Tears were shed by audience members during a moving performance of “Cadence” at the Emerging American Voices showcase on Oct. 14. at The Little Theatre.
Since the showcase was held in a small and intimate setting, the audience had the opportunity to give the actors feedback at the end of the show.
For the first 30 minutes, the actors seemed nervous on stage in front of an audience, which caused stumbling over words with a few of the actors. With only three rehearsals, it was expected to have some minor mistakes.
During the performance of “Cadence,” the characters Dolores and Rita, played by Deborah Ontiveros and Johanna Romo, messed up on their lines a few times during the beginning portion. The student actors carried on with their lines, however.
Towards the middle portion of the screenplay, the actors appeared to be more comfortable on stage.
One of the more memorable characters was Milton, played by Josh Gutierrez. His acting abilities complimented his emotionally charged scenes. The look on the audience members’ faces made his acting seem like real life.
In one scene Milton is confessing his love for Rita and how he wants to be with her. It was a powerful moment between the two characters.
The narrator, Cynthia Asmar, who is also a producer of the play, read the narration of the screenplay. Asmar’s reading was smooth with minimal mistakes. She was loud and clear with her words, so the audience could hear well.
The stage was well lit. No issues occurred with lighting or spotlights on the actors at any point during the reading.
Some of the choices of outfits that the actors portrayed were odd. A house party scene looked as though one of the actors was wearing a nursing scrub top.
The costumes could have been improved by wearing outfits that really complimented each scene, especially since they used a limited number of props. At times it was difficult to imagine what was going on because some of the outfits were random.
At the end of the performance the actors and producers sat on stage and held a Q&A session from the audience, which lasted about 20 minutes.
The Q&A wasn’t necessary because it was mostly all compliments, which anyone could walk up to any of the actors or producers after the performance and compliment them. It wasn’t a proper Q&A, due to the lack of questions from the audience.
This performance was worth the ticket price to the audience.
