12 Other Press April 8, 1994 And the Medal goes to... All You Ever Wanted to Know About College Theatre, but Were Scared to Pay to See By Jason Kurylo In the spirit of the Commonwealth Games, and the Dou- glas College Athletic Awards before them, the Other Press is proud to present ... Jeff Gilooley. (I’m just kidding...) Actu- ally, what I’ve done is compared and contrasted three college theatre productions. The “contestants” are: Studio 58’s She Loves Me, Douglas’ Alice In Wonderland, and from Nanaimo’s Malaspina College, City of Angels. First, I’d like to address some concerns many people have with col- lege productions: It’s just students, so it’s probably pretty amateurish, right? The fact is, you’re rolling the dice any time you enter any theatre. Whether it’s the Vancouver Playhouse or the Douglas College Theatre, there are no guarantees. And while you’re not likely to see the next Malkovich at Malaspina, there are thousands more bad pros than bad students... Yeah, but the college plays look cheap, don’t they? Actually, most theatre programs have much bigger budgets than a lot of professional theatre companies. Technically (that’s with regards to sets, costumes, lighting, etc.), many college shows are excellent. Okay, but why shouldn't I just go see a movie instead? Here’s a situation that live theatre everywhere is hating right now... Movies are great. I’ll admit it, I love ‘em. But nothing, and I mean nothing, compares with a good night at a live show. Besides, what are you gonna go see — D2: The Mighty Ducks? Here goes. Da silva All right, then... On to the Nancy Kerrigan award... And the silver medal goes to: Malaspina’s City of Angels. This production featured both first- and second-year students, as well as a guest- star or two, in a musical comedy S€b..- iy sy isHe 1940’s. This was also an am- bitious produc- tion. It had a full two-week run, from March 17-31. Not only was there a cast of 20, playing 34 roles, but Angels featured 19 scene changes and a live 15-piece orches- tra. Yeah. Ambitious. I already looked, there’s nothing else in the thesaurus that really covers it. Worth the trip across the wa- ter, Angels involved a revolving Da bronze The bronze goes to our very own Douglas College, for a very ambitious Alice In Wonderland. Directed by Michael Fera, and running from March 18 - 27, Alice was a huge challenge for most ev- eryone involved. This was the only college show in this competition to solely feature first-year students. Everyone’s familiar with the story of little Alice (played here by Tracy Swaile), who falls through the Looking Glass into Wonder- land. There, she encounters talk- ing animals, fantastic creatures, and has an adventure that can only be described as... wondrous. The sets and costumes were Wonder-land-fully over-the-top. The play was.a visual feast, strewn with radically decorated creatures of all shapes and sizes. From talk- ing birds to singing frogs to the ever popular deck of cards, the rep- resentation was ocularly stunning. Hats, and heads, off to tite tech crew behind those scenes! The students who performed in this production, however, proved to be a few levels below their tech- nical peers. The audience never quite gets to the point where they’ re lost in Wonderland with Alice. In a perfect world, that’s where they’d be. There were quite a few indi- viduals that shone, but this type of show needs strong, even ensemble work. George Caetano was a big crowd favourite, giving a hugely energetic performance as the White Rabbit. He also opened and closed the play as Alice’s “real-life” advi- sor, Reverand Dodgson. Another high point was Michael Gill’s performance as the White Knight. His Scie strangely enough, was entitled “White Knight,” and was one of the most successful moments in the show. Tweedledum and Tweedledee were brought to life by Micah Leigh Reid and Aaron Johnston, respectively. It was refreshing to see a different take on these two. In- stead of the typical depiction of two dullards, this production saw the Tweedle Twins as a mean-spirited, borderline sexually abusive pair. The choice of script was inter- esting. Of course, it was adapted from Lewis Carroll’s famous writ- ings, but this particular take on the Looking Glass tale was different. Eva Legallienne and Florida Friebus changed the outlook from one of wonder and trust to that of an angry young child encountering monster after monster. And while I’ve never been one to suggest pur- ist ways, this view doesn’t always work. In closing, I’d like to use a tired cliché: potential definitely exists in this bunch. It was, as I said, an extremely ambitious out- ing. Perhaps too ambitious. Iam looking forward to their future productions, especially if they try less to put on a spectacle, In short, I'm really looking forward to Small Change, Dou- glas' next production, which is opening April 8. xo 0*0e® and more to put on a play. - ‘ oud gollee® 7 ” __ ~o (L-R) Darcy Poley, Allison Melech, Daryl Ducharme, Tracy Swaile, ; : and Laurie Hurtubise in Douglas College's Alice in Wonderland stage, and a two-level set. Normally I don’t like this type of offering, and the multi-level staging turned me off at first. This night, however, I was sold on the concept. It worked here. The show is about a writer by the name of Stine. (Played by Daniel James Hutzler.) He is in the midst of writing a movie, and lives vicari- ously through his lead charac- ter, Stone (Tom Deasey). The movie-within-a-play isn’t highly original, but it worked. And it fea! tured the best damned oxygen-tent bound-guy I'd ever seen. Written by Larry Gelbart, Cy Coleman, and David Zippel, Cit of Angels won the 1992 Best Mu; sical Tony Award. Luckily, the Malaspina cast was up to the task My first fear going in was with re! gards to vocal prowess. Given any group of actors, especially in their twenties, what percentage can ac- tually sing worth a hill of beans? And Lord knows you’ ve gotta better than that to put on a g musical. That fear was allayed early. The Malaspina Theatre De partment knows when to draw th line between theatre class an show-time. When they don’t hav the legs to fill a particular part, they go outside the program. No one o} their class lists quite fit the bill fo: Buddy, the balding son of a bitch that runs the movie studio. So, they brought in David Marr, ¢ Vancouver actor recently seen ir The Relapse. (Don’t hold tha against him. Here he was great.) Not to say that the students here weren’t up to standard. Th vocals were very strong all around with very few exceptions. Hutzle gave a sterling performance, twic: injecting Captain Kirk-like ges tures for comic measure. His “a cals were exceptional throughou the show. Another standout wa Tamara Ryan in a dual turn a Stine’s wife and Stone’s ex-girl friend. Her vocals were nothin short of scintillating. For me,-one of the best md ments came in the form of Deasey’ acrobatic escape routine. At on point, he was suspended by hi ankles centre stage, while a bom ticks menacingly. The choreogr phy of the scene relies heavily on perfectly timed escape. And whil he could probably by now do it i his sleep, the effect was quite im pressive.