“She Loves Me” Performance Treatment, Aditya Sriram

1. She Loves Me’s central conflict comes from the fact that two of the lead actors, Mr.

Nowack and Ms. Balash, have been in correspondence with each other after having

been introduced by the means of a Lonely-Hearts Club, but neither of them knows the

identity of their correspondents despite knowing each other in person. We first hear of

this correspondence in the beginning of the play, when Mr. Nowack shares with

Ladislav the latest letter he receives. We soon find out that the sender of that letter is

Ms. Balash, during a conversation between her and Ilona. It’s not explicitly stated, but

strongly hinted that the two of them are writing to each other. The conflict arises from

the fact that neither of them knew this when they first met in person, and their

relationship started off on the wrong foot. They didn’t get along with each other until,

about halfway through the play, Mr. Nowack finds out about his “dear friend”. Their

interactions and attitude towards each other slowly change from there.

2. When thinking about how the actors used “the actor’s instrument”, one scene that

stands out to me was the dance between Ilona and Kodaly in the scene when they had

to stay late at work, and especially, Jane Krakowski’s performance of Ilona. Before

the dance, she was furious at Kodaly for having cancelled multiple dates with her. But

when Kodaly starts to sing, her body seems to involuntarily join in the dance,

expressing her lack of conscious control over her emotions and decisions. This really

helped portray the character to eh audience.

Another instance of an actor using the “the actor’s instrument” is in the scene at the

café at the end of Act 1, of Laura Benanti’s portrayal of Ms. Balash. When the café

closes and all the other actors leave the stage, the character feels extremely lonely

after having been stood up on her first date with her “dear friend”. She breaks into a

sad song, and I think Benanti’s high voice really helped express the depth of the
 character’s emotional pain. In a following scene, her voice again help clearly show

Amalia’s joy when Mr. Nowack brings her vanilla ice cream.

3. In the final moments of the play, the characters get busy at Maraczek’s as sales peak

due to Christmas shopping. The action is very high paced, and we’re taken to the

closing of the evening at Maraczek’s on Christmas eve. Ms. Balash invites Mr.

Nowack over for dinner but her “dear friend” is also supposed to be there. She

mentions how alike her friend and Mr. Nowack are. This scene, for the las time

highlights the central conflict, as she still doesn’t know that Mr. Nowack is the one

writing the letters. In the climax, Mr. Nowack reveals to her that he is indeed her

“dear friend”, by reciting one of her letters. She is delighted and says she’s relieved to

hear that because she wished it was him all along. I think this serves as a fitting

resolution to the central conflict of the play.

4. A production of She Loves Me would certainly offer the Theatre department at the

University of Illinois a chance to train their students in in the genre of musical theatre.

Not only would the acting students get a chance to hone their singing kills, such as in

the intro song or any of the many songs in the play, but also get a chance to learn

choreographed dancing with scenes like the dance in the café. The moving elements

of the stage would also present the Technicians with some valuable learning

experience. The creative use of lighting, for example in the café scene would also be

valuable experience.

5. I personally think my biggest take away from the plot of the play is the lesson that we

must not be too quick judge anyone. Most of the issues in the play happened because

of hasty judgements. For example, Mr. Maraczek’s growing distrust of Mr. Nowack

which eventually led to him leaving the shop was because he didn’t wait to confirm

his suspicion about Mr. Nowack. Ilona kept being fooled by Kodaly because she
 trusts him too easily. And the central conflict of the play, the fact that Mr. Nowack

and Ms. Bashar got off on the wrong foot could also have been avoided if more

patience was shown. Of course, these are not mistakes, but just the result of human

emotions, but I think the play does teach us to be a better judge of character, at least a

little bit.

6. I don’t have that much experience with musical theatres but after watching this I have

become a fan of the genre. The songs, dances and entertaining plot all appeal to me,

but most of all, I liked the comedy. By that I mean both the many scenes where the

dialogue is funny, especially in the café scene and the scene where the optometrist is

mentioned, but also the comical nature of the plot itself. I’m referring to the central

conflict of the play. How at first, neither of them knew who wrote the letters, then Mr.

Nowack knew, but she didn’t know. I really enjoyed the plot of the play.