October 30, 2018 | The Hilltop
Entertainment| 9
AusTEN out of TEN: Fall play begins Nov. 8 By Anna Benjamin Hilltop Staff
“I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way.” ~ Jane Austen, “Sense and Sensibility” “Sense and Sensibility,” Corban’s fall drama production, tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, as they come of age in 19th century England. The play’s script is based primarily on the novel and its themes as Austen intended them. But why choose “Sense and Sensibility” in the first place? “I chose ‘Sense and Sensibility’ for some very practical reasons,” Tamara McGinnis, the director, said. “I hadn’t done a literary piece in quite a few years, and I like Jane Austen a lot. After reading the script in the summer, I thought it did a very good job of capturing the novel and the feeling of what it’s like to live in that society.” Besides practical reasons, deep themes running throughout the classic story caught the director’s attention. “It’s really a novel about the angst of young love,” McGinnis said. “I feel like this is actually a very good story talking about a time of life that many college students are going through. What is it to be a mature adult and still be me?
How do I retain my personality, but temper it with the things I need to learn to become a well balanced person?” The play’s cast includes students from various theater backgrounds. “There are so many wonderful and talented people in this cast, too, and we all come from different spectrums,” Heather Bellinger, who plays Elinor, said. “We all come with our own uniqueness, experience and passion, and we unite those with the desire to worship God and delight audiences with a truly spectacular show.” The cast has welcomed both returning performers and fresh faces. “I’m beyond ecstatic to be cast in ‘Sense and Sensibility’ along with so many talented actors!” freshman Noelani Eley said. “The entire cast is phenomenal, and don’t even get me started about the directors and people who make amazing shows like this possible. From day one of rehearsal, the cast was so supportive of me coming in.” Eley went on to describe what audiences can expect out of the show: “Romance, sudden heartbreak, on stage sword fighting... drama! It’s going to be fun!” While the idea of performing a period piece is “thrilling,” finding historic furniture true to the era has proven to be difficult. “Most shows require props for a specific
Photo courtesy of Corban Theatre Heather Bellinger, Natasha Wilson and Noelani Eley star in Sense and Sensibility. Tickets are currently on sale for shows throughout November.
TICKET PRICES:
$11 for students and staff $13 for adults $8 for children Purchase at the door or online at inside.corban.edu/theatre/events.
SHOW TIMES:
Thursday, Nov. 8, at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 9, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 10, at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 18, at 2:30 p.m.
time period, but ‘Sense and Sensibility’ in particular takes place in such a specific era,” Emily Axtell, backstage supervisor, said. “Even the smallest details that most people wouldn’t think about have to be accounted for.” While it is not explicitly a Christian story, the play does not fall short of having profound spiritual messages. “Some people think it’s ‘Sense vs. Sensibility,” but it’s actually a combination of the two,” McGinnis said. “The theme is actually a very biblical one as far as becoming a whole person, the person God intended us to be. When we take our ability for logic and our ability to feel and combine the two, we better ourselves and the community around us. It paints a really beautiful picture of how hungering and thirsting after righteousness is sometimes just learning to live with one another and value each other.” So what can the Corban community expect from the upcoming fall play? “‘Sense and Sensibility’ is so different from anything Corban has done in recent years,” Rachel Stradeli, who plays Mrs. Jennings, said. “It’s very calm and refined, and yet there’s something truly entertaining about all the drama of the Regency England life. Totally worth the watch!” “It will be a different sort of play from what Corban has done in previous years,” Bellinger said. “But you’ll be on the edge of your seats with the turn of the head, wave of the fan, and subtext within almost every scene.”
Box office blunder: ‘Venom’ falls flat By David Miller Hilltop Staff
There was a time in my life when “Venom” might have been my favorite movie of all time. Unfortunately for Sony’s recent attempt at an antihero flick, that time was when I was 13 years old and thought Linkin Park were the greatest musicians of all time. “Venom” follows the story of a hard-hitting reporter, Eddie Brock, played by Tom Hardy, who discovers a strange alien slime known as Venom. Brock becomes bonded with the creature, and together they become Venom. The best performance of the film goes to Hardy’s portrayal of Brock. In all honesty, the performance wasn’t incredible, but it may seem that way in contrast to the horrific performances given by nearly every other character in the movie. Michelle Williams’ performance as Brock’s love interest is painfully boring and leaves the audience desperate for some small reason to care about her or the relationship of the characters.
Riz Ahmed’s antagonist roll suffers a similar fate of feeling clunky and unimportant. Jenny Slate was perhaps the worst of the bunch, going so far as to mispronounce key aspects of the plot such as Symbiote, the alien species that Venom is a member of. The movie’s redeeming moments are actually any time Venom himself is on screen or talking with Brock. The visual effects are not exactly groundbreaking, but the action isn’t bad. And Venom is a cool enough character to overlook boring enemies and uninteresting conflict. And the banter between Brock and Venom is genuinely funny at times. Venom is, at the end of the day, a Spider-man villain. Taking that character and moving him to a completely separate universe takes away the very purpose of the character. In the comics, Venom has successfully transitioned from a villain to a standalone superhero with his own series titled “Agent Venom.” What the movies seem to fail to understand is that tran-
Photo courtesy of Venom Facebook Page Tom Hardy stars as Venom in the newest Marvel movie.
sitioning Venom to a standalone character took literal decades of story and character development. I am personally a huge fan of superhero movies (even the bad ones). But the trick that Marvel and DC have figured out is that the key to good superhero movies is playing to the strengths
of a character. The character Venom is awesome. He is a big monstrous antihero who wants to do good, but doesn’t understand how to do that on earth. The film “Venom” fails to capitalize on any aspect of that and falls heartbreakingly short of what the character deserves.
Last-minute Halloween costumes By Trevor Bond Hilltop Staff
If you have ever worn any sort of animal ears, painted your face as a generic woodland creature or put on your stinky sports uniform and called it a costume, read carefully. This is the kind of garbage that gives Halloween a bad name. Please don’t let your laziness and basicness get in the way of everybody’s fun—because if those cat ears aren’t covered in fake blood, is it even a Halloween costume? Instead, try out one of these last-minute costume ideas: • Sew buttons into your eyes to become the Other Mother from “Coraline.” • Sport a shark fin and a jacket with cards stapled to it. Boom-you’re a card shark. • Go the Christian route and dress as Adam and Eve, pre-fall. • Get a group of four, cover yourselves in different spices and become the Spice Girls. • Wear a red cape with a small light on your finger. This look can double as ET or Little Red Riding Hood who fell into a vat of radioactive waste. • Wear a brown shirt, get really, really dirty and you’re Pig Pen from “Charlie Brown” • Learn how to smoke like a pro overnight and be Sandy from “Grease.” • Get a bald cap, carry around a green umbrella, and you’ve become the iconic 2007 Britney Spears. • Put on an oversized pink T-shirt and wear your hair in pigtails to become Boo from “Monsters Inc.” • Blue paint can do wonders. You could be a Smurf, possibly a member from the blue man group or perhaps the monster girl from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” • Tape shards of glass onto your person to become a disco ball. (Doing this also makes you a safety hazard, but that’s not the point.) • Be a bubble bath. Safety pin white balloons to an over-sized jacket, put on a shower cap, hold a rubber ducky and complain about how hard your 9-5 job is. • Do a couple’s costume; go as Pam and Toby from “The Office.” The Toby should awkwardly place his hand on Pam’s knee throughout the entire night. • Tie-dye a shirt that says “La Croix.” • Wear an “Out of Order” sign and you’ve become a McDonald’s ice cream machine. I would also like to stress that store-bought and pre-made Halloween costumes are made for children and boring people, and, if someone dresses as a minion or a piece of fruit one more time, the blood of a thousand serpents will fall from the sky to stop you. Halloween is a holiday that encourages creativity and expression. Sacrificing your individuality is not worth saving $4 on a Chipotle burrito.