Home of the FREE weekly email Update

Running Time: 2:05 – one intermission
     An unsentimental look at artists lacking parenting skills, with all the expected consequences

Storyline: Mariela and Jose were once the golden couple of the Mexican artists’ inner-circle. Together they built a family and an artist colony to host friends Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. But their daughter has run away and their son has died in a fire and their old friends are now too famous to visit. With their artistic inspirations gone, their lives are strangled by isolation and lies.

Karen Zacarías, a native of Mexico, is a local playwright who won the 2000 Charles MacArthur award for outstanding new play for The Sins of Sor Juana, and two year's ago she received the American Theatre Critics Association's Francesca Primus Award for emerging female artist. She is a founder of Young Playwrights’ Theater, a nonprofit that teaches playwriting in DC schools. Her work has been performed at Round House and the Kennedy Center and will be performed at Arena Stage next season. Mariela was first produced at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre in 2005 and won the National Latino Playwrights’ Competition. Nick Olcott is, of course, a well-known directing figure in the Potomac area. His most recent work was at Theater J where he directed David in Shadow and Light. He has also worked with and directed other Zacarias scripts. In this particular directorial work, Olcott makes this production of Mariela a piece of big gestures and strong voices in a relatively small theater space. In his program notes Olcott writes of similarities between Albee’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Mariela … perhaps, but maybe a stretch.

Valerie Leonard’s Mariela is a muscular earthy presence in her manner of acting and her appearance. She is ripe for the role of Mariela, someone enticing not only to her husband but to others as well. But she is also a mother with little joy in her life after giving up her painting aspirations after a lie told to her by her husband. Leonard presents the most joy in this production when chasing and finally killing an imaginary scorpion with a broom as her family cowers about standing on chairs. Leonard’s lines expressing anger at her life’s situation are generally delivered in a domineering and imperious manner, especially those directed toward her husband or her daughter. There seems no dialing down. James has a looseness and bluster about him that is a good foil for Leonard’s strong, high-energy. Whether in bed nearing death or on his feet swaggering about, he is one gangly being trying to keep up with the more robust Leonard. He does connect with her often enough that the core source of their marriage that holds them together makes sense. Jennifer L. Nelson’s submissive sister to James’ family patriarch is also the house maid protecting her brother, her niece and nephew and providing a sense of decorum and faith. She adds some levity and leavening to the goings-on. Nelson even plays her role as almost hunched over to present herself as small in stature. Ryan Christie is a naturally light presence in this production as the daughter who ran away but returns when she receives a fabricated telegram announcing the death of her father. But she comes not alone but brings home an American professor. Michael Vitaly Sazonov, as the sickly son who died in a ranch fire, is an apparition for much of the later part of the play. He is another one playing his role over the top. Michael Kramer provides some nuanced work as the American professor who comes to visit and has not a clue of what to expect in the vastly different culture he finds himself.

Colin K. Bills’s lighting grid is a wonder of evocated mood setting and intensity. Oh what wonderful evocative lighting can do to hold an audience’s interest along with a sound design that sets a mood from the pre-show music to scene change interludes! The lighting includes white hot spotlights, washed walls, cool ambers and sober evening affects to help carry this production. One final observation: Why is Leonard only allowed one costume for a play that runs over so many years and eras? She deserved better.

Written by Karen Zacarías. Directed by Nick Olcott. Design: Anne Gibson (set), Kathleen Geldard (costumes), Suzanne Maloney (properties) Colin K. Bills (lights), Matthew M. Nielson (sound) Joe Milmoe (photography) Elizabeth Wiesner Paige (stage manager). Cast: Ryan Christie, Timmy Ray James, Michael Kramer, Valerie Leonard, Jennifer L. Nelson, Michael Vitaly Sazonov.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed January 19
Running time 1:55 - One Intermission
A family-friendly musical set in Texas
 at the dawn of the age of flight

Storyline: The grandson of an East Texas bean farmer dreams of flying at just about the same time the Wright Brothers are working on their flying machine in their bicycle shop in Ohio. Young Lenny, named for Leonardo DaVinci, is the orphaned son of Icarus, who crashed when he tried to fly. Grandfather Daedalus has tried to protect Lenny from the dangers of flight, but has only succeeded in making him afraid of heights. When a carnival comes to town and Lenny is told he must do "the impossible" in order to win the hand of the prettiest lady in the troupe, he tries to recreate and improve on his father's efforts at flight.

The production has something of the feel of a work in progress. The program says it is to be performed without an intermission, but on opening night it was a two-act play with not only an intermission but an entr'acte performed as something of an overture to the second act by the on-stage band of five. The script has a potentially confusing number of plots going on - the relationship between Daedelus (a gruff Richard Pelzman with a soft center) and the proprietress of the carnival (the vivacious Sherri L. Edelen) never becomes totally clear, nor does the reasoning behind having two good looking young girls in the carnival (the energetic Jenna Sokolowski and Jennifer Timberlake) both interested in young Lenny (the charmingly youthful Dwayne Nitz). With twenty-some songs packed into the show, there's little time available for character or plot development through dialogue. Still, the songs are fun, the melodies attractive  and the rhythms infectious. 

Nitz is his usual engaging self. (Does he never age? He's been the youthful hero of these plays since Sing Down the Moon!) Here he doesn't have quite the opportunity to engage the children in the audience that he did in Mississippi Pinocchio, especially since the production is being staged in the Harris Theatre on the campus at George Mason University rather than in the more intimate TheatreSpace, the black box where some of the earlier productions were so effectively mounted. At least it isn't in the cavernous concert hall which places much more space between the audience and the stage. The stage here is framed by two semi-circular side pieces constructed as if they were early aircraft wings, leaving a large central playing space which seems a bit too spacious and too empty. Yes, the locale is supposed to be the open spaces of Texas, but some of the charm of the piece is dispersed over too much area.

Dan Joyce's choreography is energetic but not particularly distinguished, as if he was devising routines for dancers of limited skill. Since we have seen most of this cast, especially Nitz, Sokolowski, Edelen and Casey move well to other choreographers' creations, this wouldn't apply here. Only Pelzman, in the grandfather's role, seems to require such special constructs, so it seems strange that dances in a show about flight seem to be so earth bound. Flights of fancy in the dream sequences are represented by a Rube Goldberg collection of flying machines and the carnival show is operated out of a carry-on trunk. Saving the best for the last, the final flight effect is the most impressive.

Music by David Maddox. Lyrics by David Maddox and Mary Hall Surface. Book by Mary Hall Surface. Directed by Mary Hall Surface. Choreographed by Dan Joyce. Musical direction and orchestrations by David Maddox. Design: Tony Cisek (set) Kate Turner-Walker (costumes) Linda S. Evans (properties)  Philippe Nobile (photography) Taryn J. Colberg (stage manager). Cast: Kurt Boehm, Evan Casey, Sherri L. Edelen, Dwayne Nitz, Richard Pelzman, Jenna Sokolowski, Bryant Sullivan, Jennifer Timberlake.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed September 22
Running time 1:25 - no intermission
Three interlocking monologues reveal a single story
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: A series of three monologues, each set in a different hotel room in a different part of the word. First we hear from a corporate mover and shaker. His company may specialize in the sale of baby formula to third world markets but his particular specialty is firing underlings who don't meet their quotas. Then his wife is heard conducting a training session for employee's spouses in preparation for overseas assignments. She reveals more about the dangers of separation and the pressures that have torn their marriage apart. Finally, the husband reveals his own corporate fate.

The play dates to 1990, a time when the "Bottle Baby Scandal" and the boycott of baby formula exporter Nestlé were fresh in the minds of many. Playwright Jon Robin Baitz uses the scandal as a hook on which to hang a series of observations on the ethics of the corporate world and the impact of modern pressures on marriages. While the play raises issues involving the baby formula issue, it in no way attempts a debate over the pros and cons involved. This is something of a problem. While theater can be an invigorating place for intellectual combat (just look at what The Disputation at Theater J does with the battle between issues surrounding Christianity and Judaism!), the controversy here is left as a simple assumption of corporate evil.

Murray is given the more satisfying material by the script, for he gets two monologues in which to demonstrate his character's descent from high success to a collapsing life, and he does so with carefully measured steps. Lechter has a bit less to work with in a single monologue, but she takes every advantage of the material she can, bringing both the charm of her character's public manner and the pain of her inner anguish to the fore at the appropriate time. Each is a thoroughly satisfying performance.

Anne Gibson's spare set design is as carefully thought through as are the two on-stage performances. Each hotel room is defined by its window to the world and by the view. Indeed, she has more detail in the structures visible outside the windows than in the contents of the hotel rooms. In an impressively subtle touch, each room is also defined by its ceiling fan. David Maddox's sound design includes some highly effective subtleties as well: sounds that appear to the ear to come from outside the on-stage hotel room. In the first monologue the repeated sound of sirens trigger restrained reaction from Murray while the sound of surf signals a change of feeling in Lechter's segment. 

Written by Jon Robin Baitz. Directed by Rick Davis. Design: Anne Gibson (set) Howard Vincent Kurtz (costumes) Martha Mountain (lights) David Maddox (sound) Todd Messegee (photography) Taryn J. Colbert (stage manager). Cast: Mary Lechter, Kevin Murray. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed January 12
Running time 1:35 - no intermission

Storyline: In 1951, African-American students in Farmville, Virginia, went on strike to protest inequitable, indeed appalling facilities at their sub-standard county funded public school. The leader of the strike, Barbara Johns, held out until the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and its attorney Oliver Hill promised to take legal action to pursue their claim. The case eventually reached the United States Supreme Court as one of five that were consolidated under the title Brown v. Board of Education. In its decision in that case, the Supreme Court overturned the long held rule from Plessy v. Ferguson that "separate but equal" facilities were all the constitution required from public services. The court ruled that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal," touching off the battle of desegregation that was at the heart of the civil rights movement of the ensuing decades.

McIntyre conducted the interviews on which she constructed this piece of history which she describes as a "choreodrama." She also directed and choreographed the presentation.  Her script almost exclusively uses the words of those interviews. She has a fine sense for stage pictures, moving the cast from position to position to create striking visuals. The use of six young African-Americans as an ensemble taking the roles of the students and others (such as the NAACP lawyer Oliver W. Hill, Sr. who was present in the audience for opening night) gives the piece a universality that is impressive.

The cast includes strikingly proud Joy Jones and a smooth Joseph W. Lane, Jr. They and the other four ensemble members work together well and each gets an opportunity to stand out in one or more specific roles. As dancers, they move well to the rhythms of the music of Olu Dara performed from the wings by Eric Johnson. McIntyre's choreography emphasizes the postures the ensemble strikes at the end of each movement and these postures create visuals that are more affecting than the movements themselves.

The piece is performed on a perhaps too tidy set suggesting a school room with black board surfaces and windows. The space seems a bit too clean, neat and substantial given that the student strike was focused on the inadequate tar-paper covered shacks being used as classroom space for the overcrowded high school. The costumes each have a nice touch -- the names of the principals in the story are used as accents to skirts, shirts and even suspenders.

A "choreodrama" by Dianne McIntyre with original music by Olu Dara. Directed and choreographed by the author. Design: Narelle Sissons (set) David Burdick (costumes) Suzanne Maloney (properties) Allen Lee Hughes (lights) Jens McVoy (sound) Valerie K. Wheeler (stage manager). Cast: Nyahale Allie, Steven A. Butler, Jr., Joy Jones, Joseph W. Lane, Jr., Wendell Jordan, Tryphena Wade.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed June 4
Running time 2 hours - 1 intermission
Click here to buy the CD

Storyline: A young girl continues the tradition of her father in coming to the rescue of her village in the Sonora Desert region of Mexico, from the greedy Don Ricardo, known as "The Scorpion." In her quest she battles real scorpions, desert pigs known as javalinas, and magical spirits, rescuing not only her village but her father who has been held captive for many years.

Jenna Sokolowski gets to take on the lead role after being in two of the earlier shows. She makes a delightfully feisty heroine, sings well and is the best swordfighter in the bunch - although that last point isn't saying much given the clunky fights that mark the production. Janine Gulisano and Steve Tipton are quite satisfying as her parents and Eduardo Placer handles the role of the boy who befriends her and assists in her quest with a nice touch of humor. The supernatural elements get a mixed set of performances -- Cesar A. Guadamuz plays Coyote the Trickster with too much of a vaudeville-ish persona, but Lynn Filusch givs the spirit La Llorona just the right dignity and power. Eric Lee Johnson's evil Don Ricardo is something less than convincing, either as a heavy or as a comic figure, although his final indignity is enjoyed by all the children.

Each of the cast members wear wireless microphones and their voices are amplified through the house speaker system but such amplification is a long way from an effective sound augmentation.  The voices all have to battle with the seven-piece band which is sonically in the same room with the audience, and between the audience and the cast, who are on the other side of the proscenium. They work hard to project their voices, but many of their words - spoken or sung - die in the space between their mouths and the audience's ears. Maddox's melodies fare much better than do the lyrics.

The show is presented in two acts and most of the visual delights come in the second. The introduction of scampering scorpions using a nifty combination of costumes and skateboards is only the beginning of the impressive effects after intermission. Tony Cisek's set, which seemed almost a static structure on which lighting designer Dan Covey got to paint gorgeous skies, grows bigger and better as the story progresses. As its hills become mountains, it forces much of the action down front, closer to the audience. If only they had a ramp to circumnavigate the orchestra pit, they might have established some of the wonderful intimacy that marked the earlier efforts in the TheaterSpace out back.

Music by David Maddox. Lyrics by Mary Hall Surface and David Maddox. Book by Mary Hall Surface. Directed by Mary Hall Surface. Musical direction by David Maddox. Choreographed by Dan Joyce. Fight choreography by Lorraine Ressegger.  Design: Tony Cisek (set) Marie Schneggenburger (puppets and masks) Helen Qizhi Huang (costumes) Dreama Greaves (properties) Dan Covey (lights) Philippe Nobile (photography) Taryn J. Colberg (stage manager). Cast: Lynn Filusch, Cesar A. Guadamuz, Janine Gulisano, Eric Lee Johnson, Dwayne Nitz, Eduardo Placer, Jenna Sokolowski, Steve Tipton.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed April 24
Running time 1 hour 45 minutes

Storyline: Taking the myth of Perseus and setting it in the bayou country of Louisiana, this very musical musical follows young Percy from birth to maturity. He and his mother are sent off into the bayou only to be rescued by a generous fisherman who raises Percy as his own. As a youth Percy overcomes his fear of snakes as he goes deep into the Bayou to confront the snake-headed Medusa, outsmarts the menacing panther, defeats attacking alligators, confronts the three crones who share one eye between them and finds his own true love. 

Surface and Maddox have given us Grimm Tales, based, of course, on the tales of the Brothers Grimm which was nominated for the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Resident Musical, Sign Down the Moon based on Appalachian “wonder tales” which won the Charles MacArthur award for best new play, and their new Mississippi Pinocchio which debuted earlier this year as well as this show, which in its first production was nominated for five Helen Hayes Awards and won Ms. Surface the outstanding director trophy. Each benefited from the intimacy of the smaller Theater Space when first performed.  This new mounting suffers a bit from the distance between the performers and the audience as well as the slightly inconsistent amplification.

Each of these has featured many of the same performers, a troupe who bring sharp characterization and a spirit of dramatic fun to their work. The star of each has been Dwayne Nitz who seems able to get the children to identify with his efforts without frightening them unduly when his character gets into danger. Four of the original cast return for this remounting of the show, Nitz, the distinctive Eric Lee Johnson as the fisherman who takes in Percy and his mother, the underutilized Sherri L. Edelen as Percy’s mother, and Steven Tipton in multiple roles.  Amy McWilliams and Jason Gilbert are nice additions to the troupe as is Jenna Solkolowski who makes a great tomboy/girlfriend for the hero.

Tony Cizek’s set is actually only a platform and some fabric hanging as drapes or stretched on frames, but its effect is dramatically atmospheric, creating an entire world for the action. The fabric is a wide open weave that catches Dan Covey’s marvelous lighting effects and the platform is a sinuous winding ramp that somehow combines the images of both Dorothy’s Yellow Brick Road to Oz and Huck Finn’s Big River in its own meandering bayou. Marie Schneggenburger is credited with “craft designs” so one assumes she gets credit for the giant alligator structure which is just whimsical enough to be menacing without being nightmare-inducing for younger children, while the original costumer Jelena Vukmirovic is credited with masks, meaning she gets the kudos for the crones who trade an eye back and forth to fill the gaping wholes in their faces. New choreography by Dan Joyce doesn’t match the spirited movement of the original but that may be attributable to having so much more floor space to use with no more dancers.

Written by Mary Hall Surface and David Maddox. Directed by Mary Hall Surface. Music Direction by David Maddox. Choreographed by Dan Joyce. Fight Choreography by Lorraine Ressegger. Design: Tony Cisek (set) Jelena Vukmirovic (original costumes and masks) Kathleen McGee (additional costumes) Marie Schneggenburger (craft designs) Susan Senita Bradshaw (properties) Dan Covey (lights) Stan Barouh (photography) Michael David Winter (stage manager). Cast: Sherri L. Edelen, Jason Gilbert, Eric Lee Johnson, Ian LeValley, Amy McWilliams,  Janice Menifee, Duane Nitz, Jenna Sokolowski, Steven Tipton.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed January 23
Running time 2 hours
t Potomac Stages Pick

"If you have a child between 6 and 12, take him or her to see the charming new musical Sing Down the Moon which just opened at the Center for the Arts at George Mason University in Fairfax. If you don’t have a child between 6 and 12, borrow one and take him or her to see the show. you both will have a delightful time.” That’s what I said when the show premiered three years ago. That’s what I say now when it has been remounted with most of the same cast and all the same charm for an unfortunately short four-performance run.

Storyline: Six Appalachian versions of traditional fairy tales are set to music with all the resonance of the region. There’s a Cinderella named “Catskins,” three little pigs – one of whom knows how to avoid being turned into pig tartar by the wolf – Jack whose beanstalk grows from a “wonder bean,” and many other regional “wonder tales.”

David Maddox and Mary Hall Surface have created no fewer than five theater works together – their dance piece The Nightingale was commissioned by the Kennedy Center while their musicals Grimm Tales, Perseus Bayou and Mississippi Pinocchio were all mounted here in Fairfax. They all share a fascination with what are frequently thought of as “children’s stories” but all tell them in terms that can enchant adults as well. What is more, they share a rejection of the mean spiritedness that can afflict such tales. Oh, Jack and the Beanstalk is still about a kid who steals from and then kills a giant, but the story is presented without any touch of realism that would make, for instance, the death of the giant seem an actual event. Musically, this one contains bright, jaunty material like the song that the fox sings to try to blow down the pig’s houses. Much of the score is support for the stories rather than pure song.

The original production garnered five nominations for Helen Hayes awards including direction of a musical (Surface) musical direction (Maddox), outstanding new play (Surface and Maddox) outstanding resident musical and outstanding lead actor in a musical (Dwayne Nitz). Nitz won the award and he recreates the role in this revival. He’s as good now as he was then, singing, playing both guitar and a washboard, cavorting all over Tony Cisek’s multi-platform set and making eye contact with the kids in the audience, drawing them into the magic of the performance.

Also back in their original roles are five members of the team including Sherri L. Edelen and Paul Takacs who were memorable the first time and are again. Edelin is particularly impressive as she takes the character “Catskins” through the Cinderella story and Takacs is wonderful as the wolf at the pig’s doors. Replacing the wonderful Dori Legg as the Giant’s wife is the equally wonderful Amy McWilliams.

Written by Mary Hall Surface and David Maddox. Music composed by David Maddox. Directed by Mary Hall Surface. Musical direction by David Maddox. Original choreography by Beth Davis. Additional choreography by Dan Joyce.  Design: Tony Cisek (set) Holly Highfill/Kate McGhee (costumes) Anne Kennedy/Marie Schneggengerger (crafts) Susan Senita Bradshaw (props) Dan Covey (lights). Band: Jon Carroll, David Maddox, Bruno Nasta, Ralph Gordon. Cast: Dwayne Nitz, Sherri L. Edelen, Paul Takacs, Steven Tipton, Amy McWilliams, Jennifer Gerdts, Eric Lee Johnson, Kathryn Kelley, Jenna Sokolowski.  

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed December 8
Running time 1 hour 15 minutes
Price - $25

Written and directed by Ping Chong. Cast: Farinaz Amirsehi (Iran, now Center for Multicultural Human Services), Yarvin Cuchilla (El Salvador, now Mountain View High School), Awa Nur (Somalia, now Herndon High School), Abdul Hakeem Paigir (Afghanistan, now Holmes Middle School), Dereen Pasha (Iraq, now Centerville High School), Fatu Sankoh (Sierra Leone, now Annandale High School).

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed March 23
Running time 1 hour 30 minutes
t Potomac Stages Pick

By Mary Hall Surface and David Maddox. Directed by Mary Hall Surface. Musical Direction by David Maddox. Design: James Kronzer (set) Jonathan Blandin (lights) Jelena Vukmirovic (costumes) Marie Schneggenberger (crafts and masks) Dan Joyce (choreography.) Cast: Dwayne Nitz, Dori Legg, Sherri L. Edelen, Michael L. Forrest, Jason Gilbert, Paul Takacs, Eric Lee Johnson, Mildred Langford, Barbara Pinolini.