The Votes Are In!
2024 Readers' Choice is back, bigger and better than ever!
View Winners → ‘Wrinkle,’ ‘Belle’ in Repertory at Sierra Madre Playhouse
Arcadia Weekly Mar 30, 2017
by
share with
By Fran Syverson
When two dramas are presented in repertory, one of the huge challenges is to have the stage settings easily interchangeable as the plays appear on alternate performances. With A “Wrinkle in Time” and “The Belle of Amherst” having such contrasting themes–from galactic, dark space in Wrinkle to a poet recluse’s 1800s world, her solitary room – adapting the settings was particularly daunting. The Playhouse’s set constructers: Todd McCraw, Steven Barr, Trifecta Scenic, Zayra Lobo and Evan O’Donnel accomplished this with striking success. The contrast between the two plays—“Wrinkle” and “Belle”—now playing in repertory at the SMP could scarcely be more disparate in theme.
A Wrinkle in Time
Lifted from the pages of the ever-popular, young adult fantasy, “A Wrinkle in Time” comes alive at the Sierra Madre Playhouse.
“It was a dark and stormy night…” when Meg joins her super-brilliant, 5-year-old brother Charles Wallace and their mom for a midnight cup of cocoa. As so often before, they talk sadly of their father, a scientist who mysteriously disappeared two years before. How can they find him?
Charles is brainy and also seems to have some supernatural powers. He has made a connection with Mrs. Whatsit, who helps the children and their friend, Calvin, bend time and space to search for their Dad on other planets. And how do you bend time and space? Through “a wrinkle in time,” of course!
During their travels, they meet astonishing creatures whose strange costumes (by Vicki Conrad) add flavor to the otherworldliness atmosphere.
The setting, lighting and sound are such integral parts of this production that it seems as if they are characters, too. A tall, fabricated wall has lines drawn on it to indicate doors and windows through which characters pop out every now and then. Dramatic lighting designed by Rebecca Hairston is a real mood-creator, as is the original music by Sean Paxton. Sound design is by Christopher Moscatiello.
During the season, more than 2,000 students attend through arrangements with their schools. These daytime audiences are primarily middle school students on field trips to be introduced to live drama. Because the actors are school-age children, and weekday performances are presented in the mornings, most youngsters’ roles are double-cast. Weekend performances will enchant adults with their spectacular special effects and fast action. They are Fridays at 8:00 p.m. and Saturdays at 2:30 through April 22.
Estelle Campbell and Christian Lebano are co-producers, with Lebano also directing. Matthew Hill is set/projection designer. John Glore adapted “A Wrinkle in Time” from a novel by Madeleine L’Engle.
Go to the Sierra Madre Playhouse website to learn about other exciting events planned with a “Wrinkle” theme.
– Courtesy photo
The Belle of Amherst
From the moment Ferrell Marshall enters her homey, 1880s room, she emanates Emily Dickenson. In her ankle-length, white dress she greets us. (White is all she ever wears, we soon learn.)
Graciously, she tells us about her world, contained entirely in her room…and why that satisfies her completely, as it’s all she needs. A quilt loosely covers her single bed. She has a settee and chair, and a solid wooden coat rack. Green foliage adorns her wire plant-stand—green when she remembers to water them, she says, smiling conspiratorially, A chimneyed gas lamp provides light, and a pendulum clock reminds her of time, although we sense that she lives more to her own rhythm than to the tick of any clock. Emily’s solitary proclivities have earned her the title of “The Belle of Amherst.”
Every now and then, Emily sits at her desk to jot down a quick inspiration for another of her poems. She’s written hundreds of them, often on slips of scratch paper or candy bar wrappers. While she writes because of her own love affair with words, she confesses she would like others to find joy in them, too. Only a handful has been published.
While she clearly remains Emily throughout the one-woman show, Ferrell often segues briefly into a dozen or so other “voices.” Similarly, while she narrates her story she manages to glide into one of her poems so slyly you have to be aware or you may miss them. Ferrell Marshal’s nuances of facial expressions are remarkable at conveying a gamut of emotions—whether remembering schooldays or anticipating a publishers’ visit, describing her garden or her much-loved dog Carlo.
Ferrell not only stars in Belle, but also co-produces with Christian Lebano and Estelle Campbell. Todd Nielsen directs.
The Belle of Amherst plays Thursdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. through April 23.
