The SUNY Niagara Theatre Student Showcase Comes to The Black Box Theatre: An Evening to Remember!

By Brandon Davis

In the compact black box theater, we all sat and watched the empty stage. The black walls and curtains exacerbated the darkness that soon took hold of the whole place. After a moment, a single light lit up a young man who walked onto the empty space that was plotted out as the small venue’s stage. This marked the beginning of the theatrical menagerie that was the SUNY Niagara Theatre Student Showcase.

The showcase was comprised of a collection of individual scenes chosen by the students who would perform them. The three types of scenes that were performed were musical scenes, with a student taking the stage and singing, monologues, and partner scenes. There were eleven scenes overall with four musical scenes, four monologues, and three partner scenes.

The experience that the black box theater provided was good. The dialogue, and the singing was easily heard from any part of the theater. The lighting provided by the technical team also worked wonders during this production. In particular the scenes “Monster” and “Franklin Shepard, Inc.” utilized the lighting in very interesting ways. “Monster” used a red tinted light to make visible to viewers the internal moral struggle that the song and scene represents. “Franklin Shepard, Inc.”, on the other hand, used a very effective spotlighting effect to signal when the dialogue was internal instead of external. The costuming and props were also good. In particular, the first musical scene “Waving through a window” from Dear Evan Hansen performed by Vincent Ward, the actor wore a cast on his arm that appeared to be a cut out sock. It worked quite well and seems like a very ingenious solution to an interesting costuming/prop dilemma.

Another thing that is worth mentioning is the pacing of the entire evening. The transitions between each scene were smooth and only gave viewers enough time to glance down at the program to see what was coming up and who was performing in it. This was apparently not an easy effect to accomplish. Jess Vriesen, who acted and worked on costuming for showcase said this about the transitions, “The scene changes took a few rehearsals to become seamless. Occasionally an actor would miss a scene change and another would have to think quickly and cover for them.”

Each scene was great and contributed to the overall experience of the showcase, but there were three scenes that really stood out. The monologue from Fences performed by Christina Thomas, the musical scene “Beautiful Ghosts” from Cats performed by Raine Hagel, and the partner scene from Den of Thieves performed by Kaiden Manzella and Jess Vriesen.

The monologue from Fences was notable because of just how much emotion the actress, Christina Thomas, was able to portray especially considering just how powerful the actual words of the monologue are. Without a partner to play off summoning genuine tears or anger must be much harder and the fact that she was able to accomplish such a thing is worth commendation.

The musical scene “Beautiful Ghosts” from Cats, was an excellent example of just what musicals can accomplish. The song itself was brilliantly performed by Raine Hagel who was able to accomplish two things at once. First, their voice and singing were terrific which made the entire scene a joy to sit through. Second, they were able to portray actual emotion during the parts of the scene where it was called for. Essentially, they succeeded at both singing and acting which is seriously impressive. An honorable mention should be made to the musical scene, “Franklin Shepard Inc.” from Merrily We Roll Along performed by Connor Kinney. The performance itself was good, but what was impressive was that with how much physical movement was part of the scene, as well as how fast the lines were performed, Connor didn’t pass out. Serious kudos to their lung capacity.

The last scene that will be discussed is from Den of Thieves performed by Kaiden Manzella and Jess Vriesen. This scene was phenomenal because of the individual performances of each actor as well as the chemistry they both had on stage. The scene really felt natural and succeeded at getting a good reaction out of those in attendance. When the scene was humorous the audience consistently laughed, whether it was at the great line delivery or the physical comedy that was present.

So, on a final note, congratulations to everyone who took part in making this production an enjoyable experience for everyone who was able to attend. The full cast and crew is, in no particular order, Brendan Didio who directed, Astrid Solecki who acted, worked as the stage manager and did lighting design, Elliot Hunt who was the technical director, Joe Schmidt who was the technical director emeritus, Jess Vriesen who acted and did costuming, Kaiden Manzella who acted and did props, Randy Jaques who was a technical assistant (audio board operator), Danny Krajewski who was a technical assistant (light board operator), Raine Hagel who acted and did poster/cover design, and Connor Kinney, Christina Thomas, Amara Preston, and Vincet Ward who all acted for the show case.