Goodnight Desdemona Goodmorning Juliet

The production of “Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet” put on by Villanova University’s Theater Department captured the essence of Shakespeare combined with the humor of an intertwined modern world. The combination of fine acting, beautiful costumes, and impressive stage presence led to wonderful experience for everyone in the audience. Evident through multiple bursts of laughter and a few straining necks it was obvious that the production was very well received.

The most striking cast member had to be Kyla Marie Mostello playing the part of Desdemona. Kyla had an amazing stage presence that immediately drew the eyes of an audience member. Kyla was able to convince the audience that she truly was from another world. Her facial expressions and tone of voice made believing her to be from the world of Othello amazingly easy. When the character of Constance Ledbelly played by Nina Donze explained to Desdemona that she was from another world, a world referred to by Desdemona as “Academia,” Kyla allowed the audience to believe in her curiosity about this strange world of “Academia.” Kyla forced the audience to wonder whether she really was curious about this strange new

Dirk Durossette did a very nice job on the scenery of the production. The space available was seemingly used very well. Every aspect of the play was easily fit into what seemed to be a very small space. The way in which the trash can was set up and used was ingenious and left almost the whole audience with the same question, “How’d they do that??” A very simplistic stage set up worked out very nicely in that each prop was used for more than one scene and fit in each scene perfectly. Dirk’s wonderful job of scenery along with the light designer Jerold R. Forsyth made for a wonderful transportation into another world scene. The flashing lights actually made the people who were moving props seem as if they belonged in the scene. The people moved like machines very quickly and efficiently, combined with the lights, and of course the sounds designed by Matt Callahan, a very realistic time warp scene was created. The sounds created seemed to almost coincide with the lights, as if they were a match.

The main character of Constance Ledbelly played by Nina was interestingly odd yet very likeable. Nina was able to capture Constance’s inner spirit while maintaining her nerdy exterior. Nina’s ability to memorize so many lines and act in two very different worlds was admirable. At times Nina wasn’t completely convincing in her quest to make the audience believe she had traveled to a new world but overall she did a nice job.

Not one of the characters stands out as weak link in the production. With

Some topics in this essay:
Nina Donze, Constance Ledbelly, Dirk Durossette, Taylor Williams, Margaret McCarty, Matt Callahan, Theater Department, Jonathan Carr, Desdemona Kyla, Jerold Forsyth, nice job, wonderful job, character constance ledbelly, constance ledbelly played, character constance, constance ledbelly, ledbelly played, audience believe, fight scenes, stage presence, mike joe josh, ledbelly played nina, forced audience, “academia” kyla,