When entering the theater to see this semester’s mainstage performance of "Hecuba," the house managers insisted that the audience turn off their phones. Instead of a general announcement before the lights dim, this method seemed aggressive. But appropriate, because without it, maybe 15 minutes into the show, I definitely would have texted my friend behind me “wtf…”
"Hecuba" is undeniably director Ian Delton’s show. Performance is based on process, and Mr. Delton led the cast and crew on a whirlwind of a process. According to peers involved with the performance, the cast blocked a completely different play before directly working with "Hecuba," which apparently helped the cast prepare for the piece they actually set to work on. Even though the mainstage is given months of rehearsal, the "Hecuba" team only worked on "Hecuba" for the final few weeks of the allotted time. The lack of time spent on the play that the paying audience saw was apparent. The show was blocked more like an 11th grade modern dance performance than a show that was produced by one of the nation’s top theater colleges. The scattered and exaggerated staging made dialogue meaningless, and therefore the plot was indeterminate. Some moments were choreographed to a tee, and others were probably ones that Mr. Delton said, “We’ll get back to later,” and then never did.
Delton: Hey, Mira, why don’t you sing Sinatra’s “Fly me to the Moon” in the show’s final beat?
Mira: Why?
Delton: “Don’t worry, it’ll sound great!”
And she performed well! And so did Hecuba’s entire cast. Lulu Fairclough-Stewart will get used to performing on the mainstage, thanks to her terrific breakout performance. Newcomer A’ntonia Benson also deserves praise for her mastery of tone for her multiple narrative lines. Cross-dressing Ramsey Daniels confidently returns to the stage in multiple scene-stealing performances. The design team of Garett Wilson, Jared Klein, and their staff pull off stunning and memorable visual moments throughout the performance. Disappointingly, Woodrow Procter, previously Sweeney Todd in "Sweeny Todd" and Macbeth in "Macbeth" (do you notice a trend?) is relegated to inexplicably tying a rope around his neck and pulling himself around the stage. He, and Skidmore, deserves better.
This was Mr. Delton’s piece, which made little effort to showcase the varied and intricate talents of the Skidmore theater community. At a college, this approach seems inappropriate. Yes, a successful actor must learn to work with different directing techniques. But “pay ]$60,000 to be in a director’s pet project” surely isn’t a selling point.
Hecuba is the last seminar project I will see here as a student. And after four years of seeing multiple shows, the student-produced work has almost always been more impressive than those produced by “theater professionals.” So after paying a fortune for eight semesters for the privilege of attending Skidmore and participating in the theater department, I believe I have the right to say to the Department: Thank you, Will Bond and Carolyn Anderson, for helping me understand acting, directing, and so much more. Thank you for allowing me the space to produce a short play I wrote. But for the sake of future and current students, please consciously produce work that is designed to productively challenge and improve performers. Ask yourself, what do our students need, not just what the JKB should have. Let the students own the stage,
