This is probably as liberal as I will get in my articles but I was required by my Drama class to attend this production and it was, in fact, enjoyable and drew me in. I hope this motivates you to come see our great performing arts center and maybe one of our shows!
Congratulations to the entire cast of Guys and Dolls, IT WAS AMAZING!
From the opening number, I was amazed at the sheer acting. This was not your average everyday high school or community production. The props were also, excellently planned. Beginning with the opening scene, you see all the actors on stage in their "natural roles" by saying this I mean that the actors are not lined up on the stage but rather on the stage where you can see them acting as who they are.
The drunkard played by Cheyenne Oliver, is asleep by the street corner, the street worker is in the sewer, the newsstand salesman is in the newsstand, and the Sav-A-Soul mission is parading around the streets.
Visually I was both surprised and impressed that a small drama cast could pull off such a good production. My college major being history, I really enjoyed the historical elements braided into this performance.
The historic aspects that this production captured were very exciting to see acted out from the accents like that of Big Juleto the on-stage smoking in several scenes.
Adelaide's Lament in the scene prior to intermission is an "I want" song in my opinion. Adelaide started off singing by reading a psychology pamphlet that was discussing the possibilities for her sickness. In this number, Adelaide is singing about how she will get sicker if she does not get married and how the conditions will get much worse.
In this song, Adelaide is "wanting to get married" without it she is a sick, troubled mess. In her 14 years of being engaged, she has had hopes and dreams fail because she is not married. In this song, she vents about her issues and how she just wants to be married!
The overall design of the scenery helped to portray a great amount of the mood and feelings of this production. Beginning from the ground up so to speak, the stage floor was painted to look like an actual New York city street, complete with an actual "sewer and sewer cover".
The costumes were also a great addition to this production. From Adelaide's Hot Box scene singing "Bushel and A Peck" the Hot Box girls dressed as farm animals to portray an overall "barnyard theme" of the song. Lighting helped to change the mood of several of the scenes in this production. From the opening scene to the closing scene the cyclorama or CYC has changed lighting many times. It goes from representing night or day to the "light flickering" of the Havana Cantina the lights help tell the audience of a coming scene change.
Lastly, sound added to this play in awesome ways. The most memorable moment was a sound effect of an airplane engine during the flight from New York to Havana and then the return. Overall sound help to tell the audience of a location change.
Overall, this play drew me in more than I expected. Usually, I am an introvert and do not enjoy getting out to see things I am not familiar with. By seeing this production, I believe I will continue to attend productions at JSU as well as elsewhere. The historic elements as previously mentioned were, stunning. The stage cigarettes that smoked and glowed grabbed my attention in many scenes. The effort that went into the props and scenery was amazing and I cannot wait to attend more JSU Drama productions.
