Last night, Sunday, I attended Circle Theatre's production of Annie Get Your Gun. Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin, book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields, and directed by Rachel Quinn and Scott Neild. It was a very upbeat, old fashioned type of show, that had a lot of flavor and character.

The actress playing Annie Oakley was Heather Zurowski. I mentioned her brother Marek when I talked about Fame, and he was in it as well. Annie Oakley was a girl who grew up on less than five dollars. She was like a mother to her three younger siblings, and had to take care of them with the little that she had. Despite all this, there was one thing she could never fail at, hence the title of this show.

Annie Oakley was one of the world's greatest shooters. Her gun was like an extension to her arm. She could shoot over her shoulder, under her leg, with her left and right hand, pretty much any way you could think of, and she would always hit the target.

Heather was an amazing actress. The story took place in Ohio, but Annie had a southern accent. Heather did that impeccably! Some people would be annoying at that, but not Heather. She had a certain sweetness to her, an innocence that made her very likable. She sang numerous times, and Heather managed to keep her character, and a little bit of that accent in her tone while she sang.

Her love interest was a man by the name of Frank Butler. He was a very prideful man, who needed to have his manly dignity. Before Annie came along, he was the best shot his whole town had ever seen. The actor who played Frank was Nick Lindmark. I am not quite sure how old Nick is, but he really looked the part. The age, the comfortability, the confidence, all of it made sense, and that is what really sold the show.

Marek Zurowski is altogether an actor. After you see him perform, its pretty obvious. In the shows I have seen him in, he has played very dashing characters. In this one he was charming and sweet. His character was Tommy Keeler, and he was in love with a girl by the name of Winnie Tate (Amanda Lamacki). They wanted ever so much to get married, but she was underage, and still under the parental guidance of her older sister Dolly Tate.

Dolly Tate happened to be Frank's secretary, and was completely bias towards her sister marrying Tommy, because he was part Native American. Ali Lamacki played Dolly and I found her hysterical. Her character was very over the top, but it wasn't too much, it was just right. She was kind of rigid in the beginning, then began to loosen up, no, not the actor, Dolly. I felt that Ali did pretty much everything spot on. She was funny throughout the whole show, and kept character even when the spotlight wasn't on her, that show some great skills.

A few people who really stood out to me were DJ Woullard, Aidan O'Leary, and Conor Howard. DJ looked really comfortable on stage, as he always does, and performed all his lines with integrity and meaning. Aidan was born to play a reporter type character, an almost animator or narrator, that is talking not to the audience but the people around him. Conor had great stage presence. He was in charge of moving the curtain back and forth for a scene change. This may seem like a simple job, but he did played everything so well, you didn't even think about it.

All the costumes were great, they really showed what the time period was, without coming right out and saying it. I also thought the music and choreography was well thought out and simple in some ways, but very complex in others.

Thank You to Circle Theater, to putting on a magnificent show. There are shows next weekend as well so make sure to check online at Circle Theater's website.

Great job everyone!!

OPRF'S Fame: Take Two!

On second viewing last night, Fame was as good as it gets. Vocals seemed stronger on opening night, but this time most of the actors', especially McLean, facial expressions seemed even more developed.

I noticed a few changes in the dialogue, but they always fit, which shows great ad-libbing skills. Sitting in the front row, also known as the BRAVO row, made everything seem like I was up on the stage. The faces of the actors were so exuberant filled with energy and focus, but relaxed, no one looked high strung. They knew what they were doing.

Probably a lot of you have seen the newest movie of Fame that came out into theaters in 2009. Has any one seen the original television episodes from 1982-83? Many thing are similar but boy, some of it is very different. The character Tyrone Jackson, from the OPRF show, shared many similarities to the character Malik, in the new move Fame. Malik was an indignant young man, who wanted to make sure everyone knew life wasn't easy for him. That is kind of what Tyrone was like. He was also an African American dancer, which is like the character Leroy, in the original shows. Leroy is one of the best dancers at the school and has his own sense of humor.

I felt that Jazmine was a little more dramatic in the scene when she's talking to Schlomo about L.A. She did it so well, that the girls i was sitting with were crying, and I was also on the verge of tears. Even though her character, Carmen, is very confident, you fall in love with her by the end. She tries so hard to earn the fame she's killing herself for, and it pretty much breaks your heart. Jazmine has been in numerous shows with both BRAVO and off Broadway shows also. She knows the drill, and that's what makes her so good.

Over all I liked the show again, but I think I still commend the same people for how well they did. The dancers still amazed me at how well and on top of things they were. Also the maturity in some of the actor's voices is still incredible. Well done everyone!

Fame!

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!

Congratulations to all the OPRFHS students who participated in the opening show of Fame! You guys were great!

Go see the show next weekend

for more info go to http://oprfhs.org/

Please support the high school in any way you can! They are all budding artists that need a nudge in the right direction, as do I!

There's no biz like show biz!

** All photos are courtesy of Claire Orzel, and taken by her father Ron Orzel -- rorzel@hotmail.com