Arts & Entertainment
Review: Ms. Courageous
By Rebecca Dowdy, Opinion Editor
The studio theatre that
Ms. Courageous opened
last week to the unassuming but
powerful sound of isolating radium.
The production was held in the
studio theater, tucked in an obscure
hallway of Jones Hall and ran from
last Thursday, Sept. 20, to this past
Sunday, Sept. 23. The production tells
the stories of Elizabeth Blackwell and
Marie Curie, two female pioneers
in science, and how they progressed
in their respective fields despite
the discrimination they faced. Ms.
Courageous was a surprisingly sweet
and uplifting production. It was
perhaps a few dramatic monologues
short of cheesy, but overall a fun,
educational experience.
housed the production was small
and intimate, with seats surrounding
the entirety of the stage. It made
the viewer feel like they were sitting
right on top of the actors, making
their performances feel clear and
nuanced in a way one usually doesn’t
get to experience. The staging of the
studio theater also allowed for some
interesting blocking choices, with
actors weaving in between audience
members, freely moving in organic
ways, and playing with rhythm and
tempo of line deliveries.
The acting itself was clear
and competent; the performance
of Laura Austin, who played
Fast Fashion at Gaddy-Flamrick
By Hannah Flood, Staff Writer
The Weems Gallery at
Gaddy-Hamrick has welcomed a new
exhibit by Joyce Watkins King called
Fast Fashion Fiasco: The High Cost of
Cheap. The exhibit features original
sculptures and installations inspired
by the phenomenon of “fast fashion”,
designed to promote reflection and
discussion on personal levels of con
sumerism. Fast fashion is known in
the industry as the process of quickly
moving ideas and trends from Fash- ■
ion Week runways into stores every
spring and fall. H&M, Zara and For
ever 21 are some of the most popular
fast fashion retailers today.
Sixteen pieces are on display
as part of the exhibit, each focusing
on a specific result of fast fashion,
from the impact clothing makes in
landfills to the effects of dye pollu
tion in water sources. To accompany
her exhibit. King has compiled a fact
sheet with more in depth informa
tion about the serious economical,
environmental, and humanitarian
issues resulting from fast fashion.
The exhibit opened on Sept.
4 and will continue through Oct. 2,
open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on week
days and from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on
weekends.
An artist reception will take
place on Sept. 27 from 4:30 p.m. to
6:30 p.m. with a gallery talk begin
ning at 5:30 p.m.
To accompany the art exhib
it at the reception, Meredith Dance
Theatre and the dance department^'
are orchestrating a live interactive
■ dance piece, choreographed and di
rected by Amelia Bryant, ‘20. Com
plete with an informative sound
score, dancers will represent how
“consumer america is wasteful with
clothes and we don’t wear things
long enough for them to wear out
before we throw them away,” Bry
ant said. She hopes the piece will
serve as a worthy accompaniment to
King’s powerful works of art.
More information on Joyce
Watkins King is available at her
website, www.jwkingart.com. Seven
of the installations on display in
Weems Gallery are for sale. Please
direct inquiries to
gallery@meredith.edu.
Review: Searching
By Kathleen Daly, Staff Writer
Aneesh Chaganty’s Search
ing is an outstanding thriller
mystery movie which uses the
unconventional presentation
of showing the story through a
computer screen. With its realistic
portrayal of the internet and its
great directing, the movie puts you
in the shoes of the main character,
a father named David Kim (John
Cho), whose high school daughter,
Margot (Michelle La), has recently
gone missing. Teamed with an
investigator, Detective Vick (Debra
Messing), he searches his daugh
ter’s laptop to find clues as to why
she disappeared and where she
might be.
Unlike most films that
present their stories through a
Elizabeth Blackwell, was particularly
enjoyable as she played her
character with equal parts tragedy
and relentless determination. The
actors’ performances, however, were
held back by some sections of stilf
exposition, but they worked through
them admirably. There were many
interesting parallels between the
lives of Marie Curie and Elizabeth
Blackwell, but the two narratives felt
oddly disjointed and the play itself
might have been more elFective if
more had been done to interweave
their stories together.
Georgia Kimbell ‘19, was
required to attend for a class but
ended up enjoying the production
nonetheless. She mentioned that on
the first night of the show, there was a
panel of Meredith science professors
talking about their experiences.
Kimbell heard that it was an
interesting talk but was unable to
take part in it herself.
Overall, an afternoon
watching Ms. Courageous was one
well spent. It was enjoyable to learn
about the lives of these two women
and watching their stories unfold on
stage. It’s a nice addition to this year’s
theme of “women warriors,” and it
is certainly a much needed boost of
inspiration as midterms loom over
the campus.
computer screen. Searching does
not use the computer screen as an
excuse for lazy presentation, but
rather uses classic cinematography
tricks like a slow zoom and focus
ing a specific part of the screen to
build tension and add details to the
story. Like most people do on their
computers, David also multi-tasks
on his computer to add as much
information as possible in the scene
without it being overwhelming. For
example, he searches up Detective
Vick’s background on Google when
he is talking to her on the phone
for the first time. This is not to say
that everything on screen entirely
related to the plot; a few unrelated
tabs were on the computer screen
just to make it feel more natural.
Another problem that
Searching avoids is making the in
ternet and the people unrealistic.
David has the knowledge that you
would expect a father would have
about the internet. He has no idea
what Tumhlr is when it is brought
up in the film and he misspells it
when he searches for it. However,
he uses Google Spreadsheets like
a professional and has no trouble
getting into his daughter’s locked
accounts.
The movie also doesn’t
make the internet seem like an ex
tremely evil place. His daughter’s
classmates and the people on the
internet act like those one would
expect to come across online. For
example, the film depicts a You
Tube video of David overreacting at
someone and, rather than all com
ments being against him, a couple
of the comments were sympathetic
towards David.
Overall, the film was a de
lightful subversion of what movies
about the internet have become. It
was realistic and built tension with
its great presentation. Hopefully,
more films about the internet will
strive to be as creative as Searching.