show, they opted to take more of a bare bones approach. They had a lot of sound effects, as I said before, and a lot with light. With the exception of Aunt Beast, the costumes were not super elaborate. The director's notes said that the idea was to rely on people's imaginations a bit more than anything else.
Costumes for the most part weren't super exciting. Meg, Calvin and Charles Wallace were wearing some pretty normal clothes. The Father and Mother were also dressed rather ordinary. On Camazotz, everyone was dressed in the same grey outfits with the same grey boxy hats, which fit the scene perfectly. Aunt Beast was interesting, it was a very tall costume, which folded neatly when they exited the stage. It looked like a large haystack, to be honest. Two of the kids were dressed in the same brown color, and they were 'attached' to the main costume. (Aunt Beast, of course, is described in the book as a large furry creature with lots of tentacles. I always pictured her in the book as a large fuzzy octopus.) Aunt Beast was one way that I thought this production was better than the previous one.
Mrs. Whatzit and Mrs. Who on the other hand, had fun costumes, as they are described in great detail in the book. They wouldn't be the Mrs. W's if they weren't wearing way too many clothes. I liked Mrs. Who's outfit a bit better, she was wearing this awesome pink shawl. Mrs. Whatizt had a purple coat with a boa sort of thing. Mrs. Which never materialized, she was a light on the end of a stick. In the book, she spends most of her time as just a voice anyway, so it worked.
When they would teleport (tesser), they brought the lights down, and used a strobe effect, playing the thunder sound effect, while the narrators called out what it was like to go through the tesseract: Darkness. Nothing. Silence. The characters would sort of run around inside of the dome. It was very dramatic. It was very chaotic. I didn't like it. I know that tessering is a traumatic and difficult thing, but I just didn't really like it. In the production in 2000, they used a large piece of fabric across the stage that they lifted up and ran around with. I liked that better.
The kids on Camazotz were adorable. I think they were all first through third grade if I remember correctly. They just looked very cute with their little grey hats on. They didn't do a ton in the show, but the people on Camazotz are mostly being autotons anyway.
All of the three main kids, Meg, Calvin and Charles Wallace did a good job. Two out of the three, (Meg and Calvin) I am fairly certain I have seen in other shows. Out of the three of them, my favorite character had to have been Calvin. Out of the three actors, I don't think I could pick my favorite.
The reason that Calvin was my favorite was because he had the most fantastic lines. They go on some rather extreme adventures, and he has awesome reactions. While I wouldn't say that he takes everything in stride, he does seem to handle the strange things pretty well, except that he gives voice to the things that any reasonable person would be thinking. It was a little bit of stating the obvious, but not exactly. It also helped to set the scene. One of my favorite lines was when Aunt Beast came out. If you hadn't read the book, you wouldn't really know what she was supposed to be, but thanks to Calvin: "There's a… thing… coming. A really big thing. With tentacles. Lots of… tentacles." He also had an awesome high pitched scream when somebody startled him, and a cute silly grin once he decided to just start going with the flow. On Camazotz, they had to put their "S-papers" in the "B-slot." He thinks for a moment, then said "Alright," and put a piece of paper in the "slot." And we had the door opening sound effect. When Meg asked what he used, he said, rather cheerfully, "My math homework."
Charles Wallace in the book always kinda annoyed me, being far too smart and almost a bit cocky about it. By the same logic, I was a little annoyed with the on-stage Charles Wallace, but that was a good thing! The actor portrayed that tiny bit of arrogance without making it seem too forced, or completely unlikeable. He also did a good job at making It-possessed Charles Wallace seem very different from regular Charles Wallace, so that was cool. Also, he was just really cute.
I am almost positive that I saw Meg's actress before in a different show. This time, she was playing a very different character. Somehow, Meg has to come off as an upset and generally angry sort of person without being unlikeable, and I think that she did a pretty good job at that. She had her temper tantrums, but calmed down from them pretty quickly. Almost super-quickly, but I don't really think watching Meg sulk around for awhile would have been particularly entertaining anyway. For a good chunk of the show, she had a fantastic "Wait, what?" expression at various and assorted things. But she's also the only person who was pretty much completely confident of what was a good idea and what was a bad idea. Not that people listened to her all the time, but she usually ended up being right in the long run.
Onto the adults, in particular, the Mrs. Ws. I liked them. Out of the three of them, Mrs. Who was my favorite. (She is in the book too). They are supposed to be rather odd people, and they were played pretty well that way. They cut Mrs. Which's part down a lot, which was acceptable, since she was basically just a light on a stick.
Mrs. Who was my favorite just because of the way she talked. In the book, she talks by means of a lot of famous quotations, but I liked the way they had her talk in the play. She was very fond of a lot of technobabble. She'd rattle off something very complicated sounding, and the children would respond with blank looks, so then she'd sort of mutter something else. She was funny.
Mrs. Whatsit's entrance was pretty much straight out of the book, as she comes into the Murry house and basically makes herself at home. She has this line that is supposed to astonish Mrs. Murry: "There is such a thing as a tesseract," And the way she said it, it was sort of hard to understand. Then she repeated it, so it was easier to hear. I think that overall, Matt Daniels did a pretty good job as Mrs. Whatsit. Admittedly though, I couldn't help but think of Lottie from Scrooge in Rouge.
The ladies say that they cannot join the children on Camazotz, but they can't seem to stay away. First, Mrs. Whatsit comes to give them each gifts - she strengthens their natural gifts. Then she starts to leave, when there's a sound. She tries to run off, but its Mrs. Who, who also couldn't stay away. She gives Meg the gift of her glasses. She starts off giving this technobabble explanation about what the glasses do, and then finally says "Oh they're magic!" Then she and Mrs. Whatsit hear something and start to hurry off, but its Mrs. Which. ("And baby makes three!" Calvin declares). Mrs. Which is there to give them some advice - stay together. It was a pretty funny scene. It was kinda nice, broke up the tension.
I do not remember if/how they did this next bit the first time they did the play. If they did, it was clearly not memorable. In the book, Mrs. Whatsit transforms into this winged centaur creature. They did this in the play this time around. It was pretty interesting. Mrs. Whatsit shed her coat and underneath, revealed this sort of white body suit. Matt Daniels carried himself differently when he was 'transformed', he held his shoulders higher, and further back, and spoke in an incredibly deep voice. The children followed behind him, pretending to be "riding" him, when he flew them up to the high mountain. I probably was not supposed to find this funny. It kind of was. He went from speaking in a high-pitched voice to a very deep voice.
I liked how the people on Camazotz were very robotic for the most part, but every once and awhile, they would have more expression in their voices when they were upset.
Speaking of Camazotz, and also of Matt Daniels, the other role that he played was the Man With The Red Eyes. I remembered that role being very creepy last time, so I was expecting it to be creepy this time. And yes, he was very creepy. He is, after all, the only visible bad guy in the play. He was dressed in all black, with a black bowler hat. He wore red glasses, with red LED lights on the arms. His lines were done as a voice over, because in the book, he speaks directly into their heads. So while his lines were being played over the speaker, he just had the creepiest grin on his face. It was really creepy and it was really awesome.
The real villain of the show is "It." In the book, "It" is a gigantic brain that controls the minds of everyone on the planet. In the previous production, "It" was not a gigantic brain, because (as they said in the talk back) they thought it would look stupid. So it was a plasma ball sort of thing on a chain. This time around, "It" was the gigantic dome with all of the actors hanging off it, or hanging out under it in the case of the children. They'd all groan in unison being the voice of "It."
To be honest, I'm not sure how I would have done this scene. But probably not like that.
The play ended sort of abruptly, but nicely. Granted, the book ends that way too. They opted to end the play with a happy reunion of the family, and not with the end of the book. The book ends with a happy ending for the family, but the absolute last bit of the book is Mrs. Whatsit saying, "We'd like to stay but we have to-" and then they were gone.