tl20030306-000 "hII Baltimore's #1 College Paper - Published Twice-Weekly - www.thetowerlight.com Thursday, 3/6/03 Paying price for snow removal 5 Accident leaves student in coma 5 Abstract art by Godwin at TU 13 Willis war movie misses potential 14 Departments Opinion 2 News 3 Campus briefs 7 Nation/Blotter 8 Arts 13 In a Theater Near You 15 Art Around You 14 Sports 20 In This Corner 20 Bank Shots 19 Classifieds 17 Production 'Masters' comedy 'Kooky' comedy puts students center stage after snow wreaks havoc on rehearsal schedule Jennifer Hykes The Towerlight Mistaken identity, cross-dressing, star-crossed lovers, bathroom humor and slapstick comedy highlight the latest production to come out of Towson's theatre department. ""The Servant of Two Masters"" occupies the Center for the Arts' Mainstage Theatre this week-end and next. Director Peter Wray, a member of the theater faculty, calls the show a ""bright, funny adaptation"" of Carlo Goldoni's 18th-century play. ""Constance Congdon's adaptation helps to make the play accessible to modern audiences, while maintaining all of the hilarity of the original,"" Wray said. ""What I have chosen to do with our produc-tion is to place the play on a vaudeville stage, where there are parallels to the character types and broad, kooky comedy of the original."" Wray added that the show's style was the sub-ject of a recent theater class. ""This particular play comes on the heels of a specific class offered last semester that focused on commedia dell'arte, clowning and comedy,"" Wray said, adding, ""The Servant of Two Masters' is then the culminating event of that study."" Freshman theater major Ian Belknap plays the lead character. ""Truffaldino is the servant of the two masters ... food drives him more than anything,"" Belknap said. Truffaldino has an unpleasant job serving a demanding woman who for various reasons must masquerade as a man. When the opportunity to work for a second master arises, Belknap's charac-ter realizes that if he keeps the arrangement under wraps, ""he can get double the pay and double the food if he serves them both."" Throughout the story, Truffaldino becomes con-fused trying to execute orders from two masters, turning any activity, even something as simple as picking up the mail, into a befuddling production. ""I'm an idiot, but I don't know that I'm an idiot,"" he said of his lead role. Belknap was cast in the show in December, and rehearsals began at the beginning of the semester. ""[Rehearsal is] the best part of my day, every single day,"" Belknap said. ""It's what keeps me going to that point ... It's what theater's supposed to be."" Nick Williams, who plays Pantalone, ""the lech-erous, money and sex-driven old man,"" agreed that the process was rewarding, but noted that comedy is more difficult than audiences might realize. ""Anyone in the cast will vouch for the fact that comedy is hard,"" the senior theater major said. ""It's a lot of fun, but turning your body the wrong way can be the difference between a roaring audi-ence and falling flat on your face. We've all come a Saul Stoogenke The Towerlight Freshman theater major Ian Belknap stars in Peter Wray's production of the slapstick comedy, ""The Servant of Two Masters,"" which opens Friday on the Center for the Arts' Mainstage Theatre. really long way in the process."" And the process has hit some snags, mainly the mid-February snow break, which made preparing for opening night difficult. ""The snow was certainly an unexpected bump, or should I say mogul, in the road,"" Wray said. ""I'm impressed with the level of commitment of the stu-dents involved in the production. Everyone was eager to go the extra mile to overcome the lost snow days ... their dedication and spirit is paying off."" Williams said while the snow added stress, it also forced the company to pull together. ""In a situation like that, you don't have time to sit around and mope or worry because you're run-ning out of time,"" he said. ""You have to get on your feet, oil your hinges and press on even harder. It requires a lot of time management, devotion and trust, which all of the cast has done."" Belknap agreed, adding that the cast and crew used extended Saturday rehearsals to try to make up for lost time. ""For me it really broke up my rhythm ... [but] while it did set us back, it also motivated us to excel,"" he said. Belknap also credited Wray's directing style and camaraderie with the actors as one of his major motivations. See IMPROVISE, page 16 Today High 36 Low 25 Friday High 45 Low 34 Saturday High 53 Low 32 Sunday High 44 Low 19 Monday High 40 Low 38 "
