'Sisters' bring Vaudeville to AU
Madalyn Wasilczuk
Issue date: 11/9/06 Section: The Scene
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Directed by Cara Gabriel
Katzen Arts Center
Nov. 9-11
$5
The American University Department of Performing Arts presents the world premiere of "The Cherry Sisters Revisited" this weekend. The play, written by Dan O'Brien, raises sincere and provocative questions through its vaudevillian comedy.
As the house lights go down, Effie (Cynthia Caul, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences) asks, "Do you believe in ghosts? You in the audience? Because you're looking at one."
The play proceeds to tell the story of five sisters and their road to vaudeville fame - or infamy, as the case may be. As they begin their quest for stardom in 1892, the sisters romanticize even the grossest ills of New York City; but as the play ends in 1935, the sisters' perspective has sharply changed.
Director Cara Gabriel, an assistant professor of theater in DPA, said she finds the meta-theatrical nuances of the play fascinating. She also said it is a stylistically different play than most of what DPA has done before, since the actors are required to act in vaudevillian style.
The fearless writing style of the play lends itself to archetypal characters that in turn demand fearlessness from the actors, Gabriel said. Gabriel also explained that over-the-top, purposefully bad acting is an important component of the play, allowing the actors to showcase a very different talent from the "living room drama" that characterizes most modern shows.
"The challenge [of the play] is more for the audience [than the actors]," said Tessa Raden, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences who plays Addie.
"If they think we're terrible then they've missed the boat entirely. It's a difficult thematic play, and it's difficult to communicate that to the audience," she said.
The play casts interesting parallels between the sisters' father and their manager, both named Pops and both played by Joshua Dick, a freshman in CAS. Gabriel explained this is done in part to communicate that men are held more responsible for the objectification of women. Furthermore, Dick's chilling portrayal sets in motion the unrest that Effie and the audience experience throughout the performance.
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