Friday, I attended the fundraising performance of the Weber State University production of "Charm". Written by Kathleen Callahan, the play was described as "...a blend of fact and romance, magical speculation and storytelling skill that details the life and times of Margaret Fuller, a 19th-century woman ready to transcend even the transcendentalism made popular in her day by Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne, who are featured in the play. Fuller worked with some of these men on “The Dial” as one of its first-ever female editors."
What I didn't know was that I would laugh out loud for 2 full hours -- that my eyes would need to actively flit from actor to actor to catch the facial expressions and their reactions the writer/editor Margaret Fuller. She was me living in that time and very much NOT me in her desperation to transcend her body and know the bliss of love through physical touch, she reached beyond convention and pushed every boundary she could.
Her pillow fight with Count O of Italy (a certain play on words) was inspired. It made me want to go straight to the craft store, fill up our normal pillow cases with feathers and go to town! So fun. There were magical, creative moments when the costume design brought to life for the modern eye the very real distance that the "yards of fabric" created between a man and a woman. The ending was shocking -- breathtaking even in the unexpected and suddenness of it all. I didn't know any of the history of Margaret Fuller's life. I could make no assumptions about the way the play would come around and finish. It was really a Sparkly ending. No matter how cool Callahan thought she was being. But, when she felt the muse -- "Oh! An idea...for a story!!" She followed it to fruition and I am SO glad for the laughter.
Good luck to the WSU theatrical team as they take this production on to the national level, which you can read about here.
What I didn't know was that I would laugh out loud for 2 full hours -- that my eyes would need to actively flit from actor to actor to catch the facial expressions and their reactions the writer/editor Margaret Fuller. She was me living in that time and very much NOT me in her desperation to transcend her body and know the bliss of love through physical touch, she reached beyond convention and pushed every boundary she could.
Her pillow fight with Count O of Italy (a certain play on words) was inspired. It made me want to go straight to the craft store, fill up our normal pillow cases with feathers and go to town! So fun. There were magical, creative moments when the costume design brought to life for the modern eye the very real distance that the "yards of fabric" created between a man and a woman. The ending was shocking -- breathtaking even in the unexpected and suddenness of it all. I didn't know any of the history of Margaret Fuller's life. I could make no assumptions about the way the play would come around and finish. It was really a Sparkly ending. No matter how cool Callahan thought she was being. But, when she felt the muse -- "Oh! An idea...for a story!!" She followed it to fruition and I am SO glad for the laughter.
Good luck to the WSU theatrical team as they take this production on to the national level, which you can read about here.
Such a fun play. So creative.
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