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Amateur or Professional?? |
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
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When Copperstar Director and founder Mary-Jo Okawa announced the start of this new theater’s performance of JOSEPH… at last Saturday’s show, she praised the community in the Higley School District with whom they had cooperated on this venture and referred to Copperstar as the East Valley’s newest “professional” theater. That term stuck in my mind as I watched a very talented group of young people, still in school for the most part (including an elementary age choir), go through their paces. It was a tremendously energetic, well rehearsed, extremely well staged and gloriously sung performance of this Lloyd Webber classic – but professional? Not by a long shot. It seems these days that local Centers for the Arts are springing up in almost every community, affording high schools and other nearby performing groups the opportunity to produce shows in a sophisticated, technically superb setting – and the caliber of the productions thus staged has been rising also. So my hat is off to Okawa, Musical Director Michael Snyder and Choreographer Mark Reis for taking advantage of this wonderful facility and training these young people (with a few more experienced actors in the cast as well) into a disciplined, focused ensemble. At one point I counted 80 people on stage at the same time. That is a feat in itself, just handling the logistics of such an operation. And it was almost flawless. Brady Quisberg, in the title role of Joseph did a very good job of singing and acting; a trio of Narrators (why, instead of only one as called for in the script, I am not quite sure, except that is a good way to give out more parts to eager actresses, one of whom I read is also deaf) were adequate in their roles though a little strident when singing together due to the very high db level of the sound design; and three of the brothers (Richard Jones as Reuben, Kevin Rogers as Simeon and Chris Okawa as Judah) created unique characterizations quite well. So, from a purely technical point of view there was not much to criticize in this show. It was an excellent amateur performance. And when I review such a performance I overlook the little things that rankle. For instance, I could ask why everyone wore sneakers instead of sandals as would be most appropriate for the time period. Surely sandals are just as readily available in the Arizona summer as sneaks. Or I could note that a good deal of the blocking seemed to consist of lining up actors across the stage, although there were some nice bits of staging during musical numbers. Or I could wonder why it was so obvious when the large children’s chorus was passing out flashlights during a musical number – could not the lights focused on them be turned off.? Or I could ponder why psychedelic costumes were used for the GO, GO GO JOSEPH scene, clearly an anachronism in the costume design (I have seen JOSEPH many times and never was the number costumed in this manner – it simply does not ring true.) Finally, why does the program contain cute messages from parents and grandparents and why is there a page for Autographs? These are totally appropriate for a school age theater production, but by no means are they professional. What is missing in JOSEPH., unfortunately is a sense of finesse and sophistication! What they lack in finesse though, the group certainly makes up for in energy. Perhaps one example of what I am talking about will drive my point home The last time I saw JOSEPH… (which was at a semi professional theater) I literally cried at the end of the show. It moved me in a very sincere way. But the deep seated emotion which created that effect was entirely missing from the Copperstar production. The cast was simply too young , too large and too inexperienced to achieve that level. So if you want to see a fabulous production of JOSEPH with great, sets, lights, costumes and loads of people on stage, do try to get to Copperstar this weekend. But take it for what it is – an amateur community theater show.
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