![]() ![]() “Much of the actual movement came from the actors themselves, and it was the structuring and modifying that came from me,” Herman-Holland wrote. Here, the actors worked more as collaborators with Herman-Holland. The three performers flavored the Kabuki idioms they operated in with elements of hip-hop, breakdancing, and capoeira, among other styles and traditions of movement, ultimately resulting in what may be the creation of a new medium for a very old type of theater. Her rendition of Radiohead’s “Creep”-a song that I, being a pretentious Radiohead fan, convinced myself that I hated-was as emotionally cathartic as anything I’ve seen in the ’92. And Domino, doing double-duty as the primary vocalist and actress, played her part with grit and grace. He consistently moved with delicacy, precision, and skill, to spellbinding effect. ![]() John, the show’s hero, did not have a false beat in his performance. His nimble, forceful motion captivated on both a technical and emotional level. ![]() Martinez’s official entrance to the stage, set to Kanye West’s brag-rap masterpiece “Monster,” was a display of raw, muscular control. “Starfall” is most effective when it relies on the physical prowess of its cast. Her efforts proved it was more than possible. “I began working on ‘Starfall’ because I was curious as to whether or not it was possible to re-create the atmosphere of kabuki when it was popular, in the context in which I love: a community of young people, in Connecticut, in 2015,” Herman-Holland wrote. They interacted with the cast when they were offstage, shouted support, and moved throughout the room with little restraint. Audience members cheered, jeered, and interjected in the midst of the action. They sat on cushions in the light, and came and went when they pleased.”Īt “Starfall,” that atmosphere was very present. They talked, ate, drank, and moved around during performances. ![]() “Spectators of Kabuki in its heyday experienced theater in a way that was much more exciting to me,” she wrote. Herman-Holland wanted her thesis to reflect a less strict boundary between audience and performance. “Some people feel comfortable sitting still, in the dark, intently following a carefully constructed plot, but that particular kind of theater experience does’t really appeal to me,” Herman-Holland wrote in an email to The Argus. The story was told just as much through dance and heightened motion as it was with dialogue, channeled through an elevated cultural and technical lens. The majority of the show-that which takes place in its dreamlike, heightened world-was grounded in the tradition of Japanese Kabuki drama. The setup was not only effective from an expressive standpoint, as it provided the performers with a very specific space to move through and explore it also opened the theater to a large, responsive audience, eager to hear music loved, hated, and hate-loved.Īll of these elements were certainly key to the experience of “Starfall,” but they are not its main conceit. The stage-a rectangular platform attached to a long, narrow catwalk-surrounded the ’92, transforming the space into an excellent concert venue. All of this action takes place during the band’s set list: a selection of songs that one might have found at a bar mitzvah party or a middle school dance in 2009. John ’18) and the band’s singer (Alyssa Rose Domino ’17) make a split-second connection, which is expanded upon and explored in a dream sequence featuring a villainous figure hell-bent on keeping the two apart (Marco Martinez ’15). At a cover-band concert, a bystander (Noah St. “Starfall” tells a story equal parts simple and strange. I can safely say that this was one of the experiences that makes me happy to have access to this campus and the theatre it fosters. Last Saturday, with little to no previous information, I walked into “Starfall,” the senior thesis of Grace Herman-Holland ’15. ![]()
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