Young actors take audience to 'a better place'

Next door to the Indianapolis Museum of Art lies the Civic Theatre where the Young Adult Summer Musical's program is set to perform The Secret Garden. Parents and friends take the stroll through the parking lot, past a picturesque modern fountain and a sculpture of "love" to enter the theatre. The audience has a feel of a community production, comprised mostly of relatives and local supporters. Yet, the venue lends an air of professionalism, as the young performers prepare themselves for the daunting task of putting together this play of heavy themes.\nThere is an immediate pleasure as the show begins due to the quality of the lighting and color motif on the stage. The set is simple, and transitions between scenery are conducted through the lighting cues and members of the chorus of "dreamers" -- or ghosts. As the curtains rise, the audience is greeted with a visual wonder as the India of Imperial England comes alive with nothing but shadows and cast members' movements. The hues are haunting, as the dead dreamers perform in complete white, with pale pastels surrounding them. Yet in moments of drama, a stark red handkerchief is thrust from their persons to symbolize the destruction of cholera in India, and a brooding sense of demise in the English manor -- where the majority of the play is set. \nThe heroine of the evening is Mary Lennox, played by Ariadne Baker-Dunn. Lennox's parents died due to a cholera epidemic in India, and thus she was sent to her only surviving relative living in England, Archibald Craven -- played by IU junior James Neff. \nThe 11-year-old Baker-Dunn has been acting since she was four, and her experience certainly shows on stage. As opposed to most young children on the stage, who read with a cute, but predictable cadence, Baker-Dunn displayed a quite impressive control over her interpretation. She was committed to her moments and her adaptability was proven most in a moment of comic intensity. She threw a temper tantrum of Linda Blair extremes and afterward dropped the act on a dime with a silent grace once she was appeased.\nThough Baker-Dunn was granted the most minutes on stage, two performers left their distinct impressions on the audience for the evening: Neff's Archibald and Martha the housemaid, played by Sara Fox, a Musical Theatre BFA student at Millikin University.\nNeff, who studies voice at IU under Tim Noble, delivered a professional caliber performance while taking on a role that would prove to be difficult for even the most seasoned of actors. As Archibald Craven, a hunchbacked outcast who is in constant grieving for his deceased wife, Lily, and in distress over the failing health of his young son Colin, Neff held on stage the pains of loss, loneliness, and a suffering love.\nNeff's physical presence was well defined, as he played age quite convincingly, in appearance and movement. Yet, his acting was only icing on the cake to his vocal quality. Neff, a baritone by nature, did have an occasional trial with some of the higher moments in the score, as the piece was written for tenor. Yet, Neff's vocal support had such power, and he sang with such passion, that his rehearsing and sheer engrossment in his character overcame his slight struggle with the music. The end result was an almost flawless evening.\nNeff's complement in exquisite delivery was Fox. She provided a much needed comic relief to the undertones of death and pining that the show is built around. Her movement was fluid, to match her dynamic personality, and her solo of the night, "Hold On," was the highlight of the second act.\nThe evening's disappointment seemed a bit technical. The orchestra had overpowered the microphones of some of the characters with higher registers, specifically Lily, played by Lauren Bower. Normally she would add a romantic backdrop to the show. However, as the audience was straining to hear her, the character became as two dimensional as the painting from which her portrait hung.\nAt times, the chorus of dreamers would be battling with the orchestra for precedence, especially in moments of climax. Two IU students, junior Katie Stark and recent graduate Carla Moebius were a part of this entourage of ghosts. With a score of this degree of difficulty, the young performers put a stellar effort to the task at hand. Obviously not intended for young voices, the testing moments are overcome in the times when the chorus is called upon to raise the action toward its peak.\nOverall, The Secret Garden is a musical well worth an audience's time. The ending is warm and leaves the audience in a better place from when they arrived. The story of pain rejuvenated by the persistent love of family is a theme that is timeless and one that every individual can take home to reflect upon.