Every day of my last 13 months at Rensselaer, I walked by the RPI Playhouse hoping to someday watch one of its many theatrical productions, but without ever actually getting the opportunity to. Finally, after so many days, I had the chance to watch An Evening of Performance. I walked into the playhouse interested, but with very low expectations. I mean, we attend a technology and sciences school—how great can the show actually be?
As I took my seat, second row from the front, the lights dimmed, the curtain opened, and Act I of the show began.
Right away a scrawny man stumbled through a door while the man behind him walked through with his chest puffed and a gun pointed at the first man’s back. We were then introduced to the characters and the reason for the life-threatening situation. The audience learned that the man with the gun is Brian, a successful Welsh novelist played by Jon Janssen ’07, who caught his manager, Billy (Chris Brousseau ’09), stealing all of his life savings.
In the same suite, the audience watched as a concerned daughter (Kristie Norris ’08) persuaded her scatterbrained yet over-enthusiastic mother (Briavel Schultz ’10) to go out on her first date after her father’s death. Mrs. Semple, to her daughter’s delight, finally agrees to go out on their last night in London. Upon her return at 2 am, Lauren presses her mom for details of the night. A ridiculous evening out with an affluent man left both the actresses and audience in an outrage of laughter and brought London Suite, directed by Alex Nelson ’08 and Chris Guyon ’10, to a humorous close.
Soon after began my personal favorite of the three acts, Mirror, Mirror, directed by Chris Diorio ’11. A satirical yet hilarious spinoff of Sleeping Beauty, the comedy dealt with physical attraction versus true love. For Sleeping Beauty (Liz Maus ’09) and the Step-Mother (Jes Mascaro ’08), “Beauty only lays skin deep.” Physical beauty is the only thing in the world that matters to the both of them. The quirky narrator (Michael Stark ’09), the cynical mirror (Michael Pratt ’09), ridiculously amusing princes (Taylor Faulstich ’08 and David Melecio-Vazquez ’11), and the ditsy step-daughter (Ashley Veatch ’09) made the retelling of this classic fairytale a must-watch.
Shortly after intermission began the lengthy but thought-provoking play, Talk Radio directed by David Love ’09. Centered around “Night Talk” with host Barry Champlain (Eric Garside), the play dealt with many political and social issues that affect everyone. The audience was in for a rollercoaster of events as Champlain pushed the limits of his talk show so it could go national. Listening to myriads of callers, Champlain became aggravated with the people’s lack of intelligent conversation. The final act of the night came to an extremely emotional close as Champlain expressed his distress and outrage at the nation’s foolishness.
I came with no expectations and left completely astonished. With probably very little money to spend on costumes and set, the RPI Players put together a fantastic production. The acting was, for the most part, top notch. There were a few places where actors seemed out of character or found themselves tongue-tied and forgot their lines, but they were all able to pull themselves back together and deliver. Some of the actors that fairly impressed me were Stark (narrator), Pratt (mirror), Andrew Kayserian ’09 (Prince Charming) from Mirror Mirror, and Garside (Champlain) and Nick Sosin ’11 (Kent) from Talk Radio. These actors effectively left their mark during my first visit to the Playhouse. My Saturday evening with the RPI Players was definitely a delightful little surprise.
