That was Then, This is Now

Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver of Split Britches, use a mixture of subtle, manipulative gestures and forceful, straight-forward speech to honestly connect the old American to our current state of the country in Miss America. From their costumes and vocal tone to their movements and dancing styles, Shaw and Weaver manifest the common battle between old and new, and masculine and feminine. Audience participation, music and use of technology are also key elements in this absurd pageant that keeps the crowd guessing and delivers a message of change.

Miss America is a peculiar romp that tells the story of a reporter and the uncommon

women she reports on. Shaw, the Miss America pageant winner, is imagined to be an eight feet tall woman with massive hands and feet, yet the most beautiful woman in the world. Weaver, the reporter, not only resembles a washed-up beauty queen, but expresses her desire to become Miss America herself and win the talent contest with an exotic strip tease. Like the strip tease, both Shaw and Weaver are in search of something new, a change, since they cannot return to the way life used to be in the good ole U.S. of A.

Shaw and Weaver complement each other perfectly because their characters are so different. Shaw’s Miss America character is very subtle, shy with a strong, sharp silhouette. Shaw natural appearance is quite rough and masculine. She uses her form to her advantage and

plays up the idea that her character could be a man. She wears a black suit that is far too short for her and constantly adjusts and pulls her suit to make it perfect or try to make it fit. Shaw’s motions are very agitated, jerky and frequent, like the sparks in a fire. However, her facial features and vocal tone are expressionless and monotone. For example, before the show even started, Shaw took a seat on a bench in the corner of the stage and sat there, almost motionless, checking the audience briefly with no emotion at all.

On the hand, Weaver plays a character quite the opposite. She wears an oversized, torn fur coat with slinky black dress and plastic tiara. Rather than physicality, her character is driven by her forceful and absurd speech. Her character is constantly begging for attention. For instance, towards the beginning of the production, Weaver stands in front of a screen with a hurricane projected on it and a fan blowing in her face. She reports on the conditions of the storm, but as metaphors for the way the United States has become corrupt in the last decade. She speaks in loud, harsh tones complemented by swinging head movements and sharp, dramatic hand gestures. She uses her speech to cover up her really feeling, about how scared she is with the way the world has become. In addition, when the fan is blowing in her face, hairs from her wig constantly fly into her face. She repeatedly flips her hair back over her ears. Using her costume in this specific way helped to define her character. Weaver and Shaw together do a fantastic job playing off of each other for comedic brilliance. Both of their characters convey the same message, but they do so if very opposing ways. While Weaver acts very feminine and boisterous, Shaw’s character encompasses many masculine qualities with slight, manipulative gestures.

Weaver and Shaw’s specific male and female physicalities, continued in their dancing to represent the new step we need to take in America. Shaw came on to her dance by accident. She tripped over her own foot and fell forward. She proceeded to make a dance out of it and related it to how we need a new step forward in America to get out of the terror that has occurred in the last ten years. Her trip led into a fake tap dance that was inspired by music. Her feet in the tap dance, like Shaw’s earlier movements, were very rapid and sparked, like a fire. Again, Weaver’s character had a very different dance style. During slow playing music, Weaver lofts around the stage falling on pieces of the set and brushing off of them, like air. She is light on her feet as if floating. Her flowing dance eventually leads into a strip tease that highlighted the woman characteristics of Weavers character.

Weaver and Shaw also use audience participation throughout the production to bring their characters to life and make them playful and real. For example, in the beginning Weaver enters the space by walking through the audience and taking pictures of them. She also says things about each person in the pictures she takes. This interaction immediately engages the audience and shows off her crazy and worn-out reporter character. These pictures were used at the end of the production in a slide show along with clips from a 1960s television commercial. These uses of technology display juxtaposition between the old America and current America.

In Miss America, Weaver and Shaw use masculine and feminine stereotypes to create characters longing for a chance to become the winner of the Miss America Pageant as well as the way of life Americans lived in the 1950s. Both of their characters convey the same message, but they do so if very opposing ways. While Weaver acts very feminine and boisterous, Shaw’s character encompasses many masculine qualities with slight, manipulative gestures.

Miss America was performed at Open Eye Figure Theatre in November of 2008.

Recommendation: See it!

Life in Lower Case is Nothing But the Tops!

“Expression is the need of my soul,” perfectly defines the array of performance art Sarah Agnew and Jim Lichtscheidl use in their original production, archy & mehitabel…life in lower case. From their acting style to their unique use of the set and props, from their musical creations to their interpretive dancing, Agnew and Lichtscheidl bring together all of their talents to really shine in imaginative, theatrical conception.

Archy & mehitabel tells the unlikely story of and man and woman who are reincarnated into a poetic cockroach and a sassy kitty. In his efforts to die and be reborn into a respectable animal, Archy, the cockroach meets a cat, Mehitabel, and beings to write her manifesto on an old typewriter. During their adventure, the friends meet a variety of insects including a lightning bug, a worm, a spider and a drunken hornet. As the pair grows closer together, Archy and Mehitabel lend each other a helping hand during a time of need, before the reach the inevitable end to the circle of life.

Agnew and Lichtscheidl bring the story beautifully by bringing their characters to life with a unique acting style. Both actors personify their animal characters perfectly by exhibiting common animal habits with ideal comedic timing. As the lights rise on Lichtscheidl’s cockroach, he flees from center stage and clings to the nearest wall, just as a cockroach scurries into the darkness when lights are turned on. Additionally, Lichtscheidl shares another great cockroach inspired moment when he falls on his back and cannot roll over without help from Agnew. This hilarious mockery of a cockroach with a giant shell helps to maintain the witty, playfulness throughout the production.

Agnew is not outdone by Lichtscheidl’s bestial impersonations. She also used animal movements to inspire the habits of her feline character. Throughout the production, Agnew used repeated gestures often associated with cats, like stretching her back, liking her arms and scratching her ears with her hands. Both actors manage to use these animal imitations while still remaining mostly human in nature. This combination gives the actors a wide range of movement and vocal capabilities while still keeping the audience caught up in a fantasy world of the secret lives of animals. Furthermore, both actors in this two-person production are highly skilled and complement each other’s talents without overshadowing one another. Their performance is both playful and honest. Agnew and Lichtscheidl do not force any part of the production and take this opportunity to do what they love and show it to the world.

Agnew and Lichtscheidl are also exceedingly playful and creative with their use of set design and props as spectacles. Upon entering the theater, you gaze on the set and think nothing of its simplicity. The walls of the stage are merely covered from floor to ceiling with an assortment of white paper with a lone desk in one corner and an oversized spider web in the other. However, as the production unfolds you realize the simplistic set is actually more complicated than it seems. Agnew and Lichtscheidl pull pieces of paper off of the walls and use them as prop and costume pieces. For example, Lichtscheidl takes a large, plain, white piece of paper from the set and ties it in a bow around his neck to create the costume for the drunken hornet.

Another part of the set is an oversized pile of paper that Archy and Mehitabel lived in. This set piece was also used in an interesting way. Agnew and Lichtscheidl became fleas by poking only their heads through the paper and hiding the rest of their body among the paper stack. This creative approach to prop and set design gives more evidence to Agnew and Lichtscheidl’s innovative expression and keeps the audience wondering what is going to happen next.

Agnew and Lichtscheidl also expressed their creativity by making music and dancing in an absurd but remarkable manner. Not only are there originally written songs by the duet, but composer, Eric Jensen, lends a hand in the musical accompaniment to the piece. However, when Jensen is playing a tune on the piano, Agnew and Lichtscheidl make it seem like the sound is coming from them. In the scene with the lightning bug, Lichtscheidl strums the strings are the spider web as if it were a bass to make it look like he is creating the low notes of the song. Additionally, Agnew and Lichtscheidl use their props to create live music on stage. In several scenes Agnew rubs two crinkled papers together and produces a provocative musical rhythm. Also in the fly swatter scene both actors use this prop by hitting it against the floor or against each other to add a tune to the piece. The playfulness of the music and Agnew and Lichtscheidl’s genius exploration of objects delights the audience over and over again.

Fly swatters are not only used to create music, but dance as well. Agnew and Lichtscheidl wave the fly swatters around in rhythm in order to choreograph dance moves to go along with their songs. The actors did the same thing with balls of paper. The paper balls were attached to thin wires, as if they are floating in air. Agnew and Lichtscheidl manipulate the wires and move them about throughout the whole space to make it appear like the balls of paper are dancing. The eye cannot help but be entranced by the whimsical movements of the gliding paper as the dance around. These unusual uses for everyday items evoke the imagination and take objects far beyond what they actually are.

Not all of the dancing is done by fly swatters however, there are plenty scenes where Agnew and Lichtscheidl dance with one another and prove their ability to collaborate brilliantly with one another. In the scene with Percy the tom cat, Agnew and Lichtscheidl use a series of balances in order to create a push and pull dance between Mehitabel and her cat boyfriend Percy. For example, Agnew supports Lichtscheidl with her back as he lies across her and climbs up a wall with his feet. Throughout the entire dance, the actors do the same movements only opposite of each other, generating a salsa feel to the song. In addition, Agnew and Lichtscheidl build a spectacle by having the lighting change with their movements. During sharp, sudden movements the lights switched color and direction. During repetitive movements, the lights flashed several times. This dance further exemplifies their ability to work well with one another and use simple ideas to create something extraordinary.

Throughout archy & mehitabel…life in lower case, Sarah Agnew and Jim Lichtscheidl use every form of creative expression to present a piece full of fun, laughter and imagination. From bug creatures to catchy songs, from puppetry to interpretive dance, the production shows the duo’s exceptional range of acting talents, their wild imaginations and playful natures which express their souls and keep the audience in awe and wanting more.

archy and mehitabel...life in lower case premiered at the Open Eye Figure Theatre in October 2008.

Recommendation: See it!