'Spettacolo!' transforms 185 into piazza

If you're looking for a night of traditional theater, this is not the show for you. If, however, you seek to be entertained — by any and every means you could possibly think of — "Spettacolo!" is your show.

From the moment it begins, it is clear this is no ordinary or traditional show. The performance begins the moment the audience is ushered into Matthews Acting Studio at 185 Nassau, which the production crew has transformed into an impressively realistic Italian piazza.

Energetic music from a live ensemble fills the air, and one's eye is drawn everywhere at once: to the tap dancer, to the pair of hooligans chasing each other around, to the pair of gold-clad belly dancers, to the café waiters who bring audience members cups of coffee and to the beautifully designed and executed set.

There is no "seating," per se; audience members take chairs at the café, sit on the church steps or squeeze onto benches (which are moved during the performance) against buildings' walls. The actors use every part of the performance space and explicitly encourage (and sometimes force) audience participation and movement.

Much of the dialogue and banter between characters is in Italian, but one certainly does not need to know any of the language to understand or appreciate the show: the critical lines are in English and in nearly all other cases, the actors' meanings come across quite clearly despite the language barrier.

The plot is the most ordinary—and least impressive — element of the show: Free-spirited Harmony (Sherry Rujikarn '06) brings her neurotic friend Emily (Olivia Wells '04) to Italy with her; they experience a series of debacles as they try to make their way around the new country. Frank (John Vennema '04), another American, has similar issues and, by chance, encounters Emily (you have one guess what ensues). Frank, however, has a dark secret with tragic potential.

This somewhat pointless plot is (thankfully) secondary, however: the piece's story is essentially nothing more than a mechanism to set up situations for the ensemble to showcase their various impressive talents as comedian, musicians and dancers. There is so much going on at any given moment in "Spettacolo!", it's often hard to decide where to look—but this utter excess in action, comedy and entertainment is the show's primary strength.

The show's production process, like its content, was far from customary. Advertised as a "Fantastical Comedy Created by the Ensemble," "Spettacolo!" is a senior thesis production by Maura Cody '04 (writer), David Bengali '04 (director), Liz Berg '04 (who plays Arla, an Italian), Olivia Willis '04, Connor Allman '04 and Vennema. According to Rujikarn, the rest of the ensemble was recruited by these seniors; no official auditions were held.

"Spettacolo!" is based on the traditions of Commedia dell'arte and Italian street theater. The production was essentially created from scratch by the collaborative group: As Rujikarn recalled in an email, "At first, we only met once a week for a few hours and did acting exercises and improvised skits . . . " Out of these sessions emerged the basic characters of Emily and Harmony.

Having created several individual scenes and scenarios they hoped to use, the ensemble "decided that going to Italy would be a good idea to cement the show with some real experiences and stories," Rujikarn said. The group of 10 spent Intersession 2004 in Italy, attending festivals and shows in the south of the country that ultimately inspired several scenes, including the large group dances. By the end of February, Cody had a script drafted, and the group began rehearsals. Throughout the five to six-week rehearsal period, "the script was constantly evolving; it was often as if the show were starting anew every few rehearsals," Rujikarn said. "The show we put on now is very, very different than the first script that we got."

The final show, a result of countless hours of collaboration, inspiration and revision, is a marvel to behold. About as far from a traditional play as can be, "Spettacolo!" is precisely what its title proclaims — a show, a performance and a spectacle (with an exclamation point!). It's entertainment, pure and simple. And great fun.