The serious work begins

I'm guessing at this point that it will be a rare day from here through October that doesn't have SOMETHING to do with preparing for "Conversations in a Cafe." Tuesday night was a good example: Myla O'Brien, our fearless director, was here at the house along with Kathy and Cheryl Ann Roberts (who will play Susan and Ellie, respectively, in the show). We had an early audition with an actor who could not be here during the regularly-scheduled auditions (for a totally enviable reason), followed by a wide-ranging discussion of planning for the show, and taking notes regarding first-act blocking from the director to meld into the play's script.

Meanwhile, the search is on for various stage furniture and dressing items, along with various props, all of which need to come together reasonably soon. Today, I also spent time with the director at Korner's Folly, where we'll produce the show, working on a variety of subjects that will make the actual production go smoother. Good meeting!

And then I discovered the place in Greensboro, thanks to a lead from the afore-mentioned actor, that has a lot of used and new restaurant furnishings and equipment. Hog heaven! I now have a little less to worry about in regards to where I might find the things we need. This is a good thing!

CATF entertaining, "Conversations" taking on life of its own

So back some months ago, I decided and committed to going up to Shepherdstown, WV for a second year to take in some of the new plays at CATF. For those who don't know, Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) is in its 20th year, working on the campus of Shepherd University and using its facilities to present, nowadays, five new works each summer with an Equity cast and providing lots of opportunities for Shepherd and other young theater students to work shows.

A good friend of ours is the business manager there, and she convinced me last year to make the trip, and I found it quite worth it. All three shows I saw, I felt, were worthy and entertaining within my vision of what constitutes entertaining theater.

This year, I was set to see three more shows, but ended up dropping one of them in order to accommodate a reviewer who wanted to get into a sold-out performance. For me, it worked out well, for my overall favorite this year, "Breadcrumbs," is the show I picked up to replace the one I was going to miss. Yay! It was only a little over an hour long, but very touching, very well performed, a very nice lighting design by Colin Bills (one of Andy's friends in the DC theater lighting group) and just no false notes I could discern. The story deals with a young woman seeking some kind of purpose and an older woman writer starting to disappear into Alzheimers. Liked it a whole lot!

I wish I could be as enthusiastic about the rest of my stay. I liked the second show, "Inana," quite well, but it wasn't earth-shattering, though it did a fine job of tapping into a culture less known to the average American. It deals with a newly-married Iraqi couple -- an arranged marriage -- and we slowly learn why they have ended their marriage day, which started back at home, in a hotel in London. It's a good mystery, and was generally well-acted, and there's certainly a tension. But one of the transitions, to me, seemed a little abrupt -- my feeling was the playwright could have given a few more lines to smooth the transition. Others felt it might have been weakness on the part of the actress. I didn't see that, but I certainly felt there was room for improvement somehow! And that in turn stole a little bit from the play's overall impact.

And then my last show. Wow. "The Eelwax Jesus 3D Pop Music Show." Allegedly a musical, though actually sort of a disguised rock/pop concert with a fair amount of pretty uninteresting music and a fair number of disjointed images being thrown out on either side of where they placed the band. I can only say I've never seen a more random conglomeration of stuff being thrown on a stage. They could have saved a lot of room in the program by calling it "Random," in fact. I made it to the end, but it was a close thing on bailing at intermission. It would surprise me very much if this show made anything other than noise anywhere else in the future.

Now back in the Triad, and even while I was gone, the details and planning for "Conversations in a Cafe" began to show that time is growing shorter and suddenly the work is going to have to get serious. Finding prop and set dressing items; contracting for the music license rights; buying additional lighting instruments; planning for auditions; getting the script ready to copy for read-through; contacting production folks; and a lot of other correspondence. There's a lot to putting on a play! (In case you didn't already know that.)

Catching up on the play-going reports

As I sit here in front of the computer listening to "The Music of Providence Gap" and being reminded what a lovely talent Laurelyn Dossett is, I'm also reminded that I haven't yet caught up on the various shows we've seen since late May. It's about time!

On Memorial Day weekend, we made a now-traditional pilgrimage to Charleston, SC to spend a little time with our son, Andy, and take in some of the many fine offerings of Spoleto Festival USA and Piccolo Spoleto. Normally, this means 5 to 7 shows of some kind or another over a long weekend. This year was no exception. In addition to a jazz performance, we had six shows to see during our stay.

Of those six shows, three of them were presented by student actors present and past of the College of Charleston, and all three of those had something about them worth seeing. Two -- "Lone Star" and "Thom Pain (Based on Nothing)" -- were new to us, and the latter in particular -- a one-man performance -- kept one's attention especially well. The third was a presentation of Neil LaBute's "reasons to be pretty," which we had also seen on Broadway with a fabulous set and a good cast. Even with a simple set on a simple stage, the cast did a fine job with the play.

Another show we took in was "(title of show)," an amusing little musical about a couple of guys and their friends trying to create a successful musical. This was done out at the Village Playhouse, which has done a decent job with earlier shows we've seen (they're in Mount Pleasant). We had fun with it, but it's hardly a brain-teaser or challenging in any major fashion.

We were somewhat less thrilled with the production of "Mahalia: A Gospel Musical" downtown. Nothing wrong with the play, exactly, and it was certainly better than last year's "Cage Aux Folles." But the lighting in this space is, well, basic, and either some of it was pointed in the wrong direction, or the actors forgot where to stand. The woman in the lead role had an awesome voice, but especially for Kathy, not so much on the acting chops. And as an overall rule, the sound was choppy. While it certainly had its moments, it was the least effective of our theatrical stops.

Last but certainly not least was Gate Theatre/Dublin's presentation of "Present Laughter." It was quite well done, wonderful set, great acting, very amusing. And we had the benefit of sitting afterwards to watch the crew convert the set to the next production -- which they did many times throughout the Festival -- since there is chamber music and an opera presented in the same space as well. Our son was master electrician here (Dock Street) and his best man at the wedding last October, McLane Snow, was on the crew. A little fun behind-the-scenes visit.

Since our return, there wasn't much theater-going time for a while since Kathy was way deep involved in a show -- stage managing KLT's "Once Upon A Mattress." Naturally, I saw it, and had a lot of fun watching a good cast in a funny, light-hearted show. We did, however, manage to sneak in Paper Lantern's excellent production of "Kimberly Akimbo" in Theatre Alliance's space and enjoyed that very much, too.

Finally, once the show was over, we had two entertaining experiences at Triad Stage, one later in the evening (11 p.m. start) at the UpStage Cabaret, where they were offering Christopher Durang's "An Actor's Nightmare" and "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You," a combo we first saw together in a small theater in Los Angeles once upon a time. And the following night on the main stage, we saw "Providence Gap," the latest play creation effort of Preston Lane and Laurelyn Dossett -- and in our opinion, the one that holds together the best of the four (also including "Brother Wolf," "Beautiful Star" and "Bloody Blackbeard"). Though I would cut 10 minutes from its running length if it were me. And come to think of it, are all the titles required to be two words long?

Anyway, a couple more events coming up, including three or maybe four shows at this summer's version of CATF up in West Virginia. Sounds like more fun, to fill in around the many preparations for "Conversations in a Cafe."

Time to catch up!

Here it is July 1 already, and I haven't blogged in, well, a while. That doesn't mean I haven't been busy!

Since last I wrote here, Kathy has been tied up in the process of stage managing Kernersville Little Theatre's "Once Upon A Mattress," chiefly a fun if time-consuming process. This also meant, of course, some entertaining at home, which is always some work. Since I wasn't seeing much of her during that time, I also took off to the other house for a while -- and even got some writing done on the "Patent" full-length project. Not much, but better than nothing.

But the vast majority of my time nowadays is caught up in preparations, research, communications and other related tasks for the fall production of "Conversations in a Cafe." It's pretty exciting, of course, thinking of having one of my scripts coming to life on stage. But as many common citizens do not realize, there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes that no one knows about, and I am in the middle of all that "stuff" right now.

We will hold auditions for some of the roles in August, and we are tying down the roles we've already cast right now. It's a busy time, and it's going to remain that way.

But worth it, one hopes!

Catching up, a bit, anyway

Since last I posted, we caught the very entertaining "Hank Williams: Lost Highway" at Theatre Alliance. I don't need to plug it too hard, since the run just ended and the shows all sold out. But Gray Smith as Hank and Justin Hall as his street mentor were both excellent; the live music was delish (esp. the pedal steel and Dobro moments); and the supporting cast generally fine. Gray was on pretty much throughout the show, and I'd guess three days of sleep would be appreciated now that the show's over. He earned it!

I came back from Phoenix with the idea for a short play in mind, got it written, and got it read at the Greensboro Playwrights Forum two weeks back. I thought it went very well indeed, and we'll learn more tonight when it will be the raw material for a Directors' Forum -- first time I've attended or been part of one of these. That should be a new and intriguing experience! I'll report on that later.

With Kathy doing the stage manager job for KLT's "Once Upon A Mattress," there's not a lot of show-going right now. But that will pick up speed again very soon, as the annual (sixth year) excursion to Charleston, SC and the Spoleto USA and Piccolo Spoleto plays is right around the corner. Yay!

Two shows, and more waiting

After Thursday's night's new plays at GTCC, Kathy and I then, together, took in "Nunsense" at Clemmons Community Theatre (performed at the New Hope Presbyterian Church) on Friday night, and last night was "Ethel Waters: His Eye is on the Sparrow," at Triad Stage.

I thought the CCT did a very nice job indeed with "Nunsense," a very amusing tale of the nuns at Mt. Saint Helen's and their efforts to raise some money to properly bury the last four of the 52 nuns who died when the convent's cook's vichyssoise went bad. The "talent show" they are trying to put on runs into a variety of challenges, and each nun gets a chance to shine and/or save the day. All of which, as Sister Hubert points out, would have been unnecessary if the Mother Superior hadn't taken money from earlier fundraising to buy a VCR.

We enjoyed the singing and the performing, and were especially pleased to discover what a great singing voice was displayed by Lee Ann Chrisco as Sister Hubert. Her number near the end of the show was awesome. Though she is pleasingly humble about the whole thing in real life, that's a voice you'd want to hear again, for sure! And young Charis Jeffers, who we hope will be our Meredith in "Conversations in a Cafe," was a pleasure to watch as Sister Amnesia. Though we didn't know the other three performers, they all played their characters quite well, and they all seemed to be comfortable together and enjoying themselves.

If only the sound had been better ....

The Triad Stage show was a good one, essentially telling the story of Ethel Waters with one fine actress reflecting through flashback, and a piano player accompanying her when she sang, and sometimes providing "mood music." I'm not familiar enough with Ms. Waters' recorded music, but we agreed that the singing portion was not quite as strong as hoped (esp. having heard Ms. Chrisco the night before!), and for me, about five minutes cut from each act would have made it more pleasing. But all in all, still a good night of theater!

The playwriting continues, in fits and starts, as I'm working on a short piece for which the core idea was created during one of those shows in Phoenix. And I need to return to "Patent" and try to get more pieces of that glued together. Maybe this week ... as I wait to hear something one way or the other on the fates of two short plays I have submitted. One of those delayed its submission deadline by a couple of days ... so that more competitors could come in!! Whee! ... and then delayed the announcement of its finalists accordingly. Grrrrrr ......

It's FUN trying to break in as a playwright!

And an update

We've just moved out of the time period in which, after too long a lull, Kathy was involved as an actor with a play. We had noted that Adam Sullivan, who directed "Margaret Mitchell" for KLT, had won and would have his play "Crier Tuck" produced by 3rd Stage Theatre in Greensboro, while attending the Short Plays. Kathy wondered out loud if there were any roles for middle-aged women, so I asked Stephen Hyers, who would direct. He said "yes." She decided to audition, and, it turned out, she was given BOTH of the middle-aged woman roles. That turned into a lot of fun for her -- playing two completely different woman characters -- and hastened the acquisition of a wig she had planned to get for the "Conversations" role this fall. At least one member of the audience (who clearly hadn't read the cast list in the program) did not even know the two women were the same actor. Cool!

The play itself was pretty good, especially for a first staging, and underwent some change in the rehearsal process. One or two things I might change, but minor -- all in all, a lot of fun!

Kathy since has moved right on to helping stage manage the upcoming KLT musical. Meanwhile, I caught two short plays by Ed Simpson and a short-ish musical by Tommy Trull tonight at GTCC, directed by Michael Kamtman, with whom we have crossed paths various times since arriving in Kernersville in 1989. It was an interesting evening! The first, perhaps 10-minute, play was good but suffered some from one weak link in the cast. The second was longer and well done, given the partial limitation that these were all staged readings. And the musical was a neat retelling of a piece of mythology, with the lead female quite good -- animated as a performer, and a good singer, too. I can't say quite as much about the rest of the singing, though, and would enjoy hearing this again with a group of musical singers.

And on we will go -- two more shows in the next two days!