{"id":1481,"date":"2015-06-04T19:20:58","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T03:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=1481"},"modified":"2015-06-04T19:20:58","modified_gmt":"2015-06-05T03:20:58","slug":"original-play-by-western-students-takes-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/original-play-by-western-students-takes-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Original Play by Western Students Takes \u201cFlight\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Nathaniel Dunaway\r\n Entertainment Editor<\/pre>\n
The best word to describe Western theatre\u2019s spring play, \u201cFrankie\u2019s Flights of Fancy\u201d is this: magical.<\/p>\n
An original \u2013 or \u201cdevised\u201d \u2013 work created by a group of Western students, this family-friendly show is an exploration of what it means to be a child, when adventures of the imagination and \u201cflights of fancy\u201d are delightfully common, and can be propelled by something as simple as a favorite toy.<\/p>\n
The play will run May 27-30 and each performance will begin at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrankie\u201d opens with a little girl, the titular Frankie, entering a cobweb-blanketed room decorated with faded posters and paintings. The wallpaper is water-worn and sagging; crates and boxes of all sizes add to the clutter.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not long before Frankie, who is played by third-year theatre major Belladina Starr, wearing a full-head character mask designed by the Portland theatre company Wonderheads, soon discovers that one of the aforementioned boxes is different than the others; this box is a portal to the imagination, to a world of dreams.<\/p>\n
With the help of this magic box, Frankie is transported to an assortment of different worlds, all with their own unique characters and dangers.<\/p>\n
Through the use of masks, marionettes, shadow puppets, projections and animations, Frankie chases a Wild West villain, conducts an orchestra, does battle with a Japanese demon and more.<\/p>\n
The process of creating \u201cFrankie\u201d has been a year-long endeavor which began last fall. A class led by Western theatre professor Michael Phillips started from scratch to \u201cbuild\u201d a show from the ground up.<\/p>\n
Starr, no doubt the star of the show, has been involved with \u201cFrankie\u201d since the beginning.<\/p>\n
\u201cDevised theatre is hard,\u201d Starr said. \u201cIt\u2019s so much about working together and being a team every step of the way. But when everyone comes together \u2014 designers, actors, tech, crew, everyone \u2014 and get past the uncertainty, and the challenges that arise, it\u2019s rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time Western\u2019s theatre department has explored original work. In 2013, a similar class, also led by Phillips, created and performed the devised show \u201cHalf a Block From Home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once the story outline and general script for \u201cFrankie\u201d was completed, a new class, held in winter term, carried the project closer to its completion, establishing the specific logistics of the puppets, animations, props, and more.<\/p>\n
The music for the show, a complete original score, was designed by music composition major Ian Knowland. This score was central to the magic of \u201cFrankie,\u201d helping to transport both the little girl and the audience to locales that include a rollicking old-timey circus, and a dimly lit, noir-soaked interrogation room.<\/p>\n
Once the show was cast, it was up to the nine cast members and director Phillips to bring \u201cFrankie\u201d life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have never used puppets,\u201d said first-year theatre major Edgar Lopez, who, among other roles, portrays an old circus custodian who is secretly a master of shadow puppetry. \u201cIt takes a lot of team effort to make [puppets] work. I\u2019ve learned to be able to move as one in a group. I\u2019m also glad I took the movement class, [it] has helped tremendously, because this show is all about movement.\u201d<\/p>\n
The end product of this yearlong undertaking proves to be a touching tribute to the magic of childhood, as well as the magic of theatre.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting to see something you helped create is beautiful,\u201d Starr said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Student tickets to \u201cFrankie\u2019s Flights of Fancy\u201d are free. Tickets for faculty and non-students can be purchased at the Rice Auditorium Box Office or over the phone at 503-838-8462.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Devised theatre project\u2019s year-long process culminates with terrific performance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":1482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}