Tesla Bethel
Lantern Staff
Every production requires a lot of hard work and effort to prepare for the few nights of actual performance. As the curtain falls on the last performance of the production, the stage crew, actors and directors feel not only a sense of relief but extreme pride. This is true in the case of “Tomato Plant Girl” and “Hair Deux.”
“Tomato Plant Girl,” a production written by Wesley Middleton, was directed by Professor of Theater and Speech Samuel Sparks. It is a true coming of age story about learning how to not only stand up for oneself, but also true friendship.
“This is a children’s play that is not based on a book,” Sparks said. “A lot of children’s plays are based on children’s literature, so this is an original story.”
This adds to the overall uniqueness that the production has, including the small cast of only four women.
“It’s been a really great experience,” Sparks said. “The cast has been wonderful, the tech crew has worked really hard. It’s been a really positive experience.”
The “Tomato Plant Girl” played by freshman theatre major Allison Pieschl is a supernatural girl who happens to be a humanized tomato plant. She speaks gibberish and does not understand a lot of social aspects such as asking, and meaning what one says.
“The hardest thing for me was speaking nonsense, which it sounds like it would be easy, but it’s not at all,” Pieschl said.
Pieschl spent hours watching YouTube videos to get the gibberish pronunciation correct.
“I think it’s important for kids to learn acceptance, and that other people are different” Pieshcl said. “I think that’s probably my favorite part.”
“Hair Deux,” which was written and directed by Professor of Theater and Speech Bob Peterson, was the first Black Box performance that Butler has held in 15 years. “Hair Deux” brought about an array of emotions from morose in the beginning to curled over laughing so hard, it hurts comedy. With a wide variety of characters from gay hairdressers that are “secretly straight” to fighting adult brothers, there is something for everyone. However, the Black Box performance only goes through two out of the four acts.
“I actually did the full barbershop quartet years ago in the 90’s here,” Peterson said.
That being said, it has been at least 18 years since “Hair Deux” was last performed.
This production even though it’s a Black Box, does not mean a lot of work did not go into making it. With only five male actors, the actors had to learn how to take on multiple different roles and make them their own. The cast included: Max McGlaun, Jacob Martinez, José Cruz, Chandler Moore and Seth Knowles.
“For me, Ivan was very tough to connect to at the very start, so we tried a bunch of different things,” freshman actor Seth Knowles said.
There were also other obstacles the crew had to work on overcoming.
“In addition to [memorizing] lines for both acts, [it was difficult] mainly for the second act was not to laugh,” Chandler Moore said. “Man, the rehearsal process was freaking hysterical. The way I got over laughing was to change the emotion on it.”
There was also character building, as each character has their own personality even with the same actor. Each character has their own back story that makes them more dimensional and real.
“They are keeping journals,” Peterson said. “I’ve asked each one of them to think of a secret, that they don’t even have to tell me, about their character.”
One of the actors, Moore, was open to talking about his secret to developing such a dynamic character.
“If you can tell,” Moore said holding up a bottle of water. “I had a drinking problem in college, and before my wedding, Gloria made me give it up.”
It’s thinking about the character and formulating such backstories that give a character depth.