Harry And The Thief Play Analysis

Thursday, March 8, 2018, at Frostburg State University in the F. Perry Smith Studio Theatre, I saw the play Harry & The Thief by Sigrid Gilmer. The play was directed by Mairzy Yost-Rushton. I came to this play expecting a serious message about slavery and how Harriet Tubman got the slaves to their destination. While that is what the play was about, I wasn't focused on that message. The reason for this is the comedic level that the play had, specifically how the actors would act. The main plot was Harry getting the slaves to freedom, as well as Mimi coming to help Harry. The comedic approach made this play actually entertaining and not one of those boring serious plays, that most people fall asleep watching. The main reason for the play being

It all started with Anita played by Habtamu Anderson. He really made his role believable to the point that I honestly thought he was an actual girl at first. That based on the fact that he was supposed to be a drag queen. The way he carried himself was perfect. This is from the way he walked and talked it that showed he was really acting like a drag queen. The way he was able to interact with the crowd and stage crew was amazing. He would do say funny statements in regards to what the crowd would have done or how someone on the stage crew looked. One of the best things he did was when the audio for the mics messed up and did a loud annoying sound. You would think he would of went out of character. This was not the case, he handled it in the best way possible. He just came them a look

First, the lighting and the use of it was great. You had moments when they had to replicate the action of the use of the time machine. The way they had the lights swirling around while the character was in the time machine traveling to their destination. Once they got there they would shine a single bright light to show the door opening, which happens once you get out the time machine. That whole setup was perfect. Overall the lighting was great. The costumes were also great as well. They really reflected the clothes that they wore in the 1850s. I was really impressed with all the different costumes they had for Anita. He had to have 5 different costumes throughout the play. Each outfit was bright and caught my attention. The costumes really gave the impression of him being a drag queen. Finally, the sounds of the play were excellent as well. They had many sounds that helped make the play great. They had the train horn sound whenever Harry would come around and would pull like she was pulling the string to sound the horn on a train. This was the interpretation of what they called the trail that Harry would take slaves on to freedom. They called the whole operation the underground railroad. This was a great incorporation of that when Sigrid Gilmer was writing the play. All these different aspects made the play great and worth going to