Written by Alex Moncada
Photos by Lily B. Price
Each spring quarter the performing arts department puts on a production consisting of freshman and transfer students. This years freshman/transfer show was an adaptation of Jordan Harrison’s play “Kid-Simple: A Radio Play in the Flesh,” and was directed by Professor Joshua Moser. The production, which took place this past weekend, May 15 and 16 at the Mondanaro Theatre, offered a new take on teenage dramas and included elements of radio drama.
Moll, the protagonist — who was played by first-year performing arts major, Claire Price — is a genius teenage girl that can build anything that she proposes. While listening to the evening radio with her parents, she comes up with the idea to create a machine with the ability to listen to every imaginable sound. Moll soon falls in love with Garth, a charming rebel whose only intention is to steal Moll’s invention, the Third Ear.
“I found it on the sidewalk, maybe you could wear it on your neck?” said Garth, portrayed by Nicholas Erickson, first-year illustration major from Phoenix, Arizona, as he hands Moll a ring on a necklace chain.
When Moll finally realizes Garth’s deception, she takes her friend virgin friend Oliver — played by Juan Miguel Vidales, a first-year performing arts major from Villavicencio, Colombia — on a quest to retrieve her device from the hands of who she once thought to be her true love. Along the way they deal with drunk satyrs, mischievous fig trees and dark dwellers. Moll’s quest tests her wavy temperament more than once.
The plot is not what makes the play. It is an important aspect, of course, but more important is the way the actors portray it. Every character follows your typical stereotype — stuck-up parents, naïve virgin-boy, sassy bad guy to name a few — but their interactions had the audience captivated and laughing at the absurd one-liners.
“He can’t smell anything, he’s a bloody cello!” said the sinister Mr. Wachtel, played by Douglas Western, a first-year performing arts major from Dallas, Texas.
Another detail that captured the audience was the omniscient narrator played by Colby Magratten, first-year performing arts major from Providence, Rhode Island.
At first, she may seem your typical narrator doing her job of telling a story but as the play progressed, she became a different character; having a nervous breakdown about the direction she finds her life taking. Meanwhile, the other characters’ dramas began to unfold.
What made this production unique was the use of foley artists. The foley artists created the live sound effects in-sync with the projected descriptions. The actors and Foley artists achieved the difficult feat of staying in-sync throughout the performance as well, as some of the lines where sounds rather than words.
Plays are arduous work that require both compromise and a strong relationship between cast and crew. It was clear that these individuals put in the time and effort it took to make this play a success.
“We started off with a cold read and then had the actors work on ensemble building to help create chemistry between them and a strong connection,” said Sky Ray, a first-year performing arts major from Tampa, Florida. “We moved into blocking and staging the show and after they established their characters, it all became easier.”
Ray acted as an assistant director for the show. “I’m extremely proud of all the actors and all of the tech that worked on the show. It came together very well and I’m very excited for everyone to see it,” said Ray.
And that it did. Opening night was a success, with the cast and crew bringing the characters to life in front of the live audience.
