Theater review | Moving one-act kicks off student-run theater season

Cory Johnson
Contributing Writer

“Better late than never” took a positive connotation this weekend as VCU’s Shafer Alliance Laboratory Theater put on their first play of the year, “Bar and Ger.”

After many directors have pulled their shows from the first two months of the semester, VCU Theatre voice and speech pedagogy candidate Renina Hoblitz, in her directorial debut, brought to the sage a simplistic and sweet production of two people, a beautiful story of the love between a sister and her younger brother.

Geraldine – Ger for short – is 10 years old at the start of the play and the middle of three sisters when her parents have a son, Barry. Played by second-year performance majors Zach Brown and Morgan Meadows, both characters laugh and grow together on stage as their story of 17 years plays out in 22 minutes.

Both actors handle childhood naturally, as if they were five and 15 years old yesterday. They dance, jab and prod each other with the ease of wit that comes from good writing, youth and spending too much time with one another.

The chemistry and strength of the actors is brought out more by their lack of props, sets, or other cast members. Brown, as the high-spirited and reckless Bar, fills the stage with life every time he reacts to his sister, takes a stance or plays to the audience.

What they do have to help is lighting. Non-intrusive and working in tandem with the mood of each scene, the lighting gives the play visible dimensions without being distracting.

“Bar and Ger” gave the kickoff to the late start of this fall’s student run theatre program.

SALT community outreach coordinator Martha Johnson explained the uncharacteristically late beginning to this semester’s run of plays: “This year our Mainstage season is pretty intense.”

The recently produced “Shakespeare’s R&J” not only required two casts, but two crews to work on the different shows. The Theatre VCU production of “Grease” opening Nov. 4 has a massive cast and crew as well.

“The Actor pool that we usually pull from is pretty sucked up,” Johnson said. “A lot of directors this year who had shows (and) were scheduled for this fall season have gotten a little scared and pulled out because they didn’t think they’d have enough actors.”

The other reason Johnson cites for the delayed start is the lack of knowledge about SALT. She said that while Richmond in general has a large theatre pool, many people don’t know about SALT or how they can get involved. Anybody – VCU or outside community – can act, direct, costume or stage manage for SALT without having to be a part of the theater program, but people aren’t aware of the opportunity, Johnson said.

But despite this season’s setbacks, Johnson believes SALT will recover with a strong spring season. Many people who pulled out this fall, she said, plan to resubmit proposals for the spring.

The Shafer Alliance Laboratory Theatre continues their fall season this weekend with the original VCU production [vampire] Medea.