December 11, 2023
By Avery Saad
*Mild Spoilers*
Cast of "X": Photos by Simon Wheeler
Ithaca College had about forty seats inside the Earl McCarroll Theatre, where the college’s production of X would take place—an intimate space for an even more intimate message. The audience experienced everything alongside the characters. This play deals with a small group of scientists and astronauts who seem to have been abandoned on Pluto while conducting research.
The audience is only privy to the recreation room, with a few chairs, some cabinets, and then a table, with a window overlooking the destitute nothingness of Pluto’s surface. Set designer Rven Bartlett chose to make the stage mint green–providing some form of color, but also a slightly alien feel to the space station the characters were living on. The green was almost off-putting as if it was supposed to be one color, but instead, it was this clean and sharp minty hue. The costumes, designed by Emily Poole, were contrasted beautifully with the set, giving the image that the characters were out of place on Pluto, but also with one another. The costumes were simple, yet effective, with the repetition of different outfits adding to the clarity of timelines, if you paid close enough attention. The clock programming, along with the rest of the lighting from Lavender Pyzowski added to the eeriness and darkness that McDowall tries to communicate in his script. The clock working in real-time, but then starting to malfunction, creates this unification of panic between the characters and the audience, since during the scene changes, the audience is witnessing the clock malfunction, but unknowingly assuming it’s just part of the transitions.
Marc Gomes derived magic from the script and transferred it into his actors. The vision was so clear throughout the entire piece, and his direction had the audience feeling every emotion possible. There were so many risks taken, and every single one of them paid off. Every single one of the actors deserved their flowers.
Senior Gabe Vasquez was the first one on stage, minding his business and eating his oatmeal. Vasquez played Captain Ray, a stoic elder man, who would rather die than make it back to earth. With his portrayal of Ray, the audience saw beyond the brave facade, and truly believed in all of the captain’s fears. Gabe Vasquez also delivers the cause of the title (X), in an unforgettable moment at the end of Act One. This moment will be in the back of my mind for a long time, and I have Vasquez to thank for that. The next actor I’d love to discuss was Achille Vann Ricca. His character Cole, shines more in Act Two, balancing out the powerhouse that Vasquez is in Act One. Vann Ricca, like the rest of his cohort, has to develop emotionally on stage, but he has to do it physically as well—developing a limp, becoming slowly more and more paralyzed as the scene progresses. The scene had me in tears, watching as the character of Cole slowly became less and less. Achille Van Ricca was the first thing people talked about when they left the theatre after Act Two, followed by Gabe Vasquez’s Act One Finale. It is also worth noting that Eloise May and Natalie Lewand, who portrayed Young Mattie and Mattie respectively, were powerhouses in their own rights.
But for me, the stars of the shows were Mia Graff, who played Gilda, and Gianluca Guarino-Sanders, who played Clark. This piece was emotionally exhaustive and physically demanding. Within this British Sci-Fi base, located on Pluto, we watch a series of events through Gilda’s mind. Only Graff could have the audience eating out of her hand. They were absolutely enraptured with her—feeling her pain, laughing when she did, uneasily settling in the loneliness. Mia Graff was the glue that was holding the ship together, while actor Gianluca Guarino-Sanders was her support. He had the audience smitten with his charm, while staying furious at his arrogance (the same that Gilda felt). Guarino played a playboy who enjoys a game of Guess Who, and an engineer in charge of communications, who watched as his entire team devolved around him. His best acting was in reaction. Every one of his facial expressions caused the audience to flit their eyes back and forth between him and his acting partner, not wanting to miss the story Gianluca Guarino was supplying.
In all my time at Ithaca College, I have been extremely grateful to have access to multiple shows a semester, and continue to expand my repertoire of theatre. However, X very quickly shot its way up to one of my favorite things I have had the privilege of seeing at Ithaca College, and my only gripe was that I was unable to see it over and over and over again.
Comments