Picnic Play Analysis

Picnic Performance Critique Picnic as directed by Jack Wright, was the first play that I had ever gone to in my life. As far as a first time experience, I’d say that Picnic left me wanting more from the actors and the production overall. The two actors that I chose to focus on were those who played Hal Carter and Millie Owens; James Kern and Melissa Berger respectively. I closely examined the voices of both of these actors as well as each and every one of their movements and what they did to better portray their characters. After sitting through the entire play and watching these two, I believe that I can give a critique of their performances. Let’s get right into it starting with James Kern. After watching James’s performance in Picnic I …show more content…
I know for a fact that the second my shirt came off, no matter what my body looked like, I would be getting tense. James was able to get rid of most of that tension as the play progressed, but there were times where he desperately needed to just breathe and think about what his performance needed most. In conclusion, I think that Hal Carter was a forgettable character. The romance that was built up throughout the play was more analogous to one that a middle schooler would have. There needed to be more feelings in James’s voice. His body language displayed his feelings well, but that is not effective alone in a play where characters interact through dialogue. Again, I believe that James did a great job with what he was given. Millie Owens as played by Melissa Berger, on the other hand did a tremendous job overall. The play started with her and Bomber having a scene together where she was teased by him and it was immediately distinguishable that these two had a history of not liking each other. Every time that there was an interaction between her and some other character, you got the story behind their relationship. She really took given circumstances to the next level and I was genuinely impressed with