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Volume CXXXIII, Number 6 |
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Masque and Gown uses art museum Stoops for play
TED REINERT
ORIENT STAFF
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| Derin Ross '05 and Gardiner Holland '06 as Kate and Mr. Hardcastle rehearse She Stoops to Conquer. The play opens tonight. (Hans Law, Bowdoin Orient) |
This evening, weather permitting, Masque and Gown will open its fall show She Stoops to Conquer, on the steps of the Walker Art Museum, a century after the student-run theater group put on the play as its debut performance at Commencement for the Class of 1904.
The performance of Oliver Goldsmith's Restoration drama is one of a number of events celebrating the Masque and Gown centennial. Masque and Gown usually presents its fall show on Parents Weekend, but delayed it this year to coincide with Homecoming Weekend. According to production manager Leo Landrey '05, this allows them to perform a larger show in front of Masque and Gown alumni, including some who performed She Stoops 30 years ago for Masque and Gown's 70th Anniversary.
She Stoops to Conquer is a comedy that was first performed in 1773. The story takes place at the distinguished Mr. Hardcastle's country house. Kate, Hardcastle's daughter, stoops to the level of a barmaid to win the heart of her suitor Marlowe, who is jaw-droppingly bashful among gentlewomen but not so among women of a lower class. A host of memorable characters each have agendas of their own and deceit abounds, causing many amusing situations.
"It's one of those plays where you start smiling at the beginning and you don't stop smiling until the end," said Derin Ross '05, who plays Kate.
This production of She Stoops has been in the works since October 2001, when Masque and Gown began looking at ways to celebrate their centennial. A period costume drama, She Stoops is an atypically large production with a cast of 14. The cost of costumes alone equaled the overall cost of last year's Masque and Gown fall show.
"It was a unique task to design costumes for She Stoops because I could incorporate research of period costume with ideas from the two previous Bowdoin productions," said costume designer Adrienne Heflich '05. "Interestingly enough, a good deal of the costumes from the 70s and earlier are still hanging out in basements on campus."
The staging of She Stoops, however, is fairly minimal. Hillary Matlin '06, the director, is excited about the unique outdoor staging.
"The building loans itself to being part of the set," she said. Matlin also pointed out that a huge audience is possible outdoors. Friday and Saturday's 5:00 p.m. performances are planned for the art museum steps, while Sunday's 2:00 p.m. matinee will be performed in Wish Theater.
Anyone can watch outside, but rain tickets for the first two shows, which are free, give the holder a seat on the Quad and ensure a seat inside if the play must be moved. Cold weather is an unavoidable risk that accompanies performing outside in Maine in late October. Ross said she once resorted to waltzing to keep warm during rehearsals outdoors. She encourages the audience to dress warmly.
Bowdoin's 1904 production had an all-male cast. This production will still feature one boy in a dress. Casting for the play was gender-blind, and Torin Peterson '07, Brandy Maloney '06, and Katie Frank '05 have all been cast as characters of opposite gender.
"I'd say the cross-gender parts in the play make things even funnier," said Frank, who plays the servant Roger and a fellow in the ale house scene. "Until it was suggested I put a sock in my pants, I didn't think it was a big deal."
The weekend will also see the opening of a Masque and Gown retrospective display in Wish Theater's Drake Lobby and an alumni dinner. The display will feature posters, programs, and pictures of a century of Masque and Gown productions, divided by decade.
The centennial events continue all year long. The weekly reading of one-act plays written by past Bowdoin students is one example. Landrey said Masque and Gown is pushing for bigger shows and more shows this year.
"It's a commemoration of the 100 years that Masque and Gown has been a part of the Bowdoin campus, a sort of look at our roots, and a way to link the past and the present and go into a new century," said Frank Skornia '04, co-chair of the Masque and Gown centennial committee.
As for She Stoops to Conquer: "It's really funny, the cast is amazing, and you've got a boy in a dress. How do you beat that?" said Matlin. "I can't think of a reason anyone shouldn't come see it."
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