“Hunting Bigfoot” was the first play I have ever seen, other than the Dracula play they did in high school when I was a freshman. I was definitely intrigued by the title of the play, I wasn’t expecting what was portrayed in front of me when I went to see it, I expected something totally different. My first thoughts when being introduced to the play were that it’d be a play about people literally going out and hunting down bigfoot, but there was a huge twist. The play was stemmed around the development that the television writers / co-creators of “Hunting Bigfoot” had to go through in order to write the huge hit show “Hunting Bigfoot.”
The play was performed in a black box theatre, the seating was set for the stage to be in the middle with seats on opposite sides. As the audience we were seated in the “Writers Room” face to face with the creators of “Hunting Bigfoot,” who entered the room in a frantic rush blurting out ideas on who exactly bigfoot could be. They were just as clueless as us, running back and forth from the conference table, to the whiteboard to the coach, having no idea on who exactly this mysterious beast could be. As the play proceeds we’re riding a roller coaster going from one bigfoot to another.
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A questionable creature who goes by the name of bigfoot puts two overwhelmed television writers on the edge of their seats as they try to answer the prolonged question of “who exactly was the first bigfoot to walk on earth?” Could bigfoot have been P.T. Barnum, John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Nellie Taft, Dorthoy Parker, Jo Baker, L. Ron Hubbard, Richard Nixon, Dezi Arnez, Elvis Presley, Jim Morrison, Ken Burns or Oprah Winfrey? The timeline of bigfoot goes as far as to the early 1800s to the present time, bigfoot can easily be anyone hiding behind a mask, trying to sneak by the public eye. The idea of bigfoot being former presidents is out of the box, Nixon was definitely hiding plenty of dirty little secrets under his nose, being bigfoot could've been one of the many secrets he was hiding. Elvis died or so we think, but the controversy of the hour is questioning if he truly died or he just escaped in a bigfoot costume hiding away from everyone to enjoy some peace and alone time. Oprah ended her long time running show in order to pursue her lifelong dream of being bigfoot.
The play was based around the discovery of the one true bigfoot, given these circumstances, I think both the performances done by the television writers were absolutely great. The actors Dani Dauz and Lucas Swope did an amazing job with their character development throughout the play, and definitely did an astonishing job portraying two desperate tv writers in search for their next Tv show hook. Duaz had a soft yet stern voice showing her empowerment as one of the writers while Swope had a nice soft but rough voice, that reached it’s point in specific moments of realization. Their voices helped us see clearly what they were thinking and going through giving us a rush of excitement whenever they were at a peak of finally figuring out the identity of Bigfoot or so they thought. The rest of the actors who played the different bigfoots added the extraness that was needed, giving the play a touch of humour, yet seriousness. My favorite part was when Elvis had his five seconds of spotlight dancing in the distance yet pushed aside as if he wasn’t the king of rock’n’roll, how could he ever fit the shoes of Bigfoot. Nixon's big pointy nose stood out the most from the costumes, he was a well known liar why not give him a Pinocchio nose to fit the role perfectly.
When it came to the Beast-master 67 it felt as if the character was a bit redundant. I felt that the play would have been fine without this specific character, and just the hoax man Willy B. Dunne would have sufficed. The performance didn’t stick out as much as the other Bigfoots did, I felt as if the know it all bigfoot expert was overdone/overused. This character didn’t hook me in as the previous Bigfoots did, they were more intriguing and questionable, while Beast-master 67 was just over doing it, him being the Bigfoot was just too obvious. In a sense it felt as if the purpose of Beastmaster 67 was to bring some sort of humour/irony, but it didn’t set that tone as well as the other Bigfoots did. Beast-master 67 didn’t seem to have a specific connection with the rest of the bigfoots, it seemed a little out of place as if this character was somewhat forced or put in last minute.
The play was performed in a black box theatre, it wasn’t supper big, I think it was the perfect size for this specific play, it allowed the audience to be close to the actors. The one thing I didn’t really like about it being in a black box theater was probably how we got a major glimpse of the set, I like being surprised and it would’ve given a more secretive vibe if the set was slowly shown rather than all at once. The bigfoots slowly came to light one by one and I feel like that had a great impact on the play projection, and if the set was shown as the play went on and not as soon as we walk in it would've been a different picture. The space wasn’t really ideal for a super big set so the set up made perfect sense, but on a personal level it would've been more intriguing if the sets changed throughout the play to fit each characters scenario/background.
Lastly, I enjoyed the costume changes a lot along with some of the must have accessories that gave the Bigfoots the extraness that was needed. The meeting table was the perfect statement for the play, it made it clear that the television writers were in a rush to figure out who their perfect Bigfoot was allowing us to go along with them through their thought processes. The dramatic scene where writer one walks away leaving writer two to figure out who Bigfoot is was really important for the whole play, writer two felt lost; completely clueless. He then was cornered by all the Bigfoots at once, leading to a massive rush of overwhelming thoughts and frustration. The part that made the whole play clear was when writer one comes back in a Bigfoot costume, making her great statement that “It’s us..” In all actuality we are always fooled by the media making us believe the myths they write up, there is no Bigfoot, the mystic creature is written up by television writers. This was a great twist, it comes as a shock because out of all the Bigfoots that were thrown at us throughout the play not once did I think it would be the writers. “Who sees monsters where there are none, and turns it into profit?” Reality shows aren't actually reality they add deception to fool us into thinking certain things are a reality when in fact it’s far from the truth. As long as you can keep adding to the myths, they will never end there isn’t an actual ending to finding Bigfoot.
Overall I really enjoyed the play, it was funny, serious and exciting. There really wasn’t any dull moments, each character was portrayed completely different, but that’s what made the play good. It had a good hook with a great ending that I didn’t expect at all. The space it was performed in was enjoyable, as an audience we were sucked in to their myth of Bigfoot being real, the writers took us on a hunting trip, the second we thought we knew who Bigfoot was, whole different Bigfoot was thrown our way. I generally thought all the performances were what made the play as good as it was, the extraness each actors added to their characters emphasized who they were and what they were portraying to us as an audience. The ending was my absolute favourite because in reality we’re all Bigfoot in this society if we really wanted too, who’s going to stop me from saying Bigfoot was peeking through my window at three in the morning.
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