Amberly Hildebrant also contributed to this article
In recent weeks, the Branding Iron Theatre hosted the final WT student theatrical play for the semester, “The Drowsy Chaperone”. A popular play notably performed on Broadway, director and Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre Andrew Lewis has worked vigorously the past few months to bring an equally entertaining adaptation to West Texas A&M.
“This is a fairly new musical that has a very classic feel to it. This allows the students to work on a piece that is not too far removed from Broadway, but also gives them a taste of classic musical theatre,” Lewis said.
The Drowsy Chaperone is a musical comedy of a play within a play paying homage to the Jazzy Age of American history. This concept of a play within a play can be described as a character in a chair on stage, which is played by sophomore Dakota Brown, playing one of his favorite records, “The Drowsy Chaperone”, meanwhile addressing the audience through monologue and his own opinions. In turn audience is watching this play because it’s this character’s favorite record and he wanted the audience to enjoy it with him.
“My favorite part of the production is having the opportunity to play a character who gets to speak directly to the audience,” Brown said.
Lewis also said he enjoyed the part of “The Man in the Chair” because of the interactivity between the character and the audience.
“I love the things [The Man in the Chair] has to say and his opinion of the show,” Lewis said. “It adds so much humor to the show as well as gives the audience an inside look.”
The play supplies countless laughs by using this play-in-a-play concept. The character who is presenting this record for us would play with the record player by pausing and rewinding the play. At one point, the record actually “skips” leaving the musical repeating the same dialogue and dance moves.
The play portrays a story about a broadway actress, named Janet Van De Graaff, who is quitting the show business to marry a man named Robert Martin. Her producer, Mr. Feldzieg, is trying to get the wedding called off so she will continue her career rather than running away with her lover. The producer goes to extents of partnering up with a foreign man, named Adolpho, who was played by Mateus Sobral Barbosa Da Silva, in hopes of spoiling the wedding. This play focuses on comedy immensely and gives audiences a fun and enjoyable ride.
Auditions for the production were held back at the beginning of the semester, a task that Lewis said was difficult due to the great turnout of talent.
“We held auditions at the beginning of the semester and our students really showed their stuff. After initial auditions, we hold callbacks where students sang specific songs from the show. During those callbacks, I simply tried to find the person that fit each role the best,” Lewis said. “For most roles, there were several students who could have played them wonderfully. That makes decisions really hard.”
Going into the show, the cast had no shortage of experience. Most had several years of experiences, with senior Katie Ratliff saying she had been performing in theatre since childhood.
“I have been doing theatre since elementary school,” Ratliff said. “I was in little school plays and things like that. It wasn’t until high school that I really fell in love with it.”
Brown also has several years of theatre experience, but says he’s been doing something at least acting related his entire life.
“I have been doing theatre for six years, unless you count pretending to cry and mimicking cartoon voices, in which case if you do, I have been doing theatre my entire life,” Brown said.
The Drowsy Chaperone was held last week. It was held April 16-18 at 7:30, April 18-19 at 2:30 and April 22-25 at 7:30.
