75. Troupe News-Induction Photos & Caesar "Review"

TROUPE NEWS: Nine MCS middle school students were inducted as junior thespians into Troupe 88799 of the International Thespian Society. The new junior thespians are Sung Woo (Jimmy) Baik, Lourence Camacho, Mariel Ferrer, Hope Gomez, Angeliya Lizama, Andrea Manese, Victor Sablan, Josie Santos, and Ginny Wu.

Troupe president Anna DLG., and troupe secretary Victoria Camacho helped with the ceremony.

Troupe member also came to support the new troupe members.

The ceremony was held before the premiere of CAESAR, the MCS theatre club's feature movie. We had to wait at the AMP visitors' center because of a minor screw-up in their scheduling of events. SIS had its 8th grade graduation ceremony scheduled for essentially the same time as CAESAR was supposed to be screened.

CAESAR: The SIS and MCS administration, teachers, students, parents, and friends worked out an amicable co-use agreement on the spot--with SIS going first, and agreeing to be as quick as possible (and still give due pomp and circumstance to the 8th grade graduates). The film-goers agreed, for the most part, to hang out in the lobby and chat, not too noisily, waiting for their turn.

I was impressed with Galvin Guerrero's easy acceptance and acommodation of the situation. Hal Easton, who came as the Chapter Director of the Thespians of the Western Pacific Islands, said that theatre people know how to roll with the punches, that the motto "the show must go on" is deeply ingrained, so that even students don't lose their cool when the power goes out in the middle of the show (as happened recently at the Multi-Purpose Center when the TWPI were performing their two one-act plays!).

And as for my impression of the MCS movie CAESAR:

Wow! It wasn't Hollywood, but it was good for a student production. The production choices worked well within the context of the movie--choosing a gritty "film noir" tone, using light and dark contrast for drama, using modified, ordinary English for much of the story but putting the words of Shakespeare in the mouths of the actors and actresses who could best pull off that level of powerful drama.

I loved the music used, although the sound was a little sketchy at times (going to loud, or too soft, and occasionally causing the actors' utterances to be inaudible or indiscernable). Some of the transitions (fades to black) seemed slow, but other transitions (cross-fades) were marvelous. I loved the use of different venues in Saipan to dramatic effect.

The story is well-known, of course, being Shakespeare. I liked that Brutus and Mark Antony were recast as women, and there was a slight love-interest aspect between Brutus and Cassius (gee, I hope I got that right. Between Letition Cabrera and John Babauta.)

This version of CAESAR will not win awards, drags a bit in the middle, and is clearly a student production, but it is well worth seeing.

Second show TONIGHT (SATURDAY 5/31) at AMERICAN MEMORIAL PARK, 7 PM.

Come and enjoy the show, and then take in dinner at the last Taste of the Marianas.