NESA Seniors Deliver

No matter whether you're directing on Broadway or your Sunday School nativity play, the single most important decision a director will make is who to cast. North East School of the Arts (NESA) senior, Rebecca Andrews, in her first directing project, has already proved a deft hand.
Yesterday, Friday, September 5th, the Lee Black Box Theater was filled to capacity. If you want to see the show tonight, I’d recommend coming early. They chose to keep the audience on ground level and elevate the set, a shop for perfume and other trinkets.
It was obvious from the beginning that this space was too small, for these larger than life characters. Hugo (Zach Williams) a French leaning restaurant host, with a cartoonish mustache, and a knack for the pretentious, opened, in character, chiding the audience for having not yet turned off their cell phones.
The energy was palpable from the first moment of the show. Ladislav (Jared Howelton) and Arpad (Ernest Campos) burst through the audience singing “Good Morning, Good Day,” which introduced us to the cast of characters that run the shop, Ladislav and Arpad, Ilona (Paige Marmel) a buxom blonde that looks for love in all the wrong places, Steven (Austin Nimnicht) one of those places, Marcezek (Gabriel Bernal) the shop owner, and Georg Nowack (Daniel Kittrell) the manager. The action begins when Amelia (Emily Prentice) arrives at the shop looking for a job, and despite Georg’s insistence that they aren’t hiring sells a useless musical cigarette box earning praise and a job from Meraczek, and a conflict with Georg. Kittrell (Amelia) and Prentice (Georg) manage to inject their conflict with an anxious energy that reveals it as little more than flirting, though their characters don't realize it yet. We soon learn both Georg and Amelia have pen pals in the “lonely heart club” who they have fallen in love with, but never met. I think you can see where we’re going from here.
The music for the show was entirely piano played by NESA sophomore Charlie Choi. Though the larger than life musical numbers seemed to beg for a larger orchestra, Choi did excellent work. The vocal performances were universally good, headlined by Bernal (Maraczek) and Prentice (Amelia) who’s voices alone are worth seeing the show for.
A playful light design, highlighted by a couple of bold blues and yellows, kept the tone playful. All the facial hair was painted on with cartoonish colors, and the laugh of the night may have come when lady’s man Steven ripped off his jacket to reveal a silk red shirt and drawn on chest hairs. The rest of the costume design seemed spot on, particularly Ladislav’s vest and straw hat, which told stories about him before he even opened his mouth.
This play would have been nothing, however, without the acting. As the leads, Kittrell and Prentice played subtle, well rounded characters, revealing two stars of the program. Admittedly, in their first couple of scenes, Kittrell had a difficult time keeping up with Prentices’ stage presence but by the end of the first act had found his sea legs. The real dynamite of the show, though, was in the character actors. Paige Marmel, Ilona, creates a sincere air head, think Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors, who despite little stage time, makes the audience totally invested in her relationship woes. And in the pitch perfect performance that stole the show, Jared Howelton, Georg’s best friend Ladislav, makes bold character choices and then has the strength to carry them out without straying. Howelton also has the uncanny ability to create instant chemistry with anyone on the stage, his give and take seems appropriate for a much more mature actor, Howelton is only a sophomore.
Though the show certainly wasn’t without its faults, one too many solos involved a character simply sitting a singing away, director Rebecca Andrews has revealed a talent for creating a whimsical ensemble piece. If you see it tonight I’m sure you’ll be as charmed as I was.
Happy Theatre Mask
~Christopher Cunningham

The show will run again tonight, Saturday, September 6, 2008. Curtain 7:30, in Lee Black Box Room 501, at Lee High School 14000 Jackson-Keller Road, San Antonio, TX