UGFest 2013 Bonus thoughts

Last night it came to my attention that I left one of the writers Jessica Burton, off of the list of performers/writers.

I added her to the list, but then also realized I somehow failed to write anything about her great scene she wrote.

I did have some thoughts about her piece, though, so here they are. :-)

Leyetta and Mackenzie Way play a librarian (Leyetta) and a girl looking for a book for a book report (Mackenzie).

Mackenzie walks on stage and tells Leyetta that she needs to find a book, which causes the librarian to go into all of the different types of books and genres. She's way more enthusiastic about the books than this teenager is, who tells her at one point that she doesn't dislike reading, just that she doesn't have enough time to read much.

I liked Leyetta's portrayal of a librarian. It was believable, her enthusiasm seemed sincere, and the fact that neither her nor Mackenzie read from a script added an extra bit of realism to the parts.

If I were to add a critique, I'd say that the moral or message about reading came across a little strong.

At one point while I was watching it, I thought to myself "This seems a bit like an after-school special."

I think it's great to promote reading. I also really liked both performances and Jessica's script. I guess, like Tianta's Shriners scene, I would have liked to see more from the characters and less moral conclusions.

For instance you'd never see a sketch on Saturday Night Live that promoted reading. It's meant to be funny and that's all you need.

Again, I think showing how reading is awesome is a just cause. I guess to me it felt a bit heavy handed.

Anyhow, again I feel bad for leaving Jessica out of my first critique. She's a great actress and a big part of the program there at UGF. For the most part this was a well-written scene. It might be fun to see what happens to these characters after they leave the library. I think it'd be especially fun to find out what kind of person the overly enthusiastic librarian is.