‘Emojiland’ – A Fantasy with a Dash of Reality

Posted on July 23, 2018 by Karen Nowosad

Josh Lamon & Lesli Magherita In ‘Emojiland’ photo credit Jeremy Daniel

Emojiland is one of the 15 shows in the 2018 New York Musical Festival running through July and early August. With a book, music, and lyrics by the husband/wife team of Keith Harrison and Laura Nicole Harrison, Emojiland gives a whole new appreciation for the symbols known as emjois on your cellphone. The setting for the show is an imaginary digital world inside a smartphone. Add to that some fine music and few more subplots and you have a show that is basically a fantasy, but it brings in some contemporary political issues as well.

Thomas Caruso provides direction for Emojiland. Inspired by The Unicode® Standard, Emojiland advertises as a “Textistential Musical.”  It is a very enjoyable show to see. It does create a fantasy world filled with emojis that people use everyday on their smartphones.This may sound a little strange to say, but it almost seems like you know these characters as they appear on stage! These characters take on human characteristics and no longer are they symbols; they represent people or things that come to life.

A Word About Technology

The stage is set with a screen backdrop which uses all kinds of dynamic graphics on it. The graphics are especially enjoyable to see what it might look like to the emojis inside their imaginary world. A powerful use of the screen occurs when emojis are deleted and they disappear from the screen.

The Story

The story deals with everyone (or everything?) preparing for an update. None of the emojis quite knows their fate or who might come in as version 5.0 comes on board. As the installation happens, fantastic things occur onstage including a song, “The Progress Bar/Update” and flashes on the backdrop screen. A new character, Prince, is part of the 5.0. He takes away the power Princess enjoyed up until then. They bicker and finally realize they can share but want to avoid anything else threatening them in future updates. They issue a command to build a wall to protect the land from any new emojis coming in.

As the wall is built, Skull has a plan to end the emoji land. He enlists Nerd Face to help him launch a virus. The emojis do everyday things like go to work, prepare meals and fall in love. As a result, it is rather sad to watch as an emoji is deleted because of the virus; that’s how real these characters become.

The Cast and Characters

Lesli Margherita as Princess and Josh Lamon as Prince battle it out for who is the leader of the land. A love triangle is created by Keith Harrison as Nerd Face, Laura Nicole Harrison as Smize and Cooper Howell as Smiling Face with Sunglasses. Jordon Bolden as Skull works to destroy the emoji world by introducing a virus. Angela Wildflower as Police Officer falls in love with Megan Kane as Construction Worker. Jessie Alagna gets many laughs as Pile of Poo as does Brandon L. Armstrong who plays Guardsman. Chloe Fox serves as a narrator playing Information Desk. Playing one of the most unique character names is Alex G, Kunz as Man in Business Suit Levitating.

Music

Music is under the direction of Jonathan Ivie. Some of the songs are about particular characters such as when Smize sings “Sad on the Inside.” Although her face is constantly smiling, she sings about feelings she has inside of her that are sad and don’t match that outside; but she realizes there is nothing much she can do about it. The songs for Skull are very impressive especially “Thank Me Now” where he sings about getting out of the way they are living. There are several ballads including “A Thousand More Words” where Police Officer sings beautifully of her love for Construction Worker that is outstanding. Full company numbers are very well done especially “Stand For” about building a wall to keep others out.

Final Thoughts

 Emojiland has a lot of good things going for it that show promise for its future. New York Musical Festival genre billing for the show is Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Politics. For a show that runs just about 2 hours, that is a lot to cover, maybe too much. The political aspect about building the wall takes too long to show up. It also gets lost in the second act as the virus takes over. Some rework in that area will help this show move on. The time just seems so right for it.

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‘Linger’ Looks at Social Issues

Posted on July 21, 2018 by Karen Nowosad

Robby Haltiwanger as Mike, Danielle Skraastad as Maryanne, and Michael Frederic as James in the Premiere Stages production of Linger by Craig Garcia. Photo by Mike Peters.

Linger is a new play running at Kean University’s Premiere Stages. Written by Craig Garcia, Linger is the winner of the 2018 Premiere Play Festival run annually by Premiere Stages. This powerful new work deals with a family who must confront a difficult situation that the son finds himself in. The story of Linger brings out a rather frightening aspect of how social media is affecting teenagers today and what it does to family life. How much do parents really know about the world their child is living in? How prepared are teens for the social networking world and all its hazards? These points are raised in Linger with some shocking results.

Direction from John J. Wooten makes this production very contemporary because it addresses issues often seen in today’s high tech world. A well designed and smart looking set by Scenic Designer Harry Feiner provides views of the family’s life inside their home and at the mother’s workplace. The home is comfortable and slightly upscale implying that the family lives in a nice middle-class neighborhood. The mother, Maryanne, is a doctor and her office becomes an integral part of the plot.

Sarah Kathryn Makl as Summer and Robby Haltiwanger as Mike in the Premiere Stages production of Linger by Craig Garcia. Photo by Mike Peters.

The play opens with the entire family preparing to go out to an event. Issues that are not so difficult to deal with such as what shoes or what shirt to wear are the heaviest issues. But the first signs of discord within the family start to emerge as daughter Summer is very put out when her parents ask her to stop playing around on her mobile device and go get ready. She is belligerent responding to their request. It’s almost as if she is addicted to using her smart phone and has lost her ability to speak kindly to her parents. The parents appear to have no control over how much she uses the device.

Will Ehren as Bobby and Danielle Skraastad as Maryanne in the Premiere Stages production of Linger by Craig Garcia. Photo by Mike Peters.

What they do not know is that Summer is following what people are saying about a terrible incident that happened at a party to a young man named Bobby. After awhile, her brother Mike’s name is mentioned. She says nothing to her parents. Mike has a bruise that he does not seem willing to explain to his parents. They accept his brush off. But everything changes when the police come and arrest him saying that he was involved with the incident at the party. The father, James, staunchly stands by his son. But the mother, Maryanne, is faced with a difficult problem when Bobby and his father, Gerald come to her office for help. She has been Bobby’s physician for years so this was logical for them to come except Mike is involved. Bobby is gay and the problem stems from someone not being willing to accept that. Or so it seems to Maryanne until she learns of her son’s involvement.

As the play continues, social networking descends on Summer opening another set of issues. The strain is great and it takes its toll.

A strong cast gives Linger a forcefulness that keeps the audience on the edge of their seats during the production. The parents are played by Jonathan C. Kaplan as Gerald, Danielle Skraastad, as Maryanne, and Michael Frederic as James.  Playing the roles of the children are Robby Haltiwanger as Mike, Sarah Kathryn Makl as Summer, and Will Ehren as Bobby.

Linger is well written with dialog that flows easily. The characters are well developed allowing the story to enter new territory that society is going to have to learn to deal with. Craig Garcia’s play is one that has come at the right time. Not only is it a dynamic piece of theater, but it also is a social study of the world we are developing and living in  today.

Additional Information About Linger:

Running Time: Approximately 2 hours which includes one intermission

Location: Kean University’s Bauer Boucher Theatre Center at Vaughn Eames Hall, 1000 Morris Avenue, Union, N.J.

Performances: July 12-29 on Thursdays and Fridays at 8:00 pm, Saturdays at 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm, and Sundays at 3:00 pm.

Contact for Info and Tickets: To make reservations or to order a season brochure, please call the box office at 908-737-7469 or visit Premiere Stages online at www.premierestagesatkean.com.

Audience members are invited to further engage with the issues raised by Mr. Garcia’s thought-provoking play through Premiere Stages’ 2018 talk-back series, which offers free post-show discussions with community leaders and local experts after select matinee performances (July 14, 22 and 28 at 3:00 pm). Premiere will also offer a series of informal pre-show talks every Saturday evening 30 minutes prior to performance in the lobby of the theatre.

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‘The Servant of Two Masters’ Fun Summer Theater

Posted on June 28, 2018 by Karen Nowosad

From ‘The Servant of Two Masters’ Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. Pictured (left to right): Jay Leibowitz as Pantalone de Bisognosi, James Michael Reilly as Truffaldino, and Aurea Tomeski as Smeraldina. Photo credit: Jerry Dalia.

The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey officially opened their Outdoor Stage production last night with The Servant of Two Masters. Although there was a need to have one 15-minute rain delay, it did not dampen the enthusiasm of the actors or the audience. It looked a shaky a few times after that, but the audience did not want to leave. They just raised their umbrellas to hold off a few drizzles and continued to enjoy this production. When you can spend a summer evening with the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey outdoors, you don’t give it up especially when a production like the one presented last night is on.

Background

The Servant of Two Masters was originally written by Carlo Goldoni sometime around 1745. It stands as his most popular and beloved work. Regarded as the most important Italian dramatist of the 18th century, Goldoni wrote over 150 plays. He renewed and transformed the Italian Commedia dell’Arte style and is often considered the founder of Italian realistic stage comedy.

This version is translated and adapted by Bonnie J. Monte, Artistic Director of Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. According to notes available on the Company’s website, Ms. Monte “tried to honor his (Goldoni) attempt to humanize and deepen the stock Commedia characters, as well as depict the bridge he created between the old Italianate style and his new one—one very much influenced by Molière and the English comedies of manners.”

Doug West, who is in his 17th season with The Shakespeare Theatre, serves as Director of this show. He also is the Associate Director of Education in addition to being one of the company’s resident directors.

About the Show

In a word, the show is terrific!

The Servant of Two Masters uses several comedy devices that make it very funny. There is a degree of slapstick that is used at times especially involving people carrying trunks, the suitcases of the time. Additionally, the use of characters stepping towards the audience and in some cases breaking the fourth wall is hilarious as they feel the need to explain why they are doing something. These explanations are humorous especially when the action is so obvious one doesn’t need it explained. But that does add to the humor of it.

The story involves a great amount of mistaken identity. It also uses the concept of  leaving out just enough words so that the entire meaning of what needs to be said is not in order to further the quest of a character. For example, Truffaldino tries to hide that he is working for two different people. When someone approaches him and says something like “give this to your master,” he never asks which one. He covers his tracks by biding time. If the wrong master gets the item by mistake, he might tell them that another servant must have given to him by mistake. The other servant of course does not exist and he is told to find this person, but of course never can since it really is him.

The story line is fairly easy to follow. It involves a couple, Clarice and Silvio, who get engaged. Their happiness is short lived when Truffaldino, servant to Federigo, arrives. He dispels the idea that his master is dead. This is bad news for Clarice because she had been promised in marriage to Federigo. Everyone demands that Truffaldino bring his master in which he does. However, it is actually Federigo’s sister Beatrice in disguise who Truffaldino just started working for. Of course no one had actually ever met so this works out. Pantalone, Clarice’s father, declares the original marriage back on.

Beatrice set out to find her lover, Florindo. Federigo had been against his sister marrying Florindo. Florindo killed Federigo in a dual. He fled right afterwards. Now with him dead, she goes to find him. Meanwhile, Truffaldino works not only for Beatrice, but also for Florindo. But neither knows that their servant is doing this. It takes quite awhile for everyone to figure out who is who but once they do, there are a number of very happy people.

Another thing that makes this show so enjoyable is the dialog. It has been adapted and translated to reflect some parts of the time period from which it comes, but it has a contemporary sound to it. There are many, many funny lines in it. Some you can just see coming after awhile because the characters are developed in a pure and consistent manner.

The cast is superb. They look like they are having a good time doing this show and that adds to the enjoyment as well.  Marking his 25th anniversary with The Shakespeare Theatre, James Michael Reilly plays the servant, Truffaldino. Izzie Steele plays Beatrice Risponi. Tug Rice plays Floerindo, Jay Leibowitz is in the role of Pantalone de Bisognosi. Raphael Nash Thompson portrays Dottore Lombardi.

Aurea Tomeski .plays Smeraldina and Connor Carew plays Brighella. Russell Sperberg plays Silvio. Rounding out the cast is Miranda Rizzolo who makes her STNJ debut as Clarice.

A special round of applause goes to the Maid played by Abby Carroll and the two Porters/Waiters played by Alexander Emond and Benjamin Lang. All three of these fine aspiring actors are Members of the 2018 Summer Professional Training Program. They all did a fantastic job of getting the audience to laugh and respond through their actions and facial expressions. It’s great to see the next generation of actors doing such fine work.

The Outdoor Stage becomes a little corner of Venice, Italy by the creative talents of Scenic Designer Jonathan Wentz, Lighting Designer Rachel Miner Gibney, Costume Designer Paul Canada, and Sound Designer Warren Pace. The Production Stage Manager is Christine Whalen.

Additional Information for The Servant of Two Masters

Running Time: Approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes which includes one 15-minute intermission

Location: The Outdoor Stage is located on the campus of the College of Saint Elizabeth. Look for The Greek Theatre in Morris Township, 2 Convent Road, Convent Station, NJ

Seating: There are several options including bringing your own low seating chair, cushions, or renting one there. Consult the page, The Outdoor Stage on the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s website for best information.

Performances: Tuesdays through Sundays at 8:00 p.m., with a special twilight performance on Sundays at 4:30 p.m. now through July 29, 2018,

Be sure to check Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s website for their inclement weather and cancellation policy.

Contact for Info and Tickets: Patrons can purchase tickets by calling the Box Office at 973-408-5600 or online at www.ShakespeareNJ.org.

Special Ticket Pricing: The Outdoor Stage is generously sponsored by Bank of America. Bank of America customers can purchase tickets for the Outdoor Stage for only $28 using the promotional code BOFA. Patrons can also present their bank cards at the Box Office to obtain this offer.

Once again there are free tickets for young people 18 and under. Sponsoring the free ticket initiative for young audiences in part is by The Merrill G. and Emita E. Hastings Foundation and Newman’s Own Foundation.

Suggested Audience: Good fun for anyone who enjoys comedy and light-hearted shows.

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