I have been rather busy these past few days; therefore, this entry will be chaotic and will randomly jump from topic to topic. Consider yourself warned. Last Friday, I went to see The Fantasticks in the Royal Theater. I thought that the show was highly enjoyable, despite what I read in Chris Boltinghouse’s review “Fantasticks Aims in Wrong Direction” in The Aquinas. Chris ripped the direction to tiny pieces and tore a new one for director Michael O’Steen, who also happens to be my Stage Combat professor. Here’s one excerpt:
The University of Scranton Players’ production, directed by Michael O’Steen, combines a solid cast with amateurishly poor direction to generate a play bursting with misguided energy.
And an even more brutal assault:
The direction, however, severely detracts from the notable performance of the actors. O’Steen aims for mediocrity. Presenting the play in its formularized inception, with its trademark overacting and minimal set design, he avoids innovation or creativity and instead seeks security atop the laurels of convention.
Ouch. Some less critical points he made were fair, but it seems difficult to trust some of Boltinghouse’s judgements considering that he has no formal theatrical training to the best of my knowledge. In addition to that, his piece last year about how New York State was exploiting the 9-11 tragedy to bully other states was littered with contradictions and arguments that were laughable at best.
After the show, I hiked up to C. Ryan’s cast party and was one of the first few people there. I had a good time hanging out with quite a few people that I do not get to talk to very often. I’ve only seen Pat Mulhern a few times so far this semester so we talked it up a bit; he also tried unconvincingly to prove that he’s not gay by grunting and saying things like “football” and “Eagles.” I also hung out with Mary Alice for a while complaining about the trials and tribulations of the English Major. Later we provided commentary for some girl who insisted on dancing—gyrating—despite the fact that no one else was busting his or her moves on the dance floor. I saw too many other people to list, but it was definitely a good time.
Well, I’m tired and I have a long day tomorrow, so I’ll finish up some other stuff I wanted to talk about tomorrow. I’ll also upload a picture of my Introduction to Consumer Technology cheat sheet—allowed by the professor—which features six weeks of notes packed onto a half-sheet of loose-leaf. I know it’ll be hard, but try to curb your enthusiasm.