By CATHERINE ELLERTON
Moapa Valley Progress
As I opened the door to the MVHS classroom I was greeted with mayhem, laughter and gasps! Good. I had found the correct room. The Combat Workshop as taught by the actors of the Shakespeare touring company was well under way.
The MV Performing Arts Council’s fifth offering of their 2016-2017 season was Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” as performed by the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s traveling troupe on Monday evening, Jan. 30 at the Ron Dalley Theatre.
Before they began to set up the stage and lay out the costumes, these professional actors conducted an Outreach Program at the Moapa Valley High School. They presented three workshops for the Theatre Department students – Theatre Combat, Text and Improvisation.
The Theatre Combat Workshop presented the steps taken by the actors to deliver blows, choke holds, sword fights and proper falling techniques so the scene looks real, yet the actors are not hurt. The actors advised that before the play begins they, once again, discuss and rehearse with each other all such scenes so everyone is on the ‘same page.’
The workshops on Text and Improvisation provide exercises to the young actors in delivery of the lines both verbally and physically; reacting to each other and a situation to get the most out of a scene. The evening’s performance was made even more energetic and enjoyable as the student could more clearly visualize what was happening on the stage.
This particular Monday evening’s performance was highlighted by a very stark stage. With a backdrop, three trees and two rocks made of cloth inscribed with the Bard of Avon’s ingenious words – that the program advised was to inspire a text-driven performance.
The costumes were also very simple, many made from the “Tyvek” type of material that could be written on. Many of the actors proved this as they wandered out through the audience before the curtain went up and invited audience members to write upon the cloth of their costumes.
Then the story began of love, love lost, love won, wood fairies and fairy dust. The audience was caught up in this production as the actors kept wandering through the auditorium and chose several young thespians to come on stage and be the props – either holding a lantern or being the wall with the famous “chink” in it through which the actors spoke.
The characters began to wander through the woods as the fairies would move the trees to indicate confusion and a different area of the woods when – oops – one of the trees three top branches fell to the ground! Without missing a beat, the actor closest to the tree took those branches off stage. As the other actors came on stage and moved about, it was interesting to see the reaction to the missing branches and the adaption of the actor to that ‘situation.’
And yet, on the story continued, with the fairies and foibles of the humans keeping the story evolving. And when in the scenes of conflict, the sword was raised – and fell apart – the actors kept the emotion flowing and, once again, made the best of the ‘situation’ winning over the audience who at the end gave a rousing standing ovation to these actors.
During the question phase at the end, it was found that the cast and crew were from all over the country from Salt Lake City to New York to Las Vegas. They were on a four month tour of 70 performances in Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming and Idaho. They indicated the importance of staying in character, the power of improvisation and sometimes remembering that a line and a word could help trigger a direction change in a fast moving production – line ends in well – go right.
These programs are made possible through the generous support of benefactors and are sponsored in part by Individual Partners for the Arts which include Nev. Arts Council, America First Credit Union, Grant and Laurel Bushman, MV Telephone Co., Dr. Lance Robertson and the MV Chamber of Commerce.
