ANGELO CIVIC THEATER
Besides depicting the Oklahoma/Texas dating situation quite accurately, Angelo Civic Theater’s production of “Oklahoma!” is old school theatre at its finest.
The show will run for one more week at the ACT.
The ensemble cast, dancers, and choreographers spent weeks perfecting the 15-minute dream ballet sequence, all original, joined by additional dancers from Ballet San Angelo.
I got a chance to talk with the leading actors before the show:
Bringing a wartime show into the 21st Century
When Rogers and Hammerstein were working on “Oklahoma!” the country was right in the middle of the World War II. Unlike so many other dramas and musicals of this time, “Oklahoma!“ takes place farther back, in a time before Oklahoma was a state.
This might have been a key to why it was such a Broadway hit: it had nothing to do with what was going on at the time.
Instead, it’s like a three-hour time machine trip that takes us out of the problems of modern life. To me, the entire musical seemed somewhat dream like.
Hera Olson, who plays Virginia, discusses her love for the “golden age” musicals with Sarah Dunlap, who plays Laurie:
“The golden age refers to 1943 to about 1969. Musicals like Carousel, My Fair Lady, and She Loves You. The main distinction is off the vocal style; it’s more like choir singing than modern pop.” Olson explains
Olson grew up with her mother in the theatre, which she majored in at West Texas A&M.
“It’s a mix of contemporary dance and ballet,” Olsen said “this has been one of my favorite shows we’ve ever done…and I know that our choreographers kind of pushed their normal comfort zones to develop the show.
The choreography is all original, developed Erin Lane and Cameron O’Brian, who work the ballet sequences into the rest of the show in small touches. Of course, the centerpiece is the 15 minute dream ballet, which was by far my favorite part of the show.
“This is such a fun show,” Olson says, “sometimes in classical musical theatre, the plot can be hard to follow, but this show is pretty straight forward. It’s the romance of two couples. Twists and turns, some darker themes, which is very typical for golden age shows.”
Not everything goes right on stage
Sarah Dunlap jokes about the purple dress she’ll be wearing tonight: “Yes it turns out they were putting it on backwards, look I’m just glad it’s staying up…”
“Oh yeah, we had an incident,” says Olson.
Dunlap laughs: “Well yeah, my skirt fell like three times on stage last time.”
“Yep…that’s the fun of live theatre…just got to work through it,” says Olson “Y’know we’ve had something go wrong almost every show, but we’ve never let it stop us.”
“You just got to rise above, we’re professionals…” Sarah says with a shrug.
For several, this will be their first time in a musical, or their first play at ACT.
Dunlap is sure to point out that her friend, Piper Compton who plays Ado Annie, has never done a musical before. You would not have been able to tell, because Compton really delivered, and made her character shine. So much so that during the final bows, Compton got an additional cheer from the crowd. It was hard to say ‘no’ to her charm.
Dunlap and Olson will not return for the ACT production of Frankenstein this fall. They need a break, especially Olson, who’s appeared in almost every production for the last year.
Jud and Curly
Jud and Curly are adversaries, and though the musical is pretty light hearted, the tone shift when Curly confronts Jud in the smokehouse was done very well, and not something I saw coming at all.
Furthermore, Aiden Brooks did a fantastic job as Jud. His stage presence, and just the look on his face was enough to convey right from the beginning of his scenes that something is wrong about this guy.
Asked about his favorite song, Kaden Wright, who plays Curly, says “Poor Jud is Dead is a fun one. It’s a weird turning point in the musical. The lead man who’s a charming character shows his sinister side, and we see the softer side of the main villain of the show, with a bit of humor tossed in.
Wright wanted to make sure to point out that the ballet took two weeks to develop, and they were fine tuning it right up until tech week.
“Oklahoma!“ was interesting to watch as someone who was already familiar with Rogers and Hammerstein’s other musicals, most famously “The Sound of Music.”
Though it’s very polished, you can see the early influences that would go on to shape their future musicals.
To me, “Poor Jud is Dead” is clearly influenced by old school church chanting, going back to the choral influence that Olson discussed earlier.
Often times, the repetition in the songs is reminiscent of Gilbert and Sullivan, e.g. “The Model Of A Modern Major General.”
That’s part of why, almost 82 years later, “Oklahoma!” is required viewing, and even better if you get to see it live. In fact, I would insist, because there’s something about it that works on stage a lot more than the movie adaptation.
Showtimes:
- 7:30 p.m. Friday Sept. 19
- 7:30 p.m. Saturday Sept. 20
- 2 p.m. Sunday Sept. 21
Angelo Civic Theater is located at 1936 Sherwood Way.
Crew and Cast
- Director – Julie Hamil
- Assistant Director – Alyssa Spence
- Music Director – Julie Hamil
- Choreographers – Erin Lane, Cameron O’Briant
- Stage Manager – Deja Martinez
- Props Master – Paulette Schell
- Costumers – Leah Speed, Ethan Bilbrey, Corinna Dezell
- Production Photos – Brooklyn Clark
- Headshots/Graphics – Delorah Latham
CAST
- Curly – Kaden Wright
- Laurey – Sarah Dunlap
- Aunt Eller – Elizabeth O’Briant
- Jud Fry – Aidan Brooks
- Will Parker – Hunter Miller
- Ado Annie – Piper Compton
- Ali Hakim – Josh Doe
- Gertie Cummings – Emily Morris
- Andrew Carnes – Monte Mahon
- Cord Elam – Kraig Schell
- Dream Dancers: Georgia Swaney, Gianni Mares, Bailey Jowers
Featured Soloists: Georgia Swaney, Piper Horton, Hera Olson.
Ensemble: Georgia Swaney, Hera Olson, Piper Horton, Nathan Miller, Gianni Mares, Bailey Jowers, Mia-Rachelle Meadors, Esther Whited, Tate McMillan, Francisco Rodarte, Lisa Heath, Anthony Asebedo, Yvette Sherman.
Dream Ballet Dancers: Jillian Baker, Aeryn Brake, Seva Devereaux, Lexi Kent, Madison Kissko.
