A tradition at Theatre AUM is its annual showcase of theatre students' talents in the form of selected monologues and scenes. -- This year's theme is Female Voices featuring 21 student actors in almost 40 selections that highlight the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, as well as the Christine Blasey Ford/Brett Kavanaugh hearings, and show that the concerns of women [and men] today have been unresolved for centuries.
Performed on an open stage with minimal furniture and props, each of the pieces is announced by the actors, all of whom are dressed mostly in black that varies from concert attire to cocktail party outfits and more casual dress to achieve neutrality or social commentary to punctuate the pieces' intentions and words.
Female playwrights range from 17th Century Englishwoman Aphra Behn to contemporaries that include among others Sarah Ruhl, Caryl Churchill, Lorraine Hansberry, Pearl Cleage, Wendy Wasserstein, and Paula Vogel, all of whom confront issues that need attention. -- The mistreatment of women based on gender, social position, race, and sexuality are brought to the fore with selections that address such topics as violence, guns in schools, the Holocaust, abortion, locker room talk, fear, and the consequences of past actions -- the still unresolved issues that are covered everyday in both mainstream and social media.
Whether in a serious or humorous mode, the performances in this 1 hour 40 minute program focus on the historical perception of women as submissive to men's demands, and to women's resistance to being ignored, underrated, and abused.
Often delivered as in-yer-face address to the audience, we are made to reflect on their rage, accept our own discomfort in their condition, and resolve to make things better.
The varied strengths of the AUM actors are given attention, and audience members might remember or connect with any one piece. -- The thing that ties it all together by the end is an affirmation of the value of women in a society that still relegates them too often to second-class status, and the hope that in future there will be greater equity.
Sunday, September 30, 2018
Monday, September 24, 2018
ASF: "Sometimes...Patsy Cline"
Sometimes...Patsy Cline had an all-too-short three-performance run last weekend at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Showcasing the impressive vocal talents of Jacqueline Petroccia [seen previously at ASF in Because of Winn Dixie, A Christmas Carol, and Always...Patsy Cline], this intermissionless songfest entertained its appreciative audiences.
Ms. Petroccia traced her journey from New Jersey girl to Country Western star, abetted by a few photo projections and bits of narrative linking songs to her story.
Some 24 cover-songs by Patsy Cline and others who influenced her [Bette Midler, Rosemary Clooney, Karen Carpenter, Hank Williams, among them] highlighted both her vocal range from alto to operatic soprano, as well as her command of Country Western, Blues, Broadway, Gospel, and novelty numbers that accented her refusal to be pigeonholed into one style.
Ms. Petroccia's versions of songs from Broadway's Gypsy, Clooney's "Mambo Italiano", excursions into operatic heights, as well as renditions of Cline's "Crazy", "I Fall to Pieces", and "Sweet Dreams of You" highlighted the entertainment.
Backed by a fabulous five-member on-stage band led by her husband, Ms. Petroccia instantly connected with her audience and kept them engaged for the entire 75-minute program.
Her powerful and expressive voice didn't need the excessive amplification provided her, but her vocal precision, clear diction, and sensitive interpretation of lyrics made for a delightful afternoon in her presence.
Ms. Petroccia traced her journey from New Jersey girl to Country Western star, abetted by a few photo projections and bits of narrative linking songs to her story.
Some 24 cover-songs by Patsy Cline and others who influenced her [Bette Midler, Rosemary Clooney, Karen Carpenter, Hank Williams, among them] highlighted both her vocal range from alto to operatic soprano, as well as her command of Country Western, Blues, Broadway, Gospel, and novelty numbers that accented her refusal to be pigeonholed into one style.
Ms. Petroccia's versions of songs from Broadway's Gypsy, Clooney's "Mambo Italiano", excursions into operatic heights, as well as renditions of Cline's "Crazy", "I Fall to Pieces", and "Sweet Dreams of You" highlighted the entertainment.
Backed by a fabulous five-member on-stage band led by her husband, Ms. Petroccia instantly connected with her audience and kept them engaged for the entire 75-minute program.
Her powerful and expressive voice didn't need the excessive amplification provided her, but her vocal precision, clear diction, and sensitive interpretation of lyrics made for a delightful afternoon in her presence.
Sunday, September 23, 2018
Wetumpka Depot: "Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean"
When the 'Disciples of James Dean' meet in a small Texas emporium in 1975 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their film idol's tragic death, their reunion takes several unexpected turns. -- They reminisce about their teenage years, often romanticizing the past as people are wont to do, and along the way are confronted by truths they would prefer to be kept secret.
Ed Graczyk's 1976 play Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean opened on Thursday for a three-week run at the Wetumpka Depot. There are roles for both the "then" and "now" of some of the characters, with a number of scenes when they are on stage at the same time; not as confusing as it may seem. Director Tom Salter emphasizes its "you can't go home again" theme in a series of scenes set in 1955 and 1975, seamlessly suggesting the time changes with lighting shifts; Costume designer Carol Heier dresses them in complimentary costumes that suit their characters; and Kristy Meanor's detailed period set shows how time has not changed the Kressmont Five and Dime, much like the characters haven't changed much in the intervening years.
Juanita [Janie Allred] still runs the Five and Dime with an autocratic hand that doesn't tolerate crude language or alcohol; Sissy [Leslie Blackwell] still flaunts her bosoms; now wealthy Stella May [Cindy Smith] continues to ridicule the shy and ever-pregnant Edna Louise [Venna Everett], who it turns out is the most normal and happiest member of the bunch; and Mona [Chantel Oakley] continues her fantasy that James Dean fathered her illegitimate child during the film-shoot at "Reata", now just a shell-in-ruin of a film set for "Giant", Dean's last movie on which she was an "extra".
The "Jimmy Dean" of the title is Mona's son, named for his alleged father; though he never appears in stage, Mona is obsessed with protecting him at all costs -- from the instant celebrity status she foisted on him in his infancy, to the current time when she claims he is retarded and needs her to look after him.
When we meet these characters in the past, it becomes clear how the past informs their present natures, especially as Sissy "Then" [Lauren Norris] and Mona "Then" [Skylar Frye] exhibit so many of the mannerisms and attitudes of their "present" selves depicted by Ms. Blackwell and Ms. Oakley.
The plot hinges on an assault on Joe [Reese Lynch], the only boy admitted to the "Disciples" fan-club, whose sexual identity causes a crisis in all their lives. -- And the arrival of the enigmatic Joanne [Marcella Willis] only adds fuel to the fire that the women are facing. Each has at least one secret that time and faulty memory complicate, and which will be revealed by the end of the play.
Much of the success of Mr. Salter's production is in the fine ensemble work of his actors. Their combined efforts make the plot contrivances more palatable as they in habit their roles with such sensitivity that we feel comfortable with them on their individual and group journeys to discovery and acceptance.
Ed Graczyk's 1976 play Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean opened on Thursday for a three-week run at the Wetumpka Depot. There are roles for both the "then" and "now" of some of the characters, with a number of scenes when they are on stage at the same time; not as confusing as it may seem. Director Tom Salter emphasizes its "you can't go home again" theme in a series of scenes set in 1955 and 1975, seamlessly suggesting the time changes with lighting shifts; Costume designer Carol Heier dresses them in complimentary costumes that suit their characters; and Kristy Meanor's detailed period set shows how time has not changed the Kressmont Five and Dime, much like the characters haven't changed much in the intervening years.
Juanita [Janie Allred] still runs the Five and Dime with an autocratic hand that doesn't tolerate crude language or alcohol; Sissy [Leslie Blackwell] still flaunts her bosoms; now wealthy Stella May [Cindy Smith] continues to ridicule the shy and ever-pregnant Edna Louise [Venna Everett], who it turns out is the most normal and happiest member of the bunch; and Mona [Chantel Oakley] continues her fantasy that James Dean fathered her illegitimate child during the film-shoot at "Reata", now just a shell-in-ruin of a film set for "Giant", Dean's last movie on which she was an "extra".
The "Jimmy Dean" of the title is Mona's son, named for his alleged father; though he never appears in stage, Mona is obsessed with protecting him at all costs -- from the instant celebrity status she foisted on him in his infancy, to the current time when she claims he is retarded and needs her to look after him.
When we meet these characters in the past, it becomes clear how the past informs their present natures, especially as Sissy "Then" [Lauren Norris] and Mona "Then" [Skylar Frye] exhibit so many of the mannerisms and attitudes of their "present" selves depicted by Ms. Blackwell and Ms. Oakley.
The plot hinges on an assault on Joe [Reese Lynch], the only boy admitted to the "Disciples" fan-club, whose sexual identity causes a crisis in all their lives. -- And the arrival of the enigmatic Joanne [Marcella Willis] only adds fuel to the fire that the women are facing. Each has at least one secret that time and faulty memory complicate, and which will be revealed by the end of the play.
Much of the success of Mr. Salter's production is in the fine ensemble work of his actors. Their combined efforts make the plot contrivances more palatable as they in habit their roles with such sensitivity that we feel comfortable with them on their individual and group journeys to discovery and acceptance.
Sunday, September 16, 2018
Millbrook: "The Bad Seed"
Maxwell Anderson"s 1954 stage version of The Bad Seed, a novel by William March, is perhaps best famous for the 1956 screen version starring a young Patty McCormack as a murderous child named Rhoda Penmark.
On opening night at the Millbrook Community Players' production, Charlotte Brown took on the role of the seemingly perfect Rhoda, all polite manners and a sweetness that belies a sinister underside. [The role is being played alternately by Lucy Wilson].
The drowning of a classmate at a school picnic, a boy who had won a penmanship medal that Rhoda thought she deserved and for whose death she shows no emotion, makes the girl's mother Christine [Nicole Allen] suspect that her daughter knows more than she divulges. -- Beset by recurring nightmares, Christine wonders if her dreams might be something more: a repressed memory of her own childhood that might impact her daughter's behavior.
Very much a reflection of the 1950s obsession with Freudian psychology and the debate between "nature vs. nurture" as the determining factor of one's behavior, The Bad Seed feels dated in both dialogue and character development, but is redeemed [in part at least] by old-fashioned plotting that keeps audiences guessing from moment to moment.
Rhoda's outward demeanor that manipulates others to give in to her politeness has fooled almost everyone: her father [Corey Jackson], neighbor/landlady [Vicki Moses], school mistress [Karla McGhee], crime novelist [John Chain], all succumb to her manipulations. -- The only one who sees through Rhoda's guise is handyman Leroy [Michael Snead], who taunts her privately.
The drowned boy's parents [Craig Greer and Rae Ann Collier] show their grief in quiet demeanor and drunken outspokenness respectively. -- And Christine's father [John Collier] clears up some of his daughter's past regarding the truth behind her nightmares.
There are several plot twists and revelations about both Rhoda and Christine that drive The Bad Seed to its tragic and unexpected conclusion and keep the audience's attention in director Joe Nolin, Jr.'s production, but some hesitant dialogue, static staging, and over-long scene changes allow audiences to disengage from the important action and themes.
On opening night at the Millbrook Community Players' production, Charlotte Brown took on the role of the seemingly perfect Rhoda, all polite manners and a sweetness that belies a sinister underside. [The role is being played alternately by Lucy Wilson].
The drowning of a classmate at a school picnic, a boy who had won a penmanship medal that Rhoda thought she deserved and for whose death she shows no emotion, makes the girl's mother Christine [Nicole Allen] suspect that her daughter knows more than she divulges. -- Beset by recurring nightmares, Christine wonders if her dreams might be something more: a repressed memory of her own childhood that might impact her daughter's behavior.
Very much a reflection of the 1950s obsession with Freudian psychology and the debate between "nature vs. nurture" as the determining factor of one's behavior, The Bad Seed feels dated in both dialogue and character development, but is redeemed [in part at least] by old-fashioned plotting that keeps audiences guessing from moment to moment.
Rhoda's outward demeanor that manipulates others to give in to her politeness has fooled almost everyone: her father [Corey Jackson], neighbor/landlady [Vicki Moses], school mistress [Karla McGhee], crime novelist [John Chain], all succumb to her manipulations. -- The only one who sees through Rhoda's guise is handyman Leroy [Michael Snead], who taunts her privately.
The drowned boy's parents [Craig Greer and Rae Ann Collier] show their grief in quiet demeanor and drunken outspokenness respectively. -- And Christine's father [John Collier] clears up some of his daughter's past regarding the truth behind her nightmares.
There are several plot twists and revelations about both Rhoda and Christine that drive The Bad Seed to its tragic and unexpected conclusion and keep the audience's attention in director Joe Nolin, Jr.'s production, but some hesitant dialogue, static staging, and over-long scene changes allow audiences to disengage from the important action and themes.
Sunday, August 26, 2018
ASF: "Menopause The Musical"
The Alabama Shakespeare Festival's sold-out opening night audience's reaction to Menopause The Musical (2001), in its third iteration at ASF, was raucous and infectious, frequently drowning out both dialogue and lyrics of the play's 25 song parodies.
Essentially a one-joke sketch about women going through "the Change", the theme is stretched out over 90 minutes playing time. This GFour Production, with book and lyrics by Jeanie Linders, contrives a plot that brings together four disparate women on a shopping spree at Bloomingdale's where they bond over such free-ranging topics as chocolate cravings, mood swings, failing eyesight, memory lapses, Prozac, night sweats, weight gain, facelifts, hot flashes, lingerie, and sex toys. Familiar territory.
Director Seth Greenleaf's cast -- Teri Adams [an Iowa Housewife], Patti Gardner [a Soap Star], Donna J. Huntley [a Professional Woman], Liz Hyde [Earth Mother] -- seemed a bit tentative at first, but soon adjusted to the audience's enthusiasm. They delivered the script's hokey dialogue and cheesy punchlines with a lot of winks that conscript the predominantly female audience's recognition and approval.
The songs in Menopause The Musical are parodies of largely 1960s popular songs, "Staying Awake" and "Puff, my God I'm Draggin'" among the ones that tickled Saturday's ASF crowd. -- Unfortunately, the sound balance made hearing the actors' words difficult: an overly loud soundtrack with a dominant bass line rendered many of the words incomprehensible, and the women's fine singing voices all but disappeared except in the quieter and solo moments.
Kudos to the four women on stage for their ability to engage through their individual character's personality, and with even the least clever lyrics. We grow to like them and anticipate each one's quirky take on the subject matter.
Saving perhaps the best till last, parodies of "What's Love Got to Do With It" and "Only You" lead to the inevitable transformation of these four delightful characters into a strong unit who can celebrate with us their making it through "the Change".
Essentially a one-joke sketch about women going through "the Change", the theme is stretched out over 90 minutes playing time. This GFour Production, with book and lyrics by Jeanie Linders, contrives a plot that brings together four disparate women on a shopping spree at Bloomingdale's where they bond over such free-ranging topics as chocolate cravings, mood swings, failing eyesight, memory lapses, Prozac, night sweats, weight gain, facelifts, hot flashes, lingerie, and sex toys. Familiar territory.
Director Seth Greenleaf's cast -- Teri Adams [an Iowa Housewife], Patti Gardner [a Soap Star], Donna J. Huntley [a Professional Woman], Liz Hyde [Earth Mother] -- seemed a bit tentative at first, but soon adjusted to the audience's enthusiasm. They delivered the script's hokey dialogue and cheesy punchlines with a lot of winks that conscript the predominantly female audience's recognition and approval.
The songs in Menopause The Musical are parodies of largely 1960s popular songs, "Staying Awake" and "Puff, my God I'm Draggin'" among the ones that tickled Saturday's ASF crowd. -- Unfortunately, the sound balance made hearing the actors' words difficult: an overly loud soundtrack with a dominant bass line rendered many of the words incomprehensible, and the women's fine singing voices all but disappeared except in the quieter and solo moments.
Kudos to the four women on stage for their ability to engage through their individual character's personality, and with even the least clever lyrics. We grow to like them and anticipate each one's quirky take on the subject matter.
Saving perhaps the best till last, parodies of "What's Love Got to Do With It" and "Only You" lead to the inevitable transformation of these four delightful characters into a strong unit who can celebrate with us their making it through "the Change".
Sunday, April 29, 2018
Millbrook: "Mama Won't Fly"
Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope, and Jamie Wooten have collaborated on several comedies [Dixie Swim Club, Dearly Departed, etc.] that have played on various stages across the River Region; another popular local offering, Mama Won't Fly, is currently on stage in Millbrook.
The premise is simple enough: oft-married Savannah Sprunt Fairchild Honeycutt [Karla McGee] has promised her brother Walker that she will travel with their mother Norleen [Vicki Moses] from Alabama to California for his wedding. The problem is that "Mama won't fly", so Savannah begrudgingly agrees to make a cross-country drive in Norleen's vintage car; yet, before they can get started, Walker's fiancee Hayley [Tracey Quates] shows up to travel with them in order to bond with her soon-to-be family.
It's pretty much a one-situation joke that nonetheless plays out in a sequence of more and more improbable predicaments: Hayley is encumbered with bad luck that is visited on them at almost every turn; Norleen and Savannah are very much alike and have serious Mother-Daughter issues; and the sheer number of eccentric strangers and relatives they meet along the way add to the mayhem.
The wacky trio are supported by an ensemble who play multiple roles each in the many vignettes that comprise the two acts. Misty Bone, John Chain, Rae Ann Collier, Carol Majors, Wes Meyer, Cheryl Phillips, Steve Phillips, Terry Quates, and Michael Snead build the lunacy of the trek across America to outrageous proportions.
And the laughs keep coming with every new impersonation. The ensemble company know how to stretch a joke and are fully committed to the goings on. In the three principal roles, Ms. McGee, Ms. Mosdes, and Ms. Quates show confidence in both speech and character; they carry the show and are a delight to watch and hear.
Ms. Majors is a standout among the ensemble for her uninhibited impersonations of the comedy's most eccentric characters: the owner of a bra museum who models a series of spectacularly bizarre undergarments, and the only Las Vegas showgirl-minister of a wedding chapel. -- You get the picture.
Deftly directed by Stephanie McGuire, Mama Won't Fly doesn't pretend to be anything more than what it is: a silly romp of quirky characters in unlikely circumstances who somehow connect with audiences by tickling their funny-bones.
The premise is simple enough: oft-married Savannah Sprunt Fairchild Honeycutt [Karla McGee] has promised her brother Walker that she will travel with their mother Norleen [Vicki Moses] from Alabama to California for his wedding. The problem is that "Mama won't fly", so Savannah begrudgingly agrees to make a cross-country drive in Norleen's vintage car; yet, before they can get started, Walker's fiancee Hayley [Tracey Quates] shows up to travel with them in order to bond with her soon-to-be family.
It's pretty much a one-situation joke that nonetheless plays out in a sequence of more and more improbable predicaments: Hayley is encumbered with bad luck that is visited on them at almost every turn; Norleen and Savannah are very much alike and have serious Mother-Daughter issues; and the sheer number of eccentric strangers and relatives they meet along the way add to the mayhem.
The wacky trio are supported by an ensemble who play multiple roles each in the many vignettes that comprise the two acts. Misty Bone, John Chain, Rae Ann Collier, Carol Majors, Wes Meyer, Cheryl Phillips, Steve Phillips, Terry Quates, and Michael Snead build the lunacy of the trek across America to outrageous proportions.
And the laughs keep coming with every new impersonation. The ensemble company know how to stretch a joke and are fully committed to the goings on. In the three principal roles, Ms. McGee, Ms. Mosdes, and Ms. Quates show confidence in both speech and character; they carry the show and are a delight to watch and hear.
Ms. Majors is a standout among the ensemble for her uninhibited impersonations of the comedy's most eccentric characters: the owner of a bra museum who models a series of spectacularly bizarre undergarments, and the only Las Vegas showgirl-minister of a wedding chapel. -- You get the picture.
Deftly directed by Stephanie McGuire, Mama Won't Fly doesn't pretend to be anything more than what it is: a silly romp of quirky characters in unlikely circumstances who somehow connect with audiences by tickling their funny-bones.
Saturday, April 28, 2018
Cloverdale Playhouse: "Fences"
Disclosure: the reviewer is a member of the Board of Directors of the Cloverdale Playhouse.
Coincidence or not, how appropriate it is that The Cloverdale Playhouse opened director Georgette Norman's revelatory production of August Wilson's multi-award winning Fences on the same weekend that Montgomery is making international headlines for the Equal Justice Initiative's eye-opening promotion of serious deliberation of racism through the "Peace and Justice Summit," a "Concert for Peace and Justice," the "Legacy Museum," and the "National Monument for Peace and Justice." -- Visitors to the EJI's sites would be well-advised to add seeing Fences to their itineraries.
The sixth of ten plays in his "Pittsburgh Cycle", each one recounting aspects of the African American experience during a specific decade of the Twentieth Century, Fences, set in the 1950s, focuses on a 53-year old former Negro League baseball player, now working as a garbage man. Troy Maxson [Ronald McCall] resents the many racial injustices visited on him in the past; he is building a fence around his modest back yard [whether to secure the place as his own or to keep others out is debatable], but the figurative wall he constructs around himself that makes him feel he is in charge actually keeps everyone else at a distance. Although his wife Rose [Yvette Jones-Smedley] sticks by him, Troy's stubborn mindset alienates his youngest son Cory [Kendrick Golson].
The decades-long disappointment with a system that kept him from playing in the Major Leagues, and now struggling to provide for his family, causes Troy to "protect" his son from a similar fate when Cory has a chance at playing football by insisting he quit the team and focus on chores and responsibility. A lesson he gives to his son when the boy questions whether Troy likes him is : "Don't you try and go through life worrying about if somebody like you or not. You best be making sure they doing right by you," a lesson Troy learned the hard way, and which ultimately gets him a job as the first Black garbage-truck driver in Pittsburgh.
But Troy has other things that haunt him: stories that build his ego he tells to his friend Bono [Joe C. Colvin, Jr.] and anyone else within hearing distance; reluctantly lending money to his elder son Lyons [Naaman Jackson], whose choice of becoming a musician runs counter to Troy's ideas of more practical vocations; tough-love offered to his mentally impaired brother Gabriel [La'Brandon Tyre], the result of a war injury; occasional private confrontations with Death and his stalwart attempts to keep the Grim Reaper away; admitting to an extra-marital affair and the birth of a daughter Raynell [Brooke Bennett on opening night], and its devastating effect on his marriage with Rose.
So much of Fences hinges on an ability to acknowledge the past and accept its often cruel and uncomfortable impact, something its characters struggle with throughout. Their very human flaws, and the genetic traits inherited from generation to generation, are characteristics that make this production's actors so readily available to connect with, especially in today's environment.
The bond of friendship between Bono and Troy is unaffected, yet Mr. Colvin in the role always in Troy's shadow, can either joke with his companion, or ignore his faults, or when it comes to it, tell him straight out to save his marriage. -- As Lyons, Mr. Jackson is intimidated by Troy, yet tries to penetrate his father's stubbornness with an obstinacy of his own. -- Ms. Bennett's Raynell is the innocent new generation whose naivete allows Cory particularly to forgive his father.
Mr. Tyre draws every bit of sympathy in his depiction of the simple-minded Gabriel, an obvious symbolic creation of the Angel Gabriel: he carries a trumpet, chases the "hellhounds", and is ready at Troy's funeral to blow his horn to "tell St. Peter to open the gates" for his brother. A fine sensitive portrayal.
The interactions among Mr. McCall, Ms. Jones-Smedley, and Mr. Golson come across as the most natural and credible; they each appear comfortable in the skins of their characters, and are so convincing in their roles that we believe they are a family made up of individuals who know each other intimately. We never doubt their motives. As a good portion of acting lies in an actor's ability to listen and respond in each moment as if it is happening for the first time, these three are models of the craft. They carry us on their respective journeys, and we laugh and cry and tense up and relax and take sides as they disclose the story of Fences.
When we see Troy strut like a peacock in the comfortable sexual bantering between him and Rose, we sense the deep love they have for one another. -- When Cory tests his adolescent need for independence from the man he idolizes, we understand, and when Troy kicks Cory out of the house for disobedience and confronting him man to man, we understand both sides. -- When Troy excuses his infidelity with a cliche that his pregnant mistress gives him something different from what he has with Rose, excusing his actions by claiming he has been "standing in the same place for eighteen years", Rose is devastated; her rejoinder is "What about me?...You're not the only one with wants and needs." -- And when Rose agrees to be a mother to the innocent love-child Raynell her strength comes to the fore by stating "From right now...this child got a mother. But you a womanless man." -- Powerful stuff on all counts that these three actors' commitment to is mesmerizing.
Ms. Norman's production of such an important play as Fences at The Cloverdale Playhouse reveals so much about the world we live in today; a world with unresolved conflicts around race; a world where -- in Montgomery, at least -- the honest assessment of the past and the conversations being initiated by the EJI give some hope that we might determine a course of action to make things better.
Coincidence or not, how appropriate it is that The Cloverdale Playhouse opened director Georgette Norman's revelatory production of August Wilson's multi-award winning Fences on the same weekend that Montgomery is making international headlines for the Equal Justice Initiative's eye-opening promotion of serious deliberation of racism through the "Peace and Justice Summit," a "Concert for Peace and Justice," the "Legacy Museum," and the "National Monument for Peace and Justice." -- Visitors to the EJI's sites would be well-advised to add seeing Fences to their itineraries.
The sixth of ten plays in his "Pittsburgh Cycle", each one recounting aspects of the African American experience during a specific decade of the Twentieth Century, Fences, set in the 1950s, focuses on a 53-year old former Negro League baseball player, now working as a garbage man. Troy Maxson [Ronald McCall] resents the many racial injustices visited on him in the past; he is building a fence around his modest back yard [whether to secure the place as his own or to keep others out is debatable], but the figurative wall he constructs around himself that makes him feel he is in charge actually keeps everyone else at a distance. Although his wife Rose [Yvette Jones-Smedley] sticks by him, Troy's stubborn mindset alienates his youngest son Cory [Kendrick Golson].
The decades-long disappointment with a system that kept him from playing in the Major Leagues, and now struggling to provide for his family, causes Troy to "protect" his son from a similar fate when Cory has a chance at playing football by insisting he quit the team and focus on chores and responsibility. A lesson he gives to his son when the boy questions whether Troy likes him is : "Don't you try and go through life worrying about if somebody like you or not. You best be making sure they doing right by you," a lesson Troy learned the hard way, and which ultimately gets him a job as the first Black garbage-truck driver in Pittsburgh.
But Troy has other things that haunt him: stories that build his ego he tells to his friend Bono [Joe C. Colvin, Jr.] and anyone else within hearing distance; reluctantly lending money to his elder son Lyons [Naaman Jackson], whose choice of becoming a musician runs counter to Troy's ideas of more practical vocations; tough-love offered to his mentally impaired brother Gabriel [La'Brandon Tyre], the result of a war injury; occasional private confrontations with Death and his stalwart attempts to keep the Grim Reaper away; admitting to an extra-marital affair and the birth of a daughter Raynell [Brooke Bennett on opening night], and its devastating effect on his marriage with Rose.
So much of Fences hinges on an ability to acknowledge the past and accept its often cruel and uncomfortable impact, something its characters struggle with throughout. Their very human flaws, and the genetic traits inherited from generation to generation, are characteristics that make this production's actors so readily available to connect with, especially in today's environment.
The bond of friendship between Bono and Troy is unaffected, yet Mr. Colvin in the role always in Troy's shadow, can either joke with his companion, or ignore his faults, or when it comes to it, tell him straight out to save his marriage. -- As Lyons, Mr. Jackson is intimidated by Troy, yet tries to penetrate his father's stubbornness with an obstinacy of his own. -- Ms. Bennett's Raynell is the innocent new generation whose naivete allows Cory particularly to forgive his father.
Mr. Tyre draws every bit of sympathy in his depiction of the simple-minded Gabriel, an obvious symbolic creation of the Angel Gabriel: he carries a trumpet, chases the "hellhounds", and is ready at Troy's funeral to blow his horn to "tell St. Peter to open the gates" for his brother. A fine sensitive portrayal.
The interactions among Mr. McCall, Ms. Jones-Smedley, and Mr. Golson come across as the most natural and credible; they each appear comfortable in the skins of their characters, and are so convincing in their roles that we believe they are a family made up of individuals who know each other intimately. We never doubt their motives. As a good portion of acting lies in an actor's ability to listen and respond in each moment as if it is happening for the first time, these three are models of the craft. They carry us on their respective journeys, and we laugh and cry and tense up and relax and take sides as they disclose the story of Fences.
When we see Troy strut like a peacock in the comfortable sexual bantering between him and Rose, we sense the deep love they have for one another. -- When Cory tests his adolescent need for independence from the man he idolizes, we understand, and when Troy kicks Cory out of the house for disobedience and confronting him man to man, we understand both sides. -- When Troy excuses his infidelity with a cliche that his pregnant mistress gives him something different from what he has with Rose, excusing his actions by claiming he has been "standing in the same place for eighteen years", Rose is devastated; her rejoinder is "What about me?...You're not the only one with wants and needs." -- And when Rose agrees to be a mother to the innocent love-child Raynell her strength comes to the fore by stating "From right now...this child got a mother. But you a womanless man." -- Powerful stuff on all counts that these three actors' commitment to is mesmerizing.
Ms. Norman's production of such an important play as Fences at The Cloverdale Playhouse reveals so much about the world we live in today; a world with unresolved conflicts around race; a world where -- in Montgomery, at least -- the honest assessment of the past and the conversations being initiated by the EJI give some hope that we might determine a course of action to make things better.
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