The Hillsdale Theatre Department has been positively driven to abstraction.
Professor of Theatre George Angell, director of the upcoming production, ‘Mirror of the Invisible World,’ has chosen to use nothing more than masks, manpower, and imagination to represent a bird of prey large enough to swoop down and carry off the play’s wayward king.
“I wanted a way to do this using only actors and no machinery of any kind,” Angell said. “Since the rest of the production is using masks to enable members of the ensemble to play multiple characters, I thought we could do the same thing with the bird.”
Angell chose to let the actors come up with a way to represent the bird. Bryan Simmons, costume designer and lecturer in theatre, has watched the concept, which has been developing since last summer, finally come to fruition in rehearsals this semester.
“When George [Angell] started rehearsal, he started by using organic methods: he didn’t assign positions but just told the actors what needed to happen and let them do it,” Simmons said. “We get an outline from the script, and everyone collaborates to make it happen.”
In ‘Mirror of the Invisible World,’ the actors are part of an ensemble, helping tell each others’ stories and changing characters frequently to help represent a different personality or trait.
“The masks are very important for the storytelling of the play,” said senior Anne Peterson, dramaturg for the production. “It allows the audience to differentiate between the characters.”
The masks are more than mere symbols, though. For many actors, the mask is the character itself.
“There are neutral masks and character masks,” said Peterson. “A character mask has a personality. When you take the mask, you look at it and change your body to follow what the mask is telling you. When you work with the mask and get to know it, it kind of becomes a sacred object. You know it. You know what it likes to do. You handle it in a certain way.”
Junior Leslie Reyes mentioned the adaptive experience of mask acting as well. But, for her, dance is an equally critical part of her character’s role.
“We become the mask. It becomes our character,” said Reyes. “But a big part of the production, besides the mask, is dance. It’s such a beautiful part of the show, and it really helps you become part of it.”
The play is a celebration of storytelling, a narrative within a narrative. The masks, the dance, and the characters all point beyond themselves to the power of human expression.
“This is a huge narrative,” said Reyes. “We, as actors, play characters within a story. Our purpose as characters is to tell the king a story. We princesses are telling you, the audience, a story so that you can reach enlightenment along with the king at the end of the show.”
