Talented freshmen take stage - State of the Arts

I always thought it would be fun to be an actor-type. I know a few personally and they tend to be pretty zany people. Read the cast bios in a Barnstormers' program sometime; there's no denying that the actors and production staff got more than their fair share of creativity.

The Freshmen One Acts this weekend proved that Hopkins' new bunch of "actor-types" have not only creativity, but also quite a bit of talent.

An annual JHU Barnstormers' production, the Freshmen One Acts feature -- surprise! -- Hopkins freshmen in one act plays. The theme of the evening was "Comedy Tonight!" which became eminently clear from the minute junior co-producers Neil Bardhan and Brad Fuller presented their own version of the no cell phones/no smoking pitch.

On stage at the Arellano Theater, 17 freshmen made their college acting debuts in a series of five short, and often hilarious, comedies.

The show actually opened on its weakest note with Captive Audience, by David Ives. Sophomore Elissa Weissman directed this goofy comedy about a television with a mind of its own. I think this one-act's weakness came primarily from the choice of play. The script was terrible, leaving very little for the actors to work with beyond their own unabashed willingness to act strangely.

Rob (Matt Brinker) and Laura (Erin Simpson) are an average couple with a not-so-average television. On screen, actors Paul Furlong and Alexis Jani switch manically between programs, sometimes the news, sometimes commercials, sometimes horror and sometimes MTV-style booty shakin'. Things get strange when Laura realizes that the programs are automatically adjusting to ensure that she'll want to "stay tuned."

Brinker and Simpson delivered rather flat performances, but I blame that largely on the script. Furlong and Jani were considerably more entertaining as the TV duo, though they gave me the impression of improv sketch comedy more than polished stage performance. I think that, given a better script, Furlong especially could be quite talented.

Mercifully, the first play was short and soon segued into the evening's second production, Hidden In This Picture. If I had any doubts then about wanting to stay past intermission, they were quickly abandoned no more than two minutes into the play. A great script, stellar directing and impressive acting came together to make an extremely entertaining show.

Written by Aaron Sorkin of West Wing fame, Hidden In This Picture features some of the same clever wit and intellectual banter you can catch on Wednesday nights on NBC. Robert (Ted Esborn) is a director filming the final shot for his first movie, written by his friend Julie (Leigh Anne Lieberman). His producer, Amy (Emily Ethridge), hounds him about being over-budget and behind schedule; this shoot will have to work perfectly on the first try. Robert assures her everything is under control, and so, of course, it isn't.

I attribute a lot of the success of this play to sophomore directors Robin Ganek and Leah Miller. You could see the fruits of their labor in the non-verbal acting; while nearly all the actors delivered their lines well, these four performers also expressed themselves well via body language and facial expressions. It was obvious that they had been thoroughly rehearsed down to the smallest detail. Esborn and Lieberman delivered flawless performances; Esborn in particular disappeared into his character. Though he had a smaller role as a slow filming assistant, Noah Stanzione made the most of every second he had on stage and was unquestionably the funniest of the four actors.

After a brief intermission, Matt Bassett, Jess Brandt and Ken Levin took the stage for Variations on the Death of Trotsky, by David Ives. I'm pleased to report that Variations was considerably better than Captive Audience, despite retaining Ives' quirky sensibilities.

Directed by sophomores Kim Andrews and Lauren Saks, this play brings everybody's favorite Russian to life, and then kills him over and over again. It opens with Trotsky (Bassett) sitting at his desk with a mountain climber's ax smashed (not buried) into his head. His wife (Brandt) has discovered a futuristic encyclopedia that says he will die today from the ax wound he sustained the day before. The culprit? Not Franck Johnson (Trotsky's real killer) but rather his Spanish Communist gardener, Ramon (Levin). Ives takes the audience through several potential last moments of Trotsky's life.

Kudos to Bassett for retaining his accent for most of the show; his Trotsky was fun and quick-witted, especially for a guy with an ax in his skull.

Brandt might have been a little more animated, though I suppose her general apathy was supposed to be part of the humor. Levin, who purports to be a newcomer to acting, did a decent job with a small role.

The last two plays were both by Christopher Durang, and they both had an extremely annoying character. Because the characters bothered me so much, I had a hard time enjoying these plays despite the talented actors and interesting plot lines.

First up was a short piece for two actors, Funeral Parlor, directed by sophomores Katia MacNeill and Mike Sheehan. Here the annoying character was Marcus (Tim Harbage), a well-intentioned pest paying his condolences to the newly widowed Susan (Jenna Parkinson). Marcus shows up in a Hawaiian shirt, alternately cracking jokes and crying, much to the chagrin of poor Susan. By the end, though, Marcus has the emotionally-guarded woman keening for her lost love.

Harbage, like Esborn, is an extremely expressive actor, which served him well as the farcical Marcus. I'd like to see him in a more serious role in the future, where he could better hone and temper that expressiveness. Parkinson seemed a little uncomfortable on the stage, but for the most part, her acting was good.

Finishing up the evening was the second play by Durang, For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls, directed by senior Brandom Nielsen. The star of the show, and indeed of the evening, was Lee McClure, who played Lawrence, a Forrest Gump type, complete with the thick southern accent. His accent was consistent, as were his limp and perpetual spasms, but it was his eyes that really blew me away. They could speak volumes without him having to say a single word.

Sweet Lawrence has become a nuisance to his rather self-involved mother, the southern belle Amanda (Angela Chen), and his brother, Tom (Alex Smalig), who is charged with finding Lawrence a mate to get him off of his mother's hands. Tom brings home a girl from the factory, Ginny (Kateri Chambers), who ends up being a less-than-perfect choice.

Ginny is the annoying character in this play; she is going deaf from the noise in the factory, so she screams everything she says. I mean SCREAMS. Arellano is a relatively small theater, and my ears hurt from the noise. It's a wonder that Chambers had a voice after opening night! Smalig and Chen seemed a little weak and were difficult to understand (too quiet or too fast), but it didn't matter since McClure stole the show.