Shuddersome adapts Poe’s tales and terrifies audience

AS MOST of us know, putting on a play is not easy. Pulling off a play with few to no flaws is even harder. But when actors have as much talent as the students in advanced theatre have, they make it look so easy. In overall succession, they did well on the play. There is no critique that I could make. The only problem I had was I could see props I wasn’t supposed to see. There were some actors who were a little nervous, but it was a happy nervous, they were ready to do the play. The plan of the play, was to make you shudder, of make you kind of scared.

They nailed that on par. There acting was so good, I legit felt it when the main actors were angry, or scared, even timid. That they conveyed their emotion and voice with was without a doubt convincing. When I interviewed one of the actors, he said, “There were definitely places we could have improved, but for the most part, we did well.” Before the advanced theatre practiced, they walked around, practicing lines, and holding poses. To get into character.

It was quite fun watching them practice. They get really into it, which is why, guess is why they are in advanced theatre. The teacher and the students are good at what they do. When the right people put their mind to something, beauty comes from them. That is exactly what the play was, pure beauty. I have never spent a better hour of my life. The play was entertaining and immersing. You could tell by watching the play that there was a lot of trial and error during practice, just because they did it so flawlessly.

And nothing is flawless without trial and error. There was a small group of people, and without flaw, they set the creepy mood before the play. They slowly walked around, staring, looking kind of dazed. The students that advanced theatre chose to portray these creepy characters were chosen correctly. But that does not mean I didn’t like the play, the play was very enjoyable. The plot was easy to follow but intricate enough to be interesting. The way the characters were put together well, and the students portrayed the characters, was convincing. I felt like I was actually in the stories that they were acting out.

To add to the suspense, they projected their voices well without it feeling like they were yelling in your face. The structure that the theatre put the play together in, was in a way, that made you calm down a little then scare you a little, over and over again. The blood was believable and you could hear the emotion in the actor’s voices, like they actually felt what their characters were feeling. it was near impossible to not feel for some of the characters. The actuality of the characters was so believable that you felt like a real person was talking, not an actor. When the pictures popped up on the back screen, it didn’t distract from the show, it just added more elements for entertainment. The concessions were reasonably priced, and all the staff, and actors were extremely kind.

The theatre worked very hard on the play and wanted the audience to enjoy viewing the play as much as they did making it. The jump scares were unpredictable, if you did not want to be even slightly scared, you should not have gone to the play. When you work as hard as the theatre did on a production, mostly all you want is the audience to applaud – that is the best payment for theatre. The actors enjoy what they are doing, and some and most want to be professional actors when they grow up. Ms. Anderson inspired the actors to do their best, no matter what. She critiqued and supported the entire cast of the play the whole time.