NDspellingbee

__Pros__ The audience is well incorporated in the play- I liked the fact that the audience played a large part in how the play was performed. One thing that I found especially entertaining was the fact that a few people were actually brought onto the stage to perform small roles. Although they looked nervous at first, they seemed to really enjoy themselves. Also, there were a few times when the actors exited the stage and entered the seats while they either sung or performed. This made me feel closer to the actors than any of the plays I have seen previously The facial expressions of the actors- I was especially impressed with how the actors conveyed their feelings using facial expressions. When someone didn’t know how to spell their word, you could tell by the way they looked into the audience. When one of the young ladies felt troubled by her fathers’ expectations, it was easy to discern because of the picture that she painted with her face. The Props- I liked the props that were used, especially the sign that came down from the rafters that lit up. I also like the way in which the set designer used the props for multiple things. The back of the stadium seating was painted to look like a Muslim mosque, and the back of the trophy case was used as a type of holy picture. Although there wasn’t much room on stage, the set designer did a good job designing things so that they had multiple uses. The Music- This is the second musical that I have been to, and I’m starting to think that they are my favorite type of play. The music kept me interested because it splashed in nicely with the actor’s normal diction on stage. I enjoyed the humor that was included in most of the songs. The character of black Jesus- This actor was by far my favorite actor. He was funniest as black Jesus, but his part as the bumble bee was also very funny. I was impressed with the actor’s ability to handle so many parts. __Cons__ The sexuality of the play- Almost all of the humor that stood out to me was sexual. Especially disturbing was the baseball players “Refection Song”. As I entered the play room I noticed many small children, and I am sure that their parents weren’t happy with the sexual nature of the play. The theme of the play- In my opinion, the theme of the play seems to be that one should be happy with mediocrity. I find this theme to be erroneous. In my family, I have always been taught to strive to be the best. The play presents the spelling bee as being too much pressure for the contestants, but I believe that pressure is what brings out people’s best effort. The microphones on the actor’s heads- For almost half of the play I wondered to myself what were these things hanging out of the character’s hair. I first thought that the microphones were part of the costumes, but then I realized that they were being used to amplify the actors’ voices. They could have done a better job concealing the microphones The magic foot- This part of the play wasn’t funny at all, and very unrealistic. I liked the conflict that it created among the characters, but I wish it would have surrounded something of more substance. I didn’t thing that the magic foot fit into the play, which was very realistic except for this portion. The length of the play- This was a very long play, especially considering the fact that all the action took place in the high school gymnasium. Each character spelled upwards of ten words, and I felt that this was a little over kill. If the play must be of such great length, a break in the middle to catch some air would have been nice.