San Dieguito Academy Newspaper
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“Boy Meets Girl” a Successful Start to the Theater Year

October 10, 2016

SDA’s first play of the 2016-17 school year was “Boy Meets Girl”, a classic rom-com plot with a peculiar twist:  the main characters Sam and Kate are five-year-old lovebirds.

Senior Thea Farber played five-year-old Kate who immediately finds interest in Sam (junior Lawrence Cecio). The two immediately hit it off, yet find themselves in tough situations with Kate spending too much time playing with the other boys, and Sam not paying enough attention to Kate and disliking dancing. The actors weren’t the thing that truly grabbed my attention, however.  It was the play’s layout.

The performance was split into two halves.  The first act was the “The Boy Meets Girl” play itself, while the second half was a series of five cheesy love scenes from different plays, movies, and musicals.

The first act ran smoothly and seamlessly, with quick costume and setting changes.  Staging was worked out well, while there were some scenes in which only half the audience could see Farber as she paced back and forth making important gestures and expressions.  Junior Makena Garvey played both the teacher along with Sam’s older sister, Lisa, which I find a little unnecessary, seeing that the entire class put on this play with only five characters total.  Junior Gibran Mustafa was probably the highlight of the first act, playing a newly single, emotionally unsteady P.E. coach, adding his little bits of relationship advice to the children through a game of parachute.  All in all, the play was cute and funny, probably just the way it was intended…at least up until the second act.

The first short scene was from the musical “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.” Sophomores Jillian Strattman and Colin Gasperoni sang and acted along to the song “A Stud and a Babe” by Joe DiPietro.  It was cute enough, a little confusing, but cute overall.  It could’ve used a quicker start and a bit more action, instead of the two characters sitting in chairs at a table the entire time and only standing up to sing.

The second scene was probably one of the best.  Sophomore Rachel Kanevsky presented a monologue called “Un-Chatty Cathy” by Gabriel Davis.  Kanevsky was very accurate in her depiction of Cathy, who is a little socially awkward and dislikes public speaking.  Through strategic signs and bashful glances, Kanevsky perfected her character.

Third was from the musical “Spamalot” with juniors Jenna Steinberg and Dashiell Gregory.  The pair sang and acted to “The Song That Goes Like This” by Eric Idle.  The pair started out as hopeless lovers, yet their love slowly morphed into annoyance and contempt with one another, until finally their sweet voices turned to darker, more angry tones by the time the song ended.

The fourth scene was a scene from the play “Almost, Maine” with junior Rachel Kaplan and sophomore Caeden Schlosser.  Schlosser played a confused young man who seemingly can’t feel pain, and instead studies the books his brother made for him, titled “Things To Be Afraid Of” and “Things That Can Hurt Me.” Kaplan portrayed a young girlfriend of an abusive man who moved in near Schlosser.  Kaplan tries to convince Schlosser to ignore what his brother is trying to teach him and listen to his own beliefs.  The entire scene was a bit staged, and the actors seemed a bit like they were reading off of a paper and copying exact movements instead of going with the flow.

The final scene was a song called “Tonight You Belong To Me” by Billy Rose and Lee David from the movie “The Jerk” with seniors Blake Dewitt and Joshua Matuszeski.  Dewitt played the ukulele and sang and it was the perfect closing for the play.  I got goose bumps just listening and watching them.

Overall, it was a cute play and pretty pleasing to the eye.  Certain edges could be cleaned up and smoothed out for the second half, but it was definitely something I’m glad I saw.

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Sophie Hughes, Opinion Editor

sure thing, jelly bean

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    Rachel KaplanFeb 14, 2017 at 3:35 pm

    Thanks. Very sweet.

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