'Servant of Two Masters' Dishes Out Laughs

The Westmont Theater Arts Department, armed with swords and masks, begins the fall season performing “The Servant of Two Masters,” Carlo Goldoni’s commedia dell’arte masterpiece Oct. 22-23, 28 and 30 at 8 p.m. and Oct. 30 at 2 p.m in Porter Theatre. Tickets, $5 for students and $10 for adults, can be purchased at (805) 565-7140. A street festival begins a half hour before the show on the patio outside the theater.

Mitchell Thomas, associate professor of theatre arts, directs Goldoni’s play, which has been adapted by Constance Congdon. “This play has it all: sword fighting, masks, mistaken identities, romance, onstage live musicians, song, dance, passion, and disaster all rolled into a delightful farce,” Thomas says. “We are in search of the belly laugh, and we hope that our audiences will have a really, really good time with us.”

“The Servant” is a dramatic departure from last year’s exploration into absurdist theater, for which Thomas earned an Indy Award as director of “The Bald Soprano.” “After a fantastic but dark season last year, I wanted to start this year off with a performance that would unleash joy and laughter, and work from a place of pleasure and abandon,” Thomas says. “I’ve also been working with students in acting classes on clown and physical comedy and wanted to give them a vehicle to develop as comic performers.”

The cast includes seniors Heather Ostberg and Nolan Hamlin, juniors Reyn Halford and Felisha Vasquez, sophomores Sam Martin and Jackie Dressler, and first-year students Ben Offringa, Paige Tautz, Chris Wagstaffe, Mak Manson and Micah Sapienza.

It’s the premiere production of Robert Hamel, Westmont’s new full-time professor in theatrical design and technology. Hamel has developed the pre-show carnival with dramaturge Jessie Drake ’11, allowing the audience to experience the improvisational street performance atmosphere in the commedia tradition of Italy during the mid16th century.