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!

I just love good acting

The material is tough to watch at times, and of course some folks here in the Bible Belt are just going to lose their religion over the language, but Del Shores' "The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife" just opened at Theatre Alliance (Winston-Salem) tonight, and it is intense and awesome. Two of my favorite actors, whom I am also lucky enough to call friends, play the lead couple, locked in an abusive marriage that meets all the classic characteristics. A friend in the trailer park is trying to help the wife out, and the newly-arrived five-times-married slut across the way is helping the husband out of his pants.

We had seen three Del Shores plays at T.A. in the past -- one of which, "Sordid Lives," I actually liked. But you can clearly tell that he decided to go serious with TTATOATTH. And serious it is, for the most part, though there are certainly some laugh lines. Especially for the two leads, played by Cheryl Ann Roberts and Mikey Wiseman, it's a physical, and physically demanding, time on stage. They make it very, very believable, almost uncomfortably so -- which is, of course, the point. We're looking unflinchingly at a bastard of a husband doing everything he can to demean and intimidate his wife, and blame his many failings directly on her rather than looking in the mirror. Painful stuff, but with those two leads and strong support, extremely well presented.

As I've said before, not every T.A. presentation is a favorite or even good. This one, however, for someone who wants some serious in his theater from time to time, is an absolute winner.

The latest reports

Time to get caught up on recent playgoing!

Quite some time ago, in part to see if we could figure out what all the buzz was about given its seeming success around the country, we bought tickets to the national tour of "Church Basement Ladies" for when it came to the Stevens Center on April 1. We went and saw it. Well, truth be told, we saw part of it. It is a very rare thing indeed for us to leave a show before it's over. I can only think of two other times in all the years. But we walked at the intermission on this one.

Frankly, I simply cannot understand what would entertain anyone about this show, unless, possibly, they were from Minnesota or possibly practicing Lutherans. Even then .... The tunes and lyrics were so-so, the acting in most cases overdone, and it just wasn't very funny. I've always thought "Nunsense" proved that you can have some fun with religion or religious characters (though I'm not so sure about any of the sequels, which I have not seen.) But this show proved that the opposite is also possible.

Not long afterwards, we arrived for a mini-vacation in Phoenix, and Kathy discovered that a Phoenix Fringe Festival was happening. So on Sunday night of the trip, we found one of the six venues that had three interesting-sounding shows (most of the Festival shows ran about one hour each). We caught a 5 p.m., a 6:30 p.m. and an 8 p.m. show.

The first was a one-woman show on the concept that angels are given opportunities to select bodies and types to return to the Earth to fix karmic problems. It had some good ideas interspersed with some less-than-interesting exposition. Not bad, but not great, either.

The second show was intended for children but told a good story for adults, too. The concept was a young man (with wings) who had been hidden out of town by his parents and as he grows up, discovers other children and ideas and finally makes his parents realize he must try on his own and might have been overprotected, though to some extent for good reason. It was a sweet and thoughtful show. Unfortunately, I got kidnapped for a few minutes by an idea for a 10-minute script that I will start writing soon. But I still enjoyed it a lot.

Finally, we saw a play called "Dudes Gone Wild," with four young men in various stages of not yet being willing to grow up, on the evening five years after high school after a woman leaves one of them virtually at the altar. There was a lot of drinking, cursing, and crude references to women and themselves. Sometimes playgoing should take you to places you don't normally reside, and this did for me -- kind of made me wonder if my life would have been different if I'd had a fraternity mindset.

And happy that I didn't.