ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Monday, April 22, 1996                 TAG: 9604230158
SECTION: NEWSFUN                  PAGE: NF-1 EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER

SEEING PLAY IS ONLY HALF THE JOB

It's fun to sit back and watch a movie or play with friends or family and talk later (never during!) about what you liked or didn't like.

But just try sometime to put it into written words, and you may find yourself learning a little bit in the process.

That's what happened to the three pupils we took to see an opening day performance of Mill Mountain Theatre's production of "Beauty and the Beast."

Before the play, we talked a little bit about how plays are different from movies and how our expectations must also be different. After all, a play is performed by live actors, so unexpected things can happen.

During the performance we saw, for example, the walking table lost his teapot during a dance with Beauty. But Doug Zschiegner, the actor who played the Beast, smoothly scooped up the fallen teapot and handed it to the actor dressed as the table.

In a movie, the director simply would have shouted, "Cut!" and the scene would have been done over.

To make what is happening seem real, a play uses a variety of tools, including good costumes, appropriate, dramatic lighting and a set that makes the world of the play look right. Finally, the acting must be good enough to make us think that the people on the stage really ARE the characters they're playing.

So our three reviewers paid special attention to all these things - and learned how to take notes in a dark theater! But their work had just begun when the play was over, because it was time to try to write something about what they'd seen.

We think they did an excellent job; we hope they had a wonderful time.

"Beauty and the Beast" runs through Sunday at Mill Mountain Theatre. For show times and prices, call 342-5740.

LENGTH: Short :   40 lines