Nick's Place

Nicholas Barnard Crimes of the Heart 1/22/2001

Wright State University's production of Crimes of the Heart is an excellent example of character driven story telling, melded with a beautiful and effective technical aspects. What strikes me the most about this production in the marked differences from 1903: Wings of Dreams, the show the immediately preceded Crimes of the Heart on the same stage.

The first thing that struck me about Crimes of the Heart is the fact that it has a beautiful set. John Lavarnway, properties master, provided an extensive quantity of set dressing that took a reasonably good looking standing set to a beautiful realistic looking set. I worked on pieces of this set and at times found myself not able to believe that this wasn't a kitchen in a southern household. The floor, counters, and stairways looked realistic even under close supervision.

Another item that striked me the most is the versatility of one of the actresses on the production, Erica Nochang. I have known her in 1903, and personally. I found the differentiation of her character highly believable. Placing the spotlight on the strength of Ms. Nochang's performance is a disservice to the other actors of this show - each provided an excellent and believable character that truly brought us into their personal plights and their troubles.

Interacting tightly with the actors was an excellent sound design. While most sound designs emanate from an unknown source to the actors the music in this production was cleverly and accurately encapsulated into the characters listening to a kitchen radio. This provided a heightened sense of the third wall of a kitchen being removed.

There are a few reservations that I had about the design of this production. In regards to the sound design, I felt at several points that the music was coming from points at the extremes of the edges of the proscenium. This took my focus from the action at several points, and was generally distracting. The other design reservation that I had was the light backwash that was behind the set as a whole extended to the top of the proscenium. I believe that a far better choice would be to still have the backdrop, but add a drop to mask the light wash directly behind and above the standing set.

Crimes of the Heart was an excellent production marred by a few poor design choices. The acting work was superb, as was the properties direction. A great dressed-up hurrah to the designers, crew, and actors of this production!