My Favorite Things of 2014 – Theatre

Broadway brought a superstar season , filled with amazing shows and great performances. Musicals brought the best of Hollywood to the stage, from mobsters to boxers. From revivals to new works, these shows broke boundaries of the typical musical. Hedwig was brought to Broadway for the first time. Tupac brought hip hop, an unlikely genre, to Broadway. We also watched the music of the 1920’s jazz scene and Carole King brought to life. Here are my favorite musicals of 2014.

Best Musical     

1. Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
2. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
3. After Midnight
4. Holler If Ya Hear Me
5. Bullets Over Broadway
6. Les Miserables
7. Rocky the Musical
8. The Bridges of Madison County
9. If/Then
10. On the Town

2014 also brought amazing plays to Broadway. Curious Incident uses fantastic special effects to tell us the story of a 15-year-old boy with Asperger syndrome. Revivals of famous shows like Of Mice & Men, A Raisin in the Sun, and The Elephant Man were given new life with Hollywood talent and brand new productions. These plays told the stories of drag performers, a modern gay couple,  and young adults living in the city. These are the best plays of 2014.

Best Play                                             

1. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
2. Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill
3. Casa Valentina
4. Of Mice & Men
5. Mothers & Sons
6. This Is Our Youth
7. A Raisin in the Sun
8. The Elephant Man
9. It’s Only a Play
10. You Can’t Take it With You

These actors and actresses are a mix of Hollywood greats and Broadway favorites that gave phenomenal performances in last years plays and musicals. President Lyndon B. Johnson, musicians Billie Holiday and Carole King, famous film icon Rocky Balboa were portrayed to perfection. We saw a transgender rocker, a kind-hearted hired hand, a disfigured man, a reformed prisoner, and a comedic genie. Women brought strong characters and performances that dominated the stage and the Tony Awards. From veterans Kelli O’Hara and Idina Menzel, to newcomers Lena Hall and Margo Seibert. These are the 20 best actors and actresses on Broadway in 2014

Best Actor

1. Jarrod Spector (Beautiful)
2. Neil Patrick Harris (Hedwig)
3. Ramin Karimloo (Les Miserables)
4. Nick Cordero (Bullets)
5. Andy Karl (Rocky)
6. Steven Pasquale (Bridges)
7. Bryan Cranston (All The Way)
8. Chris O’Dowd (Mice & Men)
9. Bradley Cooper (Elephant Man)
10. James Monroe Iglehart (Aladdin)

Best Actress

1. Audra McDonald (Lady Day)
2. Jessie Mueller (Beautiful)
3. Lena Hall (Hedwig)
4. Helen Yorke (Bullets)
5. Keala Settle (Les Miserables)
6. Margo Seibert (Rocky)
7. Kelli O’Hara (Bridges)
8. Idina Menzel (If/Then)
9. Tyne Daly (Mothers & Sons)
10. Sophie Okonedo (Raisin)

               

Costume Contest – Majoring in Halloween

Last weekend was my favorite holiday of the year, Halloween. Now some might think it’s too late to make a post about Halloween, but I say why not! I wanted to make a post about some of my favorite Halloween costumes this year. Being surrounded by theater students, my friends pretty much major in the dark arts, so I found it hard to pick my favorite costumes, but alas, here they are:

Jack Skellington and Sally – Levi Parks and Sammi Shelton

Levi has amazing make up skills and he recreated a character from one of my favorite movies. From the suit to the miniature Zero, I love his take on the Pumpkin King. Sammi also did an amazing Sally-inspired dress. Two design tech majors = amazing couple costumes.

The Flintstones – Jessica Conrad (Pebbles), Eaton York (Fred), Mikaela Salcedo (Wilma), Conor Korbisch (Bamm-Bamm)

The musical theater majors always turn it out, but I love the costumes these four did for the Flintstones. The patterns are basically identically, they all look amazing. They really are the modern actor family.

The Mario Brothers – Shea Pender (Luigi), Reagan Pender (Mario), Laura Girard (Peach)

  

When coming up with a Halloween costume, it makes it easier when you have a brother. The Pender’s decided to join forces and do the famous Mario Brothers from the Nintendo games, with Laura Girard as Princess Peach. This shows that when doing Halloween, it’s best to keep it in the family.

The Fairly Oddparents – Isaac Beauchamp (Wanda), David Cole (Timmy), Emily Kipp (Cosmo)

Cartoons seem to be a recurring theme this year, but that doesn’t mean the costumes are any less good. Actor/director duo Isaac and Emily decided to gender swap Cosmo and Wanda from the popular Nickelodeon cartoon. Senior actor David Cole joined them as Timmy Turner.

Sugar Skull – Anthony Sullivan

Just because you graduated, doesn’t mean you don’t get a shout-out on my blog! My friend Anthony, who just graduated two years ago as a Musical Theater major, did this make-up for a classic sugar skull. I love how the picture makes the blue pop in his recreation of this Mexican tradition.

Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus – Ashley Flowers

My best friend can LITERALLY make anything, so I’m not surprised she put together this amazing Ms. Frizzle costume. From her pet lizard Liz to the miniature school bus, this costume is everything! There is a reason why we treat her hair as its own separate entity, it was meant for this role.

Beetlejuice, Undead Fairly Oddparents, Skulls – Taylor East

Though there have been many amazing costumes, I have crowned Taylor the QUEEN of Halloween this year. Taylor East is a senior directing major and her creativity knows no bounds. What I love about these costumes is the pictures and make up are so professional looking; I was blown away when I saw these on Instagram last weekend. The pink hair doesn’t hurt either. From her twist on the Fairly Oddparents to the two face skulls, even her female inspired Beetlejuice, she had the best costumes this year by far.

If you would like to check out my Halloween and costumes, click the link below to view my Steller story. Steller is an app where you can create your own online “scrapbook” with text, video, and pictures! Check it out!

https://steller.co/stories/378921188576987105?sdlu=steller%253A%252F%252Fopen-story%253Fid%253D378921188576987105

Looking at the subtext behind subText

We live in a world where technology is right at our fingertips. It makes since that plays would start emerging about our dependence of these devices. My friend Tyler Dwiggins wrote a play that started as a one-act, which soon became the play subText I got to see last weekend. Its one thing to graduate from college, but to have your play included in their season is another. After seeing subText, I knew exactly why this story was being told.

subText is a play about high school, about dating in a time where a relationship is only a text or a tweet away. For these high school students, popularity meant the perfect selfie and the most likes on Instagram. While subText uses comedy to guide us through trials and tribulations of teenage life, we laugh out of our familiarity with these characters. I remember texting under the desk in high school and my biggest accomplishment of my first year was getting a Facebook. This play takes our obsession with technology and pop culture and puts it right in front of us, literally! The actors interacted with audience members like we were classmates and friends in the lunchroom. We were brought back into the world of high school, for a moment I thought I was late for fifth period.

At the center of these scenes of bad dates and prom dresses, there was the character of the hopeless romantic Cameron. Through texting and selfies, he was out to impress his lab partner. While his friend Dani brings up the important questions, like if his lab partner is actually interested in men, Cameron is convinced he has found his true love. The rest of his peers echo this importance of technological romance throughout the rest of the show.  In the last scene Cameron is visiting his grandmother and they start a conversation about the letters she has from her husband. She tells Cameron that before technology, they wrote letters back and forth to each other. Though Cameron thinks that would be difficult, she explains that they did it because they had to, because they love each other.

While there is plenty of humor within subText,  the actually “subtext” doesn’t shy away from  commenting on our communication in the 21^st century. We spend so much time talking to each other behind a screen, that we have forgotten about the basis that communication started on. We forget about face to face conversation and the feeling we get from actual human interaction. While there is nothing wrong with technology, subText reminds us that sometimes we need to build up the courage to tell someone how we feel beyond 140 characters.