A Review Of The Performance No Place To Be Somebody
Lindsay Chandler
Lkc5074@psu.edu; INART 005 Section 3 No Place to Be Somebody Review You are in a New York City bar. It’s dark, but muffled voices and conversations can be heard around you. The year is 1970. Welcome to the setting of Charles Gordone’s No Place to Be Somebody. One might think that capturing this dark and shabby bar scene would be a challenging feat to accomplish in Penn State University’s quaint Pavilion Theatre. One might also wonder how a group of students could possibly portray the attitudes and aspirations of characters from a generation way before their own. These are both valid concerns, but somehow, under the direction of Charles Dumas, the atmosphere of the Pavilion Theatre on October 4th was strangely and surprisingly similar to the atmosphere one might have come across in a 1970s New York City bar. The realistic scenery and lighting and the brilliant acting demonstrated by the members of Penn State Centre Stage were all great contributors to the grand success of the performance of, No Place to Be Somebody. When one attends a performance, particularly a play, she expects to be sitting fairly far away from the main stage (unless this patron has especially good tickets). The scenery is usually nice but distant and sometimes partially obscured by the heads of the people sitting in the closer rows. This was not the case at the performance of No Place to Be Somebody in the Pavilion Theatre. Yes, credit can be partially given to the architects who designed the theatre, but even more credit should be given to Kristin Brian, the scenic director of the show. The audience of the show surrounded the stage, 360° and felt like they too were characters in the production. The scenery was plain, dark, and pretty simple but it captured the essence of a dim, New York City bar, to the tee. The props mainly consisted of a few wooden tables and other bar-like accessories which could have easily bored fans of elaborate Broadway shows, but in this case, the
Lkc5074@psu.edu; INART 005 Section 3 No Place to Be Somebody Review You are in a New York City bar. It’s dark, but muffled voices and conversations can be heard around you. The year is 1970. Welcome to the setting of Charles Gordone’s No Place to Be Somebody. One might think that capturing this dark and shabby bar scene would be a challenging feat to accomplish in Penn State University’s quaint Pavilion Theatre. One might also wonder how a group of students could possibly portray the attitudes and aspirations of characters from a generation way before their own. These are both valid concerns, but somehow, under the direction of Charles Dumas, the atmosphere of the Pavilion Theatre on October 4th was strangely and surprisingly similar to the atmosphere one might have come across in a 1970s New York City bar. The realistic scenery and lighting and the brilliant acting demonstrated by the members of Penn State Centre Stage were all great contributors to the grand success of the performance of, No Place to Be Somebody. When one attends a performance, particularly a play, she expects to be sitting fairly far away from the main stage (unless this patron has especially good tickets). The scenery is usually nice but distant and sometimes partially obscured by the heads of the people sitting in the closer rows. This was not the case at the performance of No Place to Be Somebody in the Pavilion Theatre. Yes, credit can be partially given to the architects who designed the theatre, but even more credit should be given to Kristin Brian, the scenic director of the show. The audience of the show surrounded the stage, 360° and felt like they too were characters in the production. The scenery was plain, dark, and pretty simple but it captured the essence of a dim, New York City bar, to the tee. The props mainly consisted of a few wooden tables and other bar-like accessories which could have easily bored fans of elaborate Broadway shows, but in this case, the