Journeymen Theater Ensemble - ARCHIVE
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May 28 - June 21, 2008
Neglect
Reviewed May 30 by
Brad Hathaway |
Running time 1:05 - no intermission
t
A
Potomac Stages Pick for an absorbing presentation of the isolation of the
inner city at a time of stress
Performances at the
Church Street Theater.
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Journeymen again comes up with a dramatically satisfying property that
touches on significant subjects and gives it a superb staging. The Potomac Region premiere of Sharyn Rothstein's
drama set in a
blistering heat wave in Chicago is a balanced production that refuses to try
to do more with the play than its playwright intended. It is one of those
plays that ends at just the right moment - that moment when all that needed
to be
said has been said. No fluff. No stretching. No extraneous filler. Just
barely more than an hour has passed, but when the lights come up the
audience seems to give a nearly unanimous contented sigh. The issues the
play raises are not simple, and the author doesn't presume to offer a simple
solution. It is enough to provide a very human picture of people living
among millions but with little human contact and insufficient social
services.
Storyline: During Chicago's record-smashing heat wave of 1995, a lone
elderly woman and a younger man from a neighboring apartment come together
warily. She lets her guard down briefly in the hope of getting a bit of help
while he tries to take every advantage of the opening, and not just to
escape the heat in her barely air conditioned apartment. He has other things
on his mind - like her Social Security check.
Rothstein is a New York based young playwright who is
earning ever wider recognition. First her ten-minute plays were recognized
for quality, then one act plays such as this one began to be noticed, and now
she's working on new multi-act plays and even a musical while she wraps up
her masters degree at Hunter College of the City University of New York.
That masters isn't in fine arts or playwriting. It is in public health. She
once told a reporter for the National Catholic Reporter "I’m good at
playwriting and I need something to write about.” That connection to the
contemporary world, and her sense of concern for the real people who live in
it, are reflected in this play, but without turning a drama into a sermon or
a play into a diatribe.
Cynthia Costa Rollins uses her impressive catalogue of
gestures and postures to create the character of the elderly woman without
veering toward caricature. Early in the play, she uses a remote control for
her television to increase the volume to drown out the sound of knocking on
her door. As a gesture it seems so natural, but it is heartbreaking in its
capturing of the fear that fills her days. As the short play continues, she
goes from defensive to addled in subtle stages. James J. Johnson is less
restrained as the neighbor, punching up his character's discomfort both over
the temperature and over the scam he feels compelled to run.
Robbie Hayes' set is a structure of scrim, a construct
of apartment walls that can be seen through when lit from behind to reveal
the world outside this woman's home. When the neighbor first knocks on
her door the audience can see him as he cajoles his way into her world, and,
after they are enclosed in the living room together, the world outside stays
vaguely visible. Debra Kim Sivigny gives Rollins a sweater to wear over her
house dress in a quiet underlining of the woman's condition with poor
circulation affecting her temperature perception as well as her mental
acuity. Its a touch that gives credence to the accuracy of the portrait of
this woman's world.
Written by Sharyn Rothstein. Directed by Jessie R.
Gallogly. Fight choreography by Casey Kaleba. Design: Robbie Hayes
(set) Debra Kim Sivigny (costumes) Pat Daniels (properties) Brian S. Allard
(lights) Domenic Creswa (sound) Zachary W. Ford (stage manager). Cast: James J. Johnson, Cynthia Costa
Rollins. |
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August 28 - September 22, 2007
Getting Out
Reviewed by
Brad Hathaway |
Running time 2:05 - one
intermission
An important drama putting a human face on the plight of prisoners released
after serving sentences
Performances at Clark Street Playhouse
Click here to buy the script
|
Talk about "ripped from the headlines"! Saturday evening - Journeymen's
thought-provoking production of this story of the effort of a former
prisoner (lets not use the pejorative "ex con") to reenter society. Sunday
morning - the Washington Post's front page feature Back From Behind Bars:
Homelessness, Unemployment and Familiar Temptations Greet the 2,000
Prisoners Who Return to the District Each Year. For its coverage of the
complexity and the scope of the issues facing society, the Post's feature is
a must read. For its creation of the human reality and the ability to
generate empathy and understanding, Journeymen's production wins hands down.
Of course, the two aren't mutually exclusive. Read the Post's article by
Robert E. Pierre and see Journeymen's production of the play by Marsha
Norman. Then you may have a better understanding of the scope of both the
social and the human costs of our current criminal justice system.
Storyline: Having just been released from prison after serving eight
years for murder, a woman tries to establish a life in a dingy apartment in
Kentucky, struggling to resist the temptation to return to prostitution
which would pay so much better than the dishwashing job which seems her
only other option. At the same time, we see her former self, in an earlier
prison term. The woman, Arlene, fights to break from the patterns of the
girl, Arlie.
Marsha Norman wrote this play
thirty years ago. That it is so timely today is both a tribute to its
universality and a condemnation of the system it criticizes. We've still not
learned to cope with the problems it highlights. Her portrayal of those
problems rings true in part because she was following the age old adage of
writing about something you know about. She had taught emotionally disturbed
teenagers at the Kentucky State Central Hospital, and the main character in
Getting Out is based in part on one of her students. Since then, she
has dealt with other serious subjects in dramatic terms. Her 'Night
Mother dealt with suicide and earned a Pulitzer Prize. Her book for the
musical The Secret Garden dealt with grief and its impact on children
and adults alike and the redemptive power of love. It earned a Tony Award.
Today her musical adaptation of the book The Color Purple is still
running on Broadway as it approaches its second anniversary.
The cast here is presented with quite a challenge --
make the people who inhabit this drab world human not just in their pain,
anger and frustration but with a hint of aspiration and empathy. Alia
Faith Williams establishes a weary but real sense of determination from the start
as the older Arlene, ground down and exhausted by life but not yet ready to
give up. Tiffany Fillmore puts a sharp chip on her shoulder as the younger
Arlie, with brusque delivery of Norman's brutally honest dialogue for the
less educated, more confidently self deluding teenager. Both find
connections to their common character that make them work. They are
surrounded by less well formed characters portrayed with varying levels of
richness. Best are Charlotte Akin in the single-scene role of the mother,
and Victor Steele as the former prison guard who befriends Arlene but
doesn't know how to connect. Lolita-Marie Clayton emphasizes the empathy in
the character of the welcoming upstairs neighbor just a bit too much, while
Jason McCool gives weight to the thankless role of the thug from her past
who won't go away.
Appropriately, there's nothing pretty about either
Robbie Hayes' set or Emily Dere's costume designs, and the utter plainness of
Arlene and Arlie's worlds is reinforced by Andrew Cissna's harsh, colorless
lights. Hayes' uses chain link fencing as his predominant building material.
It is fencing with tears and gaps - nothing feels new or clean or attractive
in the world of Arlene/Arlie. Even the pitiful potted plants Steele's Bennie
brings in Act II as attempted atonement for his near rape during Act I
are colorless. Every aspect of the production reinforces the concept of just
how much will power is required to break out of a cycle of failure and how
bleak the prospects appear from the perspective of a newly released
prisoner.
Written by Marsha Norman. Directed by Deborah Kirby.
Design: Robbie Hayes (set) Erin Dere (costumes) Suzanne Maloney (properties)
Cliff Williams III (fight choreography) Andrew Cissna (lights) Veronica
Lancaster (sound) C. Stanley (photography)
Danielle B. Rose (stage manager). Cast: Charlotte Akin, Miles Butler,
Lolita-Marie Clayton, Charles Clyburn, Tiffany Fillmore, Lee Liebeskind,
Jason McCool, Joe Palka, Victor Steele, Alia Faith Williams. |
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March 7 - 31, 2007
After Darwin
Reviewed by
Brad Hathaway |
Running time 1:55 - one intermission
t
A Potomac Stages Pick for a intellectually
intriguing play-within-a-play
Performances at the
Church Street Theatre
Click here to buy the script
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This production of Timberlake Wertenbaker's 1999 play-within-a-play is part
back stage drama, part historical fiction. It continues Journeymen's
tradition of finding intellectually challenging, philosophically fascinating
works that deal with moral issues in serious ways, and giving them such
strong productions that they transport you into the world of thought in the
most entertaining way. It isn't hard to pick which parts of this
four-character play-within-a-play are the best - they are the scenes from
the play about Darwin and Captain FitzRoy of HMS Beagle. Those two-character
scenes have the benefit of the two best performances of the evening: Eric
Messner as Darwin and especially Grady Weatherford as FitzRoy. The other
scenes, the ones of these two rehearsing the play about Darwin and Fitzroy
with their director and the author, are still interesting and provide some
diversions from discussions of the weighty matters raised by Darwin's theory
and Fitzroy's challenges to his analysis. The real meat, however, is chewed
in the historical fiction.
Storyline: As they rehearse a new play about Charles Darwin's voyage on the
surveying ship HMS Beagle, the actors, director and author examine the
relationship of Darwin and his captain, Robert FitzRoy but also reveal much
about themselves to each other.
Wertenbaker
is often referred to as a British playwright, but she was born and raised in
New York (with a good deal of time also in France). She was the daughter of
a British foreign correspondent, and went to college at St. John's in
Annapolis. By the time she established herself as a playwright of note she
was settled in London, but this play shows some of the influence of her
American experience, especially her time immersed in the intellectual
challenges of St. John's rigorous Great-Books approach to education and the
atmosphere of that sea-centered town on the bay. With this play she gives a
well balanced account of the tug of war between Darwin's new way of seeing
the world and FitzRoy's adherence to the intellectual framework of his
society's views. The reason the debate is so compelling is that Wertenbaker
puts the arguments on both sides into equally eloquent mouths. Her Darwin
comes to his conclusions slowly and methodically - not as some flash of
inspiration that would seem simply the recognition of the obvious to many
modern minds. Her FitzRoy harbors doubts about his own views but draws
strength from the certainty of faith and the tradition of authority. He's
not a simple bearer of bluster. In this, Wertenbaker is to be lauded, for FitzRoy was, in fact, a significant contributor to the intellectual
developments of his time and no mere spokesman for a pre-determined view.
His own history is worth a closer look.
Grady Weatherford pulls off the admirable feat of making
both of the characters he plays - Captain FitzRoy and the actor playing him
- intellectually and emotionally
understandable in a marvelously differentiated double performance. Eric Messner
can't quite pull off the same feat with his two roles - Darwin and the actor
playing him. Try as he might, he can't quite make the lightweight that is the character of the actor playing
the famous scientist seem anywhere near as interesting as the scientist
himself, because in the
script, the actor is a dolt. The two members of the cast who play the author
and director of the play-within-a-play are Dallas Darttanian Miller and
Elizabeth H. Richards. Miller is suitably strident as the oh-so-committed author
but Richards is a distraction at times with an accent just a bit too thick
and emotions just a bit over played.
The Church Street Theatre seems to cry out to scenic designers to do
their best work using simple materials. No fly space and no wings. No
proscenium separating the stage from the rough brick and timber house.
Tobias Harding is new to the Potomac Region and gives us a first look at his
work. It is striking, original and very effective. He drapes sailcloth to
establish the theatrical setting of the play that takes place on HMS Beagle
with rigging projected on the drop at the rear. Those projections are doused
when the action changes to the back-stage portions of the play-within-a-play. In part because of this and in part because of the clarity of Shirley Serotsky's direction and the contribution of Andrew Cissna's sharp lighting
design, it is always crystal clear just where you are during the entire
evening. Such attention to detail is always important in time-tripping plays
like this one. Weatherford and Messner help in this as they switch postures
between their work as Darwin and FitzRoy and their time as the actors
involved.
Written by Timberlake Wertenbaker. Directed by Shirley Serotsky.
Design: Tobias Harding (set) Debra Kim Sivigny (costumes) Tracy Lynn Duncan
(properties) Andrew Cissna (lights) Randy Lancelot (sound) C. Stanley
(photography) Zachery W. Ford (stage manager). Cast: Eric Messner, Dallas
Darttanian Miller, Elizabeth H. Richards, Grady Weatherford. |
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December 6 - 30, 2006
The Christmas
Foundling
Reviewed by
Brad Hathaway
|
Running time 2:00 - one
intermission
t A Potomac
Stages Pick for a satisfying alternative to
Dickensian holiday shows
Performed at the H Street Playhouse in NE |
Well, its about time! The Potomac Region's Norman Allen wrote this Christmas
play in 2001 and it is finally being produced here. It combines Allen's
trademark fascination over historical settings with the fine touch he
displays when he's working on material suitable for adults and children to
share together. The play is set in the California Sierras in the aftermath
of the Gold Rush of 1849, and builds on strong family values even when the
family involved is an unorthodox one. With a cast creating distinctive
characters (especially Jim Zidar as a lovable big man in the mode of Burl
Ives) and a touching tug of war between cultures over the best interests of
a child, the show is best for adults and middle-aged children.
Too young and they may squirm - this shouldn't be confused as kid's show.
Its a show for all ages.
Storyline: On Christmas Eve of 1850 a woman gives birth to a boy after
stumbling out of the snow and collapsing at the door of a miner's cabin in
the mountains of California. She doesn't survive
the night and the child is adopted by one of the 49ers, and nurtured by the
entire community of miners in the area that had seen the Gold Rush of
1849-50. A decade later, the boy's aunt shows up to take him back to life in
Boston. Which future serves the boy's interests better - the strong
supporting community of miners or the cultured but unknown world back east?
Allen, who is well
known for his work at Signature Theatre's mainstage (Nijinsky's
Last Dance,
Fallen From Proust,
In the Garden, Melville Slept Here) and student series (Waiting
in Tobolsk/The Children of the Last Tsar), the Kennedy Center's
Family Theatre (The
Light of Excalibur) and Olney Theatre Center (Coffee
with Richelieu), was commissioned to write this play for the Sierra
Repertory Theatre. He created a piece that fits that company's venue. The
company performs in Sonora, California in the heart of the 49ers mother load
territory on the road from San Francisco to Yosemite. Allen says his play
was inspired by the stories by Bret Harte, the master of short stories of
the mostly-male community of the frontier in the mid nineteenth century. It
is easy to see the influence of Harte and of Mark Twain, who also chronicled
life in the camps. Certainly, this warm-hearted story of a small, tight
community with its nurturing values is worlds away from the poverty and
urban squalor of the stories Charles Dickens was writing at about the same
time - A Christmas Carol dates to 1843.
JJ Area avoids over doing either the rough edges of a
miner living far from civilization or the soft center of the character of
the adopting father. As a result, he's both believable and touching. The
trio of Andy Brownstein, Joshua Drew and Scott McCormick, as fellow miners
defined by the places they caught the gold fever (Moscow, Boston, Georgia)
contribute good natured humor. Together with Jim Zidar, as
the oldest and wisest miner of the bunch, they form a fine family to nurture
the youngster. That youngster is played as a ten year old by sixth grader
Sean McCoy. He shows some spunk as you would expect and delivers a
performance polished beyond what most sixth graders can deliver. There is a strong
sense of human values and civility in the community they form. The arrival
of Becky Peters, as the aunt from back east, provides the drama of the second
act, and she does a fine job of humanizing what could easily become a shrill
stereotype.
For all the pleasure the performances allow,
there is one area in which the production falters. The set leaves
plenty of space for the performers but some of the scenes are played out far
to the rear of the hall against a painted backdrop that continues around on
one side. That distance is distracting and the backdrop itself offers only a
sketchy hint of the hills of the Sierra chain. It is a locale of tremendous
beauty but you would not know it from the backdrop.
Written by Norman Allen. Inspired by the
stories of Bret Harte. Directed by Gregg Henry. Design: David Ghatan (set)
Yvette Ryan (costumes) Mara Kaiser Maudlin (properties) Jason Cowperthwaite
(lights) Bryan Miller (sound)
C. Stanley (photography). Cast: JJ Area, Andy Brownstein, Joshua Drew, Scott
McCormick, Sean McCoy, Becky Peters, Jim Zidar.
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September 6 - 30, 2006
Spinning Into
Butter |
Running time 2:20 - one intermission
A thoughtful examination of racism among upper class white Americans
Click here to buy the script |
There is a picture of a black man on the cover of the program distributed to
the audience for Rebecca Gilman's play examining racism on a New England college campus.
It is the only black face they will see, for Gilman's play takes the
"otherness" of a racial minority to its ultimate conclusion, and watches a
group of white people deal with the issue of racism in America completely in
the abstract. It is an interesting concept and it lets Gilman write sharp,
precisely accurate representations of speech patterns that fit each of
her characters from a perspective of personal knowledge. After all, she went
to a New England college just like the one she's writing about. Director Jeff Keenan's approach to blocking a
performance on a theater-in-the-round set up in the
Clark Street Playhouse is refreshingly natural, and the performance of
Maura McGinn as the Dean of Students hits its stride in the emotional center
of the second act.
Storyline: The new Dean of Students at a
private college in Vermont faces her first major crisis when one of the few
black students on campus complains of hate mail left pinned to the door of
his dorm room.
"Write what you know" is the time-honored advice to
playwrights and novelists. Often, the advice works. Here it obviously freed
Gilman to explore her topic without worrying too much about accurately
portraying a world she didn't know. However, she seems to have spent too
little time sharing some of her knowledge with her audiences. The details of
college administration are not made clear here, and that is a stumbling
block. Just what is the official relationship between a Dean of Students
(Maura McGinn), a Dean of the College (Debra Kirby) and just a Dean (Steve
Beal)? There is no such confusion over the relationship between McGinn and
the art history professor (Jim Jorgensen), who breaks off their romantic
relationship because of the return of his former lover. The central theme of
racism is brought to the fore through the interaction between McGinn and two
students, neither of whom are the black student with threats on his door.
They are, instead, Cesar A. Guadamuz as a minority student who prefers the
category "Nuyorican" (blending "New York" and "Puerto Rican") if any
categorization of his ethnicity is required, and David Drake as a white
pre-law student who sees in the situation the opportunity to beef up his
resume for his law school application by forming a "Students for Tolerance"
club.
The key to the show is the Dean of Students, and Maura McGinn carries off the role with a nice progress from the bright and chipper
personality when the story begins through various shocks both professional
and personal to the raw nerve ending to which her character is reduced
before her final resolute action. It is a performance to be remembered. It
is superbly supported by Jorgensen as her colleague so self absorbed he
would actually seek her advise on how to handle a problem with the former
lover whose return caused him to break up with her. A nice touch of simple
humanity comes from Mark Lee Adams as the college's head of security, and an
equally effective but completely different touch comes from Deborah Kirby as
the the officious Dean of the College.
The large, even cavernous space of the Clark Street
has accommodated many layouts over the years. Here it is laid out with the
seating risers on all four sides of a smallish playing space set up as the
Dean of Student's office. Keenan doesn't use the techniques of many
directors in the round to motivate turns, pivots and swivels to give each
side of the house a view of all of the action. Instead, he blocks the scenes
in a very normal, life-like manner which invites the audience to be simply
"a bug on the wall" eavesdropping on reality. As a result, there are lengthy
pieces of dialogue which one or another section of the audience sees only from the back.
But the performers here all enunciate very clearly, project effectively and
communicate a great deal with their body language. Watching Jim Jorgensen's
shoulders from behind as he reacts to McGinn's disclosures of her
character's motivations in taking the job at the rural college in Vermont
amplifies the impact more than a brief rotating look at his face would have,
and every word he says in response is clear even in the back row (There are
only four rows, after all.)
Written by Rebecca Gilman. Directed by Jeff Keenan.
Design: Tracie Lynn Duncan (set and properties) Franklin Labovitz (costumes)
Harold F. Burgess II (lights) Randy Lancelot (sound) Colin Hovde
(photography) Zachary W. Ford (stage manager). Cast: Mark Lee Adams, Steve
Beal, David Drake, Cesar A. Guadamuz, Jim Jorgensen, Deborah Kirby, Maura
McGinn. |
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April 14 - May 6, 2006
Manicures &
Monuments |
Reviewed April 15
Running time 1:40 - one intermission
Performances are at the Atlas Performing Arts Center
A solid presentation of a touching play |
Vicky Caroline Cheatwood describes herself as a "regional playwright." Her
plays do seem to all be set somewhere in the middle of America on the
southern side - but they can connect with
an audience anywhere when given as solid a presentation as Journeymen gives
this one. In this, her 1995 two-act, eight-character look at an unlikely
friendship in a nursing home, she deals with American values and universal
truths in an un-pretentious, no-nonsense manner and the cast provides clean,
un-mannered performances that ring true without extraneous gimmicks. The
result is a touching evening spent in the company of two strong-willed women
who connect in a nursing home amidst a collection of residents and staff,
each of whom has a distinct personality.
Storyline: A young woman in the sixth month of beauty school has to
volunteer to do manicures in a nursing home before she can graduate. She
gets to know the staff and the residents and they get to know her. Over a
period of years, she continues to return not just because they need her
services but because she finds she needs their friendship and
acceptance as well. The strongest connection is with a sharp-tongued
resident who challenges her to assess her own life before too much time
passes.
Cheatwood's script
presents a realistic picture of life in a nursing home where all the
patients are dependent on public funding and all the staff are over-worked
and under-paid. With a touch of The Boys Next Door and a dash of
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next, the play's attraction is the
relationship between the characters. From the caring but not necessarily
saint-like nurse (played with a nice touch of fatigue and exasperation by
Sarah Melinda) to the stoic resignation of the silent Sarah (played with
fidelity by Charlene James-Duguid) the day room of the nursing home is
populated by real people.
The central relationship is between the manicurist,
played by Tiffany Fillmore who nicely underplays her character's sweetness,
and the stern resident, Marilyn Bennet, who nicely underplays her character's
abrasiveness. Had either of these actresses gone for the obvious, and
punched up the traits that set them apart, the result would have felt
artificial. As it is, they create a natural relationship with a mixture of
patience and irritation, tolerance and intolerance, suspicion and affection
that grows over time in a realistic way. It takes time to create that
kind of bond and Director Deborah Kirby
gives them time to work it through in an unhurried but never tedious pace
for the production.
Kirby and her set designer Abigail Greene do
something rather clever and unusual in the black box at the Atlas. They
have a fairly normal central structure for the day room of the nursing home
where so much of the action takes place, and they place one bed off to the
left for one of the resident's rooms. Then, off to the right, they leave the
door from the theater into the building's hall open and some of the
residents are seen to shuffle along the hall, adding depth to the world the
play is creating.
Written by Vicky
Caroline Cheatwood. Directed by Deborah Kirby. Design: Abigail Greene (set)
Ivania Stack (costumes) Ed Xavier (properties) Bryan Miller (lights and
sound) Don Prather (stage manager). Cast: Marilyn Bennet, Charlene
James-Duguid, Tiffany Fillmore, J.P. Illarramendi, Sarah Melinda, Glee
Murray, Manolo Santala, Zuanna Sherman. |
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December 28, 2005 -
January 28, 2006
An Experiment
with an Air Pump |
Reviewed January 5
Running time 2:30 - one intermission
t
A Potomac Stages Pick for a satisfying blend of
intellectual and emotional involvement
Click here to buy the script |
This new small theater company started off strong and just keeps getting
better. Their latest is an absorbing evening of stylish theater which takes
a fine play and gives it a superior production that enhances its strengths.
They have mounted
British author Shelagh Stephenson's 1998 play, which followed her Laurence
Olivier Award winning comedy The Memory of Water, at the
Clark Street Playhouse in Arlington. With strong performances all around and
a fine physical design, the play of intellectual concepts captures the mind
and the impacts of scientific developments in two different time periods
which are
compared and contrasted in a fascinating relationship.
Storyline: Two families occupy the same English home
on the eve of new centuries. The 1799 family is headed by a scientist whose
fascination with experimentation is the subject of a painting showing him
demonstrating the effect of depriving his daughter's pet bird of oxygen. Is
his insensitivity akin to that of his assistant dissecting cadavers provided
by grave robbers? Is the advance of science a promise of a better future for
mankind? Is the cost appropriate? The 1999 family is far less patriarchic,
with the woman of the house being the scientist and her husband a retired
English professor. Here, too, the promise of the new century and the
advancement of scientific knowledge is a major concern as developments in
areas like genetic engineering and cloning hold promise and moral dilemmas
alike.
Stephenson's play raises serious
issues but doesn't really try to resolve them. It is the existence of
ambiguity in the emergence of new moral challenges that seems to fascinate
her. She gives equal voice to each side of the arguments actually discussed
by the characters. This is not a debate play, however. It is a gentle and
thoughtful examination of the human responses to changing values and
challenges, and, in this, it is rather unusual. In the process, she creates
two sympathetic family portraits filled with people who are interesting and
thoroughly human.
The man-and-wife pair at the head of the two families
are played with a nice sense of dignity by Becky Peters and Andy Brownstein
- neither of whom overdoes the theme of the reversal of leadership between
male and female over the two centuries. As a result, what could have been
cartoonish diatribe is thoughtful exchange. Matt Dunphy and Michael
Paolantonio have more of the scientific value debate. Paolantonio, as the
thesaurist Roget, lets you feel his shock and revulsion at robbing the grave
for scientific study, while Dunphy avoids overdoing the haughtiness of
scientific arrogance of his despicable character. He makes lines like "I will be remembered as a great
physician and you, Roget, as a man who made lists" seem reasonable. His
misleading of Lindsay Allen's poor, malformed servant becomes a centerpiece
of the play which benefits from the strengths of Allen and Peters who make
their characters vivid without unbalancing the picture of family
relationships .
The atmosphere of the production is impressively
consistent. With many plays dealing with multiple time periods, the
distinctions between them are the key factors, and thus, designers tend to
emphasize differences. Here, it is the similarities that are important, and
Journeymen's designers take that fact to heart, keeping the feel of all the
scenes similar even when the time shift is of two centuries. The set is
spare but of rich wood tones and the lighting is soft and warm for both
periods as if the occupants of the home in 1999 prefer the feel of the
house's history. David Ghatan's lighting design echoes the effect that made
the original painting notable - it was one of Joseph Wright's canvases that
were known as the "candle paintings" because each had but one soft light
source. If Jesse Terrill wasn't credited as composer, the stately chamber
music which underscores transitions would have me checking the recordings of
eighteenth-century Englishman John Stanley. Only in the costumes does the
period show, but even here Debra Kim Sivigny uses the same palate of colors
and fabrics to link the two periods together.
Written by Shelagh Stephenson. Directed by Gregg
Henry. Music composed by Jesse Terrill. Design: Jacob Muehlhausen (set)
Debra Kim Sivigny (costumes) Brenden McDougal (properties) David C. Ghatan
(lights) Randy Lancelot (sound) Lindsay Miller (stage
manager). Cast: Lindsay Allen, Andy Brownstein, Bette Cassatt, Matt Dunphy,
Tara Garwood, Michael Paolantonio, Becky Peters. |
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September 14 - October 15,
2005
The Boys Next Door |
Reviewed September 21
Running time 2:15 - one intermission
Performed at the Clark Street Playhouse
A gentle and touching look at life in a home for retarded citizens
Click here to buy the script |
Tom Griffin's play strikes a very personal note for this
reviewer who once worked for a legislator who had entered politics because
of his involvement in the cause for retarded citizens. I recall one debate when an
opponent decried the use of money on
toilet training that could be used for traditional academics. My boss's
reply, that given a choice, he'd find toilet training much more important
than multiplication tables, put a very human face on the issue of services
special citizens require. Griffin's portrait of life in a group home for
retarded citizens shines a theatrical spotlight on that oft-shadowed public
issue and does so with humor, understanding, touching emotionalism and
genuine humanity.
Journeymen, a faith based theater troupe, has given it a fine production.
Storyline: Four retarded citizens who, with support, can function in
society, live together in a group home under the caring supervision of a
social worker. Their lives present unique challenges and they treasure joys
in accomplishments that might seem small to others but are of great
importance to them. When their social worker announces that she is leaving,
the group throws her a party.
Director Jeff Keenan keeps any one of the
performances from descending into cartoonish caricature by giving each of the
actors playing a retarded person the opportunity to make him fully human
in a sympathetic but wholly believable manner. They play out their
interactions on Ryan D. Lee's nicely detailed recreation of a lived-in and
cared-for apartment where the supervision is part time. The role
of the social worker may have been envisioned as male with the name Jack, but
Deborah Kirby handles it with a touch of humor leavened by a deep sadness
over the failure of parts of society to understand the value of the
people living under her supervision.
Each of the retarded characters pose a real
challenge to an actor. Cecil E. Baldwin creates a coil of energy who yearns
for acceptance and success. Don Prather lets us see the conflict when the
sexual urges of retarded adults whose hormonal system works even when their
social skills don't without turning his character into a cheap joke. Michael
Propster is quite touching as the source of his disability becomes clear as
early emotional abuse.
Dallas Darttanian Miller's Lucien emerges
from the confines of his retardation in one flight of fancy scene where he
is able to enunciate the essence of the story in a moving speech to a
legislative committee. He says "I am retarded. I am damaged. I am sick
inside from so many years of confusion, utter and profound confusion . . .
But I will not go away. And I will not wither because the cage is too small.
I am here to remind the species of the species." His performance and the
play itself remind us of the essential humanness of human beings.
Written by Tom Griffin. Directed by Jeff
Keenan. Design: Ryann D. Lee (set) Melanie Dale (costumes) Tiffany Fillmore
(properties) Bryan Miller (lights and sound) Raymond Watson (stage manager).
Cast: Barry Abrams, Cecil E. Baldwin, Deborah Kirby, Dallas Darttanian
Miller, Don Prather, Aniko Olah, Becky Peters, Michael Propster, Al Twanmo.
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April 20 - May 21, 2005
The Colorado
Catechism |
Reviewed April 28
Running Time 2:00 - one intermission
General admission seating
Performances at Arlington's Clark Street Playhouse
Solid performances in a touching two-character show
Click here to buy the script |
The first thing to capture your imagination in
this lovely production is the simple but impressive set by Ryann D. Lee.
She's created a battered gazebo of a patio as an out of the way location for
two troubled people. The hold on your imagination continues with the
performances featuring a notable absence of artifice by two fine performers.
Their interaction spins a magical feeling as their two characters slowly
build a bond that may or may not survive beyond the events detailed in the
play, but which, at least for the time being, is lovely to behold.
Storyline: Two patients in an alcohol rehabilitation facility strike up
first an acquaintance, then a friendship and finally a richer, fuller
relationship. In the process they reveal more and more about themselves to
each other as the bonds of trust overcome the barriers of caution. The
two performers are Cecil Baldwin as the New York Artist just arriving at the
Rehab center, tanked on the many tiny bottles provided on the flight to
Colorado, and facing a massive cold turkey detoxification, and the theater's
founding Artistic Director Deborah Kirby, as a Midwestern divorced mom who's
already dried out but faces major stresses over a custody battle with her
former husband over the child she wasn't able to protect when she was
drinking. Both reveal character features slowly as they share their stories,
hopes, fears and plans.
Director Jeffrey Keenan keeps this
conversational piece from seeming too static by moving his cast of two
around the spacious playing space throughout the first act. The movement
seems completely natural, especially as Baldwin's character has to keep on
the move until he feels more at home after spending more time at the center.
Early in the second act a series of short vignettes as the two characters
trade memories and moments is particularly notable before the piece moves on
to its finale.
Lee's set isn't the only design element
contributing to the feeling of the show. Bryan Miller enhances the spirit of
the evening with both a lighting design that gives a sense of pace to the
progression of scenes by giving each an appearance appropriate to the
indicated time of day or night, and the sound of the chimes that govern the
lives of the patients in the institution.
Written by Vincent J. Cardinal. Directed by
Jeff Keenan. Design: Ryann D. Lee (set) Melanie Dale (costumes) Tiffany
Fillmore (properties) Bryan Miller (lights and sound) Mara Kaiser Maudlin
(stage manager). Cast: Cecil Baldwin, Deborah Kirby. |
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October 19 - November
13, 2004
Private Eyes |
Reviewed October 27
Running time 2:05 - one intermission
Click here to buy the script |
One of the hardest tricks in acting is to play a scene where your character
is an actor playing a scene. How “real” do you make it and how “forced”
should it be? (Of course, one of the hardest tricks in reviewing is to
recognize where an actor playing an actor is intentionally over-playing the
scene within a scene or simply is not playing the scene well.) This play
provides its five member cast with multiple opportunities to stumble over
that danger (and reviewers multiple chances to misinterpret what is going
on) because it is a play within a play within a play, etc. Indeed, I lost
count of how many layers there are as the cast of a play about the cast of a
play about the cast of a play break out of one scene only to find that they
are in another scene about that scene. Figuring out just what is going on is
part of the fun. Watching sharp performances by two of the five member cast
is also fun, and the set is a disorienting delight which nicely amplifies the
confusion.
Storyline: An actress auditions for a role in a play about an actress who
auditions for a role. The director turns out to be an actor playing a
director when the play's director interrupts the rehearsal. Soon other
layers of shows-within-shows emerge in an exploration of the nature of truth
built on compounded stories of adultery and pretense.
Steven Dietz is a prolific playwright with a
wide range of interests and styles. He's tackled the super-serious (racism,
nuclear war, AIDS) the unusual (vampirism, marriage among rock stars) and
the merely quizical (More Fun than Bowling). This may be his hardest
play to
categorize. In it, he seems to take a perverse pleasure in lulling the
audience into a belief that he has finally revealed the last layer of
confusion only to spring another revelation. The repeated "gotcha" effects get to be tedious.
The first interruption is a kick. The second elicits an "ah, yes" feeling.
The final one of the first act is a gem. But all too many others feel
contrived.
Through it all, Tiffany Fillmore is an
energetic delight as she peals layer after layer from her character
without seeming contrived. Christopher Poverman, who appears late in the first act,
provides a solid presence and is superb at listening to the other
characters. This is a skill that is just right since his part is that of a therapist
skilled at listening. He even makes the line "I'm Frank. I hope you will be"
sound like it actually would work as a set up to a therapy session.
Elizabeth Darby manages to be smooth with a part that has her flipping from
character to character. Others in the cast have difficulty with both the
often overly wordy script and the task of acting the act of acting.
David Ghatan's angular set of interlocking
platforms and screens captures the essence of the piece with what turn out
to be multiple playing spaces, each of which can be "the real world" one
moment and the setting for a scene within a scene the next. He also designed
the sharp lighting plan which guides the audience between these various
levels of reality or pretense. The deep space of the Church Street Theater,
while lacking wing or fly space, gives a designer plenty of room on stage to
work wonders. It has accommodated many intriguing designs for its resident
theater company, the Stanislavsky Theatre Studio, as well as rental tenants. Ghatan takes full advantage of its scope while not
seeming to have been constrained by the lack of off-stage facilities.
Written by Steven Dietz. Directed by Deborah
Kirby. Design: David Ghatan (set and lights) Melanie Dale (costumes) Andy
Zipf and Shawn Matthews (incidental music) Shawn Matthews (sound) Christopher O. Banks
(photography) Tamisha Ottley (stage manager). Cast: Elizabeth Darby, Deryl
Davis, Tiffany Fillmore, Christopher Poverman, Chad Tyler. |
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