Evita

Evita was interesting last night at DMTC. It was a strange experience being in the audience: five years ago I was doing it on the DMTC stage (directed both times by Michael Miiller). The stage itself was quite a bit different. Last time, a painter's scaffold was used on which to hang people and signs: visually, pretty busy. This time, the backdrop was much simpler - a large platform with steep stairs, painted blue and white (like the Argentine flag). The stage's simplicity made the players seem lonelier, and more vulnerable, than ever. The principle players were miked, a departure from usual DMTC practice: nevertheless, a good idea, since we are playing rock music - we probably should have done that in the past.

Andrea Eve Thorpe is an excellent Evita. She wasn't as fiery as Rebecca Tacosa-Gray, in 2000, but she was a better singer, and more regal as well. John Hancock (Agustin Magaldi in 2000 and 2005) seemed to be looser, and more in command, than ever. Clare Lawrence was excellent as the Mistress - beautiful voice (although in 2000, I thought Casey Wilson seemed more vulnerable....she was younger - too young, really, so that's probably why). Michael McElroy was a much better Che than I expected: I had worried about his performance being tripped up by his non-Latin Scotch-Irish background, but he worked on growing enough hair to mask freckles and other signs of his high-latitude origins (an actor's work is never done). Steve played a snide and cynical Juan Peron: Mike Jones and Michael Miiller relished the bodyguard roles.

I liked the couple dancing a lot (usually a DMTC weak point). The dancers worked on that pretty hard! I also thought the Waltz between Evita and Che also worked well. Evita and Che didn't touch. Alike in many ways, they nevertheless lived in utterly different worlds.

It was very interesting to place a live camera high on the back part of the stage, and broadcast a back view of the players. Live cameras on stage have their place. I remember in 1999, going to Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall, and seeing Peter Sellars' Chinese opera, "Peony Pavilion". The principle players carried remote cameras. Several large TV screens were suspended above the stage, so when an actor needed to emote, he could take his camera and turn it on his face, so everyone could see his expression. The single camera in "Evita" did not perform that expressive function: rather, the camera emphasized motion on stage by repeating it, from another view: for example, during the rotation of the platform during 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina'. I can't remember if the dancing was done with the camera functioning: that might be a good use of the camera, to duplicate, and therefore hammer home, expressive motion.

I nearly got up and ran across the Zellerbach stage during the middle of "Peony Pavilion": the actors lit incense, but at first all I smelled was the match, and I thought the theater was fire. Since I was in the first row of a theater packed with thousands of people, I knew the back stage exits were my only hope. The desperate urge to flee didn't grip me during "Evita", however.

"Peony Pavilion" also featured a large, transparent plexiglass box with a removable lid, that functioned as either a bed, or as a two-ton water-filled Chinese cavern. I wish we could have worked that plexiglass box into "Evita", but the Varsity stage would have collapsed under the weight of the water, and what Che and Evita would have done with a water-filled Amazonian cavern is anybody's guess (the Rainbow Trout Tour, I suppose).

I did not like the beginning of 2005's "Evita" that much: our corp's command of florid, romantic Spanish is too weak to pull off a Hollywood-style movie-like start (unless the intent was camp, in which case it worked pretty well). This is the first time DMTC has used a projector....another useful tool! (maybe we should start thinking about doing 'Tommy' again, as long as we are getting more multi-media these days).

I had forgotten how strange the music from "Evita" is: one strange rock opera!