C.A.T.E Presents Cyrano

October 27, 2018

On October 18, 19, 20 the Cate Artists Theater Ensemble performed their production of Cyrano. Carlo Jacobsen ’20 played the titular character, Cyrano. “It’s set in the 1600s in France. My character has a big nose, which really leads him to doubt that he has the abilities to attract women,” and in particular, Cyrano’s love interest, Roxanne. Long story short, the handsome Christian woos Roxanne with the help of Cyrano’s love letters. And spoiler alert: Christian dies, and then Cyrano also dies, just after revealing, “he was behind Christian’s persona the entire time,” says Carlo.

Chloe Tarlton ’20 and Kate Bradley ’19 split the role of Roxanne. Chloe says that while she initially saw Roxanne as a one-dimensional princess trope she “found out that she was a little more tomboyish that [she] originally thought. There was a lot more depth in the reasoning behind her actions.” Bradley adds that “in the end Roxanne didn’t just like someone for what they were at face value or how they looked. She has a lot of romantic sensibilities and clearly loves people who have a sharp tongue.” Joshua Gabbay ’21, who played Christian says that he also viewed his character as somewhat one-dimensional, a “frat guy type” as he puts it. “As the play progresses you see that he has more depth to him and when he realizes that Cyrano is in love in Roxanne he doesn’t want to stand in the way of that.”

Theater Director Jessica Block says that each production is like a clock. “You open it on the inside and you see all the cogs… ever piece needs to work and they need to connect with every single other piece. Some cogs are bigger than others, but everyone is important.” Block says that some of the most profuse praise she heard about the show was directed at the nun characters who had few lines, as well as often-overlooked aspects of production like the lighting and makeup.

A minor character, the Cup Purse, played by Alyssa Queensborough ’20 was one of the standout roles according to Block. Alyssa says that while her role was small, “without those types of toles you don’t get all the plot points.” She adds, “Those roles are important because they bring life to the play.”

Two new faces to the Hitchcock Theatre, Gingy Hunter ’22 and Zhengli Sieh ’22 were instrumental behind the scenes. Gingy role included organizing props and helping the actors during rehearsal. She was also involved in changing sets during the production. Zhengli says, “I like the unique perspective of backstage. You get to watch everything evolve. Watching the actors from backstage gives you a sense of everything that’s happening.”

Avery Ransom ’20 has been in several productions as supporting characters. As a nun in Cyrano, she says she found more passion in helping others than as an actor herself. She says, “I feel like if I’m acting, I kind of get this tunnel vision and think that I’m just supposed to memorize my lines and it doesn’t matter what Christian is saying or what Roxanne is doing – I’ll just talk over them to like get my point in. With the directing mindset it kind of helps me realize that everything’s a puzzle and has to flow.” She says the nun character was a bright spot in the play that helped move the story along and connected to many characters’ own development. With the smaller role she was able to “watch things and see how it could change and how it could be better for everyone.”

While these theatre kids are revelling in the success of the performance, they share some of their thoughts on the future. Chloe hopes for a future performance of Spring Awakening. “It would be the highschool version so it would be PG.” Joshua says his dream role, “Even though I’ve never seen the show and I dont have the range for it would be Evan Hansen.” Avery says her role would be Peggy from Hamilton, another small role. “I just really like Peggy.” Carlo, the lead, says that he would love to play Aaron Burr from the same musical. As for the freshmen who’ve just started their theatre careers at Cate – Gingy says that she’d like to program the light and sound for her upcoming trimester of dance. And Zhengli says, “I want to get to a point where I can work in the booth and help the actors from the board.”