DECEMBER 3, 2003

The Hills of Prince
George are alive...

The Sound of Music Rocks the Playhouse

by Carolynne Burkholder

The Sound of Music, presented
by the Excalibur Performers
Association, ran from November
4th until the 15th at the Prince
George Playhouse. The play
received rave reviews from many
sources, which can sometimes be
misleading. Even going into the
performance expecting that the
play would be very well done, as
well as having loved the movie, I
was not disappointed.

The cast of the
Sound of Music was
an extremely talent-
ed group, which is
not surprising when
considering the cre-
dentials -of each
member of the cast.

The cast of the Sound of Music
was an extremely talented group,
which is not surprising when con-
sidering the credentials of each
member of the cast. Many of the
participants. have played parts in
other -plays; inchiding musicals
put on by the dynamic duo:
Director Bonnie Mathers and

* Musical Director Broek Bosma.

Since Mathers and Bosma joined
forces in 1999, they have created
numerous large-scale _ perfor-
mances, such as Paint Your Wagon
and Oliver!, which have received
rave reviews within the Prince
George area. The Sound of Music
was no exception.

The music in the play, along

with the singing, was flawless
throughout the whole story. The
sets, which mostly consisted of
painted backdrops, were under-
stated, but very appropriately
done.

The costumes used were amaz-
ing, particularly considering the
magnitude of the costume changes
needed to create a play of this cali-
bre. The cast featured thirty-eight
players, several with multiple
clothing requirements. As well, all
seven children had six complete
changes of clothes. The starring
role, Maria, was played very con-
vincingly by Krista Dunlop. This is
Dunlop’s second time participat-

- ing in The Sound of Music, as she

was cast as Brigitta in the Prince
George Theatre Workshop’s pro-
duction when she was eleven
years old. Ken Kilcullen, the
General Manager of the Jim
Pattison Broadcast Group, was
well cast as Captain von Trapp. He
made a very believable ex-Naval
Captain, complete with the gruff
demeanor, but was appropriately
mellowed by the end of the story.
By far the highlight of the show
were the seven von Trapp children,
played by Victoria McGuinness,
Jaron Chidiac, Lauren MacDonald,
Brett Ziegler, Margaret Keery,
Gracie Wilson, and Maggie
Trepanier.

All of these young people have
several acting experiences under
their belt. Many also are experi-
enced in music, dance, and musi-
cal theatre, which definitely
helped them put together an excel-
lent performance. It was incredibly
impressive to see the children,
ranging from ages seven to sixteen,

perform so well and so consistent-
ly.

Every note was on key, every
move completely choreographed,
all lines remembered and present-
ed convincingly. Not one of the
seven showed any weakness, even
on their seventh consecutive per-
formance, which I attended. It was
a remarkable and memorable per-

Every note was on
key, every move
completely choreo-
graphed, all lines
remembered and
presented convinc-
ingly. Not one of the
seven showed any
weakness, even on
their seventh con-
- secutive pertor-
mance.

formance by the entire ‘cast,
orchestra, and crew. Overall, The
Sound of Music was great enter-
tainment for the whole family. Ite
was wonderful to see the Prince
George Playhouse sold completely
out of seats, as it shows that the
city of Prince George has much
appreciation for the artistic com-
munity. In the program there was
an advertisement for The Wizard
of Oz, which The Excalibur
Performers Association is holding
auditions for in December. I am
already looking forward to going
to see this play!

DID YOU KNOW? |

Exams are coming and you need more. time
to study! Below are the library’s hours for

December

‘Dec 1-11
Mon.- Fri 8 am to. 11 pm
Sat= Sun 10.am-to-11 pm ~

Dec12-23
Mon-Fri 8 am to.6 pm
Sat Sun:closed

The library will be open on December 24 from 8am
to‘noon. The library will be.closed from December 25
to January 4. Regular hours will be reinstated Jan 5

The Bitter

| CULTURE 15

Old Man’s

Movie Review

Ko rean

By William Hull (Both abnormally
bitter and abnormally old for his
age)

This issue, I’ve chosen to
review something from my per-
sonal collection.

Unfortunately, before my
review I had no idea what it was
called.

Deep within the bowels of a
mall in Markham, Ontario, (part
of the Greater Toronto conglom-
erate) lies a small plastic box.
The only Roman (or standard
English, if you will) character on
this box is an “E” printed next to
a serial number on the sign indi-
cating that, despite the fact that
mystery-dis¢e has no other indi-
cations, it has English-translated
subtitles. The cover art on the
case seems interesting enough -
so I decided to take a risk and
spend the five dollars that the
merchant was requesting in
exchange for this ‘fan subbed
copy’. Ihalf-expected some low-
budget Samurai/dynastic flick
packed to the gills with kung fu
clichEs, a disgustingly _ pre-
dictable romance, and several
bizarre cultural references that
make absolutely no sense to
white westerners such as myself.

My God, was.I ever wrong.

This movie is comparable in
grandeur (and probably budget)

_to such Hollywood blockbusters
‘as Braveheart and Gladiator,
wrapping a mitt full of realistic, -

multi-dimensional characters up
in a feasible plotline, presenting
us with a genuinely memorable_
final product. The action
sequences are, in many parts,
more well done than those in the
aforementioned ‘historic war’
flicks, and, unlike most

=

Who knows what
this movie is called?
All we know is that
it's good!

Movie!

Hollywood movies, the charac-
ters aren’t absolutes- you sym-
pathize with bad guys in some
points, you despise good guys in
others, but neither are to the
point, where you forget where
everyone stands in the end.

The only two problems that I
found were, firstly being that my

first time through, I found it’s

easy to lose track of some of the
main characters at some points.
After several seconds of on-
screen time, the characters’ per-
sonalities shine through their
dialogue and physical behav-
iors. Secondly, is the sound-
track. Perhaps it’s my western-
ized, but the twang-and-yodel
style simply didn’t suit the
movie's atmosphere at ll.
(Mixing a banjo and a yodeller
do NOT make for pleasant clos-
ing theme music.)

In short, this is a great war
movie, and, if you're ever in a
store that has a half-decent vari-
ety of Korean or Chinese movies,
I'd very strongly recommend
that you keep an eye peeled for
this unsung (in Whiteyville,
North America, anyway) classic.

After doing a little bit of dig-
ging around, I discovered that
the movie is called “Musa”, or
“The Warrior”, and it takes place
in a historically accurate setting
of the North China/Korea bor-
der. It is also the most expensive
Korean movie ever made (as of
2001). Credit goes to Zhang Ziyi
(who played Jade Fox’s' lackey in
Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon) for being a familiar
actress and: guiding me towards
any real information about this
flick.

kkk