Thứ Tư, 16 tháng 11, 2011

Bài báo thứ hai của Su ở Pomfret - Ponterfract Article No.2


                                             
“RUMORS” – A GREAT SUCCESS

As always, each fall the Pomfret’s “Varsity theater” team introduces a new production to the Pomfret Community. Under the guidance of Mr. Lamb, the theater team has worked diligently every day in order to perform the comedy: “Rumors” by Neil Simon. 

In the end, their hard work and effort did not prove to be fruitless at all. The play “Rumors” created a buzz in the school a few days before the show date and it has become a phenomenon just after the first performance. With an amazing number of audiences that did not decrease even until the third performance, the play proved to be satisfactory even to the pickiest spectator.

As an audience who saw the play twice, I am honored to do the review of the play.

The setting of the play “Rumors” is an anniversary party of a couple in a suburb of New York City around the 1980s. The plays start with the first guests, Chris and Ken (by Emma Perlwitz and Bill Wong) arriving at the host’s house only to find the husband shot through his earlobe and the hostess missing. They started to panic and had to try their best to keep each other stay calm. In the midst of anxiety, other guests arrived, couple by couple. 

First is Claire (Anna Shoemaker) and Lenny (Jake Lans), who just had a car accident. Although being very terrified, Chris and Ken had to pull themselves together, trying to hide the terrible incident from the newly arrived guest. However, their awkward actions and nervousness had forced Chris and Ken to reveal the truth. 

Together, the four-people group tried their best to keep the truth from other guest: the old couple Ernie and Cookie (by Nick Fulchino and Maddy Hutchins) and the young Glenn (Declan Brennan) and Cassie (Zeynep Davudoglu). The comedy heightens as everyone has a problem: Christ consistently fought her want for cigarettes, Ken accidentally had hearing problems because of the gun’s sound, Cookie has a severe back problem and Ernie burned his hand while cooking. 

Finally, Cassie has an irresistible affection for crystal and Glenn had a bleeding nose in the end. Everything seemed to go wrong and the house became chaotic in a funny way. At the end of the play, the audience had a great laugh when the story that Lenny seemed to make up at the instant moment to cover the truth from the polices (Ben Rathjen and Matt Ouellet) turned out to be exactly what happened.

The play absolutely brought a new fresh air of humor that lightened up Pomfret School after weeks of rigorous academic and athletic activities. However, almost every conversation at Pomfret the next few days were about the comic and dramatic talent of the casts. 

The theater team had managed to accomplish a marvelous play regarding their relatively small group of only eleven actors. They have overcome stage fright (which is the nightmare of many people), while remembering a lot of lines. Their collaboration was really good, with precise timing of who will do and say what at which point. 

To top it off, all actors did a fantastic job on expressing emotions, making the audience feel indulged in the play, like they are watching a real life situation and not a play. Emma – after making all spectators at the fall Broadway night stood up to congratulate her on her excellent performance – continued to amaze everyone by her wonderful acting skill, expressing emotions to the point that is so lively that words cannot convey. Jake Lans will always be remembered for his great performance throughout the show, especially his astounding monologue at the end. Anna proved that she is not only successful  in singing performances, but also in the theatre . In addition, the play would not be as successful as it was without senior Ben. Nick, Maddy, Zeynep and Matt also showed their talent in acting in their first year at Pomfret. However, we should not forget the stage managers, Lankoo Zhang and Indiana Finley, who worked vigorously to set up the play and help the actors in practice sessions.

Even the “insiders” feel very good and proud of the play. Mr. Lamb, who has been the director of numerous plays, but particularly 18 plays at Pomfret, showed that he is pleased with the way the crew carried out the play: “I am very happy to see the students performed well with each other. As they get closer of a group, they learned how to listen to each other and that is what makes the play works well. Since I think that the most challenging aspect of the play is that it requires precise timing skill, the fact that they performed well showed that they succeeded in listening carefully to each other. Also, I love how they were able to connect the funny situations of adults with the minds of the young audience, bringing the audience lots of laughter.”  

Emma commented on the play: “I loved being a part of Rumors. The cast got along so well, we were constantly cracking up at rehearsals. We're all so glad that the community reacted to well to it and had as much fun seeing it as we had making it.”

As much as the “insiders” love the play, the audience seems to be very satisfied too. 

Mr Gibbs told me : “Rumors was fun, frantic, and fast-paced.  I particularly enjoyed the warped characters and the tension that mounted as they tried to keep the happenings at the house a secret.  Great comedic timing, terrific energy, and a cast of characters made it a great evening at the theater.”  

From the students point of view, I also received a lot of positive feedback. “I think the set was fantastic, and was a huge factor to the success of the play. It was very impressive that, in addition to putting together the play itself, the theater group was able to construct and paint such a thorough set. 

Overall, Rumors was a very good performance and I would have recommended it to anyone that asked my opinion,” said Isaac Amick ’13. Also, Nora Lee’14 told me her opinion : “I thought the play was very funny and interesting.  Even though it was kid of long, it was entertaining enough that I wasn't bored. I thought each person fit their character really well and made it believable.”

The fall play was a great success! We are all looking forward to this year’s musical!

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