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George Walker's
Opera and Theater Reviews
2005 Reviews
Wit
From 12/05/05, for 12/06 and 12/08
"Wit" at the IU Theatre is a potently involving and
moving tale of a bravely complex person marshalling her entire intellectual
and physical resources in a life and death struggle with cancer.
In the hands of director Danielle Howard and actress Casey Searles,
it's also very funny
"Wit" at the IU Theatre is Margaret Edson's play based
on her work as a low level administrator in a cancer center. I say
based on, but perhaps reaction to, would be a better way to put
it. As Edson searched for a main character she thought about a variety
of possibilities, but fastened on the figure of an imperious college
professor, an expert on the intricately fashioned fusion of complex
thought and passionate feeling in the works of John Donne. Edson's
Professor Vivian Bearing is a proudly intellectual woman and "Wit"
is a tale of her struggle with and through terminal cancer.
From the moment that Casey Searles walked onto the stage at the
Wells-Metz as Vivian Bearing, barefoot, dragging her IV, wearing
a regulation hospital gown with an incongruous baseball cap covering
her hairless head, she owned her character and the play. The audience
saw her move from a secure woman dryly parsing the differences between
"I feel good," and "I am well," to an agonized
patient of chemo-therapy considerably more passionately analyzing
the phrase "barf my brains out." By the way, here's a
quibble. In playwright Edson's efforts to heighten the drama she
makes her hospital staff pretty cold and mechanical. My own recollections
of my brother's struggles in cancer research hospital are full of
memories of marvelously supportive and friendly staff.
Surrounding Searles are Gargi Shinde as the professor who inspired
her fascination with John Donne and her academic career, Josh Hambrock
as a cancer researcher who's retained some of his interest in the
actual patients, Brian Stoller as a younger researcher who's more
fascinated with the cancer itself and his own career than the actual
patients and Clair Tuft as a sympathetic nurse.
"Wit" is played on the bare floor of the Wells-Metz with
the audience on three sides. I was on a side and initially had trouble
as the actress alternately directly addressed my side and then the
other. There are minimal props: a desk for a doctor's office and
a professor's study, a set of chairs for a college classroom, a
couple of examining tables, a wheel chair and a hospital bed with
its usual accoutrements, are expertly marshaled about. Jesse Portillo's
lighting and sound did some neat things presenting the hospital's
examining machinery.
Margaret Edson's "Wit" is a deep play with a combination
of thought and feeling that is risky enough to heart renderingly
bookend the complexities of John Donne and advanced cancer protocols
with Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit stories and Margaret Wise Brown's
"The Runaway Bunny." It plays each evening in the Wells-Metz
Theatre of the Lee-Norvelle Theatre and Drama Center at seven-thirty
through Saturday.
You can listen to an interview with director Danielle Howard on
our Arts
Interviews page.
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker.
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Macbeth
From 11-14-05, for 11-15 and 11-17
Shakespeare's Macbeth at the IU Theatre in a potent production
directed by Dale McFadden is a story of a man's ambition teased
into flower by dark prophecy and fueled by the taunts of his wife.
It's a story of how one apparently ultimate crime does not end with
"what's done is done," but leads to another and another
and still another from the political murder of a king to the errant
slaughter of innocent children.
Scot Purkeypile was the initially reluctant Macbeth. He does stick
his courage, but as the play develops even his stolid unimaginative
character begins to see dark visions. Purkeypile's final scenes
of battle, skillfully choreographed by guest Neil Massey, were a
dynamic tableau of cruelty mixed with maniacal glee. Vanessa Ballam
was his lady who coldly leads him with challenges to his manhood.
Ballam's Lady Macbeth also descends, even more dramatically, into
madness. The scene of her slow half step march to the center of
the court and swoon were captivating. The Lady's own end is off
stage and her death news comes in a note.
The ultimate pathetic scene of "Macbeth" is the murder
of Lady MacDuff and her children. Rosalind Rubin was very effecting.
The only humor of the play, the only funny scene in "Macbeth"
belongs to the drunken porter who imagines that she is the gate
keeper of hell. Nicole Bruce was simply masterful and very funny.
The scenic design for "Macbeth" is quite involved and
amazing. Dathan Powell's set operates on four levels and in a variety
of guises. The pit in front of the stage was the repository for
hastily dumped bodies and the site of the witches' imaginary cauldron.
The stage floor was by turns a barren heath, a courtyard, a castle
hall and a battle ground. The back of the stage offered a caged
area with doors to an imagined interior and it also stood as a castle
wall topped with battlements. Above and to the extreme rear there
were high castle windows and a backdrop that put on an effective
show as a wild hill side waterfall.
The sound design and music composed by Adam Schweigert worked hand
in glove with the lighting by Robert Shakespeare. The music ranged
from menacing electronic sounds, to gentle natural sounds of twittering
birds, with stormy effects, battle trumpet fanfares and even evocative
country dances.
Carmen Killam's costumes for the more than thirty cast members nicely
separated individuals and at the same time made dramatic groupings.
They ranged from the elegance of the court to the rough garb of
the hall's porter, from the pure white regality of Lady MacDuff
to the almost garishly dance hall effect of the black bustier on
scarlet of Lady Macbeth.
The IU Theatre's production of Shakespeare's "Macbeth"
plays each evening this week through Saturday in the Ruth N. Halls
Theatre of the Lee Norvelle Theatre and Drama Center. Showtime is
at seven-thirty.
You can hear an interview with Lord and Lady Macbeth on our Arts
Interviews page.
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker.
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Indiana University Opera Theater: Midsummer Night's
Dream
From 11/12/05, for 11/14 and 11/15
The IU Opera Theater's production of Benjamin Britten's "A
Midsummer Night's Dream" is a colorful spectacle with costumes
that range from the punk of Puck to the massive peacock feather
accented cape of Oberon. In between there is the contemporary casual
of the lovers, the country eccentric of the mechanicals and the
over the top delightful silliness of the fairies.
Stage director Colin Graham's concept places the action in a park
in a large urban area. As the night came on we could see the twinkling
lights of tall building in the distance. In addition to the costumes,
designer C. David Higgins has created a stage doughnut with an external
wheel that rotates and an internal wheel that rotates independently.
The general feel is of an abstract wood at its most effective when
turning through action and at its most lovely in the early morning
light of the third act.
Benjamin Britten wrote the part of Oberon for a countertenor. In
Friday night's cast it was Daniel Bubeck. Bubeck's contralto is
fuller and more richly vibratoed than the sounds that I'm familiar
with from early music performers. He was more than a vocal match
for Natalie Ford as his feuding Queen Tytania.
Of Shakespeare's lovers, Jenny Searles as Helena was the most dramatically
effective even as he vainly pursued and later with fairy help won
her Demetrius. Apparently Helena surprised Demetrius on his way
home from a park soft ball game as he persisted in clutching a ball
bat that I kept worrying might be used offensively. Garth Eppley
and Sarah Mabary rounded out the cast as Lysander and Hermia.
The mechanical's who put on the "Tragical Comedy of Pyramus
and Thisby" were led by Robert Samels, a full voiced and remarkably
comic Bottom the weaver, who played Pyramus with Mathew Latta as
Francis Flute, bellows mender and unwilling Thisby. Samels got most
of the evening's laughs in "A Midsummer Night's Dream,"
whether with his fellow thespians or with the donkey's head on as
the love object of the bespelled Queen Tytania.
John Paul Huckle and Lisa LaFleur were appropriately uptown and
regal as the to be married Theseus and Hippolyta, though their first
entry dressed hunting garb with rifles seemed a bit peculiar in
an urban park.
Puck in Britten's opera is a non singing role. Dancer actor Christopher
Nachtrab was a delightfully athletic Puck. His first entrance was
a delightful high jump with full extension. Nachtrab's final extended
speech was punctuated with cartwheels, forward and backward somersaults
and a series of other moves combining ballet and extreme cheerleading.
David Effron conducted a taut performance of the score that has
frequent shifts in sound worlds and forces deploying a wide range
of twentieth century sounds whose sweetness is more than balance
by its piquance.
The IU Opera Theater's production of Benjamin Britten's opera based
on Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" continues
with performances Friday and Saturday at eight in the Musical Arts
Center.
You can hear an interview with designer David Higgins on our Arts
Interviews page.
At the opera for you, I'm George Walker.
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Chicks with Dicks
From 11/03/ for 11/04 and 11/8
The Bloomington Playwrights Project opens their
new space at 107 W. 9th with Trista Baldwin's parody of male dominated
biker movies. The play's title has gotten quite a bit of attention.
"Chicks with…" evokes immature barnyard fowl and
thirties detectives, but neither was in evidence. Baldwin's biker
babes are far from mere motorcycle momas. You'll always see them
in the drivers' seats and never just hanging, on the back.
The two competing girl gangs in the unlikely locale of Bedford are
the Satans led by Anneliese Toft as Varla, and the Snakes captained
by Lindsey Charles as Dixie. Ruth Hartke as Vespa D'Amour moves
into the leadership of the Satans following an amazing transformation
from local beauty pageant queen to black clad vixen. It's triggered
by a rough pass from Alexander Gulk as her football playing boyfriend,
on a prom date.
Things heat up when Alex Young as the innocent hometown girl, Cindi
is first a pawn of the gangs and then an underground leader.
Filling out the gangs in "Chicks…"were Joanne Dubach
as the perpetually wide eyed and occasionally eloquent Kitten, Amy
Wendling as the mysteriously French accented Chantalle and DJ McCartney
as the much dominated Joe. Joe is so used to domination that in
one scene he's discovered licking his own boots.
Greeting theatre goers at the BPP were Echaka Agba, Justina Batchelor,
Annie Kerkian and Amanda Smith as a foursome of outrageous and almost
frighteningly friendly Go-Go Girls. They also handled minor stage
chores and crowd scenes with endearing flamboyance.
There's plenty of action and more than a few surprises in this opener
for the BPP's new space. Serious posturing, kicking, biting, hair
pulling. There's even a final battle of the gang's leaders, with
Vespa and Cindi having it out in a plastic swimming pool attacking
one another with hand fulls of chocolate pudding
The BPP's Artistic Director Richard Perez is the director for Baldwin's
play and he's come up with a nice balance between dramatic excesses
and over-the-top farce throughout. The show is much aided by Ash
Williams sound and music design. In this show, often what you get
is what you hear.
The warmly receptive opening night audience hissed at villainy,
cheered for victories and laughed at a good many other things.
Trista Baldwin's parody of biker movies "Chicks with…,"
is a mix of lollipop sweetness and leather clad raunch. It plays
Thursday thru Saturday nights and in Sunday matinees in the Bloomington
Playwrights Project's new theatre space on Ninth Street between
College and Walnut through the 19th.
You can listen to an interview with director Richard Perezon on
our Arts
Interviews page.
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Roméo et Juliette
From 10/22/05, for 10/24 and 10/26
The IU Opera Theater's production of "Roméo et Juliette"
has a lot to offer in a single evening of entertainment. The lushly
dramatic music of Charles Gounod has choruses, dance sequences,
arias and lovers' duets. It's a visually striking new production
with C. David Higgins cleverly deployed, varied and colorful sets
and costumes. The base palate of reds dominates, with pure white,
soft blue and dark black for accents. Michael Schwandt's lighting
varies from the most subtle effects to boldly dramatic spotlighting.
Guest director Michael Ehrman has staged plenty of action in "Roméo
et Juliette" as he integrated the fight choreography of Robert
Johansen and the dance choreography of Jennifer Adam. The drama
ranged from the massed crowd scenes to the tender moments of Roméo
and Juliette's awakening love. Bold touches alternated with neatly
thought out bits of active theater. There were even significant
stops for some near slapstick that had humorously bawdy moments.
Saturday evening's cast featured Brian Arreola as the ardent Roméo.
His Juliette,Betsy Uschkratt had some lovely moments as her voice
varied from the dramatic to the wistful and even seemed to float
through some passages. Kory Bickel was all action and fun as the
mercurial Mercutio, from his obvious joy in the Queen Mab aria to
his phallic flaunting of his fencing foil in the tragic duel. Ulises
DuBon was darkly menacing as a bit of a heavy, Tybalt. Heng Xia
was perky in the trouser role of Roméo's page Stephano. Benjamin
Gelfand sang well though he takes quite a beating as one of the
Capulet henchmen.
Conductor David Effron led a performance that was always alert to
the variety and color of Gounod's orchestration. The instrumental
ensemble for "Roméo et Juliette" is a large one
and its sound did sometimes engulf the smaller voices in the more
intricate moments. However, the supertitles were always available
for those moments and the show never flagged in its rhythmic or
dramatic propulsion.
The IU Opera Theater's production of "Roméo et Juliette"
has its final performances this Friday and Saturday night in the
Musical Arts Center.
You can hear an interview with Roméo et Juliette on our Arts
Interviews page.
At the the opera for you, I'm George Walker.
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Falsettos
From 10-24-05, for 10-25 and 10-27
The musical "Falsettos" is at the IU Theatre. It's an
action and music packed series of dramatic, thought provoking, funny
and touching, connected vignettes. The setting is life on New Yorks's
upper west side on the fringes of the gay community in the late
seventies and early eighties as the cancer of AIDS looms. Interestingly
enough, it turns out to be a show entirely about those so often
evoked but illusive "family values."
"Falsettos" is directed and choreographed by guest Sara
Lampert Hoover in a very accomplished production with strong, well
acted and sung performances. John Armstrong was especially outstanding
as Marvin, a man who leaves his wife for his lover. Jesse Bernath
played the lover, Whizzer, an attractive and profligate hunk, but
one with some feelings. Amy Linden had the role of Marvin's frustrated
and angry wife, Trina.
Triangular dramatic settings are plenty complicated enough for most
shows, but "Falsettos" decides to progress geometrically.
The family's therapist, Mendel, played by Zander Meisner falls in
love and marries the now divorced Trina. When we add Alex Peurye-Hissong
as Marvin and Trina's teenaged son, Jason, to the mix, we've got
a pentagon of complexities to contend with. They're important, but
I'm not going to get into the math of the second act's Cordelia
the caterer, Anna Malone, or Charlotte the doctor, Allison Moody.
The family's teen aged son Jason reflects back to Marvin, Whizzer,
Trina and Mendel the practical and spiritual stresses of their lives.
He's a teen aged kid who's physically bounced back and forth between
the households of his father and his father's lover, and the household
of his mother and her new husband, his former psychiatrist. He's
coming to heterosexual awakenings in the shadow of his father's
homosexuality. And, he's wrestling with the spiritual and social
issues surrounding a Jewish kid's bar mitzvah. I do wish that sometime
between now and the end of the run of "Falsettos" someone
would sit down with him and make his final scene Hebrew prayer recognizable
as Hebrew. However, Alex Peurye-Hissong sang well, acted well and
was thoroughly believable as the teen aged Jason. His performance
was first rate.
"Falsettos" is incredibly rich with music, action and
even dance. There are forty-two separate musical numbers. Frankly,
the first act is too long and too rich. There are too many songs
with too many details and too much going on. It should take a lesson
from the still very active, but more relaxed second act. The accompanying
chores for the show are expertly handled by music directors Courtney
Crouse and Robert Gehrenbeck. It's a tribute to Wayne Jackson's
sound design and the excellent diction of the cast that not a word
is lost.
The IU Theatre's production of Finn and Lapine's "Falsettos"
plays each evening this week in the Wells-Metz Theatre of the Lee
Norvelle Theatre and Drama Center. Seating is general and the curtain
time is seven-thirty.
You can hear an interview with director Sara Lampert Hoover and
actor John Armstrong on our Arts
Interviews page.
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker.
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Arcadia at the
IU Theatre
From 10/10/05, for 10/11 and 10/13
Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" at the IU Theatre is a delightful
comic concoction. It's a fiction surrounded by lots of intriguing
facts. There are serious complexities of nineteenth century English
intellectual life mixed with the silliness of its social life, and
-well--the silliness of some twentieth century scholarship's endeavors
to unravel those complexities mixed with some seriousness as well.
Jonathan Michaelsen directs a tidily staged and nicely paced production
of a play that uses the same set for scenes from the first part
of the nineteenth century and the last decade of the twentieth.
In the 19th the Coverley Family is in full possession of the estate
and its garden while in the 20th, the last members of the family
are presiding over the remains while one scholar studies the history
of garden and another the possible literary connections of a duel
that might have taken place in that garden.
The play opens in 1808 with the family tutor Septimus Hodge played
with relaxed grace by Eric van Tielen instructing their daughter
Thomasina Coverly, an innocently enthusiastic Melanie Derleth. Their
subjects scattered over a long table are mathematics, Latin and
drawing. Things quickly switch and the table is now the locus of
the study materials of garden historian Hannah Jarvis, a canny and
defensive Renee Racan, mathematician Valentine Coverley, the repressed
David Sheehan and then literary historian on-the-make Bernard Nightengale,
an over the top Jeff Grafton.
No sooner did we get comfortable with the fencing back and forth
between the rival historians in the present of "Arcadia"
than we were back in 1810 and tutor Septimus was being accused of
a scurrilous review and challenged to a duel by aspiring poet Ezra
Chater, a delightfully enraged foppish Nick Arapoglou.
I've mentioned some principal players who appear in the play, but
one of the key figures, Lord Byron. Never appears. His fictional
visit to the fictional estate in the precipitates all sorts of household
chaos in the 19th century and is the reason for the literary sleuth
Nightengale's visit.
One of the delights of Tom Stoppard's play is that the audience
knows more than the egotistical investigator, but that there are
still surprises awaiting in the final scenes. Speaking of the scene,
designer Gordon Strain has come up with a novel and lovely approach
to the problem of a play that takes place in a single room, but
continually refers to a garden. He does present vistas beyond in
the depths, but he's brought the garden into the room by decorating
the walls with its scenes.
"Arcadia" is an incredibly funny and talky play. Sly jokes,
verbal put downs and wild flights of intellectual fancy abound.
It's replete with passing references to obscure figures from science,
literature and the arts. They are delightful when understood but
still add to the general texture, the play's patina when they aren't.
There are some real virtuoso speech performances in nicely balanced
performances. Frankly, I was a little surprised that the audience
in the Ruth N. Halls Theatre didn't break into applause for some
of the individual flights, especially in the first act. The humor
can be as elevated as Septimus Hodges jokes about Latin translation
and as low as Lady Croom's query about another woman's underwear.
Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" plays each evening this week
at the IU Theatre's new curtain time of seven-thirty.
You can listen to an interview with scenic designer Gordon Strain
and actor Eric van Tielen on our Arts
Interviews page.
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker.
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Greater Tuna
From 10/01/05, for 10/03 and 10/05
The Brown County Playhouse is wrapping up their summer season
with the skit comedy "Greater Tuna" based on the party
pieces of Ed Howard, Joe Sears and Jaston Williams. Unlike Garrison
Keillor's Lake Woebegone, the women of Tuna, Texas, though spirited
are not exactly strong, the men while manly enough are far from
good looking and the children…well let's simply say that they
aspire to reach the heights of average.
Sam Wooten and Bill Simmons play twenty characters from Tuna in
a fast moving show directed by Murray McGibbon. Fred Duer's Set
design looks like a poster with a kitchen to one side and a living
room to the other. Mary Grusak's costumes look terrific and must
be miracles of Velcro for the speed with which the two actors change
them.
Wooten and Simmons first appear as a couple of local, very local,
morning radio hosts on OKKK. Morning news on OKKK focuses on the
local issues at about the level of gossip. Their international news
tends to come in brief, intense capsules. One example was "Peace
fails, war breaks out." A National item mentioned a disaster
covering seven unnamed states. Only later did they add that Texas
was not one of them. A regular sponsor of their show was Wooten
as Didi of Didi's Used Weapons. Didi's motto is that if her weapons
won't kill something, it has to be immortal.
Both Wooten and Simmons get quite a workout as the interlocking
scenes of "Greater Tuna" go quickly by. Wooten plays all
three of the Bumiller children including the dog loving, simple
Little Jody, his juvenile delinquent brother Stanley and their failed
cheerleader and aspiring poet sister Charlene. It's left to Simmons
to preside as their mother, the much put upon Bertha Bumiller.
One the audience's clear favorites among the notables of "Greater
Tuna" was Wooten's Petey Fisk, the hapless animal protection
agent. Petey is also the personal possessor of twenty-four dog an
unnumberable amount of cats and the beginnings of a flock of displaced
ducks. However, how could I not have a warm spot for the dog poisoning
Aunt Pearl Burras played by Simmons. Aunt Pearl is a woman who says
that she doesn't sleep comfortably unless there is strychnine in
the house. And of course my hat is off to the durable weather man
Wooten's Harold Dean Lattimer as he forecast a day of sunshine interrupted
only by a severe dust storm, possible tornadoes and the likelihood
of swarms of locusts.
All in all, "Greater Tuna" seems to have more offbeat
characters per square inch than a town ought to have, but Saturday
night's audience seemed grateful for each and every one of them.
Performances of "Greater Tuna" at the Brown County Playhouse
continue Fridays and Saturdays at eight and Sundays at three through
October 22nd.
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker.
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Cosi Fan Tutte
From 09/24/05, for 09/26 and 28
The IU Opera Theatre opened their 2005-2006 season in with a nicely
styled and warmly received production of Mozart's "School for
Lovers, Cosi Fan Tutte."
Saturday night Kevin Murphy was an always urbane Don Alfonso, the
man who bets a couple of romantic young men that the affections
of their fiancées can be swayed by attractive circumstances.
Tenor Jordan Bluth and baritone Chris Carducci were the ardent young
army officers.
Mezzo Kathryn Leemhuis and soprano Vera Savage were their respective
sighing ladies. Soprano Georgina Joshi was the ladys' maid and the
partner of Don Alfonso in his schemes to teach the lovers a lesson.
It's a nice touch that the Opera Theatre's program booklet for "Cosi…"
has pictures and brief biographies of the singers along with the
usual synopsis of the action. In addition there's a thoughtful essay
by Mona Seghatoleslami.
Stage director Vincent Liotta has crafted a production that is nicely
balanced. Though "Cosi Fan Tutte" is sung in Italian,
the actors and the supertitles made the broadest parts of the comedy
and the occasionally darker drama work smoothly. Staged scenes alternated
with solos and ensembles sung directly to the audience.
The IU Opera Theatre's production is staged in two acts with a single
intermission. Lively action made the hour and a half first act go
by quickly. The second act went as well, though it slackens a bit
in the middle when characters sing about the action instead of being
in its midst.
IU graduate student Andrew Altenbach has taken over conducting duties
for "Cosi Fan Tutte" following the sudden death of music
director Randall Behr. Altenbach led a performance with plenty of
energy and rhythmic drive coupled with great attention to Mozart's
rich orchestral detail.
The end of "Cosi Fan Tutte" despite its somewhat bitter
education of the young lovers seems formulaic and predetermined.
However the IU Opera ends its very satisfying production with a
bit of a surprise.
There are final "surprising" performances of Cosi Fan
Tutte this Friday and Saturday and then the IU Opera Theatre turns
its attention to Shakespeare with Gounod's "Romeo and Juliette"
and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Benjamin Britten.
You can listen to an interview with Cosi's conductor Andrew Altenbach
on our Arts
Interviews page.
At the opera for you, I'm George Walker.
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Second Helpings
From 09/15/05, for 09/16 and 09/20
As the Bloomington Playwrights Project prepares to move from three-twelve
South Washington to a space on Ninth Street between Walnut and College
they take a loving look back over twenty-five years of productions
in a quartet of one acts. They are gathered under the title "Second
Helpings" and all directed by Noe Montez.
Appropriately enough, "Second Helpings" begins with a
piece from 1987 titled "Graduation Day" by James Serpento.
A pair of brothers, the crudely boisterous Jerry, played by Brian
Schutz and his more buttoned-down Tom played by Troy Jones, meet
on the outskirts of their sister's high school graduation. The play
dramatizes a relationship more combative than collegial, of two
men uncomfortably tied together by their history.
From 1979 there's Jim Poyser's "Hand on Mirror," with
the boldly and explosively laughing Deb Durham and her apartment
partner, the inventively dour Patrick Murphree in a duet that's
as much a dual as a partnership.
Doug Bedwell's entry, "Carry On" from 2003 is the most
recent entry in "Second Helpings" at the BPP. In this
strangely effecting piece, Amy Wendling and Andrew Rhoda, explore
the complicated calculus of what makes a life worth living and a
mathmatics where one doesn't equal one.
The most extensive piece of "Second Helpings" is "Joes'
Friendly" from 1984 by Bruce Gadansky. The setting is an old
time garage in the late sixties. The garage is about to be replaced
by a gasateria. Carmine DePaolo was masterful as the sympathetic
Joe moving smoothly from direct conversation with the audience to
being the principal character in the play. In a very funny and quite
touching sequence of events Andrew Rhoda played the shy, friendly
and slightly shell shocked assistant, Teddy. Amy Wendling was Kitty,
the perhaps too friendly girl from the wrong side of the tracks.
Troy Jones as the slimey lawyer Denton got a well deserved comeuppance.
At the beginning and end of "Joe's Friendly," Carmine
DePaolo talked thoughtfully about the subtle pull and magic of physical
and spiritual neighborhoods. As he spoke, I kept seeing the pictures
from Hurrican Katrina and understanding a little better some of
the words of the survivors.
"Second Helpings" at the Bloomington Playwrights Project
is a respectful and respectable final bow for productions at their
three-twelve South Washington address. It continues with performances
Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at eight and Sundays at two through
October first. The first play at 107 West Ninth will be the rowdy
"Chicks with Dicks" November third through the nineteenth.
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker.
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Family Portrait
From 08/06/05, for 08/08 and 08/10
George Walker, WFIU
"Family Portrait" at the Bloomington Playwrights Project
is a fascinating look into the dynamics of a complicated family
opened up to us and to itself through the death of its patriarch,
John Morgan. John was a successful inventor and entrepreneur, a
president of chamber of commerce, a valued member of the community
who built his own company from scratch. John was also an egocentric
multiple adulterer, a homophobe and a sexist. He was a man that
it could be bruising to be around. As the family gathers for the
funeral, scars are opened; some are healed, and some merely cleansed
and rebandaged.
The family's mother Katherine is played with dignified alcoholic
sadness by Lori Garraghty. Cory Aiello played Greg, the artistic
son, a writer, disowned by John when he confesses that he is gay
with bitter rage that could melt into a surprising bubbling good
humor. Greg begins totally isolated from the family in his bitter
anger. Its photographer partner, James, played with efficiency by
Todd Fleck, who convinces Greg to attend the funeral as part of
a documentary project. Cory's brother Todd Aiello played the stiff
brother Dave. Dave was the dutiful son, but still a family member
who came in for his share of fatherly abuse. Annie Morgan the youngest,
the graceful Lauren Pope, has to contend with the ache of her father's
disdain for girl children and later the irony of the discovery that
she isn't even his daughter.
Two outsiders figure prominently in the family constellation of
"Family Portrait." Donna Miles played John's administrator
and former lover, Diane McClellan She copes with continuing love
mixed with anger and forlorn hope. Emily Chovanec as Amanda Jensen,
was the latest in John's string of women on the side with the complication
that she's pregnant.
"Family Portrait" is played out in short scenes, mostly
duos with occasional solos and larger ensembles. It's a skillfully
done arrangement that works well, though initially I did find myself
longing for some more extended moments. The larger groups and more
length did arrive as the drama played. The revelation of the family's
mysteries is a gripping process. Frankly, final resolutions are
just a bit neatly forced in spots, but most are quite dramatically
appropriate and a few are downright perfect.
"Family Portrait" at the Bloomington Playwrights Project
is a play well worth seeing. It's also a thoroughgoing demonstration
of the value that the BPP brings to the community.
Theatre is by its nature a collaborative art and "Family Portrait"
is more collaborative than most. The writing credit is shared by
Mike Smith, Erynn Miles and Hal Kibbey. These are seasoned writers
who've gotten a good bit of their seasoning through the Project.
The director Hannah Smith is an IU Theatre graduate who's taken
advantage of and contributed to the community through work as a
crew member, actor and director at the Project.
The very accomplished cast is a mix of students and community members.
"Family Portrait" at the Bloomington Playwrights Project
plays Thursday, Friday and Saturday at eight and Sunday at two with
additional performances the 18th through the 20th.
You can listen to an interview with Hannah Smith and Cory Aiello
on our Arts
Interviews page.
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Importance of Being
Earnest
From 08/04/05, for 08/05 and 08/09
The wonderful word-filled-nonsense of Oscar Wilde's "The
Importance of Being Earnest" is at the Brown County Playhouse
in a delightful production directed by Jonathan Michaelsen.
Once again Wilde's young slackers: Algernon, the delightfully flexible
David Sheehan, and Jack, the somewhat stiffer Erik Friedman, pursue
their private hijinks. Jack who lives a decorous life in the country
escapes to the city through the agency of an imaginary needy and
dissolute younger brother. Algernon's city life is not so decorous
as Jack's country posing. His escapes come as trips to visit, Bunbury,
an imaginary invalid. Bunbury's health's ups and downs coincide
nicely with Algernon's needs for relief.
On one of his visits to the city the adventuring Jack is smitten
with Algernon's amorous cousin Gwendolen, Lauren Morris Bertram.
In the next act, Algernon is equally taken by Jack's country ward,
the glittering Cecily, Anjanette Hall Armstrong. However, there
are-as you either knew or guessed-objections to the courtships.
Standing in the way of Jack and Gwendolen's happiness, steaming
through the production like a dreadnaught, is her mother Lady Bracknall,
Martha Jacobs. It seems that she is a little put off by the fact
that Jack seems to be able to produce no family ties more substantial
than a large leather handbag in which he was found in Victoria Station.
Jack takes revenge by refusing to permit Cecily, the extremely attractive
personally and financially Cecily, to marry Algernon.
Things, as things will in this sort of drawing room insurgency,
do of course get sorted out, but in a nicely intricate Oscar Wildean
way. The cast boasts delightful secondary players with David Cole
as a nicely turned country reverend, Holly Holbrook as the dotty
tutor and former maid Miss Prism, and Adam O. Crow as both Algernon
and Jack's butler. Just a note about Adam O. Crow, he was a formidable
figure as Algernon's butler in the city, but it was in the country
at Jack's that his variety took a delightful turn.
Crow's posture, his knowledgeable, bemused command seemed to me
to echo IU's great President and Chancellor Herman Wells. Wells
was always a champion of the arts and an eager patron. It was almost
as if his presence was hovering about. I think he would have laughed
out loud.
The Brown County Playhouse's production of Oscar Wilde's classic
"The Importance of Being Earnest," plays Wednesdays through
Saturdays at eight and Sundays at two through August.
You can listen to an interview with Martha Jacobs and David Sheehan
on our Arts
Interviews page.
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H.M.S. Pinafore
From 07/30/05, for 08/01 and 08/03
Gilbert and Sullivan's "H.M.S. Pinafore"
is comfortably berthed at IU's Musical Arts Center in a production
that had me happily smiling for most of the brief two hours Saturday
night.
The show was crisply conducted by guest Robert Wood. Vincent Liotta's
clever staging was dramatically economical, but with plenty of business
for chorus and principals. Michael Schwandt's lighting subtly focused
the audience's attention and even in a nicely old-fashioned move
darkened the stage and spotlighted the principals for their revealing
asides. David Higgin's quarter deck and harbor set drew applause
as the curtain opened and looked even more interesting when lighted
for the night scenes of the second act. Costumes ranged from the
crisply simply sailors outfits to the more elaborate decoration
of the captain and the Lord of the Admiralty's uniforms, and on
to the positively baroque range of colors, fabrics and styles of
the Lord's cousins and aunts.
Singing throughout "H.M.S. Pinafore"was a nice balance
of diction and lyric line. There's no way that a single line of
supertitle could do justice to the complexity of Gilbert's lyrics,
so the Opera Theatre dispensed with them and depended with general
success on the singers' getting the words across. Saturday night's
cast was a spirited group that clearly relished the show. Following
the audience's generous applause, the curtain came down and we could
hear them laughing and cheering themselves behind the curtain.
The IU Opera Theatre's delightful production of "H.M.S. Pinafore"
plays this Friday and Saturday at eight in the Musical Arts Center.
You can hear an interview with conductor Robert Wood on our on the
Arts Interviews
page.
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker.
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Sword Against the Sea
From 07/13/05, for 07/14 and 07/15
The culmination of the four year International Initiative at Indiana
State University's SummerStage is a production of "Sword Against
the Sea" by the Irish poet and dramatist William Butler Yeats.
It's a fascinating piece of theatre. Adaptor Arthur Feinsod has
brought together six of Yeats' plays and poetry around the story
of the mythic Irish hero Cuchulain. "Sword Against the Sea"
is full of Yeats love and pride in Irish myth. Yeats was long a
student of Irish myth and history. He felt that the Irish tales
of the hero Cuchulain should rank with the epic Arthuriad of England
or the Niebelungenlied of Germany.
The play is set around these tales of the mighty Cuchulain.. Cuchulain
is an invincible fighter and lover, but he's also very much a vulnerable
man both emotionally and intellectually. Cuchulain is distracted
from the well of immortality by the flight of a hawk. He is overwhelmed
by spirits that his pride has him war against. In his full mature
powers he is caught up by the consequences of his lusty youth. And
finally in inevitable age Cuchulain's enemies overcome him.
In addition to his love for things Irish, "Sword Against the
Sea" reflects Yeats fascination with the formal drama of the
Japanese Noh plays and the results of his lifelong experiments with
the theatre. Yeats did bring poetry back into the theatre, but the
cast's diction is excellent and the language itself is wonderfully
clear. In the production directed by Sam McCready at ISU's SummerStage
"Sword Against the Sea"is a stylized spectacle with wonderfully
fantastic costumes and masks, chorus and dance. There's plenty of
variety as the most severe scenes may suddenly give way to joyful
dance and grim activities may alternate with the comedy of a blind
no-it-all and his bumbling chicken stealing companion.
"Sword Against the Sea" has two final performances in
the IUS SummerStage repertoire, Tuesday the 19th and Friday the
22nd. From Terre Haute, the production will travel to the Yeats
International Summer School in Ireland.
You can read this review and hear an interview with Sam McCready
on the Arts
Interviews page.
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker.
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Brighton Beach Memoir
From 07/07/05, for 07/08 and 07/12
The varied season at the Brown County Playhouse continues. Between
the close harmony of June's "Forever Plaid" and the upcoming
August offering of "The Importance of Being Earnest,"
July features Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" in
a production directed by Dale McFadden.
Playwright Neil Simon has successfully mined his own life for a
series of plays. They began with "Brighton Beach Memoir"
a reflection of some of Simon's own experiences as a teenager in
an overcrowded cottage in Brooklyn.
Simon's alter ego is the fifteen-year-old Eugene played by David
Sheehan. Eugene is the main character and the audience's guide into
the family. Sheehan is a whirlwind of energy, distinctly teen-aged
angst and occasional wistfulness. He's torn between hormones and
homeruns, fantasies involving knuckle balls and naked breasts vie
for his attention.
Eugene isn't the only one in the house at Brighton Beach with conflicts.
They are all over the place. Eugene's father Jack, Bill Simons,
is struggling to handle two jobs, his position as a husband, father
and uncle and his own health. Eugene's older brother Stanley, Robert
Spaulding, is in his first full time job having trouble with authority,
principles, ego and some card sharks. On opening night the open-faced
honesty of Robert Spaulding in the role was especially impressive.
Eugene's long-suffering mother Kate, Mary Carol Johnson is very
much at the center of things as she worries over family finances,
her husband and her sons.
There's additional strain as Kate's widowed younger sister Blanche,
Renee Racan, and her daughters are also crammed into the small house.
Blanche, while trying to walk a tight rope as the second woman in
the kitchen, has family troubles of her own. Sixteen year old daughter
Nora, Brandy Burkholder, is a star-struck dance student who wants
to be out and on Broadway. Younger daughter Laurie, Jennifer Whitney,
is a much pampered child spoiled because of a "heart flutter."
But even, if these troubles and difficulties seem to be overwhelming,
the specter of the looming threat in Europe as Hitler's armies move
into Poland where Jack, Kate and Blanche all have close relatives
puts the family troubles into perspective and shows their essential
resilience and spirit.
Simon's play is more a family drama than a straight comedy though
there are many laughs from the irrepressibly hormonally hopeful
Eugene and it's a show that offers each actor more than one opportunity
to shine.
Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoir" at the Brown County
Playhouse will be performed Wednesdays thru Saturdays at eight and
Sundays at three thru July.
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker.
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Hurly Burly
From 06/25/05, for 06/27 and 06/29
George Walker, WFIU
David Rabe's "Hurly Burly" in a Detour Theatre/Bloomington
Area Arts Council production in the intimate Rose Firebay of the
John Waldron Arts Center is a potent piece of theatre in an outstanding
production. Direction by Richard Perez is taut and always on the
mark. Acting ranges from the much more than adequate to the magnificent.
The set and costumes are very good.
"Hurly Burly" is set on the edges of Hollywood in the
early eighties. It's a vicious empty time in a vicious empty place.
To call the characters in the play "scum" of a highly
articulate but low order, gives "scum" a bad name.
Eddie, the dynamic Mike Price, and Mickey, the more laid back Patrick
Doolin who share a home are a pair of at least marginally successful
Hollywood casting directors. Their frequent guests are Artie, the
bemused Steve Heise, a script writer who's always a lunch or a signature
away from a deal and Phil, the passionate Sebastian Tejeda, a marginally
successful actor with a leaning toward violence.
When we first meet Eddie, he's preparing for the day by imbibing
or considering quite an array of pharmaceuticals. There's cocaine
to get up, qualudes to get down, marijuana to smooth things out
and beer for any synapses not already suitably medicated. The two
things that Eddie is avoiding are food and coffee. As he sagely
observes, "Caffeine can kill you."
Women also flow threw Eddie and Mickey's living room. To say that
the women of "Hurly Burly" are badly treated would be
an understatement. Donna, a wandering high school aged hitchhiker,
played with a certain worn innocence by Allison Baker-Garrison,
arrives when Artie, the script writer, picks her up and brings her
over as a sex gift for the boys. The lovely but vulnerable Darlene,
Stephanie Harrison, was first Mickey's girl and then when Eddie
implores him, Mickey passes her on to him. The amiable exotic dancer
Bonny, played with warmth by Amy Wendling, is brought over by Eddie
to soothe Phil's anxieties. Physical violence is also part of the
picture of the degradation of women. The violent Phil hits a surprised
Donna and even pushes Bonny out of a moving car. In both cases the
guys immediately accuse the women of causing the injury with the
question, "What did you do?"
The center of "Hurly Burly" at the Waldron is Mike Price
as Eddie. Eddie is a whirlwind of energy and energies. He's self-centered
to an amazing degree. The world from his perception of the most
minor details, through his relationships with other people and on
up to and including the possible effects of the new neutron bomb
all revolve around Eddie. Price makes the most of the crazy logic
of Eddie's long rambling speeches and rapid mood swings. Sometimes,
it's interesting. Sometimes it's quite funny. Always it's a treat
to watch.
David Rabe's "Hurly Burly" at the John Waldron Arts Center
has its three final performances this Friday and Saturday at eight
and Sunday at two.
Frankly, sometimes "Hurly Burly" is more of a bruising
treatment than a treat, but it's a fascinating piece of theatre,
a showcase for some fine character acting, given a high polish in
the current production.
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker.
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Plaza Suite at SummerStage
From 06/18/05, for 06/20 and 06/22
George Walker, WFIU
SummerStage at Indiana State University in Terre Haute opened
with Neil Simon's "Plaza Suite" directed by ISU chair
and SummerStage artistic director Arthur Feinsod.
"Plaza Suite" is an artfully arranged trio of plays ranging
from a comical, but bitter opening to a light entre-acte and finally
to flat out farce.
The opening "Visitor from Mamaroneck" introduces us to
the elegant cream and gold trimmed suite of designer Linda Janosko.
Karen Nash played with charming verve by SummerStage newcomer Sharon
Ammen has come back to the room where she celebrated her wedding
oftwenty-three or perhaps twenty-four years ago. Numbers are not
Karen's strong suit. She's hoping for a romantic evening to put
a bit of spice back into her marriage with her husband Sam, SummerStage
veteran Mark Douglas-Jones. Things go wrong right from the beginning
as Karen has romance on her mind and Sam has the facts and figures
of an important contract on his. Things heat up as Sam admits that
part of his distraction is an affair with his secretary. Karen has
a wonderful line as she tells Sam that she's disappointed in him.
Not disappointed that he is having an affair, but that he didn't
have enough imagination or gumption to at least find someone outside
his own office. Simon's opening is plenty funny, but it's quite
a touching piece as well.
The second and shortest of the three plays of "Plaza Suite,"
"The Visitor from Hollywood," is a sort of light interlude.
Former Tenefly, New Jersey, high school boy and now successful Hollywood
producer Jesse Kiplinger, Andy Ragensteine, is at the Plaza for
a few days. He invites an old high school sweet heart, Murial Tate,
Ann Venable up to his room with high hopes. Jesse's efforts with
alcohol, praise and even appeals for sympathy all fail with Murial.
It's only when he accidentally starts reeling off Hollywood names
that he may or may not actually know that Murial's ardor is aroused.
A few of Murial's clothes begin to come off and the lights go down
as Jesse makes up a star studded guest list for an imaginary dinner
party.
The finale of "Plaza Suite" at SummerStage is the "Visitor
from Forest Hills." A bride-to-be has locked herself into the
suite's bathroom. Pressures rise as the wedding part waits downstairs
and the mother played in epic style by Susan Monts-Bologna and the
father, Jerry Walker try to get her out of their. Efforts escalate
with thoughtful entreaties and appeals to reason moving to sobbingly
desperate requests, threats of various kinds, and physical assaults
on the door. Monts-Bologna and Walker milk this situation for all
it is worth. In a few places Walker pays tribute to Walter Mathau's
performance in the role. The audience got involved to the point
that it was applauding each individual effort. It's irony of ironies
that after all these wild efforts, it's the groom simply calmly
telling his bride-to-be to "…cool it!" that ends
the impasse. It's left to the father to end the scene with a baffled…"after
all this…it comes down to 'cool it!'"
As the casts of the three plays came on stage for the bows, the
audience rose for a well earned standing ovation..
Performances of Neil Simon's "Plaza Suite" in the ISU
SummerStage repertoire continue through July 20th. This weekend,
the musical "Spitfire Grill" joins it in the repertoire.
You can see this review and listen to an interview with actress
Sharon Ammen on the Arts
Interviews page.
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker.
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How the Other Half
Loves
From 06/16/05, for 06/17
George Walker, WFIU
The Shawnee Theatre in Bloomfield opens their forty-sixth season
with Ana Ayckbourn's wildly complex farce, "How the Other Half
Loves" in a production directed by Shawnee veteran N. Christian
Bottorf.
On opening night the theatre filled with an audience that included
many Shawnee regulars. Friends greeted one another and there were
many families, some with more than two generations. Behind me, a
girl was telling a friend, which of "How the Other Half Loves"
cast members were there last summer and which were new.
In "How the Other Half Loves" there are two homes set
side by side on the stage with the couples coming and going oblivious
to one another. Shawnee regular April Pletcher and a favorite from
last summer Jeff Ray Taylor were the Fosters. Newcomers Lindsay
Halderman and C.J. Karpiak were the Phillips. It quickly becomes
obvious that Mr. Phillips and Mrs. Foster have been having a clumsily
concealed affair.
Things heat up when the two miscreants use the innocent William
and Mary Featherstone, Jim Forsythe and Amanda Hansen, as their
excuse for a late night rendezvous. In one of the most hilarious,
and complexly choreographed scenes, the poor Featherstones are at
an excruciatingly uncomfortable elegant Thursday night dinner with
the Fosters and at the same time, at the same table, at a slap dash
affair with the Phillips. It's hard to explain but quite funny to
see.
Following the opening performance of "How the Other Half Loves"
there was an elegant reception for audience, cast and crew in the
gallery where in addition to professional pieces there were works
from the art classes of area schools. The audience for opening night
was warmly receptive, laughed loud and clapped enthusiastically,
but it's still a conservative group in its praise. As I walked out
two women ahead of me were summing up the evening. "That was
pretty good," said one. "Not half bad," said her
companion.
Things move fast at the Shawnee Theatre in the summer. "How
the Other Half Loves" plays tonight, and Saturday night, and
closes on Sunday afternoon. Next Thursday, "Wait Until Dark,"
the stage thriller that inspired the famous movie with Audrey Hepburn
opens.
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker.
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Forever Plaid
Brown County Playhouse
From 06/09/10 for 06/10 and 06/14
"Forever Plaid" at the Brown County Playhouse is Stuart
Ross and James Raitt's loving tribute to the fifties, the great
songs, the TV shows, the guy groups and the innocence.
Director George Pinney has assembled a quartet of personable singers
led by music director and pianist Jeff Tanski and he has created
an intimate cabaret atmosphere for the show. The plot of "The
Plaids" is mostly an excuse to flesh out the personalities
of the group and string together nearly thirty songs. The group
was an up and coming--or at least coming--quartet on their way to
their first big--or at least bigger gig--when their car was destroyed
by a bus from a catholic girls' school on its way to see the Beatles.
They've been returned from wherever and given a chance to play that
final concert for the Brown County audience.
"Forever Plaid" opens with an airy rendition of "Three
Coins in the Fountain." From there it is a non-holds-barred
survey of what in retrospect was a wide-ranging decade of music.
There's the soulful "Chain Gang," the calypso flavor of
"Day-O," the country sound of "Sixteen Tons,"
the romance of "Moments to Remember," and even the early
Beatles "She Loves You."
Throughout "Forever Plaid," the very energetic and active
direction by George Pinney offers what could in less sensitive hands
be camp, but here the innocence and the sheer good will of the group
prevails.
Highlights included a madcap theatre piece with snippets of all
the old favorites from the Ed Sullivan show, a member of the audience
joining the group at the piano for the high part of Hoagy Carmichael's
"Heart and Soul," and a sing-along on "Mathilda."
Peter Stoffan, John Armstrong, Tom Hershner and Matt Rhodes were
The Plaids. Each had his solo moments though the focus was mostly
on the close harmony work of the group. It's a tribute to the skill
of the quartet that the audience got behind their efforts…even
the silliest ones and cheered the successes. The opening night crowd
gave the cast and the show a standing ovation.
Performances of "Forever Plaid" at the Brown County Playhouse
continue Wednesday through Saturday nights at eight and Sundays
at three through July 3rd.
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker.
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Machinal
John Waldron Arts Center
From 05/26/05, for 05/27
Sophie Treadwell's dramatic play "Machinal"
from 1928 is in its final weekend of performances at the John Waldron
Arts Center in an admirably layered production directed by Jeremy
Wilson.
Treadwell was a journalist, a stunt reporter who went into the streets
posing as a prostitute and a war correspondent who interviewed Pancho
Villa. She covered the trial of the first woman electrocuted for
murder in New York.
Treadwell's play "Machinal" is a determined effort to
get into this woman's head, to dramatize her world from the inside
out. Director Jeremy Wilson uses his fifteen member cast of leads
and ensemble to create a mechanically busy office, a cheap flat,
a lively speak-easy, a couple of contrasting bedrooms, a daunting
courtroom and a death cell. Throughout, Wilson and his cast show
a wonderful ear for the rhythms of Treadwell's language for the
sounds of the environments, and for the mechanical sounds of the
world that maddens the young woman. In the opening office scene
the sounds of typewriters, adding machines and other office equipment
are all rhythmically integrated with the staccato repetitions of
office repartee.
Phoebe Spier was moving as the maddened young woman. She did a nice
job of leaving the audience asking if she was crazy or just a sensitive
in a coldly empty world. Alex Shotts was delightful as her oblivious,
irritatingly fast talking salesman husband. Kate Braun played her
pathetic mother. Philip Anderson was the love that opened and closed
life for the young woman. Carrie Owen played the office switchboard
operator with precision and later roles as well. Ross Matsuda was
a filing clerk who could work the phrase "hot dog" into
any part of his conversation, then the young woman's very effective
prosecutor and later her ineffectual priest. Demetrius Welch was
as an office mate as mechanical as his adding machine, the courtroom
defender and a singer who helped the production of "Mechaninal"
move smoothly from scene to scene. Ama Boakyewa was nicely apathetic
as a fellow office worker, commanding as the court's judge and sympathetic
as the death cell's matron.
Pianist Hakan Toker was very much part of the drama as he wove pop
tunes and sensibilities into some of the scenes and even appeared
as a strolling Italian accordion player.
In Sophie Treadwell's "Machinal" at the Waldron, we see,
hear and feel the drama from the young woman's perspective in an
accomplished, sometimes dizzying production.
"Mechaninal" has final performances this evening and Saturday
at eight and Sunday at two at the John Waldron Arts Center.
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker.
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Searching for Eden
IRT
From 05/15/05, for 05/16 and 05/18
Mark Twain wrote two small books, diaries of Adam and Eve, as
gifts for his wife. Playwright James Still has used these accounts
as a takeoff point for "Searching for Eden," an amiable
comedy currently playing at the Indianapolis Repertory Theatre.
Act one finds Adam, a very winning David Alan Anderson, rather comfortable
and pleased with himself as the solitary member of his species in
Eden. Adam is quite surprised by the dramatic appearance of Eve,
the equally engaging but more thoughtful Ora Jones, from a pool
in the middle of the IRT's clever stage set by Russell Metheny.
Eve is very much the suitor in their amusing co-discoveries of the
garden world. Eve becomes the leader in their naming of the garden's
flora and fauna. Sometimes Adam is a bit comically irked by her
forwardness. Unfortunately, one of Eve's discoveries is the prohibited
apple, but the two do leave their garden, arm-in-arm.
In act two of "Searching for Eden" at the IRT, we're in
the 21st century. The modern Adam and Eve are a power couple. He's
a marriage counselor. She's a movie script reader. They've escaped
or almost escaped their offices for a weekend celebrating the anniversary
of their marriage. Neither's office is quite ready for the couple
to escape. Adam and then Eve solve that problem by using their Edenic
pool, now a hotel hot tub, as a handy place to store their cell
phones. In modern times, it's Adam very much the suitor and Eve
a bit standoffish. Emotionally it is a little perplexing, though
schematically it does makes sense.
David Bradley has directed a lively production of "Searching
for Eden." Though there are only two actors, they're both very
appealing in the many comic and even in the few serious moments
of the play. Composer and sound designer Michael Keck artfully weaves
bluesy harmonica, sounds of nature and some modern pieces for a
continuous tapestry that supports and comments on the action.
"Searching for Eden," a comedy of Adam and Eve's meeting
in the garden in ancient times and their celebration of their wedding
anniversary in the 21st century, continues at the Indianapolis Repertory
Theatre with performances through May 28th.
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker.
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Flaws by Hal Kibbey
Bloomington Playwrights Project
From 05/05/05, for 05/06 and 05/10
Playwright Hal Kibbey's charming one act "Flaws" is
at the Bloomington Playwrights Project in a production directed
by Xanthia Celeste.
The main character, Amanda, played by Dawn Barber has been scarred
by a sadistic father who took every opportunity to humiliate her.
She's managed to cope with it, but now as a young adult the wounds
are festering. Amanda's in a warmly successful committed relationship
with the upbeat Kevin, played by Todd Fleck. Kevin thinks she's
fine. Amanda has a supportive friend in her exercise partner Linda,
Joanne Dubach. Linda is a positive woman herself, and openly envies
Amanda's looks. Despite these affirmations, Amanda is convinced
that there's something wrong with her. What makes it worse is that
she's focused on something that can't be changed. Amanda says that
her legs are too short.
Now there have been plenty of plays, movies and short stories that
get to this point in a plot. Most of them have a Prince Charming
arrive or some almost magical event take place. In "Flaws"
Hal Kibbey has taken a different and much more interesting path.
Amanda knows what's wrong, knows the source and sets out to creatively
deal with it. Her first effort is a wrong turn and she does seeks
sort of Prince Charming. She thinks that if a professional artist
believes she is worth painting this will mean she is ok. Amanda
does get hired to pose, but it's a disaster. Her session is a neatly
staged set of smokely projected slides as the voice of the bored
artist narrates his own current emptiness of creativity. Amanda
realizes that outside affirmation isn't going to work.
"Flaws" isn't really a mystery in fact at the beginning
it seems a bit -well, educational--, but the drama does build, and
I won't give away the ending. Here are a few hints. Amanda's boyfriend
Kevin, in typical male fashion, is at first a key but then part
of an open door. Hillary Hittner appears as a photographer, a truly
creative artist concerned with the inner light and the dynamic energies
of her subjects. It's a special almost quirky, quite funny lively
joy that rules the day.
Hal Kibbey's "Flaws" at the Bloomington Playwrights Project
plays tonight and Saturday with additional performances on Thursday,
Friday and Saturday the 12th, 13th and 14th. All performances are
at eight.
You can listen to an interview with playwright Hal Kibbey on the
Arts Interviews
page.
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker.
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Brighton Beach
Memoirs
Community Theatre of Terre Haute
From 05/01/05, for 05/02 and 05/04
A confident and assured production of Neil Simon's caring comedy,
"Brighton Beach Memoirs" wraps up the 2004-2005 season
at the Community Theatre of Terre Haute with three final performances
this weekend.
In Simon's play, it's 1937. Flyer Amelia Earhart is lost over the
Pacific Ocean and the New York Giants have lost to their cross-town
rivals, the New York Yankees. On the serious side of nutrition,
Spam is created. On the lighter side Krispie Kreme donuts are added
to the national diet. In the dark background, things are heating
up in Europe.
The engaging teenaged narrator, Eugene Jerome, played by Eric Jakowczyk
(Jah koh zek) is dreaming of home runs and hormones, of Babe Ruth
and well…just babes. He does practice a little baseball, but
it's his hormones that make for a lot of laughs in "Brighton
Beach Memoirs."
Things are tough in the Jerome Household. Father Jack, the solid
Ed Browne, is holding down two jobs. Eugene's older brother Stanley,
the lanky Josh Jeffers, helps out some and their mother Kate, wonderfully
played Kathy Allen, is a wonder at budgeting, but there still isn't
ever quite enough money. The family situation is even more difficult
because Kate's sister Blanche, the sympathetic Lynette Schwane,
and her daughters Nora the aspiring dancer, the graceful Jennifer
Wulf, and Laurie, the delightfully bratty Kit Gambill, have been
crowding in with them during the years since the death of their
father.
The families of two sisters packed together in "Brighton Beach
Memoirs," the strains and temptations of growing up are all
part of the drama. It's frequently very funny at times serious and
moving as the families sort out old and present grievances and gird
themselves for an uncertain future. There's even some wisdom, but
it has a light touch. and as father Jack says to his niece Nora,
the thing about wisdom is that you don't have to take it.
Doug Short directs the Terre Haute Community Theatre production
of "Brighton Beach Memoirs". There's a very-period-looking
set by Bob Cundiff with decoration by Jeri Doty. The costumes by
Sherrie Wright share the late 30s look.
"Brighton Beach Memoirs," plays this Friday and Saturday
at eight and Sunday at two-thirty ending the season at the Community
Theatre of Terre Haute. The 2005-2006 shows begin in September with
Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's comedy "The Man Who Came
to Dinner"
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker.
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Pal Joey
From 04/16/05, for 04/18 and 04/20
"Pal Joey" at the IU Theatre wraps
up the 2004/2005 season in solid style. Looking back at the wild
production of "Bat Boy," the stylish performances in "The
Cherry Orchard" and the awe inspiring depth of "Master
Harold…" it has been a season with some real highlights.
"Pal Joey," is the story of a charmingly glib nightclub
emcee, a two-timing heel who comes from the wry stories of John
O'Hara. Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart contributed the music. "I
Could Write a Book," and "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"
are songs that have entered into the canon of American Popular Song.
Others, like "Happy Hunting Horn" have been gently laid
to rest. The show is a bit of an antique and takes patience from
today's audience, but there are rewards.
The IU Theatre's production is directed and choreographed, and choreographed
by George Pinney. I repeat the word "choreographed," because
there is a lot of dancing. There are solos, duos and others "…os"
right up to full ensembles. There are ballroom numbers, tap numbers,
character pieces, and even a full ballet. The choreography is varied,
interesting. It's frequently on the edge and occasionally beyond
of the company's considerable capability. Pinney believes that in
a musical everybody sings and everybody dances and he pretty much
proves it.
There is some exceptional lead work in the show. IU's "Pal
Joey," Colin Donnell, is a college senior. He's not likely
to make you forget the original Broadway Joey, Gene Kelly nor the
movie Joey, Frank Sinatra, but when he's on stage you won't be disappointed.
Donnell is the real thing. He's ably partnered with Allison Batty
as the uptown lady who keeps him and Vanessa Brenchley as the downtown
girl that he's attracted to as well. Rebecca Faulkenberry has the
role of the bouncy, blond, sadder and wiser chorus leader. John
Armstrong was the energetically snaky agent and blackmailer Ludlow
Lowell. Josh Gaboian was an able character as the cynical owner
of Joey's clubs. Amy Linden, as a bossy gossip columnist, wove a
spell as she mocked a "Gypsy Rose Lee" strip.
Great to hear a pit orchestra that was really an orchestra with
not a synthesizer in sight. There were five reeds one doubling on
bassoon, two trumpets, a horn, real strings--a violin, a cello and
a bass-- plus piano and percussion. One trumpet had occasional problems,
but overall they played with great color and variety. James Kallembach
and Emily Hindrichs share the task of music director. On Saturday
Hindrichs was the sure hand in the pit.
Costumes, and there are lots of costumes were designed by Dixon
Reynolds. They range from the rehearsal scrubs of the dancers right
up to a glamorous mink trimmed ensemble. Dathan Powell's set designs
ranged from full rooms to mere suggestions. Using the new technical
capabilities of the Ruth N. Halls theatre for smooth changes everything
worked very well.
Though there were some outstanding individual performances, it's
the overall strength of the two dozen singers and dancers in the
ensemble leaves me eagerly awaiting "A Chorus Line" and
"Falsettos" in the 2005/2006 season.
The IU Theatre production of Rodgers and Hart's "Pal Joey"
plays each evening this week through Saturday. You can see this
along with other reviews and listen to an interview with director
George Pinney and actor Colin Donnell on our George
Walker's Arts Interviews page.
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker.
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The Magic Flute
From 04/09/05, for 04/11 and 04/13
The IU Opera Theatre is closing its 2004-2005 season with the
work that closed Mozart's own opera career, "The Magic Flute"
in a musically satisfying production led by Principal Guest Conductor
Uriel Segal with stage direction by Vincent Liotta.
The noble Prince Tamino, Creighton James, with his comical sidekick
the bird catcher Papageno, Christopher Bolduc, enter into a quest.
Tamino seeks wisdom and the hand of Pamina, Alexis Lundy, the daughter
of the Queen of the Night, Karen Kness. Papageno too seeks a bride,
but is willing to let the wisdom go. Opposing them is the misguided
Queen of the night with her ladies. Supporting and testing the seekers
is Sarastro, John Paul Huckle, the High Priest of the Masonically
inspired Temple of the Sun. A side issue is the lustful servant
Monostatos, Seth Hobson, who is set on Pamina.
The staging of the IU production of "The Magic Flute"
leans toward direct simplicity. A good deal of the action is up
front and much is sung straight to the audience. With the appealing
Christopher Bolduc in his colorful costume as the bird catching
Papageno this was engaging. With the nearly outrageous mugging of
the ladies of the Queen of the Night's retinue in their unflattering
outfits it was a bit off putting.
Generally speaking the direction and the dressing of the production
was a bit puzzling. Creighton James is a tall handsome tenor who
sang well, but he was in no way a princely Pamino. The Queen of
the night, Karen Kness did a fine job of negotiating the treacherous
height of her part, especially in her second aria, but she's been
directed to be a good deal more commonly motherly than queenly.
One could only feel sorry for Seth Hobson as he squeaked his way
through the part of the wicked Monostatos. As if the ill-fitting
black leather costume wasn't bad enough, he also had to wear a bald
wig. Speaking of costumes and wigs. Alexis Lundy sang beautifully
as the Princess Pamina, but her generous, white puffy sleeved dress
seemed out of another play, and why couldn't her wig match the color
of her hair. I'm not sure just what the High Priest of the Temple
can be given to do to be dramatic, but whenever John Paul Huckle
stopped with his rich voiced singing he seemed to just stand around
allowing himself to be admired.
The design reused a set of tall, wheeled pyramids from an earlier
production. They were rearranged from time to time, by black clad
stagehands, sort of ninja style figures, who flitted to and fro
rather distractingly. The pyramids themselves could be lighted in
various potentially interesting ways, but looked a bit the worse
for wear.
Now, let me finish by saying that musically this is a solidly entertaining
evening of Mozart's great music from the final period of his too
short creative life. The orchestra's playing, the soloists and the
chorus are all very good. But opera is theatre, theatre-even musical
theatre-is dominated by the visual, and the production doesn't look
as good as it sounds.
You can read this and other reviews and hear an interview with stage
director Vincent Liotta on our George
Walker's Arts Interviews page.
At the opera for you, I'm George Walker,
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Secret Things
From 04/07/05, for 04/08 and 04/12
Richard Perez's one-man autobiographical show "Secret Things"
is at the Bloomington Playwrights Project in a production directed
by Patricia McKee.
Perez, a veteran actor, director and writer is the Artistic Director
of the BPP. He begins "Secret Things" by talking directly
to the audience about his nervousness and his fears. Will we like
it, will we laugh, will we be engaged? After his revelations will
we still like him?
During the hour-long monologue Perez touches on his boyhood in Oakland,
takes us through his adolescence, the life saving discovery of theatre,
and his scuffles as an actor in New York The stories are often laced
with humor, mostly at himself, but at how screwy life can be for
a young boy as well. There's good use of period music and even some
videos.
In "Secret Things" there are loving portraits of his grandmother
and grandfather, and funny and sad tales of the trials and tribulations
of an overweight adolescent. His idols are the graceful slender
dancer John Travolta, the equally slender and magnetic singer Tom
Jones and Olivia Newton-John. Though the overall texture is irony
there are some movingly dramatic moments especially around the tragic
death of Perez's father and the effects on the whole family. From
adolescence, Perez's moves on to his discovery and immersion in
the theatre, first in Oakland then in New York City. I enjoyed the
portraits so much that I wished for more about some of the characters
in his stories, especially his mother and his brother.
As Perez came to the end of his one-man show, "Secret Things,"
he wrapped up in the same vein as his beginning, talking directly
to the audience, hoping that we were with him, that we understood,
that we cared, and , …yes, that we still liked him. The opening
night audience applauded long enough to call him back for a second
bow.
Richard Perez performs his "Secret Things" in the production
directed by Patricia McKee at the Bloomington Playwrights Project
through the 23rd.
You can see this and other reviews, and hear an interview with Richard
Perez on our George
Walker's Arts Interviews page.
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker.
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Indianapolis Repertory Theatre: A Midsummer Night's
Dream
From 04/03/05, for 04/04 and 04/06
After residencies in Evansville and South Bend
the Indianapolis Repertory Theatre's Discovery Series production
of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is on the main stage of
their home theatre.
The production directed by Butler University Theatre Department
head John Green is a fast paced ninety minutes of imaginatively
visioned and artfully rendered theatre. Eight actors play all the
roles: the characters from the court, the mechanicals from the town
and the fairies from the forest.
The IRT production is streamlined for a young audience, but the
story lines and the language are always clear. I did wonder if even
teenagers would want quite as much physical pulling and pawing from
the young lovers. There was another element that puzzled me. The
cast made no direct connection with the audience for most of the
show and then started to nod and wink a bit. I don't know if a dramatic
event in the play set this off or if the players were nervous that
they weren't being successful.
Much of the IRT's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is choreographed
in an extremely physical production for the actor dancers. Melli
Hoppe's choreography ranges from graceful dance moves to some very
physical struggles. When the two young couples played by Sara Locker,
Jonathan Molitor, Jennifer Bohler and Michael Huftile get mixed
up by Puck's mistaken application of a love potion, the fur can
really fly.
The comedy of the mechanicals preparation for their play is particularly
well worked out. The players all appear in derbies, funny glasses
and long driving coats. They appear to a recording of the warnings
about going into the woods from the song "Teddy Bears' Picnic."
Frederick Marshall was comical as their leader Bottom.
Throughout "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Andrew Navarro
as Theseus, the Duke of the Court, and Oberon the King of the Fairies
with Constance Macy as his betrothed Hippolyta and his Fairy Queen
Titania showed just how regal and how petty flesh and blood and
royalty can be.
Mitchell Fain was the most engaging of Pucks and a real hoot as
a New York style theatre director working with the mechanicals.
Joel Ebarb's costuming for "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
ranges from the simple coats of the mechanicals to the elaborately
decorated head dresses of the King and Queen with always the extremely
physical character of the production in mind. If you do get to the
theatre, wherever your seats are, do take a trip to the balcony
to see Robert Koharchik's stage painted from an inspiration of Fragonard.
"A Midsummer Night's Dream" on the Indianapolis Repertory
Theatre's main stage plays through April 16th.
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker.
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Smokey Joe's Café
From 03/29/05, for 03/30
Smokey Joe's Café.rev
From 03/29/05, for 03/30
George Walker, WFIU
"Smokey Joe's Café" at the IU Auditorium is fine
opportunity for a spirited look back at the wonderful Lieber and
Stoller songs from the fifties and the sixties. In a fully packed
two hour evening there are forty pieces with the well known hits
and some that deserve to be better known. The show features classic
comic quartet pieces like "Poison Ivy" and "Yakety
Yak," tender ballads like "There Goes My Baby" and
"Spanish Ha |
Interview
with Randy White