Manny’s thoughts on love and marriage.

 A Walk Worthwhile is one of those titles that’s pliable enough to spin on shuffle. I’ll take a jab at it. The walk is referring to the the act of marriage and child-rearing which seems a fair trade-off when the incentive of a million dollars comes into play. That kind of money could buy happiness, it seems, never mind the moral caveat of banking your child.

I’ve seen these themes addressed better countless times before, though admittedly with less emphasis on the dollar’s influence. As a musical, it was nothing I could say was distinctly Czech for me. American musicals are just as over the top and dramatic.

boo hoo

i was not impressed last night.  i did not feel that there was one theme carried through the acting, set, and costumes.  it was too elaborate.  it was too much.  their ideas conflicted with what was already there… a much more simpler set would have been better.  i did, however, throughly enjoy their idea of seagulls.  that was cool, but again, did not fit with everything else.

also, the fact that it was shakespeare… it did not have that rhythmic quality.  it was translated into Czech… not re written for CZ… that was very disappointing

it was worth while

the walk was worth while… i think it was talking about your journey in life and your journey with other people.  their journey together was ending but they were going to still keep walking.  and, to me it is better to have loved and lost than never loved at all… so,  yeah- their walk was worth taking.

boooooooo!!!!!!!( totmate throwing now!)

ok so Iu think it sucked! big time! why you ask?ok, well………the costumes where completly out of place with the scenery…its like if the two designers never got together to discuss the designs. The whole samuri asian thing it just didn’t work. It might have worked if the would have used muted colors. I didn’t like the set. I was boring and they did to many things on the left part of the stage that should have been done on the right part of the stage because more of the audience could have seen it. what the hell where those hanger things? and why were they there? The two main actors were the worst. Especialy the girl, man she bombed! And what about those spirits thatcame out during the wedding scene? there costumes didn’t even go with the whole samuri theme. Why? they were soo out of place.  Ok so i getthat actors don’t have to be dancers but if you are going to have some type of dance routine, if you can even call it that, in a polay at least make sure that you rehease it more then once the day of the show!   If it wasn’t because it was for a class I would have walked out after the first act.

I like the cracky shit!

I really liked a walk worth while! It was funny and it didn’t take itself seriously. It was deffinatly shorter than any american musical I have ever seen. Which I actually liked. For some reason I think that in the u.s we think that everything has to be supper long. something else that was different from american musicals is ( at least i have never seen this before) how the chorus would sing from the balcony, not the stage. I thought that was super cool. And I loved the way that they have actors sitting in the crowd and coming out of the croud! I loved all of the lyrics to the songs. over all i really liked it. it was fun, easy going, light hearted comedy.

hahah heheh…..i like

Ok so I loved this show. It was short and sweet. It was fun and easy going. I loved the theme and how things where so out there and non realistic. My fav has to be they way that the chorus would sing these random songs in random moments that really had nothing to do with the show, and they would state that in the songs, off of the balcony. It was just like almost making fun of the the entire play itself. I also really like, and I have noticed this in a couple of check plays/musicals, that they like to have people coming out of, or behind of the audience. I love the interaction.

 Now the title, what is that about? well fortunaly i bought the program and in the program if you read enough of it it tells you. The reason they titled the musical a walk worth while is because well isn’t? Is’nt any walk worth a million dollors? Its actual that simple.hahah isn’t that just funny.

The Japanese Version of an English Play in the Czech Republic

?Que? 

So, that was interesting….  where to begin….  Let’s start from top to bottom.  First, the actors hanging out of the windows (yes, i got a picture of that)(and, no, i’m not talking about the stage movements of Prospero and Ariel) was rather distracting.  I think I was looking for them more (at least in the beginning and when people exited the stage) then I was paying attention to the play.  Speaking of distractions, I must have stared at the really bad coat hanger sea gulls (yes, i decided what they were, because i can’t fathom any other reason for their existance) for a total of about 10 minutes throughout the performance trying to figure them out.  Figuring things out seemed to be a problem for some of the actors.  Granted, the lights in the beginning can be chalked up as Murphy’s Law exacting its terrible wrath, but the sail, after a certain point, was simply over-kill.  Not to mention, the actors lost credibility as sailors when even the “captain” had trouble taking down one of the lesser sails.  it wouldn’t have been completely horrible to have left on stage.  Audiences could have easily percieved it as a curtain or peice of the shipwreck or something given the changing scenes if the acting allowed.  However, even the best actors could not save the completely out of place, out of style, and non-matching costumes.  I don’t remember the tempest happening in Tiawan; I don’t remember Alonso having a Prussian cap on his head; I don’t remember the hoop skirts being a style; and I don’t think Ariel would have had sleeves like that (though his/her head peice was pretty cool and the pants/skirt was an interesting new perspective).  On the issue of perspectives, I spent a good deal more time than I probably should have watching the performance in the reflection of the glass doors to the far right of the stage/seating area.  It didn’t make the performance any better.  And what was up with Caliban all of the sudden switching to English?  Did he forget how to say it in Czech?

Although, on a lighter note, I did like how a log was chosen to be a versitile peice that didn’t require moving on or off the stage.  I thought it was rather interesting and fit into every scene change normally.  (I don’t know if that is what the play originally calls for, but I liked it – it was believable.)  I also though it was a pretty clever use of an unusual stage when Prospero lifted Miranda into the little window-looking slot in the wall (don’t know what the proper term for that is – sorry!) when Ferdinand first came on stage.   

In all, not the best, not the worst, and a good opportunity to analyse what makes a believable Shakespeare performance.

A walk worth what?

yeah, the title  is basically an inside joke among the writers and producers of the show.  Once upon a cold ass day some guy had to go to a meeting to talk about this new musical in the works. He was all excited when he woke up but the shower had no hot water. Damn. But thats okay. Down to breakfast he went, he reached into the frindge to find…..nothing. His partner did not buy food last night. Thats okay, he’ll just have coffee his thought, to his surprise his 5 year old son filled the coffee maker with dirt just to play. Well there goes his moring coffee. Off to the meeting. Out the door and right into a puddle wetting his left shoe. No time to change. A brisk walk to the metro to find it was not in service because some dumb kids thought it would be funny to set off stinky gas bombs in five different stations at the same time. Out to the street he went, rushing on his way…rushing so rushed that he dropped his cell phone, his notebook, and newspaper all at the same time while stepping into dog poo with his right foot to keep from slipping from trying to catch his cell phone that fell into the street just as a tram hurls by at 50 mph crushing his new blackberry. The notebook was fine save for fact  that it landed in a puddle of urine pissed only hours earlier by two drunk bastards leaving a bar. The newpaper was blown into the wind by the speed of the tram Great, so now armed with a wet left shoe, a shit smeared right shoe, a broken beyond repair cell phone, a urine drenched notebook and no newspaper, the hungry coffee deprived man continued his walk.  Without the metro the walk was long so the man decided to ride the tram to shorten the journey. Luckly the tram he wanted  number 3 was just arriving, and he got on happily, thinking at lest he wont be late, What he didnt realize the tram was accually number 8. The man had just recently gotten a new prescription for his glasses. Little did he know his 3 yr old daughter had woken up early that morning and took his new pair of glasses to dress up her teddy bear to look like daddy. She also took his expensive blue silk tie and dipped it in finger paint to make it pretty, but that was of no importance today since he did not know. Anyway he had grabbed a pair of glasses of his dresser, not knowing they were the old ones, so at that moment the number 8 looked like a 3 espcially with the glare of the sun. So there he was confident in his seat looking through his note book not realizing he was going in the wrong direction. A few minutes pass, a man bumps into him, and pulls something out of his pocket, a badge, oh yes his tram ticket. Uh in all the confusion he simply forgot to purchase one,  WEll, he thought what an embarassing mistake. He made to pull out his wallet to his surpise it was not in his pocket. during his mishap with the phone and the shit and the urine some little kid took the oportunity to pickpocket. He had just made a large withdrawl last night. It was that kids lucky day. So the man was fined 500 crowns on the spot, thrown off the tram, and was surprised to find he was lost. With  wet shoe, an shit smeared shoe, a broken beyond repair cell phone, a urine drenched notebook, a pair of bad glasses, and no money  the starving man set off to find his way. I will not recount the rest of his misfourtune as it is long an tedious, however when he did finally arrive at his destination there was a sign on the door which read “Meeting posponed until tomorrow, Have a nice day”      “Well” he said    “That was a walk worthwhile”……..

Never Get Married

Why bother, unless you really want to experience the joys of getting divorced.  A Walk Worthwhile?  Maybe, maybe not.  Perhaps the title describes the journey that the characters went through – each deriving some sort of personal knowledge from the experience – during the divorce process and the aunt’s death.   The aunt realized the loneliness of her situation, the young woman realized that what she wanted had nothing to do with the men in her life or money (though I’m not entirely convinced that she does know what she wants…), the husband and lawyer come to grips with their desire for money, and the postman realized the young woman was crazy. 

It could also be that the title refers to just the main character.  One could argue the contrary to the affore mentioned position.  The young woman was the only one who experienced any sort of journey.  To undergo such an even requires some element of change.  The lawyer and the ex-husband don’t really change at all, however, their flaws become more apparent.  The aunt knows that her money is all that people are after, but doesn’t do anything that seriously reconciles this problem.  And the postman is simply a catalyst.  He has a story to tell, but you never really hear it.  He seems to be the only one with knowledge and perspective/insight on all of the issues faced by the characters – sort of an omnipresent know-it-all.  The young woman gains the most from the experience.  Perhaps, in the end, it was all worthwhile.  She frees herself from a relationship she never seemed to be fully satisfied with (in terms of herself and her ex-husband), she breaks from burden of fillial piety toward her aunt due to her aunt’s wealth, and she finds that money is not what she truely wanted/what makes her happy/solves her problems.  She seems to find that she wants a deeper existence than materialistic possetions, though she argueabley goes about it in the wrong way (poor postman).  To be free of such constraints is worthwhile in the end, but only she can be certain of that.  I guess it is what you make of your experiences/journies/”walks” in the end that dictates whether it is worthwhile or not, but i don’t think anyone is qualified in making that decision for someone else.  Then again, in theatre all is what you make it to be, and, in the end, it was just a swinging, fun performance……

AHHH Tempest-san

yeah, okay wow. That was really ummmmm interesting. Interestingly boring, and totally noncohesive. Samurai warriors, indian like ariel, the girl whose cream dress didnt go with anybodys, the appearance of a midsummer brigade of fairies in atrocious hoop skirts and horrid dancing. All set in a renainssance enviroment. Totally non cohesive. The acting was shitty, yeah i dont speak the language….but i watched the Producers in czech and i was intrigued, but this oh this was bad acting in any language. None of the actors seemed to be afected by one another, they were just saying their lines. and then not caring about the other actors. This was especially noticable in the two main characters, the old man, and the young girl. I dont think the designers of this show made use of the space properly. I think there were so many possiblities for the show to be good. But instead it just looked like a whole bunch of different people went off and designed stuff they liked without ever finding out what everybody else was doing, then came together that same night and just threw it onstage. yuck. And what was up with the hangers?! I figured they were birds, but regardless they looked stupid. Thats it.