Generic: Freshman Showcase

              Generic's 10th annual Freshman Showcase kicks off their season tonight in the Lisner Downstage! After 14th's Welcome Back One Acts last week it was great to see another fine display by the rockin' class of 2016. With many stars of student theater graduating last year I'm relieved to see they've gotten an influx of new folks with some real potential. For the most part I'm going to ignore my own rubric for this post simply due to the nature of the Freshcase format. So here goes:

Company Presentation

             First off, a big thank you goes out to Generic Theater Company, and in particular artistic director Henry Morillo, for allowing me to attend Freshcase early at their final dress Thursday night. The atmosphere was open, and energetic (with some grooving pre-show music) for myself and several other invited guests who would otherwise not have been able to attend the show this weekend.

            Generic once again shows itself ahead of the curve when it comes to PR. Not only did I NOT receive a flurry of obnoxious, daily emails over the listserv for a week in advance, but I also wasn't allowed to forget about the performance. It was a perfect balance of reminders without being pushy. Now, let's talk about DAT poster. Generic's big strength over the past few years has been its poster design. They don't disappoint here. The poster blends a sleek design with the factual points it needs to make. All the scenes, dates, and times are clearly displayed with the clever "Freshcase" febreeze bottle. The only downside to the poster? I'm not sure how well a febreeze bottle really catches the attention of those who don't know what freshcase is in the first place.

Now here is where I break the rubric - since there was no real set to speak of, and the downstage light board is a continuing saga of pain and misery, I'm just going to jump in and break down Freshcase scene by scene.

The MC's

           Generic introduces a new aspect to Freshcase this year: masters of ceremonies. Three freshmen girls jump to the stage to introduce each number of the showcase. Their banter is clever and the three girls do a great job of letting us know what's coming up. Unfortunately, they sometimes forget to wait for their light, beginning some of there intros in the dark of a scene change. Some of their jokes fell a little flat on the bare bones audience that attended the final dress - but I'm sure with a full audience to start the chuckles and haha's this trio is gonna do juss fine (for some reason my brain jumped into a southern accent there - whoops).

Lay All Your Love on Me

          Artistic director Henry Morillo's piece starts off the evening with a song and a dance. The piece is upbeat and fun. Henry even added a few surprises in the choreography for anyone who is up to date on the latest internet culture. Lay All Your Love on Me  was also a reintroduction to one of my favorites from Welcome Back One Acts: Jon Wiegell. Jon makes a few appearances throughout the night and his performances are just as good as his performance in Welcome Back One Acts. He still needs to stifle them giggles though, and it often becomes clear that he's a little too proud of his own acting. Still, like I said before, this kid is clearly having fun up there and he's got a pretty great career in student theater ahead of him. Overall Lay All Your Love on Me was just a downright fun number. If it suffered from anything it was simply that the energy was a little low - a typical problem for a final dress rehearsal.

        On the subject of Henry Morillo I have one small comment to make. Generic outsiders seemed to think Henry was on odd choice for artistic director of Generic this year. But, his influence is clearly seen throughout the freshmen showcase. Some of the little details scream of a note given by an artistic director and the whole showcase has a nice flow to it that is clearly engineered from above. If Henry's influence carries through the rest of Generic's season, then Generic stands to have a truly great year.

Two Days in Paris

         Two Days in Paris directed by Marissa Price is next up on the docket. The one who really stands out in this performance: Travis McCown. This guy gives himself over to the scene and really gets into it. While he wasn't playing an exceptionally complex character, I do hope to see more of him on the GW stages. Now here comes my nitpick about him: many of his choices seem self directed and a little out of place. Whether that is due to weak direction, or an inability to take notes remains to be seen. Travis has real talent, I just hope he can listen to his directors.
        Two Days in Paris also had some strange directing choices as far as blocking goes. Marissa seemed to fall into the oh-so-common trap of creating movement to diversify blocking without grounding it in motivation. At one point, Travis carries luggage across the stage for his scene partner, only to move it right back to where it started without any explanation at all. It seems to me that this cast of rookies could have used a little more heavy-handed directing.
       But still, the scene was pleasant to watch and was certainly a welcomed addition to freshcase.

The Game
         Next up is The Game directed by Lucas Rogers. I'm sorry to say it folks, but this was my least favorite scene of the showcase. Not because of poor acting or weak directing, but because the script is just awful. High language, mixed with ever-changing metaphors and over-dramatized, poetic imagery made for a script that simply lost my attention. In the interests of full disclosure, however, I will say I REALLY had to use the restroom at this point in the performance which strongly influenced my ability to focus.
        However, the scene was well directed with dynamic blocking choices, and a seemingly strong understanding of character. Not to mention some up and coming acting heavy weights. Flynn Beckman in his role as Death, for example, is a man who I fully expect to see in some leading roles to come. He also is a taller reincarnation of the much beloved Josh Benjamin. In fact, he is so much like Josh Benjamin it was hard not to hold him to the same standards as the late, great comedian who brought us such phrases as "das weuhd" and "You drink my milkshake!" Even his smirks and physicality matched up - it was a strange experience for me. Flynn, if you're reading this, you might not know Josh Benjamin, but know that this is one of the highest compliments I can offer!

Best Daddy
       Best Daddy directed by Ashley Chen followed The Game. By a happy accident (remember I said I had to pee) I missed this performance. I say happy accident not because the show sounded bad from the other side of the downstage curtain, but because Ashley is a very good friend of mine and I really didn't want to review this scene in light of that fact.

In Arabia We'd All Be Kings

       Michael Salgarolo's piece was both confusing and extremely satisfying all at the same time. I have no idea where it was set (Jersey, New York, Boston?) but to me it felt like I was sitting in a bar in Lowell or Charlestown listening to the townies lives. The scene was funny and tragic, exciting and nonsensical. But it was darn good. Michael clearly had the best casting in the show (competing perhaps only with Hannah Feintuch, but we'll get to that). The blocking got a little trapped around the "bar", but that is a danger in any bar scene - how do you get the actors away from the bar when in real life that's what they're there for? When the actors weren't stuck around the bar they had a little trouble with overcrowding. Jon Weigell's high energy portrayal of Lenny brought him up close and personal with several of his scene partners but often left the scene with no room to escalate.
      Three folks deserve some special recognition from this cast. First, Matthew Hare in his role as Sammy. Matthew plays a convincing drunk and was just plain hilarious. Second, Garrett Blackmar-White in his role as Skank. Skank is seriously messed up and Garrett played the role with all the humor he could squeeze out of it. Finally, Kristen Pinto in her role as DeMaris. Kristen played the role of a trashy psycho fantastically!

English Made Simple
        This was, personally, my favorite scene of the evening. It was touching, funny, dynamic, and well directed by Hannah Feintuch. The three person cast was terrific and I have a hard time identifying anything that didn't go well in this scene. Samantha Gordon in her role as Jill is a rockstar and one that I can't wait to see in more performances at GW. Guys, seriously, just go see this one. I don't want to say anything more because I just want you to see it. Congrats Hannah, Samantha, Garrett, and Evie.

Across the Universe Medley

        The final number of the evening was directed by Alex Copeland and Mandy Smith. Honestly, this was an odd choice for the showcase as a whole and especially to end it. Although, I suppose it makes sense to bookend the showcase with musical numbers. The acting wasn't bad, but the music was strangely arranged and the sound levels just a bit off. The blocking was at times boring, at times distracting, pulling us away from the focus of the scene. One thing this number desperately lacked, though, was some strong music direction. The changing tempo of the medley seemed to throw people off and, if it wasn't for some all stars in the cast, threatened to derail the performance. Still, when they were on track, they were ON TRACK. I'm curious to see what will become of these particular freshmen after the showcase. I would love to give some shout outs to a few of the ladies in this cast, unfortunately there are no character names in the number and I haven't got a clue who any of them are. So, you'll just have to see it to figure out which freshmen are totally nailin' it.


And that's Generic's Freshman Showcase! Get out there and see this one friends, as usual it's a great way to scout out this year's freshmen - and the class of 2016 is gonna let their rage outta the rage-cage (oh, what up Max Shelton?). Check back next week for a review of FPP's The Pillowman directed by Jenna Duncan. There's going to be a surprise reviewer who isn't me [it's a surprise because even I don't know who it is yet (it's not me because I'm too close with Jenna and don't want her to murder my face right off)].

See you in the theater,
Ed

Generic's Freshman Showcase runs tonight 10/5 and tomorrow 10/6 at 7pm and 10pm in the Lisner Downstage.