Laurel Mill Playhouse - ARCHIVE
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February 17 - March 18,
2006
Mystery Play |
Reviewed February 17
Running time 1:40 - one intermission
A lark for players provides some fun for the audience
Click here to buy the script |
Perhaps it is best if you don't take
Jean-Claude van Itallie's convoluted comedy too seriously. Certainly, this
way the performance of the combination whodunit and satire can be almost as much fun
for the audience as it seems to be for the performers on stage. They are
working their way through a script by a playwright known as absurdist. At
least he was at the point of his career when he wrote this short play that
lasted all of fourteen performances in its off-Broadway premiere in 1973. As
directed by Ellyn Kestnbaum, this cast avoids the pitfall of trying to
explore too earnestly some deeper meaning in the apparent profundities in a
script where everyone is said to be "playing at being" this, that or the
other stock character. The result is a chance to just sit back and watch the
cast of eight take turns in the spotlight as they create the seven
characters. That strange math is the result of the use (as specified by the
author) of two performers to play one probably bi-sexual role.
Storyline: A senator is hosting a cocktail party when people start dying
of various violent acts. Indeed, the Senator is one of the early victims.
But who is the killer? A mystery writer, acting as narrator, may or may not
be one of the guests as she explores various clues, stages or re-stages
elements of the crimes, and generally keeps things moving along.
Penny Martin takes control of scene after scene in the role of the mystery
writer from next door. That is not to say she hogs the spotlight. She's
supposed to be controlling events in this spoof - else, how are we supposed
to know that this isn't intended as reality? Each actor gets a moment or two
to shine before having to don the dark glasses which signify that he or she
has died. Anne Rich throws herself into a state as the wife of the senator
while Richard Blank takes center stage to emote unmercifully as a guest who
happens to be a professor - he is protected from critical analysis by the
fact that he has tenure. The senator is somewhat stolidly played by a
smirking Doug Silverman.
Perhaps the most intriguing performance comes
from the team of Brian Stepowany and Heather Martin as the two sides of the
presumably bi-sexual son of the Senator. They play their joint scenes
together as a single entity, but with two distinctly different appearances
despite identical costumes.
The playhouse doesn't lend itself to
elaborate staging. It has a tight space of a stage with no wings or flies in
the one-story storefront on Main Street. Still, with two couches a few
tables and a group of pillars in the upstage alcove, there is sufficient
approximation of a swank apartment here for the play's purposes. The
audience, on six rows of plastic patio chairs, is close enough to the
action that there is a sense of camaraderie between performer and audience
member.
Written by Jean-Claude Van Itallie. Directed
by Ellyn Kestnbaum. Design: Ellyn Kestnbaum and Michael Stepowany (set)
Penny Martin and Jenny Simmons (costumes) Diana Simmons and Penny Martin
(properties) Kendra Simmons (lights) Larry Simmons (photography) Diana
Simmons (stage manager). Cast: Kelli Biggs, Richard Blank, Vincent van
Joolen, Heather Martin, Penny Martin, Anne Rich, Doug Silverman, Brian
Stepowany. Keyboard player: Shelia Carroll. |
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May 14 - June
12, 2004
Ride the
Winds |
Reviewed May 12
Running time 2 hours 15 minutes
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The story of how this show came to be presented
here in the tiny storefront theater on Main Street is more fascinating than
the story of the play, but the production offers a number of pleasures on
its own as well. The musical had a very brief run on Broadway in 1974 and
has hardly been heard from since. One of the producers of that
eleven-performance run was none other than Bill Tchakirides, now of the
Laurel Mill Playhouse. He wanted to try his hand at the show one more time
and he contacted its author, John Driver who has re-worked much of the
material in the show for this production. Tchakirides directs this
production and his deep affection for the piece shows through in a serious,
well thought out staging utilizing many techniques from classic Japanese
theater. It also offers a strong central performance by Jay Tilley and some
of the most polished stage combat featuring swords, daggers and poles that
you are likely to see at such close range.
Storyline: In a medieval Asian country, a
young man seeks out a great teacher of Samurai swordsmanship who takes
him into his monastic training regimen covering much more than just martial
arts. The young man is impatient and breaks with his master at the same time
he falls in love with a young woman of mysterious background. The nation is
on the brink of civil war as the emperor lies near death but the young man's
master is able to maneuver forces in such a way as to provide a happy
ending.
Driver wrote the script,
the lyrics and the music for Ride the Winds. It was his first musical
to play on Broadway but not his last. Fifteen years later he wrote the
script and the lyrics for Shogun: The Musical based on James
Clavell's novel which had a 90-performance run in 1990. The version now seen
on this stage features strongly drawn characters, each of whom gets at least
one revealing moment in song. The score sounds very much like a musical
dating from the period of Hair and Two Gentlemen of Verona as
Broadway was experimenting with ways to bring standard show tune concepts
into step with the folk-pop-rock fashion of the time. The use of
Japanese percussion and accompaniment gives the songs in this show a
distinctive touch, but they still are character revealing or plot advancing
songs along the time honored traditions of musicals.
Jay Tilley, who previously appeared here in
Laurel Mill's fine production of
Assassins and regularly performs in Northern Virginia theaters, including
the Reston Community Players where his performance in 1776 earned him a
nomination for a WATCH award last year, is very good as Tokusan, the Samurai
master. The pair of Andrew Nguyen and Delia Chiu fade a bit in their
respective numbers but carry the story forward without too much distraction.
Ryan Johns is the innocent presence accompanied by his dog.
It is a large cast for such a small space.
Tchakirides designed a simple set to get the largest possible playing space
on which to stage the swordplay under fight director Eric Eaton. He places
the music director Mark Barber and his synthesizer at the rear of the stage
along with percussionist Martin Colbert and brings cast in along a ramp at
the audience's side as well as from the draped entryways on the stage. Roman
S. Gusso designed distinctive makeup in the Noh tradition. The overall
effect is a unique mixture of Noh, Kabuki, Broadway and small community
theater.
Book, music and lyrics by John Driver.
Direction and scenic design by Bill Tchakirides. Fight direction by Eric
Eaton. Music direction by Mark Barber. Design: Linda Bartash (costumes), Roman S. Gusso
(makeup), Kendra Simmons (stage manager). Cast: Annie Burke, Rameen
Chaharabhi, Delia Chiu, Ken Dukes, Roman S. Gusso, Susan Hayes, Ryan Johns,
Ken Krinz, Momo Nakamura, Andrew Nguyen, Gary Sugai, Jay Tilley,
Shirley Weaver, Steven Weaver, Tricia Weiler, |
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April 4 – May 3, 2003
Assassins |
Reviewed April 11
Running time 2 hours
t Potomac Stages Pick |
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This adventurous small
theater troupe does an excellent job with this challenging piece at a time
when many others have shied away from it due to concerns over audience
acceptance of a show about political assassination during the period of
reaction to the atrocities of September 11, 2001. The show, which originated
off-Broadway, was slated for its first Broadway mounting in 2002 but that
was cancelled, or at least postponed. A Virginia community theater had
scheduled it for last spring but opted instead to present a Marx Brothers
musical comedy. But the Laurel Mill Playhouse, the new name for the 34
year-old all-volunteer community theater troupe operating out of a new 52
seat store front, not only takes on this unique musical, they do it justice. |
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Storyline: A series of scenes and songs that the director says is “somewhere
between a book musical and a revue” introduce the stories of the people who
assassinated or attempted to assassinate Presidents from Abraham Lincoln
through Ronald Reagan, but the focus is on the two most famous, John Wilkes
Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald. Much of it is true to the historical record but
it culminates in a fascinatingly constructed fantasy scene in which Booth
leads the spirits of the assassins in an effort to convince Oswald to
assassinate Kennedy, bringing new meaning to the term “JFK assassination
conspiracy.”
Physically this is an impressive production in such a limited space with
such limited resources. The stage is extremely well used with vaudeville
signs on the proscenium wall naming the scenes, a central structure that
serves as a shooting gallery, the gallows and the boxes of Oswald’s
workplace. A curtain of stars and stripes works well to signal scene
changes. But the most impressive aspect is a projection screen showing
portraits of the Presidents and such settings as the windows of the Texas Book Depository Building and a
chilling effect using film of the Kennedy assassination.
A
very strong cast of sixteen is under the direction of Bill Tchakirides who
does a good job of keeping the staging clean and clear as to characters and
chronology which is especially important for a show that combines events
over 120 years in just two intermissionless hours. Strongest of the bunch
are Bonnie Sarf who has the funniest part of the bunch playing Sara Jane
Moore, the dipsy middle aged woman who attempted to shoot Gerald Ford, and
Tim Olson with the strangest part as Sam Byck, the self-absorbed fanatic who
wanted to crash a jetliner into the White House during the Nixon
administration. Jeffrey Landou captures the look of Booth. Michael Rudmann
and Allyson Harkey combine well for their duet as John Hinckley and Lynette
“Squeaky” Fromme.
Any
musical by Stephen Sondheim requires talent both among the singing cast and
in the orchestra and a Musical Director who can get the best out of all of
them. Richard Fitzgerald is at the helm of the effort to perform this wide
ranging score that covers styles from civil war era ballad to turn of the
century cakewalk, all the way up to folk-ish pop songs that were all the
rage in the 60s. The performances range from more-than-acceptable to very
impressive, with nary a clunker in the bunch. The five member band with
Ziola Holtzer particularly impressive on oboe, covers the range well. The
same could be said of all the people who had a role in putting this show on.
Book by John Weidman. Lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim. Directed by Bill
Tchakirides. Music direction by Richard Fitzgerald. Choreographed by Maureen
Rogers, Ro Gusso and Alex Kassay. Design: Linda Bartash
(costumes, lights)
Bill Tchakirides (set). Cast: Patrick
Bangs, Lawrence K. Boyd, Greg Coale, Roman “Ro” Gusso, Allyson Harkey, Alex
Kassay, Jeffrey Landou, Steven P. Nemphos, Janet Olsen, Tim Olson, Irene
Patton, Maureen Rogers, Michael Rudmann, Bonnie Sarf, Daniel Staicer, Jay
Tilley. |
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