The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, November 16, 2007 Page: 14 of 24
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14
THE RICE THRESHER ARTS ft ENTERTAINMENT FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16,2007
RTV
From page 11
"Ask an Atheist" forum.
Brittanie Wallace, a Baker
College junior, is preparing the
new show Chewston with Fischer.
She said the idea came to her in a
conversation with Fischer over the
summer and that the execution has
been easy and enjoyable.
Chewston shows Fischer and
Wallace eating in different res-
taurants and commenting on their
experiences. Three episodes have
been filmed, and the first episode,
a segment on the Mint Cafe located
near the Galleria, will air soon.
Wallace said she wanted to show
students the restaurants around
Houston that may not be well-known
among Rice students. She said she
always tries to mention prices and
locations so students can access
these oft-missed restaurants.
"The [Rice] Village is not the
most interesting place in the
world," she said. "There are lots
of places in Houston that would
do well to have Rice students'
business. Just because some-
thing's far away doesn't mean it's
expensive."
This new content has not come at
the expense of popular shows. A new
season of the popular Top Cocktail,
the game show where contestants
mix drinks for judges, has been
filmed, and a live taping is planned
for the President's Study Break Dec.
9. Fischer, a Will Rice College junior,
said new equipment, such as wireless
microphones, has made taping easier
and more professional.
Even with many new members
building ideas, Station Manager Dan
Derozier, who is also the Thresher
cartoonist, said the core members
of RTV5, those that helped build the
station and launch new content, were
inspired by Top Cocktail's success.
This show was the station's main
project last year, and it occupied the
small staff's time considerably
"Once we started doing Top
Cocktail, we realized we could
handle our own production a lot
better, and we can actually do it
really well," Derozier, a Hanszen
senior, said. "It excites people to
be a part of it."
Fischer, who has participated
in RTV5 since he came to Rice, is
surprised and pleased with these
new developments.
"When I was a freshman, I was
really pessimistic about out viewer
base," Fischer said. "We've just
upped the ante."
DEAD GUY
From page 11
besides the Wiess Commons. It
works well and steps out of the
mold of the typical audience-stage
separation.
Unfortunately, many acting mis-
fires hinder the production. Per-
menter and DeFreeuw, the stars
of the show, start off awkwardly.
Maybe Rice theater has trouble
with two-person meal scenes this
semester, but the amateur timing
and interaction happens around the
staged tables all too often.
DeFreeuw, in this scene and
throughout the play, is as com-
pelling as an autopsy report. He
exhibits no dramatic range. This
could be a constructed way to
show Eldon's loser personality,
but as the character changes from
drunken profligate to struggling
philanthropist to troubled lover, De-
Freeuw never changes his flat vocal
delivery and stiff body language.
Because Eldon's shift is really quite
dramatic, DeFreeuw is a major
disappointment. He only changes
tone in a hilarious scene when he
is raging drunk with two hookers
in Disneyland. If DeFreeuw had
just let go of his inhibitions more
often, his role would have come off
much better.
Permenter's performance,
DANCE
From page 12
Oddly following the Breakers
is Vall's non-student "Memoirs,"
which is an extract from "Memoirs
of Sisterhood," a performance
premiering at DiverseWorks in
December. If Samuel Beckett had
ever choreographed a dance, it
would look a lot like this. Vails,
who dances in her own segment,
spends the first quarter of the
performance ensconced behind
a sculpture resembling a bird
house with a bloody wedding
dress affixed to it. Meanwhile,
McKinnon lies on the far end of
the stage curled up in, indeed,
the fetal position. Once the two
dancers begin to interact, however,
their movements speak to the
protective relationship between
two women.
Hecuba features new actors, great
set in performance that lacks drama
by Lily Chun
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
Before watching the Depart-
ment of Visual and Dramatic Arts'
production of Euripides' Hecuba,
audience members have to realize
two things. First, the production
is composed of beginning theater
students who have never been in
a stage production before. Second,
only well-seasoned actors can pull
off boring and verbose Greek plays.
The question one must ask, then, is
what was the department thinking
when it decided to give beginning
actors such complex material?
'hecuba'
luckily, goes much differently.
Gina is the play's heart. She grows
attached to Eldon and struggles
with the problem of killing him,
illustrating a key theme of The Dead
Guy. In her is the age-old conflict
of duty and desire โ here, profit
and humanity. Permenter misses a
few chances to tackle this conflict
more, particularly in the scenes
with Eldon. Permenter tends to be
melodramatic as the overbearing
producer here, especially when
scolding Eldon.
However, when Permenter
catches her stride, she is captivating.
A few precious night-time scenes
show Gina at her weakest and most
revealing, and when Permenter gets
into those moods, sheholds the audi-
ence in the palm of her hand. Those
scenes have a magic found in few
college theater productions.
The dramatic conflict in Gina
laced with morbid jokes about
Eldon's death comes to a climactic
finale that makes a rather listless
hero and mediocre cast of extras
worthwhile. WiessTabletop might
have spared a few moments from
the cords to improve their cast, yet
The Dead Guy is one this semester's
best spoken performances.
โ โ of five
Playing Nov. 16 and 17 in
the Hamman Hall
Free admission
Baker College senior Vicki
Romo plays Hecuba, the queen
of the defeated Trojans, in Frank
McGuiness' adaptation. The play
begins with a prologue by Hecuba's
deceased son Polydorus (Lovett
College junior Trevor Pittinger).
But Hecuba still has children to
mourn, as the Greeks demand
her daughter Polyxena (Lovett
sophomore Alexandria Anderson)
be sacrificed to avenge the slain
Achilles. When Odysseus (Baker
sophomore Jordan Jaffe) comes
to take Polyxena away, Hecuba
pleads for her daughter's life to no
avail. Further tragedy strikes the
poor Hecuba until she is forced to
prepare the funerals for all of her
children.
The brochure gives fair warn-
ing to the audience: "What you
will see can not be judged by
the same criteria that you might
use for a professional production
because many of the students
are exploring new territory, and
this is their very first time to be
involved in a Theatre Program
production." Sure enough, the ac-
tors are mediocre at best.
In a telling circumstance, the
real star performers of the play
are the inanimate objects. The
jagged rocks that serve as the
backdrop to the tragedy set an
overall melancholic tone. Man-
nequins representing the chorus
look intimidating with their masks
and robes. Well-timed lighting
transitions smoothly from place to
place. Well-executed dry ice gives
the play a creepy undertone. The
costumes are also well-designed,
with each character looking the
part of a regal Greek. However, that
is where substantial praise ends.
Perhaps the most outstanding
performance is by Pittinger, in his
bookend roles as Polydorus and
Polymestor. Pittinger gives excite-
ment to the play as the enraged
ghost of Polydorus at the beginning
and as the blinded Polymestor at
the end. His use of gesture and abil-
ity to project puts his performance
on par with those of seasoned ac-
tors in college theater.
As Hecuba, Romo sticks to one
emotion through the entire play:
grief on the verge of breaking down
into a pool of tears. Romo sounds
like she is constantly fake sobbing,
without any variance in emotion.
Rarely do people cry so much,
but perhaps it is because she had
to memorize hundreds of lines of
translated archaic Greek poetry.
Jaffe is the same whether he
is playing Odysseus, Talthybius
or Agamemnon. Although he of-
fers more intonation in his voice
than Romo, his acting is also a bit
lackluster, and he sounds as if he
were talking casually to his best
friend on the phone.
Anderson is a little better, evok-
ing pity as Polyxena pleads to her
mother to let her bravely accept
her fate. Furthermore, Anderson
is able to differentiate her roles as
both a chorus member and Polyx-
ena, successfully transforming into
different characters.
What was
the department
THINKING when
it decided to give
beginning actors
such complex
material?
Although Hecuba was not the
heart-rending performance that it
could have been, the actors were
not entirely terrible. If nothing
else, they put forth a good effort.
It could not have been easy for
Romo to memorize so much, and
it could not have been easy for
Jaffe to play the parts of not one
but three different characters. The
theater brochure recognizes this.
But the Theatre Department seems
to forget one important thing: The
audience โ which is paying to see
the production โ wants to see a
play, not a class experiment.
Are You Studying or Do You Speak Arabic?
The final dance, "Instincts" by
Baker sophomore Lizzi Leslie,
works as well as a closer as "Sep-
tembers" did as an opener. This
final segment uses the largest
ensemble in Last Call, with the cast
dressed in either candy-cane black
and red or powder blue. Those in
black, who crawl bestially across
the stage, dramatically engulf the
dancers in blue as the segment
progresses. The primal action
is exciting and appealing to the
visceral instincts.
Like dating, everyone dances
regardless of skill level. But some
do it better than others. RDT does
it better than you, and even though
the choreography is not always
diverse, attending the show is
worth the effort.
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Whitfield, Stephen. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, November 16, 2007, newspaper, November 16, 2007; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443211/m1/14/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.