Serious about comedy.

 

Home

About Jester

Sketch & Solo Performances

Improv Performances

Film & TV

The Jester Interviews

Jester's Blog

Book reviews

Favorite links

Follow jestershash on Twitter

Facebook

 

Engaging Character

Kimmy Gatewood displays a palette of personalities in carefully constructed solo showcase

“Apple Sister” Kimmy Gatewood (see review and interview) goes solo at The PIT with “The Engagement,” a fitting vehicle where she gets to showcase her versatility with characters in a piece that has a substantial story arc to put them all into, seen there April 14.

Gatewood wrote the piece so that all the characters she plays are addressing their comments to her, on the unhappy occasion of being jilted at the rehearsal dinner before her wedding, so that the audience is seeing everything as though it is directly from Gatewood’s own point of view. This proves very effective at drawing you in.

Each character she plays advances the story a little more, building the humor as the story unfolds, going from a daft friend who doesn’t quite realize what’s happened to the ghost of her great grandfather, all trying to console her (with varying degrees of interest) where she’s retreated to a coatroom at the hall.

Gatewood also throws in a couple apparitions for good measure … first, the real presence of an ex-boyfriend she’s still into, whose every other move is expertly scored with the recognizable riff of “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” to the ghost of Judy Garland, babbling on and on as Gatewood is backlit to do a dead-on impression.

All in all, Gatewood makes each familial character distinct enough to avoid the trap of having every one be a slight variation of herself. That makes “The Engagement” engaging from conception to completion.

“The Engagement” is slated to return to The PIT in June. Check Jesterjournal.com for more details. 

   

     

Custom Search

                                                                  Feedback? Email shashouamedia@gmail.com or michael.shashoua@jesterjournal.com.

                                                                                     © 2005-2018 Michael Shashoua