nnyAlexa Szybowicz
2/14/12
Critic #1 Johnny Appleseed Johnny Appleseed is a play for children and not only was every child in the audience entertained, but so was I. The acting of the play was very well done to keep the children engaged. The stage it was performed on was fairly large and the director was sure to make good use of the entire space. The stage was used resourcefully with all of the scenery and props that were used for the play. If a mood in the play changed, so did the lighting to enhance the effect it gave people. From the lighting I could tell when it was day or evening, or when the Mr. Feelgood and his sister (the bad guys) were up to something. My overall experience of the play was good; I really enjoyed it, and especially how the actors interacted with the audience. I thought all the actors in the play were believable. They’re costumes fit their character of people from an ordinary, olden day small town. Johnny Appleseed and Mr. Feelgood were my two favorites, because they really applied themselves to their part and I just enjoyed the whole good guy bad guy rivalry. I noticed how later in the play when Johnny Appleseed had grown to be old, Jared Wagner, the actor, held his back with his hand to show that he had aged. The performers interacted very well together, I noticed in particular when every time Johnny would return to the field and Josh would meet him, they played the game with the kids in the audience whether or not someone was behind Johnny or not. The way they moved together to make it seem like Johnny really didn’t know Josh was there was done very well. The costumes the actors wore were appropriate given the time. I did not like how no one changed costumes. The narrator would express how it is many years into the future, yet everyone is still wearing the same clothing. The narrator was dressed as an apple tree, but I really did not like her costume. It looked more like a stump then a tree. I think if a green bushy leaf with red apples was used as her hat instead, it would look a lot better. I also did not like Johnny’s wig. It looked too fake and not well groomed. I did, however; like how immediately I could tell that Mr. Feelgood would be a bad guy by the cape he wore and his mustache. Megan Jerrils, who played Mildred Pierce, had makeup lines on her face to make her appear older. I thought that was a very creative way to show that she was older, but when I finally noticed it was lines on her face it looked a bit odd. The stage that the play was performed on was a fairly large stage and was used very efficiently. The enjoyed the scenery and how you could see apple trees in the back and could easily distinguish when they were in the field or in town. The apple trees in the scenery were symbolic to the play in showing that Johnny had planted seeds and now they were growing. I also liked how the actors used the audience as scenery too. Several times they mentioned how ‘soon so many apple trees would grow’ there as they point into the distance of the audience. They used quite a few props throughout the play: Mr. Feelgood’s green medicine, his sister’s umbrella, and the Indians had bows and arrows they played with. Every character effectively used the prop and it was clear to me what everything was and/or used for. One thing I did not like was how they used the narrator as a prop at one point and Josh was tied to her. It looked unrealistic that Johnny was tied to a real looking tree and Josh was tied to a person in a tree costume. Although, with that said, I did think the lighting in the play was fantastic. I loved in the beginning of the play when everything was dark and it gradually got lighter when Johnny appeared as if it was dawn. I also loved when Mr. Feelgood and his sister had their moment of evil together, it got dark and green lights started to flash on them, in order to tell the audience that they were up to no good. The lighting was shined properly on each actor, giving them enough light to see their faces. During the play, snow making machines were used to show a bad winter storm had come along. During the course of the play I could see little white things fall from the ceiling a few times, which was a little distracting. I wasn’t sure what it was until they came to the scene with the bad snow storm. My favorite scene in Johnny Appleseed was the scene with all the farce and shenanigans. I loved how everyone came together in this fiasco of hunting down Mr. Feelgood and his sister. I could tell the actors must have practiced a lot, to know where and when to run exactly. The children in the audience had a lot of fun with that scene and the music they put to it was perfect. It gave it a more fun and silly effect. Another thing I loved about the play is how the actors talked to the audience. At one point Josh and Johnny asked the audience what game they should play to pass the time away while waiting for Margret to arrive in the field. Almost everyone shouted out answers. Also every time when Johnny would arrive in the field and would give the audience a chance to finish off his little tune he sang running in. I did hear quite a few phones vibrate during the entire play, which was distracting and also this boy in the row in front of me had light up shoes on so I noticed them going off almost constantly. I also noticed a handful of people who had their feet up on the seat in front of them, which is not courteous at all. Despite those few distractions, my overall experience seeing the play was great. I really enjoyed seeing it and when I do have children I hope to be able to take them to a play like this.