I can definitely can't say that I go out and attend many of the events and performances that go on around Salve Regina Campus, but this weekend I had to go and see "The Nerd," a play written by Larry Shue. The Stagefright Theatre Company performed this play three times over the weekend and I was lucky enough to get in to see it even once. Before I go over my general review of Stagefright's rendition of the play, I do wish to put in a disclaimer that I have never seen any other performances by the Stagefright Company and, as a result, I will not pull any comparisons from other plays they have done.
Pulling directly from the Director's Notes, "The Nerd centers on a young architect whose life is turned upside down when the women who saved his life in Iraq shows up at his birthday dinner. Packed with unique and quirky characters, all of us can find a piece of ourselves in this wacky tale." The director for the play, Jake Fernandes, did an amazing job at getting down to the very core of the play with this description. The most interesting part of this description is when Fernandes says that we can all find a piece of ourselves in the play.
Surprisingly enough, it didn't even take five minutes into the play for me to find that piece of myself. That piece comes from the character Axel Hammond, played by Dominick Torro. Without going into too much detail, Axel is a more sarcastic character who hides his kindness behind a tough outer appearance. His words are generally cold and he doesn't seem to care much about anything other than his own personal benefit. I strongly relate to this character and that relation grew even stronger with Torro's performance. It is very hard to play the role of such a cynic without being somewhat of one yourself. Torro does an amazing job portraying his character and despite the character not having the most lines in either act, he was still in my opinion, the best part of the play.
Moving away from Torro's performance, the rest of the cast did an amazing job portraying their characters. I truly felt pain for Collin Travassos as he played his character, Willum Cubbert, and was slowly affected by his unexpected visitor. Lea Carpazano did an amazing job portraying probably the most eccentric character I have seen in a while, Erica "Rick" Steadman. Maria Smith did an amazing job as Tansy McGinnis expressing her overall internal struggles with love and furthering her own career. Brigid Sawyer did an outstanding job of playing the tough and rather complex businesswoman, Warnock Waldgrave. Savannah Repucci and Morgan Salpietro did an amazing job of portraying the roles of Clelia Waldgrave and Thor Waldgrave, respectively. The latter two characters helped to form the overall character of Warnock and how she has become who she is.
Before watching this play, I really didn't have any sort of idea of the talents that were present at Salve Regina University and more specifically in the Stagefright Theatre Company. Each actor and all of the staff put lots of hard work into the play and it ended up being a huge success in my book. This may have been the first performance I have seen from the Stagefright crew, but I hope that it isn't my last. Thank you to the Stagefright crew for putting on such an amazing performance.
