Monday, July 20, 2009

On the local/regional scene

Close on the heels of returning from CATF, Kathy and I took off for a jaunt to Greenville, SC, to catch The Distracted Globe's production of "Beyond Therapy" by Christopher Durang. We'd never seen the show, or enough Durang period, and former Kernersvillian Kelly Wallace was one of the stars in a fine cast all the way around. It was a nice space and a good production, we felt, and given that all of the characters are chiefly nuts, it was a lot of fun to watch, too. Though I don't highly recommend trying to escape from downtown Greenville on a Saturday night if you only know how to leave using Main Street. Their great success in revitalizing downtown has turned into a traffic mess -- so a qualified success, I would say as an outsider.

From Greenville, we hustled back to Kernersville, and then over to Greensboro and Open Space to take in Richard Dresser's "Rounding Third." I had heard of this show some BEFORE we knew Open Space was doing it, and then -- serendipity -- I saw a poster for it (and for a couple of other Richard Dresser plays) as having been done in 2004 at CATF.

In any case, our friend Ken Ashford was one of the two actors in this show, which was painfully funny for anyone who had ever encountered Little League in any form. Ken and fellow actor Scott Stevens did a great job, and the story line turned out to be a little deeper than I had anticipated at first. An enjoyable afternoon at the theater!

And now, four days without a play to attend. How will I survive?

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Contemporary is chiefly all right with me

Midweek, I began my current play-going marathon by heading 5.5 hours northwards to the small town of Shepherdstown, West Virginia. It's way on the eastern edge of the state, one of the collection of old towns in that area such as Harpers Ferry, Martinsburg and only four miles from Shepherdstown but in Maryland, Sharpsburg, near which the tragic Antietam battle was fought during the Civil War.

At Shepherd University, each summer since 1991, the Contemporary American Theater Festival has brought new plays to production on the stages here -- this year, there were five, performed in three different venues. A close friend of ours is the business manager at CATF, which is how I learned of it. In addition to some excellent genealogical research in that area, I was lucky enough to see three of those five shows.

The first show was called "Farrugut North" and, apparently, has already been optioned for a potential movie with George Clooney. The stage version was quite well done, with a chiefly representational set to tell the story of a young campaigner working the presidential campaign in Iowa, dirty tricks, dirty mouths and ultimate disillusionment (and more dirty tricks). Anyone who was paying attention was unlikely to walk away without a deeper cynicism towards the American political process.

The second show was "Fifty Words," referring to the idea that there are probably fifty different words that can be used to reflect "love." The show, which was a bit on the long side for a no-intermission production, was quite well acted by two people, and dissected, almost literally, a marriage in trouble. Thought this is apparently OK or even desirable for this particular contemporary theater festival, this play and the next ended with a fairly ambiguous closing. It's not my favorite thing, but still, I can't take too many points off given the other strengths of this show.

Finally, I saw "Yankee Tavern," the latest completed script by prolific playwright Steven Dietz, whose "Trust" I saw produced in 2006 at Spoleto. This one had a great realistic set of an old-fashioned (and fading) bar and delved into conspiracy theories in the aftermath of 9-11, and some interesting characters. Once again, the ending left some questions which I suspect we were meant to fill in for ourselves. If you really wanted to.

All in all, it was an interesting and entertaining few hours in the theaters up in West Virginia. I'm definitely glad I went.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Short plays can be fun

We've just returned from a long road trip which, while not overwhelmed with playgoing, did include two of the three ten-minute play flights at the Source Festival in Washington, D.C. We caught all three flights (25 plays) last year, but only scheduled two flights (12 of 18 plays offered this year) for this visit due to other obligations. In addition to catching up with family present and future and some good eating, we once again enjoyed most if not all of the offerings. Source solicits scripts from around the world. They got 700 in the first year and 500 for this year's presentation, so you can imagine that they get to pick the best of the best.

They also mine from a great crop of actors each year, and each show gets its own DC-area freelance director. Some are very funny; some are quirky or weird; and several are quite intense, too -- such as one about a young female recruit in the Airborne whose parachute fouls and we learn about her as she falls towards her likely death. As it was last year, a good and inspirational experience.

We have more theater coming up, but I will report on that as it happens.

I also managed to wrap up a ten-minute script called "Progress," and have moved that along to a possible outlet. Meanwhile, on virtually all of the other scripts, I wait.