Truman Capote's largely autobiographical A Christmas Memory (1956) has become a staple fare for the holidays, evoking a past & more gentle time and the simplicity of a heart willing to give for the pure joy of giving, asking nothing in return but friendship and love.
Its most recent version now on offer at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival is a musical adaptation (2010) by Duane Poole, with music by Larry Grossman and lyrics by Carol Hall. -- Although it adds characters to Capote's text, this version is otherwise true to the original's intentions, capitalizing on incorporating Capote's narrative that makes the simple profound and the ordinary poetic.
The heartwarming story of the close and loving relationship between a boy named Buddy Faulk [James Zitelli] and his elderly cousin Sook [Kay Walbye] is narrated and bookended by the adult Buddy [Jonathan Rayson], a successful author who questions his writing ability and purpose, and who returns in 1955 to sell his childhood home in Monroeville, Alabama, where he meets Anna Stabler [Terry Burrell] the long-time family housekeeper, triggering reminiscences of the 1930s events that shaped him and ending with the adult writing the story of his childhood.
In its two acts, sensitively directed by Karen Azenberg, Buddy's and Sook's 1930s adventures are interspersed with songs and 1950s commentary on them. -- A total of seven actors create an excellent ensemble of multi-dimensional, credible & familiar individuals, allowing the sentimental material to tap into the audience's awareness of the truths Capote has to tell about country life, love and loneliness with a kind of warm wisdom that only comes from the heart.
Unlike today's techno-savvy and techno-demanding children, Buddy is happy to tell stories, find a Christmas tree in the secret part of the woods, make home-made decorations out of paper & tinfoil, string popcorn & cranberries, and bake fruitcakes to deliver to neighbors and send to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- all in the company of his best friend and playmate, the guileless and ingenuous Sook [and their dog Queenie].
Buddy lives with Sook and two other middle-aged cousins -- Jennie [Carolyn Mignini] who runs the family business and is the realist of the group, and Seabon [Rodney Clark] a kindly but timid soul who has never acted on his dreams or desires. They are concerned that Sook is a hindrance to Buddy's maturity, and Jennie wants to send him to a military academy so he can grow up with traditional male influences. -- Thus, their idyllic life in flying home-made paper kites is threatened.
And there are outsiders too: tomboy Nell Harper [Lizzy Woodall at the opening performance], Buddy's "neighbor and worst enemy", constantly taunts the boy and "double-dog-dares" him to demonstrate courage; and Haha Jones [Rodney Clark in the second of three roles in all, the other one being Farley Wood, the nosy postman] is the beligerent supplier of whiskey needed for the fruitcakes, and whose gruff manner belies a hidden kindliness.
This gem of a play doesn't have big production numbers with a cast of thousands, nor does it have the glitz & glamor of fancy costumes and sets [all of which have their place in the likes of blockbuster musicals]; but it makes up for it by enthralling audiences in allowing them to connect with the hearts of its characters, and it entertains us with a rustic charm both visual and thematic.
Songs like the ragtime "Alabama Fruitcake" are irresistably engaging, and "Mighty Sweet Music" has the cast accompanying Tom Griffin's peppy pit orchestra on-stage playing spoons, lemonade glasses, washboards, and Jews-harp capture the essence of simple down-home energy. While Anna's "Detour" describes her past, and Seabon & Buddy connect touchingly with "Stars to Guide" them.
Whether it is possible to never grow up like Peter Pan, we might all prefer to remain young forever like Sook. And though time has a way of challenging us in many ways, and death is inevitable, we can all have an influence on one another. As Sook says: "Just because a person dies doesn't mean they're gone...just moved on to a better place."
Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
Wetumpka Depot: "An Evening With Mark Twain"
Brought in for just one short weekend, Kurt H. Sutton's impersonation of Samuel Clemens in An Evening With Mark Twain graced the Wetumpka Depot's stage with the wit and wisdon, and frequent spot-on criticisms of American culture, society, and politics.
Mark Twain is revered as America's greatest humorist, and was known later in his life for remarkable speaking engagements across the land where he entertained the crowds by reading excerpts from his books & stories, and reminiscing on his life.
So it is here: the setting is his "parlor" -- a carpet, a wing-back armchair, a lectern, a couple of instruments, and some other props -- from which he recites, sings songs, passes judgement on several sacred cows, and entertains us with his quick wit, sly grin, and frequent forays into folk and "spiritual" music.
Originally devised as Mark Twain Tonight by Hal Holbrook many decades ago, an entire cottage industry has emerged with actors portraying Twain. Mr. Sutton has been on the circuit for over six years, and clearly has a comfort in the role, a command of a wealth of material, selections of which vary from performance to performance, and a demeanor that gets an audience to respond as to a long-time friend [though it took a while for the audience to warm to him and respond appreciatively to an old-fashioned style of storytelling].
We have to listen carefully to sometimes get the joke -- a turn of phrase, a clever pun, or a sly off-hand remark delivered with a shrug of the shoulder or a double-take or a well-timed delayed comment.
If we listen carefully, there is no doubt why Mark Twain's works have continued to captivate readers in three centuries; not only are his subjects timeless or at least relevant today as when they were first penned, but Twain's prose descriptions of rivers & nature & human foibles are rendered to create vivid and lasting pictures.
And his humor always hits its target. For example, he once told someone that he came across "the ugliest woman I ever saw", but the next day when her sister was around, he "now withdraws the statement". Or that "I can cut out bad habits, but not moderate them", concluding that a person with no bad habits is a "moral pauper". Or calling Congress the "Grand old national asylum for the helpless", stating further that we have "the best Congress money can buy" -- sentiments which met with approving laughter from the audience. -- And his rambling story of "Grandfather and the Ram" told by the town drunk who falls asleep in a drunken stupor before finishing the tale, gets funnier with each section as the storyteller gets distracted by the details of the story.
In Act II, Sutton spends much of the time with selections from Huckleberry Finn, and plays all the roles, stating further that this book particularly has been banned by some group or another ever since its first printing, and wisely noting that "nothing sells as well as a banned book". -- Huck's moral dilemma is, of course, that he doesn't turn in the runaway slave, Jim, and thinks he will go to hell for it, but that he can't quite figure out why anyone could enslave another; the choice of going to "the good place" where he would be always in the presence of do-gooders & hypocrites is unbearable for Huck, so he prefers "the other place" for his eternity.
This Mark Twain gave us a lot to think about at a time when slogans and moralizing have little substance; we could well take notice from the master.
Mark Twain is revered as America's greatest humorist, and was known later in his life for remarkable speaking engagements across the land where he entertained the crowds by reading excerpts from his books & stories, and reminiscing on his life.
So it is here: the setting is his "parlor" -- a carpet, a wing-back armchair, a lectern, a couple of instruments, and some other props -- from which he recites, sings songs, passes judgement on several sacred cows, and entertains us with his quick wit, sly grin, and frequent forays into folk and "spiritual" music.
Originally devised as Mark Twain Tonight by Hal Holbrook many decades ago, an entire cottage industry has emerged with actors portraying Twain. Mr. Sutton has been on the circuit for over six years, and clearly has a comfort in the role, a command of a wealth of material, selections of which vary from performance to performance, and a demeanor that gets an audience to respond as to a long-time friend [though it took a while for the audience to warm to him and respond appreciatively to an old-fashioned style of storytelling].
We have to listen carefully to sometimes get the joke -- a turn of phrase, a clever pun, or a sly off-hand remark delivered with a shrug of the shoulder or a double-take or a well-timed delayed comment.
If we listen carefully, there is no doubt why Mark Twain's works have continued to captivate readers in three centuries; not only are his subjects timeless or at least relevant today as when they were first penned, but Twain's prose descriptions of rivers & nature & human foibles are rendered to create vivid and lasting pictures.
And his humor always hits its target. For example, he once told someone that he came across "the ugliest woman I ever saw", but the next day when her sister was around, he "now withdraws the statement". Or that "I can cut out bad habits, but not moderate them", concluding that a person with no bad habits is a "moral pauper". Or calling Congress the "Grand old national asylum for the helpless", stating further that we have "the best Congress money can buy" -- sentiments which met with approving laughter from the audience. -- And his rambling story of "Grandfather and the Ram" told by the town drunk who falls asleep in a drunken stupor before finishing the tale, gets funnier with each section as the storyteller gets distracted by the details of the story.
In Act II, Sutton spends much of the time with selections from Huckleberry Finn, and plays all the roles, stating further that this book particularly has been banned by some group or another ever since its first printing, and wisely noting that "nothing sells as well as a banned book". -- Huck's moral dilemma is, of course, that he doesn't turn in the runaway slave, Jim, and thinks he will go to hell for it, but that he can't quite figure out why anyone could enslave another; the choice of going to "the good place" where he would be always in the presence of do-gooders & hypocrites is unbearable for Huck, so he prefers "the other place" for his eternity.
This Mark Twain gave us a lot to think about at a time when slogans and moralizing have little substance; we could well take notice from the master.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Millbrook: "A Little Murder Never Hurt Anybody"
The Millbrook Community Players' 2011 season is coming to a close with Ron Bernas' comedy/murder mystery, A Little Murder Never Hurt Anybody. In its two hours, virtually every convention of the genre is parodied good-naturedly by a company who play it straight, with no attempts to signal or belabor the humorous intent.
Wealthy businessman Matthew Perry [John Chain] is seemingly very happy in his long marriage to Julia [Sharon Demuth], but longs for the "freedom" his friends appear to have -- to go on trips, play golf, etc. -- and on New Year's Eve, the couple reveal their New Year's Resolutions to each other: hers is to finish reading Doctor Zhivago, and his is to kill her before the year ends.
Since her death must look like an accident, and since this is a sophisticated couple who can exchange witticisms casually, she offers ideas for her demise, though they are all rejected for reasons apparent to anyone familiar with the murder-mystery genre, and she adds a resolution to urge him on his way that she will have a mad passionate affair with their butler Buttram [Michael Snead].
The couple's ditsy-blonde daughter Bunny [Katie Moore] shows up with her new boyfriend, up-and-coming lawyer Donald Baxter [Shelton Davis] and announces her engagement, so everything gets complicated for Matthew & Julia: a June date is too soon for Bunny, who has so many preparations to make, so Matthew suggests the next January 1.
Can their resolutions be changed? Matthew won't budge, so Julia resolves to stay alive. -- Let the games begin.
The play's several scenes take us through the year as numerous off-stage deaths occur, prompting the intervention of Detective Plotnik [Paul Foree], a gumshoe who thinks he is clever, but is easily distracted by "evidence" he finds. All the deaths seem to have happened after Donald arrived on the scene, so he is a suspect; the "butler did it" when Plotnik overhears a phone conversation; and so on -- circumstantial evidence at best. -- And the parties the Perry's throw throughout the year have fewer and fewer guests, as the invitees fear for their lives while the body count increases in ever-increasingly odd circumstances.
It is a credit to this ensemble that they play their roles honestly, with no hint of self-indulgence. So the humor comes through. In one hilarious scene at the couple's Halloween party, everyone is in costume appropriate to their character: Prince Valiant [Donald] & his lady in waiting [Bunny], Charlie Chan [Plotnik], Big-Bad Wolf [Matthew] and Little Red Riding Hood [Julia], and a Bunny [Buttram] with ears and cottton tail spoofing Playboy bunnies.
Of course, not everything is as it seems, and all will turn out for the best by the end. Without giving away essential plot reversals and revelations, let it suffice that there are a few appealing surprises here.
Highlight performances come from Mr. Chain and Ms. Demuth whose stage comfort and experience come to the fore; Ms. Moore portrays a dumb-blonde with credible naivete; and Mr. Baxter [in his acting debut with only a couple of weeks in rehearsal] shows a lot of promise.
Director Fred Neighbors has a quietly pleasant hit on his hands.
Wealthy businessman Matthew Perry [John Chain] is seemingly very happy in his long marriage to Julia [Sharon Demuth], but longs for the "freedom" his friends appear to have -- to go on trips, play golf, etc. -- and on New Year's Eve, the couple reveal their New Year's Resolutions to each other: hers is to finish reading Doctor Zhivago, and his is to kill her before the year ends.
Since her death must look like an accident, and since this is a sophisticated couple who can exchange witticisms casually, she offers ideas for her demise, though they are all rejected for reasons apparent to anyone familiar with the murder-mystery genre, and she adds a resolution to urge him on his way that she will have a mad passionate affair with their butler Buttram [Michael Snead].
The couple's ditsy-blonde daughter Bunny [Katie Moore] shows up with her new boyfriend, up-and-coming lawyer Donald Baxter [Shelton Davis] and announces her engagement, so everything gets complicated for Matthew & Julia: a June date is too soon for Bunny, who has so many preparations to make, so Matthew suggests the next January 1.
Can their resolutions be changed? Matthew won't budge, so Julia resolves to stay alive. -- Let the games begin.
The play's several scenes take us through the year as numerous off-stage deaths occur, prompting the intervention of Detective Plotnik [Paul Foree], a gumshoe who thinks he is clever, but is easily distracted by "evidence" he finds. All the deaths seem to have happened after Donald arrived on the scene, so he is a suspect; the "butler did it" when Plotnik overhears a phone conversation; and so on -- circumstantial evidence at best. -- And the parties the Perry's throw throughout the year have fewer and fewer guests, as the invitees fear for their lives while the body count increases in ever-increasingly odd circumstances.
It is a credit to this ensemble that they play their roles honestly, with no hint of self-indulgence. So the humor comes through. In one hilarious scene at the couple's Halloween party, everyone is in costume appropriate to their character: Prince Valiant [Donald] & his lady in waiting [Bunny], Charlie Chan [Plotnik], Big-Bad Wolf [Matthew] and Little Red Riding Hood [Julia], and a Bunny [Buttram] with ears and cottton tail spoofing Playboy bunnies.
Of course, not everything is as it seems, and all will turn out for the best by the end. Without giving away essential plot reversals and revelations, let it suffice that there are a few appealing surprises here.
Highlight performances come from Mr. Chain and Ms. Demuth whose stage comfort and experience come to the fore; Ms. Moore portrays a dumb-blonde with credible naivete; and Mr. Baxter [in his acting debut with only a couple of weeks in rehearsal] shows a lot of promise.
Director Fred Neighbors has a quietly pleasant hit on his hands.
Friday, November 4, 2011
AUM: "Servant of Two Masters"
Italian comic playwright Carlo Goldoni's Servant of Two Masters has been on stage almost continually since 1743, making the rounds of professional and educational theatres and finally landing again at Theatre AUM where, under Neil David Seibel's direction, it affords veteran and neophyte actors opportunities and challenges to build on.
Based on the improvizational commedia dell'arte traditions of the 16th Century, the play's stock characters and exaggerated comic style provide this ensemble company a wealth of occasions to hone their craft.
The scenario gets a bit confusing, and requires significant "suspension of disbelief" from the audience, but in a nutshell: Beatrice [Tina Neese] disguises herself as her deceased twin brother Federico in order to get back from Pantalone [Mark Dasinger, Jr.] a dowry so she can find and marry Florindo [Wes Milton]; only Brighella [Shane Tyus] knows Beatrice's true identity; Pantalone's daughter Clarice [Brittany Carden] loves Silvio [Geoffrey Morris], the son of the pompous Dr. Lombardi [Nicholas Warman], but has been promised im marriage to Federico; Beatrice entrusts money & goods to her sly servant Truffaldino [La'Brandon Tyre] who, in attempting to get even more for himself, agrees to also be Florindo's servant.
As the script requires that the two masters can not be on stage simultaneously until the end, our focus is on Truffaldino's ability to extricate himself from potential problems while pleasing both masters equally. With an assortment of keys, letters, and property given to him by various characters with the admonition of only "for your master", the illiterate servant can not tell which "master" is meant, and has to extricate himself from numerous difficulties which after much confusion bring all the lovers together, forgiveness for Truffaldino, and his own marriage to the crafty servant Smeraldina [Laura Bramblette].
In true commedia form, the characters are broadly drawn: crafty servants, romantic lovers, foolish fathers, pompous doctors -- all have certain conventional manners of walking and talking, and costumes [gorgeously rendered by Val Winkelman with an eye to commedia conventions & stylish characterizations] recognizable instantly in the theatre. The AUM company paint them in bold strokes that suggest their characters; some are more successful than others, but given that several actors here have little stage experience, their efforts succeed only to a degree. [In commedia, actors took years to perfect the expressions, postures, and lazzi (stage business) of a single character type, and spent whole careers playing just that one role.] What these young actors have accomplished in a few weeks is a good start...and most of the cast have achieved a fine sense of comic timing.
Although much of the enjoyment comes from the physical behavior on stage -- and the ensemble commits to its demands very well -- the complexities of the plot & character relationships are found in the brilliantly witty dialogue. Regretably, a lot of the words are muddled in their articulation, especially when delivered as rapidly & passionately as the style demands.
Cliff Merrit's forced perspective "street-scene" backdrop and a lot of open space provide plenty of room for the physical action; and the music choices that begin with the pre-show music and punctuate the goings-on throughout cleverly comment on the Italian setting as well as the particular events -- everything from Rosemary Clooney singing "Mambo Italiano" to the theme from "The Godfather" and Dean Martin's "That's Amore". -- And Mr. Seibel also adds a sweet [but too short] sequence where the lovers eat a plate of spaghetti right out of "Lady and the Tramp".
Theatre AUM is again presenting a challenging production that theatre students [and local audiences] experience only rarely...and this new crop of student actors is one to watch.
Based on the improvizational commedia dell'arte traditions of the 16th Century, the play's stock characters and exaggerated comic style provide this ensemble company a wealth of occasions to hone their craft.
The scenario gets a bit confusing, and requires significant "suspension of disbelief" from the audience, but in a nutshell: Beatrice [Tina Neese] disguises herself as her deceased twin brother Federico in order to get back from Pantalone [Mark Dasinger, Jr.] a dowry so she can find and marry Florindo [Wes Milton]; only Brighella [Shane Tyus] knows Beatrice's true identity; Pantalone's daughter Clarice [Brittany Carden] loves Silvio [Geoffrey Morris], the son of the pompous Dr. Lombardi [Nicholas Warman], but has been promised im marriage to Federico; Beatrice entrusts money & goods to her sly servant Truffaldino [La'Brandon Tyre] who, in attempting to get even more for himself, agrees to also be Florindo's servant.
As the script requires that the two masters can not be on stage simultaneously until the end, our focus is on Truffaldino's ability to extricate himself from potential problems while pleasing both masters equally. With an assortment of keys, letters, and property given to him by various characters with the admonition of only "for your master", the illiterate servant can not tell which "master" is meant, and has to extricate himself from numerous difficulties which after much confusion bring all the lovers together, forgiveness for Truffaldino, and his own marriage to the crafty servant Smeraldina [Laura Bramblette].
In true commedia form, the characters are broadly drawn: crafty servants, romantic lovers, foolish fathers, pompous doctors -- all have certain conventional manners of walking and talking, and costumes [gorgeously rendered by Val Winkelman with an eye to commedia conventions & stylish characterizations] recognizable instantly in the theatre. The AUM company paint them in bold strokes that suggest their characters; some are more successful than others, but given that several actors here have little stage experience, their efforts succeed only to a degree. [In commedia, actors took years to perfect the expressions, postures, and lazzi (stage business) of a single character type, and spent whole careers playing just that one role.] What these young actors have accomplished in a few weeks is a good start...and most of the cast have achieved a fine sense of comic timing.
Although much of the enjoyment comes from the physical behavior on stage -- and the ensemble commits to its demands very well -- the complexities of the plot & character relationships are found in the brilliantly witty dialogue. Regretably, a lot of the words are muddled in their articulation, especially when delivered as rapidly & passionately as the style demands.
Cliff Merrit's forced perspective "street-scene" backdrop and a lot of open space provide plenty of room for the physical action; and the music choices that begin with the pre-show music and punctuate the goings-on throughout cleverly comment on the Italian setting as well as the particular events -- everything from Rosemary Clooney singing "Mambo Italiano" to the theme from "The Godfather" and Dean Martin's "That's Amore". -- And Mr. Seibel also adds a sweet [but too short] sequence where the lovers eat a plate of spaghetti right out of "Lady and the Tramp".
Theatre AUM is again presenting a challenging production that theatre students [and local audiences] experience only rarely...and this new crop of student actors is one to watch.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
ASF: "Dracula"
Vampire-mania is clearly with us [see Twilight, True Blood, et al.], so what better way to prepare for the upcoming Halloween season than with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's suitably dressed-out version of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula as adapted by William McNulty.
Played straightforwardly [along with some appropriately melodramatic comic renderings of dialogue] by a talented ensemble of veteran ASF actors and newcomers to the Montgomery stage on Peter Hicks's gloriously Gothic & period sets, director Geoffrey Sherman allows his actors to find nuances of character to suit McNulty's well-crafted and literate script. -- Yes, there are the familiar lines that draw audience responses [for example: "I never drink (pause)...wine" says Dracula; and, of course on hearing a wolf's howl: "Listen to them, the children of the night; what sweet music they make!"]; but these and others are spoken with conviction of character that fit the script without further comment.
Brett Rominger's eerily lush musical score, claps of thunder, and plenty of smoke introduce us to a Nosferatu monster [Craig Hanson] -- with long fingers & sharp mails, a hunch-back, and bulging bald head -- as he takes his first victim in a graveyard, a child [Ella Grace Johns]. A fluid scene change to Dr. Seward's large Victorian-Gothic consulting room: Abram Van Helsing [Paul Hebron] is ushered in by Irish housekeeper Margaret Sullivan [Jennifer Barnhart]; when she leaves him, Renfield [Greg Jackson] enters pretending to be a doctor/consultant, though he is one of the inmates in Seward's hospital.
It is clear from the outset that all is not well: Renfield's strangely erratic behavior and his regular attempts to escape, his eating of live animals beginning with flies, then rats, then..., and his references to "forces beyond his control" are a study in madness and he has to be kept under control by asylum attendant Briggs [Brik Berkes]; Seward [Keith Merrill] is "paralyzed with grief" over the mysterious death of Mina [Sandra Struthers Clerc] and the failing health of Lucy Westphal [Mairin Lee], caused, it seems, by certain wounds on her neck, and has summoned his mentor Van Helsing to solve the matter.
The mention of a new neighbor, Count Dracula [Juri Henley-Cohn], impacts Van Helsing immediately, and when Dracula insinuates himself into the house and seduces several of the people there, Van Helsing's diagnosis is that Lucy does not have a disease, but is in thrall of the un-dead...Nosferatu...the vampire. Soon, Dracula also controls the housekeeper.
When Lucy's fiance Jonathan Harker [John P. Keller] returns after having made his escape from Dracula's castle in Transylvania, the hunt is soon on to find and destroy the monster Dracula.
The story is so familiar, that there is no doubt about the ending; the delight is in the journey to it; and there are a few surprises. -- Yes, there will be blood [not too much]; yes, there will be special effects, some of which are startling, and all of which are accomplished so that audiences wonder "How did they do that?"
Mr. Berkes returns to ASF after successes last season to a strong showing here, and Mr. Hebron -- too long away from the ASF stage -- is exceptional as Van Helsing. Ms. Clerc and Ms. Lee alternate the roles of Mina and Lucy, providing each the opportunity of showing both the prim & proper vs. the possessed character. Ms. Barnhart's role affords no-nonsense practicality and devious passion. Mr. Keller's Harker is at once tortured and sympathetic. And Mr. Merrill's depth of feeling is impressive. -- In a role so well written as to almost steal the show, Mr. Jackson's Renfield is lively, intelligent, and no doubt a madman, but one who achieves audience sympathy...and very funny at times.
As we watch Dracula weave his influence and make others writhe in pain as they try to escape his physical control, Mr. Henley-Cohn's powerful presence bewitches us as much as it does the characters on-stage -- we can't help but be caught in his spell, by the irresistability of the forbidden.
Finally, his lair discovered and his end ensured with holy water, a crucifix, and a stake through the heart, with elaborate special effects Dracula's spell over the several initiated vampires appears to be over...but is it?
Played straightforwardly [along with some appropriately melodramatic comic renderings of dialogue] by a talented ensemble of veteran ASF actors and newcomers to the Montgomery stage on Peter Hicks's gloriously Gothic & period sets, director Geoffrey Sherman allows his actors to find nuances of character to suit McNulty's well-crafted and literate script. -- Yes, there are the familiar lines that draw audience responses [for example: "I never drink (pause)...wine" says Dracula; and, of course on hearing a wolf's howl: "Listen to them, the children of the night; what sweet music they make!"]; but these and others are spoken with conviction of character that fit the script without further comment.
Brett Rominger's eerily lush musical score, claps of thunder, and plenty of smoke introduce us to a Nosferatu monster [Craig Hanson] -- with long fingers & sharp mails, a hunch-back, and bulging bald head -- as he takes his first victim in a graveyard, a child [Ella Grace Johns]. A fluid scene change to Dr. Seward's large Victorian-Gothic consulting room: Abram Van Helsing [Paul Hebron] is ushered in by Irish housekeeper Margaret Sullivan [Jennifer Barnhart]; when she leaves him, Renfield [Greg Jackson] enters pretending to be a doctor/consultant, though he is one of the inmates in Seward's hospital.
It is clear from the outset that all is not well: Renfield's strangely erratic behavior and his regular attempts to escape, his eating of live animals beginning with flies, then rats, then..., and his references to "forces beyond his control" are a study in madness and he has to be kept under control by asylum attendant Briggs [Brik Berkes]; Seward [Keith Merrill] is "paralyzed with grief" over the mysterious death of Mina [Sandra Struthers Clerc] and the failing health of Lucy Westphal [Mairin Lee], caused, it seems, by certain wounds on her neck, and has summoned his mentor Van Helsing to solve the matter.
The mention of a new neighbor, Count Dracula [Juri Henley-Cohn], impacts Van Helsing immediately, and when Dracula insinuates himself into the house and seduces several of the people there, Van Helsing's diagnosis is that Lucy does not have a disease, but is in thrall of the un-dead...Nosferatu...the vampire. Soon, Dracula also controls the housekeeper.
When Lucy's fiance Jonathan Harker [John P. Keller] returns after having made his escape from Dracula's castle in Transylvania, the hunt is soon on to find and destroy the monster Dracula.
The story is so familiar, that there is no doubt about the ending; the delight is in the journey to it; and there are a few surprises. -- Yes, there will be blood [not too much]; yes, there will be special effects, some of which are startling, and all of which are accomplished so that audiences wonder "How did they do that?"
Mr. Berkes returns to ASF after successes last season to a strong showing here, and Mr. Hebron -- too long away from the ASF stage -- is exceptional as Van Helsing. Ms. Clerc and Ms. Lee alternate the roles of Mina and Lucy, providing each the opportunity of showing both the prim & proper vs. the possessed character. Ms. Barnhart's role affords no-nonsense practicality and devious passion. Mr. Keller's Harker is at once tortured and sympathetic. And Mr. Merrill's depth of feeling is impressive. -- In a role so well written as to almost steal the show, Mr. Jackson's Renfield is lively, intelligent, and no doubt a madman, but one who achieves audience sympathy...and very funny at times.
As we watch Dracula weave his influence and make others writhe in pain as they try to escape his physical control, Mr. Henley-Cohn's powerful presence bewitches us as much as it does the characters on-stage -- we can't help but be caught in his spell, by the irresistability of the forbidden.
Finally, his lair discovered and his end ensured with holy water, a crucifix, and a stake through the heart, with elaborate special effects Dracula's spell over the several initiated vampires appears to be over...but is it?
Faulkner: "The Phantom of the Opera"
Montgomery's newest theatre is presenting the first local area production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's blockbuster musical, The Phantom of the Opera, on the theatre's Grand Opening.
Faulkner University is showcasing its beautiful new state-of-the-art theatre space -- located across the Atlanta Highway from the main campus -- to sold out enthusiastic audiences, about 100 of whom have dinner before the show, and another 80+ are seated in comfortable auditorium seats.
Ever since it opened in London in 1986, Phantom has had a continuous run there, and generated award winning productions in most of the world's major cities as well as countless touring productions.
Vocally demanding of virtually all its principal characters, the story revolves around a physically disfigured Svengali-like musical genius -- the Phantom [Terry Brown] -- who terrorizes an opera company, claiming the opera house belongs to him and demanding that his protege Christine Daae [Alyssa Boyd] must displace the current prima donna Carlotta Giudicelli [Christina Burroughs], and that the leading tenor Ubaldo Piangi [Tony Davison] will also be relegated to minor roles.
Complicating matters is the presence of Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny [Matt Roberson], in love with Christine and her sworn protector from the machinations of the Phantom.
Co-directors Jason Clark South and Angela Dickson, along with a fine pit orchestra conducted by Andrew Cook, have gathered a company of some 42 Faulkner students & faculty and area actors/singers into their 2-hour and 45-minute extravaganza, complimented by lavish period costumes & wigs, and numerous moveable set pieces, some of which are so large and clunky that they overwhelm the playing space and create cumbersome scene changes & crowded staging.
There are some outstanding singers in this company; tops among them is Ms. Burroughs, whose powerfully clear and precise soprano was showcased in several songs, never once faltering in quality and passionate dramatic intensity. She is matched by Mr. Davison's tenor that is rich in their duets, a voice impressive also in Smokey Joe's Cafe earlier this season.
Ms. Boyd -- appropriately for her role as Christine -- has a lighter and sweeter soprano voice that she uses for best effect in quieter reflective moments: "All I Ask of You" and "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again". Mr. Roberson's strong baritone compliments Ms. Boyd, but got lost in its lower registers [as did several voices] due in part to the orchestra's volume...some sound balance checks need to be accomodated as Faulkner investigates its new equipment.
Mr. Brown's Phantom sounded shaky for much of the performance; though he reached for and met most of the score's high notes, it was apparent that he struggled for much of the time.
While the voices carry a lot of this production, relationship developments are essential to audience engagement, and here very little chemistry between major characters was evident except between Carlotta and Ubaldo, and in secondary characters. -- One never felt the necessary conflicted attraction between Christine and the Phantom until almost the end of the play; and the romantic attachment between Christine and Raoul was so tentative that actions belied words. -- Perhaps these relationships will develop during the run of the show.
On the other hand, Braxton McDonald and Chase McMichen as M. Firmin and M. Andre, along with Bill Nowell as M. LeFevre, created an excellent comic trio who fed off one another's every gesture and nuanced dialogue. -- And Angela Dickson as Mme. Giry turns in a solid truthful performance; as she provides answers to the mysterious Phantom's background [placed awkwardly in Act II for some reason], it is good to know Ms. Dickson can deliver the goods.
The Faulkner company should soon get used to its new performance space and figure out the best uses of equipment. Several areas of the stage, for example, were either left in darkness or such deep shadow as to render actors almost invisible at important moments of the action. -- Since productions like The Phantom of the Opera require more sophisticated lighting than Faulkner's all-too-few lighting instruments allow, this company and the excellent new space would benefit from a substantial investment in lights.
Faulkner University is showcasing its beautiful new state-of-the-art theatre space -- located across the Atlanta Highway from the main campus -- to sold out enthusiastic audiences, about 100 of whom have dinner before the show, and another 80+ are seated in comfortable auditorium seats.
Ever since it opened in London in 1986, Phantom has had a continuous run there, and generated award winning productions in most of the world's major cities as well as countless touring productions.
Vocally demanding of virtually all its principal characters, the story revolves around a physically disfigured Svengali-like musical genius -- the Phantom [Terry Brown] -- who terrorizes an opera company, claiming the opera house belongs to him and demanding that his protege Christine Daae [Alyssa Boyd] must displace the current prima donna Carlotta Giudicelli [Christina Burroughs], and that the leading tenor Ubaldo Piangi [Tony Davison] will also be relegated to minor roles.
Complicating matters is the presence of Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny [Matt Roberson], in love with Christine and her sworn protector from the machinations of the Phantom.
Co-directors Jason Clark South and Angela Dickson, along with a fine pit orchestra conducted by Andrew Cook, have gathered a company of some 42 Faulkner students & faculty and area actors/singers into their 2-hour and 45-minute extravaganza, complimented by lavish period costumes & wigs, and numerous moveable set pieces, some of which are so large and clunky that they overwhelm the playing space and create cumbersome scene changes & crowded staging.
There are some outstanding singers in this company; tops among them is Ms. Burroughs, whose powerfully clear and precise soprano was showcased in several songs, never once faltering in quality and passionate dramatic intensity. She is matched by Mr. Davison's tenor that is rich in their duets, a voice impressive also in Smokey Joe's Cafe earlier this season.
Ms. Boyd -- appropriately for her role as Christine -- has a lighter and sweeter soprano voice that she uses for best effect in quieter reflective moments: "All I Ask of You" and "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again". Mr. Roberson's strong baritone compliments Ms. Boyd, but got lost in its lower registers [as did several voices] due in part to the orchestra's volume...some sound balance checks need to be accomodated as Faulkner investigates its new equipment.
Mr. Brown's Phantom sounded shaky for much of the performance; though he reached for and met most of the score's high notes, it was apparent that he struggled for much of the time.
While the voices carry a lot of this production, relationship developments are essential to audience engagement, and here very little chemistry between major characters was evident except between Carlotta and Ubaldo, and in secondary characters. -- One never felt the necessary conflicted attraction between Christine and the Phantom until almost the end of the play; and the romantic attachment between Christine and Raoul was so tentative that actions belied words. -- Perhaps these relationships will develop during the run of the show.
On the other hand, Braxton McDonald and Chase McMichen as M. Firmin and M. Andre, along with Bill Nowell as M. LeFevre, created an excellent comic trio who fed off one another's every gesture and nuanced dialogue. -- And Angela Dickson as Mme. Giry turns in a solid truthful performance; as she provides answers to the mysterious Phantom's background [placed awkwardly in Act II for some reason], it is good to know Ms. Dickson can deliver the goods.
The Faulkner company should soon get used to its new performance space and figure out the best uses of equipment. Several areas of the stage, for example, were either left in darkness or such deep shadow as to render actors almost invisible at important moments of the action. -- Since productions like The Phantom of the Opera require more sophisticated lighting than Faulkner's all-too-few lighting instruments allow, this company and the excellent new space would benefit from a substantial investment in lights.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Wetumpka Depot: "Duck Hunter Shoots Angel"
Actress and first-time director Kim Mason has chosen a challenging debut production in Mitch Albom's curious Duck Hunter Shoots Angel now on-stage at the Wetumpka Depot. The author of Tuesdays With Morrie creates a strange, reflective, comedic, and occasional social commentary that seems at times to not know where to place its emphasis or what exactly it wants to be as it jumps from one to the other in mid-scene.
Is it a story about redemption, race relations, tabloid journalism, North vs. South -- or perhaps all of these? Filled with so many stereotypical characters [a crazed tabloid editor, two "redneck" simpleton duck hunters, a depressed reporter with his reluctant photographer, a naively innocent woman, a smarter than average teenage shopkeeper, a half-alligator/half-man (tabloid journalism's idea of a fine story)], Albom's script does manage a number of clever comic lines and biting and uncomfortably critical comments on today's culture, but remains a cipher even at the end.
That being the case, Ms. Mason demonstrates a clear understanding of the bizarre as she guides her ensemble to handle their characters truthfully, no matter how strange or disconnected the script seems to be.
Urged on by his obsessive boss Lester [M. Gabriel Santos], Sandy [Dave Haenlein], the depressed white journalist, spends much of the play in conversation with a "Voice" [Layne Holley] who interrogates him about his assignment to cover a story in Alabama that suggests that two local duck hunters had shot an angel -- a prime topic for The Weekly World and Globe, a paper he claims to be "ten notches below the National Enquirer". His black sidekick photographer Lenny [Steve Mitchell] is a sardonic realist ever ready with a sly comment that Mr. Mitchell delivers with casual assurance.
The inept hunters are brothers Duwell Early [William Harper] and Duane Early [Alan Patrick], two bumbling clowns whose antics are among the most comically diverting of the evening as these actors comprise a fine double-act as they try to first understand that they killed an angel and are facing "hellfire & damnation" and second as they attempt to hide the truth and/or bilk more money for their story.
In several conversations with the "Voice", Sandy experiences flashbacks to a relationship with a young unnamed Woman [Sonjha Cannon] he had a brief affair with years ago in Alabama, and the memory of leaving her without explanation serves to be the link to Sandy's depression. It turns out -- not surprisingly -- that she had his child unbeknownst to him, who now is the local shopkeeper named Kansas [Madeline Caver], a clever sort who seems out of place in this Alabama backwater swamp.
In a smart bit of writing, Albom frequently uses the last bit of dialogue from one scene as the first speech in the following scene, no matter whether they are connected in time, thus making some interesting segues both of words and themes.
Though there does seem to be some sentimentalized redemption for Sandy by the end, a "tabloid ending" involving Duwell's becoming an angel seems a bit too convenient.
Is it a story about redemption, race relations, tabloid journalism, North vs. South -- or perhaps all of these? Filled with so many stereotypical characters [a crazed tabloid editor, two "redneck" simpleton duck hunters, a depressed reporter with his reluctant photographer, a naively innocent woman, a smarter than average teenage shopkeeper, a half-alligator/half-man (tabloid journalism's idea of a fine story)], Albom's script does manage a number of clever comic lines and biting and uncomfortably critical comments on today's culture, but remains a cipher even at the end.
That being the case, Ms. Mason demonstrates a clear understanding of the bizarre as she guides her ensemble to handle their characters truthfully, no matter how strange or disconnected the script seems to be.
Urged on by his obsessive boss Lester [M. Gabriel Santos], Sandy [Dave Haenlein], the depressed white journalist, spends much of the play in conversation with a "Voice" [Layne Holley] who interrogates him about his assignment to cover a story in Alabama that suggests that two local duck hunters had shot an angel -- a prime topic for The Weekly World and Globe, a paper he claims to be "ten notches below the National Enquirer". His black sidekick photographer Lenny [Steve Mitchell] is a sardonic realist ever ready with a sly comment that Mr. Mitchell delivers with casual assurance.
The inept hunters are brothers Duwell Early [William Harper] and Duane Early [Alan Patrick], two bumbling clowns whose antics are among the most comically diverting of the evening as these actors comprise a fine double-act as they try to first understand that they killed an angel and are facing "hellfire & damnation" and second as they attempt to hide the truth and/or bilk more money for their story.
In several conversations with the "Voice", Sandy experiences flashbacks to a relationship with a young unnamed Woman [Sonjha Cannon] he had a brief affair with years ago in Alabama, and the memory of leaving her without explanation serves to be the link to Sandy's depression. It turns out -- not surprisingly -- that she had his child unbeknownst to him, who now is the local shopkeeper named Kansas [Madeline Caver], a clever sort who seems out of place in this Alabama backwater swamp.
In a smart bit of writing, Albom frequently uses the last bit of dialogue from one scene as the first speech in the following scene, no matter whether they are connected in time, thus making some interesting segues both of words and themes.
Though there does seem to be some sentimentalized redemption for Sandy by the end, a "tabloid ending" involving Duwell's becoming an angel seems a bit too convenient.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)