By KELLI FONTENOT
Published Sept. 10 by The Current Sauce
"Miracle Tomato," an original play by Connecticut native Jessica Cerullo, drew a responsive crowd to the A.A. Fredericks auditorium Saturday night. Her poetic play shed light on the tomato's journey through history, as well as its many connections to everyday life.
The play's main character, Angelina Agnoloti, abandons her family's pizzeria and takes it upon herself to educate the people of America about a very misunderstood subject. For far too long, Angelina explains, people have looked at the tomato as an unassuming vegetable - yes, a vegetable.
According to Cerullo's research, tomatoes were deemed vegetables, not fruits, during the 19th century in a U.S. Supreme Court case. No cases since then have overturned the decision. Angelina draws attention to the lawmakers' motives in her narrative, noting that vegetables have higher taxes.
With glittering eyes and a strong accent, Cerullo highlighted the many pitfalls tomatoes have endured over the years, including recent allegations that linked tomatoes to salmonella poisoning.
Her energetic, convincing performance held the audience's attention from the play's first lines until its poignant finish.
For this performance of the play, Cerullo teamed up with Elizabeth Bigger, an NSU theatre major.
Bigger took on the role of Joanie, Angelina's silent accomplice and coworker. The pair met a couple of times before the performance to brainstorm and rehearse for the show. Bigger, a member of the NSU Out On A Limb Improv Troupe, performed in "Five Women Wearing the Same Dress" last semester.
Though Bigger had no lines in this play, she captured the audience's focus with her facial expressions and impeccable comedic timing. Cerullo said she appreciated the opportunity to work with Bigger.
"She's very open and hardworking and has a wonderful imagination," Cerullo said in an interview.
Many theatre students and audience members stayed in the theater after the show for a talkback - an open forum for the audience to ask Cerullo questions and offer their suggestions for future performances.
At the talkback, NSU students and faculty members voiced their opinions about Cerullo's play, which she has performed 20 times in various cities all over the country. The talkback traditionally serves as an educational tool for the students, but in the case of "Miracle Tomato," the feedback is also beneficial to Cerullo, who improvises during each performance based on the way her audience responds.
"I would like the students to have an expanded idea of what theatre is," Cerullo said in an interview. "I'd like them to be inspired to make their own theatre, to find their own unique form of expression, whether it's through a tomato or anything that they feel that they want to share with an audience."
At the talkback after the show, Cerullo said one of the reasons she chose the tomato as a subject for this play is that she wanted a malleable theme that could constantly evolve. The play, "a traveling story of love, bioengineering, and the search for home," focuses on several metaphors involving tomatoes.
At one point in the play, more than 200 rubber tomatoes are dropped on the stage. Cerullo said she uses rubber tomatoes instead of real ones because she doesn't want to waste them, but also because she wants to make a correlation between the rubber tomatoes and the artificiality of today's genetically altered produce.
Cerullo's interpretation of "Miracle Tomato" depends on where she performs it. In an interview, she commented that each town is like a tomato in that there is more to a town than that which meets the eye. Cerullo researches the culture and history of a town when she travels so that she can incorporate inside jokes about each city's culture and current events in her performances.
The play's sparse set and simple lighting allowed the audience to focus on the actors and the multimedia components of the show. A Macbook and projector rested on a small table with a red-and-white checkered tablecloth. While Cerullo acted as Angelina, interacting with the audience and explaining the tomato's journey from South America to North America, Bigger projected maps and photographs onto a large screen. As discussed at the talkback, the images enforced the play's message and provided additional insight into Angelina's ideas.
Saturday night's audience gave Cerullo and Bigger a standing ovation for their performance.
In her "serious comedy," Cerullo showed her audience that actors - and tomatoes - have a lot to offer.
