Acme’s “Pride and Prejudice” explores new performance techniques
PHOTO: Acme Theater Company’s Pride and Prejudice was performed on the Davis Arts Center’s Outdoor Stage.
By Bridget Nagle,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–
Acme Theater Company held their new free show Pride and Prejudice in the park across Memorial Day weekend on the Davis Arts Center Outdoor Stage. The performances were split between two different casts of actors, the first, or the ‘Jane’ cast, performing on the 27th and 29th, and the ‘Austen’ cast performing on the 28th and 30th.
Django Nachmanoff played the character of Charles Bingley in the first cast. “I feel like I’m in the post-game of a football game,” Nachmanoff said after the show. “It went amazingly, it was an incredible performance.”
As the show was held outside, audience members gathered on the hill by the Arts Center to watch. “It can be a challenge,” director Emily Henderson said. “At the beginning of the week it was a hundred and something degrees and we had men in these full coats and … you never know when it might rain.”
Despite some of the difficulties presented, however, Henderson said she’s happy with the way the show turned out. “This whole team was really strong right off the bat,’ Henderson said. “When we had our first readthrough, I was really impressed with the comic timing that all of these actors had, and … this whole show we were just building on the strengths of these actors.”
Henderson says that the performance features some of the most complex sets and costumes Acme Theater has worked with, taking advantage of an outdoor space and using rotating setpieces and different lighting styles to account for the performances taking place at sundown.
“It’s a bittersweet moment,” Henderson said on the 29th, after the final performance for the ‘Jane’ cast. “You’ve been living with these lines and jokes for like two months and then you’re seeing people do it for the last time.”
Future shows Acme Theater Company plans include a production of Three Musketeers this summer, as well as an Acme Summer Camp for performers ages 8 through 13.
