As he has done so many other times,my son Eric did a super job playing Mike Teavee in his schools’ spring play, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory this past weekend at the Palace Theater in Waterbury.
Like his last name clearly hints, Mike loves, well, TV.He is a smart kid who has quite a temper but is also pretty lazy…and Eric played his role beautifully.
All actors must be able to do whatever is necessary in order to play their respective parts convincingly and successfully. And every actor who has ever portrayed this character has probably done it in their own, unique way. Eric has played a number of different parts through the years and has always done a super job playing those parts well. That is why he is such a good actor.
Erics’ portrayal of Mike was comical in a number of ways, from the almost-constant sneer he had on his face, to the loud and often raucous manner in which he delivered his lines throughout this fine play- exactly the way a real Mike Teavee might have acted.
Of course, there are people out there who come alarmingly close to Mike Teavees’ character in real life but, fortunately for Ann and I, that isn’t anything we have to worry about with Eric.
Moving on, acting was not the only area in which Eric was superb in this role. Doing what I believe that he loves the most, singing, he belted out the song
“I See It All on TV” along with his mother, Mrs. Teavee and Phineous Trout, handling most of the vocals.
Right down to the very end of these shows, Eric played his part so well,just like he always does, mostly as a regular sized boy but also as a shrunken down tiny boy near the end of the play. In fact, the whole cast was super throughout both of the shows that I went to. Surprised? Not me.They all worked hard over the past few months and the results were these great plays, two of which I caught.