Six Characters in Search of an Author
Six Characters in Search of an Author
By Luigi Pirandello
Directed by Paul Luby
Starring Victoria Barfield, Josh Melendez, and Gabriella Bivona
Seminole State College, Lake Mary, FL</strong>
No one wants an author at rehearsal, and here’s why. As director Victoria (Barfield) slogs through another “Man of La Mancha” rehearsal the cast is late, it drips attitude, and the A/C is too cold. Then this pack of ghosts shuffles in; begging for the chance to perform the story they not only never got to play, but the story the author never bothered to finish. It’s some century-old soap opera about adultery and abandonment. Ghost Dad (Melendez) never explains why they are banished to wander the boards, looking for a producer like some Flying Dutchman of amateur theatre. After some back and forth Victoria agrees to do their story as an exercise, but they are worse than actors; now they think they are writers and directors. The ghosts demand elaborate and unavailable props, think a “play within a play” is somehow brilliant because some one made it work 500 years ago, and the only thing they don’t ask for is an elaborated dinner on stage. This crew is not only the bane of directors like Victoria; they are the bane of every play reading committee and artistic director alive today.
Some things work, some don’t. The native “La Mancha” crew seemed pretty disinterested in their job and the on stage bickering was very true to life. The snippets of the unnamed “Ghost Play” had some promise, but the story was too fragmented, too unmotivated, and the cast too self -absorbed to make a compelling piece on its own. Perhaps that’s why the unknown author abandoned the story. The surprise ending is effective and there’s a cool effect when the pimp (Ezequiel Muriel) appears; he puts some fire on stage as he breaks though the un-numbered wall with a fiery Spanglish argument. There are two small children in the ghost cast (Hanna Wuerz and James Murphy); their woeful look captured “Hunger” and “Want;” they were suitable pathetic and did a great job of doing almost nothing on stage.
This play dates to 1921 Italy and carried a strong stamp of surrealism. Not only do we have an invasive story line but a good discussion of everyone’s role in “The Process”. There is a hierarchy in here that everyone wants to violate, but the hierarchy is there for a reason. Authors write, Directors direct, actors act, and the characters? Why, they are just like little toy cars for every one to crash at will. You knew that when you signed up for a Fine Arts degree. Lastly Victoria even got a shot at my part of The Process: “The critics are OUR pain and anguish.” And like ghosts we appear randomly, uninvited and unappreciated and often left to quietly suffer in our own form of hell.
For more information on the Seminole State College Theater program, please visit http://www.seminolestate.edu/arts/theatre/boxoffice.htm
