Zoo opens season with no slight folly

Author: Ellen Grafton

The pursuit of love and all its complications is a heavy matter indeed, but with this theme, the Hepburn Zoo season came to a light start last Thursday in the 10th annual first-year show, entitled "Slightest Folly." The production was directed by Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre Michael Wrynn Doyle '98 and consisted of six scenes.

All the actors did well in matching their dramatic choices to the style of their scene. In "One Tennis Shoe," Starrett Berry '09 and Lauren Fondren '09 played well off of each other to match slapstick hilarity with the piece's absurd premise. Mario Ariza '09 and Gabriel Suarez '09 also chose a broad, comic style in "I Am Not Alone," though their humor relied heavily on the stark contrast of personality between the talkative pizza boy (Ariza) and the lonely apartment dweller (Suarez). Although the scene was funny, certain aspects seemed staged and drawn out.

"Juvenillia," a scene of awkward flirting in a college dorm room, used a more gentle, dialogue-based comedy. Sheyenne Brown '09 gave a nice, naturalistic touch to the scene as a calm, confident, comedic foil to Matt Bell's '09 nervous lover. Kelsey Johnson and Stephanie Spencer, both '09, also chose quieter subtleties in their voice and movement that worked well with the highly poetic dialog of "Nightswim."

Some of the most captivating moments of the production were those of silent feeling that contrasted with the otherwise fast and verbose scenes. In "Wonderful World," the long pause as Elizabeth Zevallos '09 fidgets and squirms while she watches Leah Anderson '09 withdraw into her uptight reverie was the high point of their comedic duo. Equally effective, though in a different manner, was the silent moment in "The Credeaux Canvas" when the artist, Will Damron '09, poses his model, Mercedes Huff '08, for his sketch. The romantic and slightly sad mood of the scene was captured well in his gentle touch and her hesitant compliance.

The set design of "Slightest Folly" was simple, versatile and well-suited to the many different tones of the scenes. Retta Leaphart '06 and Julia Proctor '06.5 designed lighting that complimented the set and transformed the stage's mood for each new scene. The choice of soft, leafy shadows and blue tones perfectly fit the dreamy and poetic dialogue of "Nightswim."

The wide range of styles among scenes allowed for the new Middlebury actors to explore many different choices and tones, but at times the vastly different styles within the scenes drew away from the coherence of the show as a whole. Although the production was at turns comedic, absurd and poetic, the changes between different styles needed more transitions than brief Shakespearean quotes.

Overall, "Slightest Folly" proved to be a diverse and amusing look at love in its many different forms - a delightful beginning to new Middlebury acting careers as well as a new season at the Zoo.