Time in the theater

The last post has proven to be quite accurate -- the last month has been very busy, and a lot of that time has been time in a theater. No complaints here, of course!

I wound up September by catching Greensboro-based playwright Tommy Trull's "Wake-Walking" at Greensboro College, which I found quite interesting and well-done for a college production. A planned staged reading of another play of his, however, was postponed, so I'll just have to wait and see when that one comes back to (workshopping) life.

Then Kathy and I went up to Korner's Folly for another Triad-based playwright's "The Service at Rocky Bluff," written by Scott Icenhower and done by Kernersville Little Theatre. It was a laugh-out-loud, family-friendly play with music, and the cast included Brad Phillis, who we first got to know through our own production of "Conversations in a Cafe." Truly a fun night in Cupid's Park.

We followed that in October with Scott and Katie Jo Icenhower's production of "The Piety Variety Gospel Show" at the Paramount in Burlington. While there were many good parts of the show and the cast was chiefly strong, with this one I could see a few areas for editing. Unlike "Rocky Bluff," where I felt you got to know each of the characters, this one gave some characters a fair amount of time and several, not very much. I'd have like to have known more about some of them.

We caught "The Mystery of Irma Vep" at the UpStage Cabaret at Triad Stage, and laughed a lot there, too. Multiple characters in a gothic mystery-styled show, all played by two men. A hoot, for sure.

Recently, because Kathy had a prior event one night, I went to Mount Tabor High to catch an evening of one-acts directed by Chad Edwards. To my delight, Cheryl Ann Roberts was there that evening, too, so we watched a one-act very much in the "Laramie Project" mode about a high school's reaction to the events of September 11th (the school was two blocks away from Ground Zero). And then - not exactly a one-act -- a truncated version of the play "Proof" (one of my favorites of recent years). For the state high school theater conference, presentations must be one hour or less. I thought not only did the four students do a nice job with the abbreviated version, but it was nicely edited and still held up decently despite the cuts. It was a reassuring evening that there is at least still SOME art in the schools even as budgets are decimated.

Finally for this go-round, we saw the hilarious and spirited Theatre Alliance production of "Evil Dead: The Musical." Hard to describe in a few words, but a lot of fun if you've ever seen horror movies and enjoy parodies.

As for my own playing with plays, I'm pleased to be within two or three pages of wrapping up a first draft of the comedy called "Rehearsals." I've had a lot of fun with it so far, and hope to yuk it up some more while reading and editing it. Then maybe some outside readers and a group reading early in the new year? It could happen. Progress!