Monday, March 30, 2009

A few playgoing reports

We've been able to get out and catch a few plays recently, and have quite a few on our upcoming list as well. So here's a report on the most recent ones.

One of our favorite weekend run-aways is to head to the charming southwestern Virginia town of Abingdon, and the two stages of Barter Theatre. We selected the one weekend on which we could catch the three shows we wanted to see - only to discover that it was also the weekend of the Bristol NASCAR races. Ouch. The hotel we normally use was about three times the usual nightly rate, but being stubborn, we went anyway. It was a lot of fun. We saw "Four Places" in Barter Two on Friday night and "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" on Saturday afternoon on the main stage -- both excellent productions, for completely different reasons. Finally, we saw "Adjoining Trances" at Barter Two Saturday night, which (chiefly because of the play) was the weak link of the trip.

We followed that with a shortened adaptation of "Ghosts" by Henrik Ibsen at Triad Stage. As usual, good acting, good set, good lights, good sound ... but just not destined to be one of my favorite plays.

But the interesting continuing trend noted in these four plays -- every one of them except "Joseph" was a 90-minute (or nearly so) no-intermission show. There's been enough of that lately to really believe it IS a trend.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

"Dearly Beloved" - just a whole lot of fun!

I've been a little slack in getting on the blog and writing up Kernersville Little Theatre's production of "Dearly Beloved," most decidedly a "Southern comedy" that may not play well in certain parts of the country but sure enough played well last Friday and Saturday nights in Kernersville. We found it a fine production, with a strong cast that had no weak links in our opinion (and believe me, that is not always the case). The set was a good one, and I had no problem hearing anyone (also not always the case with shows, not just KLT's). It was fun to see Myla O'Brien back on stage after a long gap -- and I thought she was having fun with her role, which seemed a good way to get her "stage legs" back.

The leads were fun to watch, too, and good character work by several folks I had not seen on the KLT stage before. Several folks who had had smaller roles here or elsewhere in the past, too, handled a step up quite well. Kudos, KLT and cast and crew and all!!

Now we have a little time off from plays -- but before long, a three-play weekend at Barter Theatre, "Ghosts" at Triad Stage, plays and the Helen Hayes Awards event in D.C. and an April long weekend in the Big Apple. Whee!!