Candy Shop Skit Reflection

    The biggest difference between performing the candy shop skit and my first monologue was having a scene partner. Instead of being on my own, I could play off of Maddie’s reactions and focus on something that was actually happening rather that something that I had to imply by my own actions. I enjoyed adapting what was already a funny skit, the Monty Python Cheese Shop sketch, into something that fit our purposes better. We could add and subtract what we wanted and make it more of our own, rather than just reading what someone else had written. I had more to memorize than I did in my monologue, but there was also the additional challenge of remembering cues from the other person and knowing how and when to respond. It was much easier to remember sequences of conversation that remembering the list of candies, but I liked having them memorized rather than making them up on the spot, especially because some of them were cues for Maddie and I couldn’t repeat any. In places where I could have gotten around it on my own, anything that Maddie or I forgot would just confuse the other person and we would have to restart. The most challenging thing was getting angry enough at Maddie to maximize the comedic effect. I don’t normally express anger in that way and I felt awkward after a certain point. I still think I could have improved in that area, though I do think I was better in the final draft. I also didn’t have a lot of blocking to work with - Maddie was always going back and forth and checking things but I didn’t have much to do so most of the time I was in the same place. I think I did a good job with the ending, even if I sometimes couldn’t get the gun out right. My reaction to her hiding the candy felt more natural than the rest of the scene, when my reactions felt a little more forced, and I changed the way I said the last line in the final draft. I liked our additions to it that the cheese shop didn’t have. Overall, I learned more about the different techniques applied to monologues as opposed to partner scenes and gained more experience reacting to another actor on stage.

Review of Les Miserables

    Les Miserables, as presented by the Cheshire Academy theatre department, represents several different themes throughout the show. Though at first centered around the musical’s main protagonist, Jean Valjean, the plot soon branches off into several different directions and focuses on the intertwining stories of the people around him, without making it difficult to keep track of. Set in early 19th century France, the show opens with Valjean’s release from prison after serving nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread and his subsequent escape attempts. After being denied his pay due to his time spent in prison, he is finally taken in by a kindly bishop, but repays him by stealing his silver for money. Once Valjean is caught, however, the bishop, rather than calling him out, maintains that he had made a gift of the silver and give him his silver candlesticks as well, thus “buying his soul for god”. Valjean is moved by this act of kindness and vows to be an honest man from there forth. This prologue is the premise for the rest of the story, which follows several characters though war, unrequited love, death, and revenge.

    Les Miserables focused on many themes, the most significant of which being love, death, and forgiveness. The way Valjean puts it, the bishop teaches him love when he spares him from being rearrested, and he carries this with him, saving Fantine from Javert and taking care of her daughter after her death, which Fantine acknowledges in the epilogue - “you raised my child in love”. Both the musical and the book represented love with a very religious aspect, making several references to God, including “to love another person is to see the face of God” and making it a bishop who saves Valjean. We did not emphasize this point so much as other productions might have. Death was also a constant presence in the show - starting with the death of Fantine and progressing through the deaths of Eponine, Enjolras and all of the students (including a young boy named Gavroche), Javert, and finally Jean Valjean and the very end, when all of the ghosts of the dead return to bring him presumably to heaven. Finally, forgiveness - Javert refuses to shake his belief of “once a thief forever a thief”, and when Valjean spares his life and shows him mercy he commits suicide. Valjean, on the other hand, forgives Javert, even though he was hunted by him for years, and is kind towards everyone.


The main set is of a bridge in front of a painted background of houses along a street and a river though the middle, but other settings are created by five three sided panels each painted a different way - one side is yellow, one is gray, and one is painted with a garden. The yellow side usually appears during happy scenes, at the inn during “Master of the House” and in the ABC Cafe, as the rest of the set is fairly dark. The one exception is during “Turning” and “Empty Chairs and Empty Tables”, because they are both sung at the ABC Cafe where the students used to meet, but after their deaths it becomes a reminder of how what once used to be a happy place has become sad. The gray background usually sets a sad/hopeless scene - the chain gang that Valjean worked with, and the hospital with Fantine, while the garden was at Valjean and Cosette’s house and was where they got married. The bridge scene usually was where the poor and the beggars were, and the barricade set the stage for the war and the death of the revolutionaries.

Sometimes the lighting would dim to focus on a certain character or interaction, like during the barricade scene when Valjean spoke to Javert as everyone else froze, or during “Bring him Home”. “Master of the House” on the hand had colorful lights to emphasize the festive mood of the inn.

Of the many talented actors and actresses in the show, the one that really stood out to me was Julia Rafferty as Fantine. Her singing was very powerful, especially during “I Dreamed a Dream”, and she was able to convey lots emotion despite her characters short life. The Thenardiers were also very funny, and I liked them a lot more than in other versions of Les Mis that I’ve seen. The first time I saw it, at the Bushnell, I wasn’t sure why they were supposed to be funny and I flat out just didn’t like the characters very much. But the way that Sam and Gianna portrayed them, the Thenardiers became likable and funny, despite being the antagonists of the play. They used a lot of physical comedy to exaggerate everything and get their point across.

    Overall I really enjoyed the show, both being in it and watching parts of it. Both the musical itself and the actors are the best that I have performed with, and it though it was a lot of work, it was very rewarding to do a completely sung through musical. I would recommend watching it to anyone who has heard of the show.

Candy Shop Skit