youNg cRitiC: February 2010

Last night, at Oak Park River Forest High School, was opening night for their newest production. They performed "Fame". The show ran very well, and the audience sure got a lot out of it. Directed by Tracy Strimple with music by Steve Margoshes.

Everything was so well developed and rehearsed, but what you want to see is if the actors act like this is their very first time experiencing the situation, like in real life. I found that it was a very believable rendition of the original story.

Jazmine Reynolds played the lead actress named Carmen Diaz. Carmen was a hard worker lusting for almost instant fame. She called herself a "survivor". Jazmine knew just how to play her character, indignant but passionate and willing to do anything, literally anything.

I won't ruin the show, but it was sad and sweet at the same time. So much too watch, too bad we only have two eyes.

Dancing was the concept that really stood out. There were three majors that student in the show played. Music majors, acting majors, or dance majors. the dance majors all wore red, so you knew which ones they were. The dance captain was Nick Beebe, and I have to give him props for his performance last night. His dancing made me want to cry. Not sad crying but amazed crying. Yeah, it doesn't really make sense, but I was just taken over by the brilliant movements that came so easily to him.

From what I saw, they all seemed like perfectionists. But they nailed pretty much everything, so looks like it payed of. Every single one of the dancers performed as though they actually went to P.A. (Performing Arts, the school the "Fame" students attended). Everything was so genuine, and thats why I want to go back and see it again.

The love interest of Carmen Diaz was a very talented-but-modest pianist, Schlomo Metzenbaum (Ethan Zimmerman). He played it subtle but meaningful, which made him seem down to earth and prepared for his next step. Its funny how he ended up with Carmen. Well it just goes to show that opposites do attract.

McLean Peterson was on of my favorite actors on stage to watch throughout the whole show. She played Serena Katz, who was a budding actress that wanted to "play a love scene" with love interest Nick Piazza (Marek Zurowski). She, as a character, really grew as the show progressed, and McLean had no problem playing that. She made everything she did look effortless. Her singing was phenomenal. She had such a wide range in vocals. I think she is definitely going somewhere!

There are two more actors that I would like to recognize and one of them is Petre Vishneski. He belongs as one of the voices for a mexican Family Guy or something because the character he played was a typical more or less stereotypical adolescent male, who highly "desired" Carmen, and was very, very, very honest about it. He played Jose "Joe" Vegas, who was an acting major. I laughed pretty much every time he spoke, and began to believe that he really had a Hispanic accent. His vocals were really good too. As do the majority of the actors in this production, he belongs to the International Thespian Troupe 5405.

The last actor that i would like to directly recognize is Myke Thurman, who played Tyrone Jackson. Tyrone participated in dance, but wasn't quite as passionate about it as his dance partner, Iris Kelly (Conner Cornelius-Burke) wanted him to be. They quickly became love interests as well. Tyrone was very indignant, and felt like he didn't need as much help as everyone was offering him. He was raised in the ghetto, and wanted to make sure everyone knew that he didn't have an easy life. He rapped a few times, and brought the audience to their feet with his amazing and believable stage presence.

Actors like Jiana Odland, Elena Buis, Claire Orzel, and Jackie Soro, had smaller parts but still really stood out! You could tell that they have all been acting for a while, because they all looked very comfortable on stage. Props to all the featured musicians as well, you could tell that everyone was prepared for anything.

The choreography for this show was obviously designed for high schoolers. It wasn't the basic steps, but it wasn't anything you would see on Broadway. Scratch that, some of it you probably could see on Broadway, but it wasn't that advanced. Compared to other high school shows that I have seen, Oak Park did impeccably!

Everything was spot on in my point of view! The costumes really showcased the character in them, the makeup described how old the person was, the hairstyles customized to what that person portrayed. The sets were fantastic too. Dozens of staircases all across the stage were supposed to show that it was a school. Bars and disco balls came down from the ceiling to change the setting of the stage. The lights. The lights made the entire atmosphere change. When the characters were supposed to be outside, there was a brightness to the stage. When there was a song, there were spotlights. People worked extremely hard for this production, and it payed off big time!