Mer and I got to see CVCA’s fall theater production, Treasure Island, on Friday the 20th. I am always impressed by CVCA’s theater, and it is much fun to know some of the actors on the stage, and to be part of a community in the audience. Just the experience of being in the theater is pleasant, and that is independent of the play being done.

There are many adaptations of Treasure Island, and the production that the director chose for the students was a very loose adaptation, with a huge cast of characters with many roles for women. It had several tongue-in-cheek moments as well, which I think is a wise thing for high school theater,

The set was excellent, as always. Our stage is oddly shaped, like a triangle. The troupe took advantage of this, and decked out (ha!) the stage as the prow of a ship. Granted, the wheel of the ship would have been facing the wrong way (it was facing the audience), but it worked very well. For the first act, they added various objects on the stage to indicate a tavern.

The first act was the main characters looking for a ship and crew, and involved a long flash-back to fill in the details of the story. Once the crew had been signed up with the promise of treasure, the first act ended. The second act took place entirely on the boat, and was full of action – the heroes finding out about the crew’s plan to rebel and take all the treasure, the capture of the protagonist, his release by an insane man who swam over from the island (who had a fully staged fantasy about cheese!), and the ensuing fight to recapture the ship. In my opinion, the first act was a bit slow because things moved more slowly, but the second act was great and moved right along.

I enjoyed seeing the students act. I am biased, but I was especially pleased by two of my Fools (my improv group). One played the insane man, and he played a high-energy character that was very physical – nice job. My other student played Long John Silver, and while he is an excellent actor, this was the first time where I thought he became his character (as opposed to playing a character). His Long John Silver shone every time he was on stage. It was great to see him do so well.

The overall cast was immense – there were at least 25 people who appeared on stage. The director did a nice job of sorting them all out on stage so they all had highly visible moments, especially early on when the characters were being introduced.

CVCA’s next production is the spring musical, which this year is going to be Annie. I’m looking forward to it – the CVCA theater is a good organization