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Boonville —
The musical starts before you even notice, as a cast member makes last minute arrangements around the stage and a public address announcer alerts the audience to unwrap any hard candy.
Then, the story in “The Fantasticks,”that appears designed to challenge traditional narrative, starts with a sign dragged across the stage.
For an amateur theatergoer such as myself, the musical at the Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre represented a departure from traditional Broadway productions. Without keeping count, it appeared the cast members talked as much to the audience as to each other. If it were a story printed in a newspaper, parenthesis would litter the text.
“The Fantasticks is a musical about illusions: the illusions of young lovers, the illusions of their parents, the illusions of old actors,” its creators, Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, state in the program. “But most of all, it is about theatrical illusion itself, that tacit agreement between the artists and the audience to create an imaginary world together.”
The Wednesday matinee was well attended, with an older crowd filling much of the theatre. The musical is the sixth staged at the rural Missouri theatre this year.
The story follows two disobedient children Matt, played by Will Sevedge, and Luisa, played by Gyu Jin Lim, two neighbors, between which their fathers have erected a wall to seperate them. The reverse psychology they employ tries to have them get angry at their parents and then fall in love with each other as a result.
The wall serves as the symbol each of the different relationships plays upon.
“Immediately when the show starts, we break through that fourth wall and say we’re actors and putting on a show with nothing,” the director Quin Gresham said.
In one scene, Matt and Luisa sit on a bench at the front of the stage kissing, and a character who is mute throughout the entire performance hovers above them and drops confetti.
“The audience says ‘We’re watching two people being rained upon,’ even though they see the person. That’s the secret and the magic to The Fantastcks. We employ many well worn theater devices but at the same time hopefully transport the audience.”
Originally performed in 1960, the Off-Broadway musical wrapped in 2002 as the longest running show in history — Gresham said dating back to the Greeks.
The original show used a minimalist set with only a small platform, a trunk, a chair and a few poles. In Arrow Rock, the stage resembles a dilapidated theater, with boxes strewn throughout. Gresham said conceptualizing a show is a delicate balance to avoid “an overwrought concept.”
The musical is also depicted in a 2000 film, which Gresham did not enjoy.
“It should only be told in the theater,” he said.
The musical starts before you even notice, as a cast member makes last minute arrangements around the stage and a public address announcer alerts the audience to unwrap any hard candy.
Then, the story in “The Fantasticks,”that appears designed to challenge traditional narrative, starts with a sign dragged across the stage.
For an amateur theatergoer such as myself, the musical at the Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre represented a departure from traditional Broadway productions. Without keeping count, it appeared the cast members talked as much to the audience as to each other. If it were a story printed in a newspaper, parenthesis would litter the text.
“The Fantasticks is a musical about illusions: the illusions of young lovers, the illusions of their parents, the illusions of old actors,” its creators, Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, state in the program. “But most of all, it is about theatrical illusion itself, that tacit agreement between the artists and the audience to create an imaginary world together.”
The Wednesday matinee was well attended, with an older crowd filling much of the theatre. The musical is the sixth staged at the rural Missouri theatre this year.
The story follows two disobedient children Matt, played by Will Sevedge, and Luisa, played by Gyu Jin Lim, two neighbors, between which their fathers have erected a wall to seperate them. The reverse psychology they employ tries to have them get angry at their parents and then fall in love with each other as a result.
The wall serves as the symbol each of the different relationships plays upon.
“Immediately when the show starts, we break through that fourth wall and say we’re actors and putting on a show with nothing,” the director Quin Gresham said.
In one scene, Matt and Luisa sit on a bench at the front of the stage kissing, and a character who is mute throughout the entire performance hovers above them and drops confetti.
“The audience says ‘We’re watching two people being rained upon,’ even though they see the person. That’s the secret and the magic to The Fantastcks. We employ many well worn theater devices but at the same time hopefully transport the audience.”
Originally performed in 1960, the Off-Broadway musical wrapped in 2002 as the longest running show in history — Gresham said dating back to the Greeks.
The original show used a minimalist set with only a small platform, a trunk, a chair and a few poles. In Arrow Rock, the stage resembles a dilapidated theater, with boxes strewn throughout. Gresham said conceptualizing a show is a delicate balance to avoid “an overwrought concept.”
The musical is also depicted in a 2000 film, which Gresham did not enjoy.
“It should only be told in the theater,” he said.
