While it was probably not very smart of me to trek out into the storm in my canvas paisley shoes (they were completely soaked through within two minutes of my stepping out of Tenaya Hall and a good amount of water got caught between the undersides of my feet and the shoes' rubber soles, so I had quite a squishy walk in between my classes), the brisk rain was a refreshing reminder of what winters were like back home in San Francisco. Knowing that the spot of bad weather was only temporary and that we would soon be back to our chilly-but-not-cold winter days made me appreciate the rain and puddles all that much more.
The rain may have amused me, but I was clearly in the minority with that opinion; just about everybody else was miserable and spirits around here were grayer than the sky outside. Every aspect of daily life seemed to be interrupted with the unexpected bout of rain - my Friday night theater-going plans included.
When I looked outside the window at around 5 pm and was greeted with a pitch black sky and a gust of wet wind strong enough to rattle the panes of glass in its frame, I looked to my remaining roommate (the other one had gone home to LA for the weekend) and we both decided that the three-fourth mile walk to Potiker Theater was too much to handle in this extreme weather.
The Friday-night at the theater that I had so looked forward to was going to have to wait and become a Saturday matinee instead.
The more highly anticipated something becomes, the more spectacular it has to be to impress, so it was really saying something when I found myself raving to complete strangers, who were probably more interested in the french fries they were ordering than in theater, about how blown away I was by the play I had to wait an extra seventeen hours (in addition to the weeks after purchasing my season theater subscription) to see while waiting for my Garden Burger at Plaza Cafe after the show.
"The Skin of Our Teeth," the 1942 play by Thornton Wilder, was the first in the series of five shows in my "5 for $10" student theater subscription. The two student cabaret shows that I attended earlier this month were great, but the UCSD Theatre production of "The Skin of Our Teeth" was clearly on a whole nother level; I was very impressed by the professionalism and sheer talent of all the actors and actresses on stage.
Every cast member was amazing in their parts, but I thought Rebecca Levy, who portrayed Sabina, and Josh Wade, who took on the parts of the Announcer and Homer, gave especially stand-out performances. Levy, as Sabina, broke in and out of character seamlessly and her strong performance really drove the plot forward without a hitch. Wade was absolutely hilarious as the Announcer; I started grinning and laughing the moment the theater lights dimmed and he stepped onto stage to deliver the introductory lines of the play. His silent extension of Homer from the end of the first act into the first intermission and the attempted interactions with the members of the audience walking near the edge of the stage were too funny!
Sometimes it takes a few minutes for the audience to get hooked into the plot of a play (it certainly took a while for me to get into Olympus Inc., and other high school productions I have attended), but with the outstanding performances of Wade and Levy as the first two characters on stage, I was instantly drawn into the story and there was no period of confused transition.
The play itself was brilliantly written and it was brought to life spectacularly by the UCSD Theatre department. It was a little surprising to see how the issues and crises that were on the minds of Americans in the war-torn 40's were still just as, if not more, applicable in today's society.
Even if all the insightful messages of the play went over your head, the insanely farcical nature of the first two acts (the third act is much more serious, especially near the end) would be enough to satisfy anybody's enjoyment quota for any live performance - dinosaurs, mammoths, and a rocker Moses accompanied by Homer on the guitar? Tell me that wouldn't be worth seeing all on one stage in one act!
Two and a half hours divided into three acts with two intermissions was pretty long for a play, but I enjoyed every single minute of it and walked out of the theater with the same grin that had first appeared on my face at the beginning of the show still going strong.
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