SCENE | October 7, 2004| Send features tips

Catching Butterflies
A beetle hopes to win the love of a butterfly in The Butterfly’s Evil Spell

The Shorthorn: Hayley Harris Theater junior Sylvia Ainee practices her stance as one of the girl beetles in The Butterfly’s Evil Spell directed by Diane Simons.

By Esther Wong
The Shorthorn Staff

Boybeetle’s beetle heart belongs to the beautiful butterfly that fell in his beetle village and crashed his beetle world. But Boybeetle fears the beautiful butterfly will not return his beetle love.

Frederico Garcia Lorca’s The Butterfly’s Evil Spell, a tale of insect emotions gone magically awry, intends to expose beginning theater students to university-level theater. The primarily freshman and transfer student-produced show boasts one of the biggest opening season productions by the Theatre Arts Department, said Diane Simons, director and costume designer.

Simons tried to involve everyone who wanted to be part of the production, almost guaranteeing them a part so they could broaden their theater exposure. Not to be taken lightly, she said the show’s enormous undertaking demands a lot from everyone involved.

Dressed in a costume resembling a beetle, theater freshman Jennifer Snyder draws a big breath as she describes her rehearsal regiment and the effort she puts into her role as a village beetle.

Snyder and her castmates have rehearsed every weeknight since the first week of school, learning lines and acquainting themselves with their character’s quirky mannerisms. Snyder said familiarizing herself with the script was an important part of bringing her character to life.

“We go over our script every night individually making sure we have everything down,” she said.

Assistant Director Eric Wilder said The Butterfly’s Evil Spell does not conform to people’s perception of a usual play.

“This is a fairy tale,” the theater senior said. “It contains elements of something from Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream or it could even be something from a Disney movie, but it is definitely not a straight play.”

Snyder said the play’s unique theme, artistic symbolism and the ability to take the audience into another world using props and costumes attracted her to the production.

Portraying a beetle challenges her to use unusual body gestures and positions to emulate a bug and train her voice to speak in new ways.

The progression from idea to conception is mysterious and involves many people, Simons said. The ensemble cast consists of 24 actors and 26 production staff, including run crew, stage managers, designers and a drama historian.

“I think it’s a real exciting process a director goes through first having the kind of vision about what he or she is having and seeing how that comes to life,” Simons said.

Wilder struggled with being in an authoritative position over his peers. He said the working relationship requires reciprocal trust and respect between the director and the actors.

”My biggest challenge as an assistant director is communicating the artistic direction between Diane and I so that we won’t give two different directions to an actor or group,” Wilder said.

The play’s distinct audio and visual elements include live and recorded music representing multiple cultures, human voices as instruments, a nine-piece orchestra ranging from percussion to wind instruments and 250 projected images on large background screens.

“We are using a few pieces that Garcia Lorca actually wrote himself,” Simons said, adding that the rest were improvised tribal, classical and world music.

Simons said she drew inspiration from Japanese-style theater and the play’s author when designing the costumes, puppetry and masks.

“He [Lorca] also was an extremely gifted painter and artist,” she said.

A bustle of activity goes into each night’s rehearsal for the actors. Early on, actors put a lot of emphasis on learning to read and understand the script and embellish words through movement.

Snyder said she was intimidated entering the university environment because she didn’t know anyone. But these experiences pull people together to make friends, she said.

“I love everybody.”

Getting accustomed to school and life away from home and getting thrown into a demanding play poses a challenge for freshmen, Simons said.

“I have been really proud of them,” she said.

Snyder would be more worried if she didn’t have first night jitters for tonight’s opening. She said that if she were not nervous, it would mean she does not care.

“Everyone’s worked real hard on the show. We should be ready,” she said.

Snyder anticipates a good performance, so find out this weekend if Boybeetle’s beetle heart will be crushed or if he’ll catch his butterfly.

CORRECTION

In this story, the quote “Everyone’s worked real hard on the show. We should be ready,” should have been attributed to Assistant Director Eric Wilder. The playwright of The Butterfly’s Evil Spell, Federico Garcia Lorca, was also misspelled.

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