Reasons To Be Pretty Character Analysis

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On October 30, I saw a production of Reasons to Be Pretty by Neil LaBute at the Lake Worth Playhouse. There were only four actors and I believe they all did an appreciable job in portraying their characters. Specifically, I will be critiquing Daniel Distasio who played Kent and Jessica Scheidt who played Carly. In the first half of the play Distasio was hilarious as Kent but as the story progressed he became more serious and intimidating. Scheit in the beginning was bubbly and sly as Carly, but again as the story progressed she became unsure and insecure. Starting with Distasio, he was very believable as his character. He felt very genuine throughout. Distasio first portrayed his character as a fun player. Whenever Distasio started …show more content…
When Scheidt first appeared I thought she was the seductive woman that Distacio and Reyes mentioned earlier because she carried herself with confidence and seemed like the stereotypical sexy woman with blonde hair and red lipstick. I learned that this was how her character started off, the secure best friend of Pollak (Steph), Reyes’s girlfriend. She portrayed her character as a bit ditsy, having a condescending tone towards whoever she was talking to about something she was actually wrong about. For example, when Eyes told her the book he was reading was dark, she said in a “duh” kind of tone while rolling her eyes: “yea, thats because it's night”. I appreciated her apparent ditzy attitude early in the play because later that ignorance affected her in a way that was no longer comedic. Later on she was clueless about her husband’s affair and her ignorance caused stress for herself and Reyes so I believe it was important to show that characterized early on so it would carry on later in the play effectively. She was responsive to her actor’s dialogue as well, looking confused and innocent whenever Reyes told her that she was the reason that his relationship was ruined. The only issue I had with Scheidt is that I often found myself seeing her back often. Perhaps this was an effect of my seating, but this could easily have been fixed on her