Arianna Rotty
Dr. Hustoles
November 12, 2018
The Happy Elf
I was a involved with the production of The Happy Elf, so there was not a specific night that I
saw the show.
One of the main characters of the show, “Ham”, as play by Brandon Homan, was one of the
characters I watched to see what empathetic response they received from the audience from their
portrayal as “Ham”. Right away, Homan used a de-nasal vocal quality that established his character
from the rest of the elves and gave him this goofy and “elfish” quality about him and boosted his “cute
factor” with the audience. The way Homan would also walk into the scene was flouncy yet
uncoordinated, continuing with the “elf like” presence. Along with his vocal attack, Homan also used his
strong abilities with nonverbal vocals to get a laugh out of the audience such as a moment from later in
the show when Homan, as Ham, sees Santa and you can tell he is excited by his body language (jumping
up and down, large, flailing gestures) and his audible increased rate in breathing. Homan’s empathic
response from the audience was one of laughter and liability while still remaining mostly credible within
each scene.
The next character that was practically good at gathering an emotional response from the
audience was the character “Gilda” as played by Lydia Prior. Right off the bat as soon as Prior would
enter the stage you could tell she was happy but they way she carried herself with a slight bounce in her
step led by her chest and nose at some points. These gestures played very nicely into establishing her
character’s credibility with the audience as well as play up the affecting that Prior’s character has with
the title character “Eubie”, as played by Sam Verdick. Her sweet and innocent affection toward
Verdick’s character gathered an empathetic response of love and likability from the audience as well as
added to a great laugh when “Gilda” would fall all over “Eubie” like a love-sick puppy and then snap
out of it. Lastly, her nonverbal vocals such as her consistence with the sneezing joke and the way she
would walk on to every scene slightly imitating the way a penguin walks, I thought was able to get a
positive empathetic response from the audience that made the audience want to like her and root for that
team of elves throughout the show.
While the last two characters discussed where positive empathic response, “Norbert” as played
by Ty Hudson, I thought was able to gather an empathic response but this time a negative one. While the
other characters were able have a light and “Elfish” quality about them, Hudson used those qualities and
turned them on their head to create a character that was childlike yet still nasty and “school bully” like.
Hudson was able to get this empathic response from the way he walked in the scenes with his head and
arms thrown back and his gate has a slight bounce to it, emitting false confidence and power over any
situation that Hudson’s character walked into.
Finally, the last character that I believed had an empathetic response from the audience was the
character “Curtis” as played by Zac Gaulke. Through his use of body language from keeping a hunched
body position and arms always folded into the body, Gaulke was able to show that he was sad and mad
therefore the audience knew and was able to have an empathic response to him. On the other hand, while
the audience was able to gather an empathic response of feeling mad and sad from “Bluesvile Curtis’,
they were able to gather one from the “Goofy Curtis” that Gaulke is able to bring out whenever the “sun
rises” in the show and at the end of the show when everyone is happy because Christas is finally in
Bluesville. Gaulke went from taking up as little floor space as possible with sad Curtis to opening up
and taking up as much floor space with happy Curtis. Finally, Gaulke was able to make the audience
laugh with the delivery of the dry humor in the show, therefore gathering a positive empathic response.
