A Wild Time Guarenteed For All
By: Rebecca Gracey ’18
On Tuesday, April 28th, Kev Berry ’15 opened his show entitled The Bootleggers Present WILD TIMES 20/80!!! (stop it you lazy prohibition sluts), an event unlike any Skidmore has seen before. The two-hour promenade performance took place inside the Saratoga Music Hall and utilized the majority of the space—including the large ballroom, stage, backstage, two dressing rooms, two bathrooms, a set of stairs leading up to a raised platform (dubbed “the attic”), and an elevator. Upon entering, each audience member was given a white Venetian-style mask to be worn for the duration of the performance, and given two rules: you could not remove your mask and you must remain silent. After taking the elevator up to the third floor and being given a brief introduction by two mysterious party guests (Alex Chernin ’15 and Miranda Park ’17), the doors slid open to reveal Ableford Mansion.
Upon entering the mansion, audience members were immersed in a lively Jazz Age party that interwove the roaring 1920s with more a contemporary aesthetic in its music, props, and costumes. Completing the party were eighteen “guests” who revealed themselves through dances, monologues, and interpersonal vignettes. The audience wandered about the space exploring each location as the actors moved lithely throughout, collectively telling an interwoven tale of jealousy, lust, and desire.
WILD TIMES combined dance and movement with personal, private moments between one character and one audience member. Each actor embodied a character from the epic poem, with a few inventing and developing roles of their own. The “one-on-ones” happened by chance, as audience members watched the dances and explored the space only to find themselves being pulled off into a private room by one of the performers, who then told them part of his or her story.
Significant credit can also be given to the show’s installation designer, Mercury Hogan ’16. Hogan draped black mesh from one side of the ballroom to the other and filled it with red, black, and gold balloons. She also draped fabric and flower chains in the attic space, creating a private nook in one corner. Hogan considered every aspect of the show’s appearance down to the bottles of liquor in the dressing room that had been emptied out and filled with flowers. With such an eye for detail and a unique aesthetic vision, Hogan is to be applauded for helping transform Saratoga Music Hall into the strange Ableford Mansion—as well as for transporting the audience into a world of passion, danger, and wild parties
WILD TIMES demanded an intense rehearsal period, and since the cast did not have access to the space until the week before the show opened, all of the dances were choreographed and rehearsed in the studio spaces of the JKB theater. During rehearsals, Berry walked around the perimeter of the studio watching from all possible angles—taking into account that the audience would be watching from all sides.
WILD TMES also presented a unique challenge to the performers, most of whom fell into one of two groups: either they were actors stepping into the world of dance, or they were dancers stepping into the world of acting. This challenge—as well as the success with which the company rose to meet it—was a testimony to the vision of the entire collaborative team throughout the show’s development. Berry spoke very positively in his reflection on the project and its execution: “The process of creating a show entirely from the ground up (from its inception as a dream that seemed like it could never see the light of day, to its closing night when I realized the Party was even better than I could have ever imagined) was an extremely rewarding and exciting challenge. The responses to the show have moved me and I am excited to continue working on and creating shows like this in the future.”
