Wednesday, April 3, 2013 - 7A

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com


PERFORMANCE PREVIEW
'Hound' to test

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tyical storyelling
Basement Arts to first read through the script. completely let go of yourself and
Without going through the dive into whatever character
leave audience entire show, it's easy to get lost you're doing," said MT&D soph-
in all the action. omore Teagan Rose, who plays
with questions "It's one of those plays where Cynthia. "But in this case, there
you have to either read it or per- is a sense of you want to be pres-
By REBECCA GODWIN form it as a whole," said MT&D ent in who the actress is under
Daily Arts Writer sophomore Austin Andres, who the Cynthia character."
plays theater critic Moon. "It For those who like to find
Audiences can expect to have becomes more confusing when the hidden meaning in a play,
more questions than answers you try to chop it up into piec- the roles people play and the
when theyleave Basement Arts's es, but if you perform it from roles they take on in daily life
latest produc- start to finish, you have a better are key themes woven through-
tion, "The The Real understanding." out. Andres used these deeper
Real Inspec- Andres has a slightly different meanings to approach his char-
tor Hound." Inspector transition from his previous role acter.
According to Hound to this one compared to some of "It's a unique opportunity
director Scott his fellow cast members. In his to explore who we hide in our-
Kloosterman, Thursday at7 last Basement Arts show, "From selves and what type of mask we
a sophomore p.m., Friday at Such Great Heights," he played put on on the outside," Andres
in the School 7and 11p.m. God inhuman form. While going said. "These characters hide
of Music, The- and Saturday from God to mere mortal might a lot of who they are, and they
atre & Dance, at 7p.m. faze other actors, Andres found don't express themselves fully
that's the way Wagreen the shift simple. until they step on the stage."
it should be. Drama Center "The way I approached God For Kloosterman, these
"It leaves a was as a normal human being, themes and the way they affect
lot of questions Free because that play really showed the relationships between the
in the audi- God in a human sense," Andres characters intrigued him.
ence's mind that I think will be said. "ButI think that each char- "The person we show to oth-
fun to discuss later," Klooster- acter I play is unique in its own ers is not always who we really
man said. "But it doesn't really sense and equally as big and as are," Kloosterman said. "We put
answer everything." important to me because they up a fagade for the people that
The play by Tom Stoppard each exist on their own." we're interacting with, and how
- who wrote "Rosencrantz and While the show is a British that breaks apart is really inter-
Guildenstern Are Dead" - tells farce, the actors don't just have esting to me."
the story of two theater crit- to worry about being funny. While the cast hopes some of
ics who wind up becoming a They also have the tricky job of the audience leaves discussing
part of the whodunit play they portraying the character in the what masks they might wear
are reviewing, making it a play play within the play, as well as in daily life, they mostly hope
within a play. the unnamed and unmentioned everyone leaves having had a
"Through the events that person below that character. good laugh.
occur, the two critics become Pulling off such a task requires a "I think the show is really
involved with the events onstage deep understanding of the rela- entertaining and really funny,
in a surprising way," Klooster- tionships between characters. and the actors are bringing so
man explained. "It's a different way of think- much to the table," Kloosterman
The confusing plot even ing because usually when you said. "And I hope that the audi-
tripped up the cast when they perform a play you want to just ence is entertained."

"Are yos my mother2"
'Host' brings 'A' game,
ultimately. misses mark

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PERFORMANCE PREVIEW
Fiercely comedic August'
to stir real emotion

By NOAH COHEN
Daily Arts Writer
Sub out the first-string vam-
pires and give the third-string
aliens a chance on the court:
"The Host" is
a savvy sleeper B-
pick this week-
end. Every The Host
critic so far has
slam-dunked At Quality16
Stephanie Mey- and Rave
er's "The Host" Open Road
into oblivion,
but even if it
stands fully in the shadow of its
towering teammate "Twilight,"
and even if no one in his right
mind would put this movie in
his Final Four, "The Host" took
a valiant half-court shot and hit
the rim with confidence.
We get to the arena at half-
time. The aliens have already
taken over the world, overpow-
ering the minds of the human
race like the Yeerks from Ani-
morphs. The civilized world
has become sterile in manner.
Nonviolent. Utopian, all but for
the method by which that utopia
came to be.
Enter the underdogs, the
human resistance, in the form
of a girl named Melanie (Saoirse
Ronan, "Violet & Daisy") and
her kid brother Jamie (Chan-
dler Canterbury, "Little Red
Wagon"). Melanie is soon taken,

an alie
body. T
also fe
Wande
mind f
derer's
and th
simulta
front a
The au
tient b
late ea
gradua
more a
er's pre
and the
for eac
about t
moodl
"Then
Next G

n soul implanted in her can't make a pass to save its
'he other soul is evidently life. Romance double-dribbles
male and names herself the plot, and the Meyer-haters
rer. Melanie's undefeated score a point. When the plot is
ights back against Wan- put back in play, it finds itself
possession of her body, in the hands of Philosophy, who
e two of them, played doesn't understand Hollywood's
aneously by Ronan, con- rules, and just dribbles anxious-
n ethical can of worms. ly in center court for an hour,
dience follows two sen- standing a head taller than all
eings trying to assimi- the other players. At this point,
ch other, their empathy we don't care who wins., We
illy waxing as they spend just want to keep watching Phi-
nd more time in the oth- losophy dribble the plot around
esence. As the home team aimlessly, because he's by far
e away team grow to care the most interesting player on
h other, we grow to care the court. Though Philosophy's
hem both. The dramatic ball handling is mesmerizing,
hits somewhere between Romance nabs the plot back
Matrix" and "Star Trek: and scores a few unremarkable
eneration." banks shots. Romance takes it
down for the dunk, but dribbles
on Melodrama's foot, and the
, pthis plot goes out of bounds.
on tput i In the end, Melodrama and
in your Romance run out the shot clock.
ne yThe movie is over two hours
Final Four long, and Philosophy is the
only player with the swag to
make time stand still. The act-
ing is fine, the boys are cute and
game starts fast, the Ronan goes hard in the paint,
scoring a quick wet but the screenwriting treats
on our hero, Mel. But the plot like Kevin Ware treats
Nanderer and Mel lock up, his legs. Even given McGary-
ump ball, and Mel seems ish passion and Stauskas-ish
the momentum back for self-confidence, "The Host" 's
me team. This is where it Robinson III-level dramatic
eird. Action lobs the plot athleticism is wasted on the
Romance, and Romance broken legs of its writing.

D
0

By TEHREEM SAJJAD
Daily Arts Writer
Meet the Westons: A father
disappears on a hot summer
night;apill-poppingmothercalls
her daughters
back home; August;
the family
reunites. Din- Osage
ner is served, County
lies are told
and the battle Thursdayat
begins once 7:30 p.m.,
again. Friday and
This week, Saturday at
the School of 8 p.m. and
Music, The- Sunday at
atre & Dance 2p.m.
is bringing the Arthur Miller
Westons to
Ann Arbor in From $10
Tracy Letts's
award-winning play, "August:
Osage County." This humor-
ous drama exposes audiences to
the dark side of a Midwestern
American family. When Bever-
 ley Weston suddenly disappears,
his Oklahoma family homestead
is transformed into a war zone.
Unspoken truths and petrifying
secrets surface, clearing out the
fog for the reasons the family
had originally moved apart.
"(Tracy Letts) writes some
very scathing things, but you
find yourself laughing at them,"
said the director and Professor
of Theatre at MT&D John Nev-
ille-Andrews. "So even though
these people say some rather
brutal things to each other and

some of
side, ot
Nevi
yearsc
directit
past 12
has als
ducerc
speare]
Whil
ty" isI
formed
year, N
it a den
dents.
"It's
actors,'
"The o
play is
14. We
old act
we don
it's a r
emergi
charact
40s ant
tray th
always
scenes
approp
this pla

fthem land on the painful way in New York City. It has
hers find it quite funny." received positive reviews from
ille-Andrews has over 40 notable voices, such as Oprah
of experience in acting, Winfrey. The play has been ret-
ng and producing. For the ognized internationally and in
years, Neville-Andrews locations including Israel, Puer-
o been the artistic pro- to Rico, Australia and Germany.
of the Michigan Shake- "I think what makes it really
Festival. enjoyable - even though the sub-
le "August: Osage Coun- ject matter is rather gruesome
the last play to be per- - is that these characters are so
by MT&D for the school vivid, so understandable and so
eville-Andrews considers recognizable," Neville-Andrews
manding task for his stu- said. "You get the Mister Nice
Guy, until he can't take it anymore
a great challenge for the and then he explodes and you get
Neville-Andrews said. the 14 year old, who looks like
tldest character in the she's very innocent, but she's not.
69 and the youngest is "So, it's looking at these char-
don't have any 14-year- acters and thinking that you
ors in the program and recognize them, but then they
i't have 69-year-olds. So, turn out to be very different. So,
eal challenge for these they're very vivid and very much
ng actors to take these off-the-page and I suppose you'd
ters from 69 through the say in certain circumstances that,
d 50s down to 14 and por- 'they're really in your face."'
em on the stage. We're "August" plays with raw emo-
looking for plays and tion and the dark side of comedy
where the age is more while also attempting to connect
rate for actors, but for with its audience through a set of
y, it most certainly isn't." characters that mirror real-life
individuals.
"I would really like young
I 1people to come see this play - to
Iasee how crazy older people can
vnifyou be," Neville-Andrews said. "You
yen iymight come from a perfect fam-
)n't w ant to. ily, and your family may not have
had any arguments. It's been a
perfect sort of lifestyle of every-
body in the family. Just come
ust" was hugely success- and see this because it will give
en introduced on Broad- you another side of the story."

The
aliens
swoosh
when V
it's a j
to win
the hot
gets w:
over to


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