Brought to you by the Department of Theatre and New Dance, “Boy Gets Girl” is the first production of the 2019-2020 season, and it showcases themes of stalking and sexism.
Theresa Bedell, played by Melissa Lubina, is a hard-working journalist for “The World” magazine. Her two co-workers are Mercer Stevens, played by Matthew Covalt, whom she has worked with for three months, and Harriet, played by Jena Franco, a silly secretary on a serious stage. Her boss, Howard Siegel, played by Noah Lawrence, plays a fatherly role in Theresa’s life.
(Courtesy of CPP Theatre and New Dance)
The play begins in a bar. Theresa meets up with Tony, played by Nicholas Bias, on a blind date that was set up by a friend.
Although their exchanges are rather quick and awkward, Theresa agrees to go on another date with him.
At this point in the play, Tony can be thought of as weird and persistent as he follows her to the door of the bar and asks for her number and address.
In the next couple of scenes, Tony repeatedly calls Theresa over the phone, leaving voicemail after another, sends flowers to her office multiple times and even shows up at her work.
When Tony visits her office to apologize, Theresa feels very uncomfortabl, and she demands him to leave and never contact her again. Tony reacts furiously, slamming his fist against the door. This is only the beginning of a nightmare for Theresa.
Throughout the play, the actors use vulgar language as they express distress and fear.
Disbelief and tension can be sensed from the audience as scenes became almost disturbing. However, there were comical elements in these scenes to lighten the mood.
Unlike other productions, having one area of concentration of actors performing, this production exposes the audience to four different spaces. Besides the main space, the other three spaces are more intimate as the actors are performing right beside or in between audience members.
Although these spaces allow the audience to feel intimate with the actors, there is discomfort in having to shift body position to see the performance.
Lighting from scene to scene changed to different colors as they intentionally set the mood for specific scenes.
Music also played a role in setting the mood for specific scenes. However, a majority of the scenes do not provide any type of background music.
The play itself is intriguing. It shows how quickly stalking escalates, the challenges of living in fear and how it affects everyone in the person’s life.
The character developments from act one to act two improved and became stronger as the story progressed.
The costumes contributed to the portrayal of each individual character. Although the play is set in the 2000s, character Les Kennkat, played by Darrick Szabo, who is an aged porn director, manifested a 1970s look.
Dialogue between the characters made relationships appear realistic. Yet, there are moments in which characters tend to break eye contact, looking into the audience and making those relationships appear less genuine.
While the play focuses on a woman being stalked, the message brings awareness to both genders.
The production did a great job in bringing together “Boy Gets Girl” as students incorporated great acting.
Altogether, the production was unforgettable and is a great start to the production season.
