The Critic's Choice with Sam Sargent

March 28th, Deerfield Beach- Hyped as a night of superior one act plays, the event hosted by troupe 0955 soon turned into a night of boredom and aggravation. The night started off bad with a half hour late start. President, Caitlin Sileo attempted to placate the aggravated crowd by introducing Mr. Eric Hofstedder while Mr. Lee Tempest “Temp” announced the Cappie nominations for the three schools in attendance. This did not entertain this writer in the least and made me want to cut off my own arm so I would have something to throw at him.

Soon the show began, much to my dismay as I had started to enjoy watching the disorganization and the futile attempts by troupe 0955 to salvage their sinking ship of an evening.

The first performance was by Deerfield Beach who performed UBU. According to the program the troupe had performed this one act several times before but judging by the quality of this performance it seemed to me that this was the first dress rehearsal. Lines were stumbled over and timing was simply off. Deerfield will have to dig deep if they hope to have any chance at doing well at this years state drama convention.

Deerfield was not alone, however, in their sub par performance. Piper high school’s Line was equally as disappointing with one of the lead actors arriving mere seconds before he was called to go on stage. By the end of the night I was wondering what the other performances were like if these performances were the ones who received the coveted superior.

The night was not all that bad, however. Coral Springs High School’s Love of a Pig was a delight. This comedy was hyped as being trite by some of the members of troupe 0955 yet it would seem the only trite thing about the night’s performances was UBU. The variety of snacks provided by Deerfield Beach High was also varied and delicious. The Kirkland water was extremely refreshing.

Last year in all the pageantry that is the Cappies awards gala, Deerfield Beach High took home the award for critics team. This highly sought after award was earned through the tireless efforts of C. Sileo and former star S. Konzale sp?. This year was to be Deerfield's chance to repeat. As we are halfway through the year lets take a look to see how they stand and how the team as a whole has fared.

Lead critic and team captain C. Sileo knew that she had some large shoes to fill and many holes in her team. She chose to fill them with M. Islam D. Nieukierk and the younger of the Sileo cappies dynasty. These players knew that they would have to step up this year if Deerfield was to have any chance in repeating. "Look I knew what I was doing was basically putting a band aid on a gun shot wound but hey what choice did I have?" said Sileo during a recent interview. Sileo is right and the wounds left by the departing seniors of last year's team have yet to be filled. The blood of this sinking ship still flows unceasingly with each passing Cappies week. The combined records of the three-team members mentioned are 1 and 19. In the opinion of this writer that is abysmal.

I think you have to put most of the blame on Sileo. Entering this year she felt that she needed to put people on the team who had earned spots. My question to her is how did they earn these spots? As this year has proven thus far, it certainly wasn't through their writing ability. It seems that for Deerfield the only requirement for Cappies team membership is to be able to sit through a show which even someone in a coma could do, and with probably less whining.

All of this has me wondering, how long can the Deerfield dynasty last? With seniors departing after this year who have made up for 9 out of the 12 publications can Deerfield ever recover? The answer lies in then younger generations.

"Cappies isn't like a big deal. I mean I've totally declined shows because lets face it writing reviews sucks." (D. Nieukierk)

Well Dana that might be why the Cappies team this year sucks.

And so we are at the third show of the year and its time for the third installment of my column. Here are my thoughts on this show.

AN ALL STAR SHOWING

When I first saw the line up for this show I said to myself wow we have the allstar line up of Deerfield Beach High Cappies. Between Sileo, Wallace, Hearte, and Islam Deerfield is going to throw its best players out there in hopes of repeating and bringing home the coveted cappies team award. Let me throw out a statistic for you. Since its inception only two teams have repeated in cappies competition. One of them was Taravalla and few can forget the all star cast that made up North Broward Prep in the early 21st century. Deerfield, however, has lost its most powerful hittes in Konzale who took home the lead critic award for seniors in last years competition. Many at Deerfield camp are hoping for rising stars Caitlin Sileo and Martina Hearte to turn the corner and put up big numbers for the team this year. Sileo, however, has been plagued by run ins with the juggernaut, S. Marshack, and Hearte, for reasons unknown to trainers in the Deerfield locker room, has been fighting wrist pains over the past two seasons. With an all star showing like this I would be very surprised if none of the writers got published tonight.

Not so fast my friend! Heres another statistic! In 20 Saturday night shows Caitlin Sileo and Hearte have combined to go 4-16 in publishings. They are going to have to watch out or history might repeat itself. Heres another stat though. In four years of competing Sileo has been published by show 4 all four years. She will pull it out and will be published but will have to be sure not to force the issue.

For fantasycappies its beat writer Sam Sargent siging off and reminding you that there is no pride like BUCK PRIDE.