Thacher Masquers Score Three on a Match

Street-stalking, sweet-talking Death, mobs and vigilantes, funerals, the superstition surrounding the overarching title of the tripartite performance [which might be like uttering “M*cb*th” onstage or in the house, so this writer’s hedging her bets and not repeating it here]—it all added up to three evenings’ worth of rocking good entertainment.

First on the program, Christopher Durang’s short comedy Mrs. Sorken, which encouraged 1) thoughtfulness on the nature of words and theater, 2) that good old willing suspension of disbelief, and 3) appreciation for fresh Toadly talent, thanks to the exclamation-pointed, dotty yammering of Madison Rubeli ’14 in the title role—and a memorable blouse.

Next up, The Lives of Saints by David Ives brought the aproned Edna (Grace Lowe ’11) and Flo (Jacqueline King ’13) to a barren but infinitely lively center stage to cook, parry, laugh, fret, polka a bit, reminisce, and muse not only on how hard it is to find duck blood for good soup these days and whether they’ve prepared enough perogis, fruit/green/jello mold salad, cole slaw, nut clusters, angel food, pound cake, crumb cake, kroolers, kolachki, and krooshcheeki (the gals’ words) for the morning’s sad celebration, but on who’ll cook their funeral breakfasts—the practical and the philosophical baked up in one big hot dish. Behind a scrim, three students—Lili Boyle, Lexie Kirkwood, and Alex Zaldastani, all freshmen—created live sound effects as the two women went about their simple, important kitchen business.

Anchor on the evening(s) was Woody Allen’s Death, with new junior Peter Galer channeling Woody like crazy while running for his life as Kleinman. Stayin’ Alive—you can strategize it, you can sing it, you can dress for it (red sparkle dress + 5” heels?), you can dance it, you can try, try, try—but in the end of this play, you just can’t do it. Many corpses, stage left to stage right.

Death’s cast:

Henry--Shravan Rajasekaran ’13

Hank--Chris Dienst ’11

Al--Paul Cresanta ’13

Sam--Shane Griffee ‘12

Hacker--Jake Gannon ’11

John--Jesse Gates ’12

Victor--Joe Walton’13

Anna--Ciara Byrne ’14

Doctor--Graham Abbey ’11

Gina--Kallie O’Connor ’13

Man 1--Trevor Mulchay ’11

Policewoman--Tawni Stoop ’11

Bill--Cassie Disner ’12

Fran--Erin Chisholm ’11

Donna--Taylor Tobin ’13

Abigail--Katie Kellner ’14

Assistant--Emma Patterson ’12

Maniac--Will Callan ’11

Secret Action Team Leader--Jake Gannon ’11

Mob/Vigilantes and Secret Action Team--Christina Eilar ’12,

Amy Kim ’13, Annie LeFevre ’14, Ana Levy ’14, and Casey

Mulchay ’13

The whole uproarious kit and caboodle was in the hands of Drama Director Sandy Jensen, with technical direction by Thacher Fellow Liz Witmer. Senior Maggie Miller served as Assistant Director.

As Mrs. Sorkin pronounces about the magic of theater lights simply going on and off, "Well done, technical people." By whom, in this Milligan Center for the Performing Arts renditions, she meant Head Techs Sienna Courter ’11 (also Stage Manager), Trevor Mulchay ’11, and Leeah Stickelmaier (also Light Designer, assisted by Amar Patel ‘13; Sound Designer Alice Hyde ’12 and assistant Justin Myles ’13; Assistant Stage Manager Bryanna Lloyd ’11; Stage Crew Erich Herzig ‘14, Auden Ehringer ‘14, Parker Dawson ’13, and Brandon Green ’11; Props people Felicia Jian ’14 and Lane Sohn ’14; Costumess/Make-up artistes Rae Murphy ’11 and Leeah Stickelmaier ’11.