MASQUE performs “This World, The Next, and The Peach Orchard” at HCC

The MASQUE Theatre Company, a theatrical variety performance group of Connecticut performed at Housatonic Community College on April 3^rd, 2012, performing  “This World, The Next, and The Peach Orchard”, a comical and dramatic show for the audience that attended the free event.

Geoff Sheehan, Theatre Arts professor and program coordinator opened the performance with a warm welcome to everyone who attended the performance, and introduced the Outside/In Performance Series as "Bringing someone from the Outside... In to perform for the audience and share their theatrical experiences". The lights then dimmed and two performers walked out reading newspapers, shocked to see each other and the audience. After a moment of reading, the newspaper collapsed to the ground and a loud eerie music played as horrifying masks appeared on the performers faces.

Filled with an equivalent of dramatic and hilarious sketches, interpretive, tap, and dramatic dances, Larry Hunt and Adelka Polak had the audience laughing the entire performance, and at times on the edge of their seats. The pair used various lighting and sound effects and musical accompaniment. Interpretive dance was also included in the performance. Hunt and Polak gave an excellent performance and had the audience nearly hypnotized or laughing the entire time, ending the show with a hilarious tango, concluding with the masked performers holding a sign saying "The End".

After the performance, a Q&A session was held with the students in the Theatre Arts program. When asked what the entire performance was about, Hunt jokingly stated “Well we just do it because it's fun!” but on a more serious note, he claimed this particular performance was a collection of nine short stories. Polak commented, “It’s sort of a vignette of drama. We use different masks and props to tell different stories during the performance.”

When asked how this company got started, Hunt said he studied Theatre on the West Coast and said he later joined a small theatre company and began theatre. He said he was so enthralled by masks and physical theatre, he would

Polak said she had a dance background from childhood through high school, but when she reached college, she switched gears to study English and Psychology. However, once she took part in a dance production at the university she attended, she decided to go back to studying theatre, and years later moved from Pittsburgh to Connecticut and met Larry and they created a show together using Adelka’s dance background and incorporated Larry’s acting and mask-making skills, and thus MASQUE was born.

Housatonic Community College’s Theatre Arts program hosts various events every semester as part of the Outside/In Performance Series, as well as the 3^rd Thursday Cultural Celebrations.

The Theatre Arts program presents “Welcome to Arroyo’s”, a hilarious and moving Lower East Side New York-set comedy, performances May 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th 2012 at HCC’s Performing Arts Center. Come join us at these free performances and support the performing arts! (For audiences ages 12+)