Riverside - Words out of the Box (Sonnet If You Want It), Riverside's Will Power Poetry Contest, will take a slightly different form this year.
Students in grades 7-12 are encouraged to submit poetry of any kind - "from hip-hop to punk rock, Shakespearean to Langston Hughes... whether it be slam-style, sonnets or Robert Frost, it all comes down to The Word!" Submissions are due April 10th.
Winners (in both junior high and high school categories) will receive 2 free tickets to the special Will Power Performance of As You Like It, one of Riverside's Shakespeare Festival selections this year, on June 14. They will also have their work printed in the summer playbill and displayed at the Iowa City Public Library and MidwestOne Bank.
Will Power is an education outreach program of Riverside Theatre, sponsored by MidwestOne Bank with additional support from Rockwell Collins. More information on the contest can be found at Riverside's website.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Riverside Expands Poetry Contest
Leaving Iowa Opens March 8
MVLCT - This weekend, the Mt. Vernon Lisbon Community Theatre will be at Gwen's presenting Leaving Iowa, a comedy by Tim Clue and Spike Manton.
The play concerns Don, who has come back to Iowa to collect his father's ashes. Over the course of the play, he recalls old family road trips, including many funny encounters. Russ Keast plays the role of Don. Also featured are Bill Croghan, Mary Jane Myers, Carole Martin, Duane Larson and Sarah Fried. Wayne Haug directs.
The play is presented as a dinner theatre; Gwen's Restaurant (119 W Main St. in Lisbon) will be serving dinner. Dinner starts at 6:30 and the show begins at 7:30. Tickets are $25 and are available at Shepley Pharmacy and Lisbon Public Library. The show runs through March 10th.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Desperate Struggles Make This Will Never Work Compelling
By James E. Trainor III
Photo by Sarah Burnett
Riverside - "What do you want?"
It's the classic acting-class question; you've heard it a hundred times if you work in the theatre. Occasionally "how do you feel," often "what are you going to do," but always "what do you want?"
There's a simple reason why: it's good storytelling. We relate deeply to underdogs with desperate plans, to square pegs trying to squeeze into round holes. Riverside's series of monologues, Walking the Wire: This Will Never Work, which opened on March 2nd, hits home with tales of characters overflowing with want and drowning in need.
With material written by Ron Clark, Amy White, Mike Moran, Gwendolyn Rice, Amanda Petefish-Schrag, Brent Boyd, Jen Silverman, Mark Harvey Levine, Dave Carley, Deborah Magid, Gordon Mennenga, and Janet Schlapkohl, and performed by (pictured, from left to right) Mike Moran, Fannie Hungerford, Jessica Wilson, Ron Clark, Katherine Smith, Janet Schlapkohl, Tim Budd, and David Busch, Walking the Wire: This Will Never Work offers a series of monologues in two acts that are sometimes comic, sometimes shockingly dramatic, and always compelling.
There are your classic climbs to the top, with varying degrees of success: in "Third," written and performed by Ron Clark, a big fish decides, very late in his career, to leap out of his small pond in Kansas and try to hack it as a middle-aged actor in Los Angeles. He doesn't want to be first place - he'll settle for third, or fourth, or fifth - but he wants it with all his being, and the feel is warm and funny, if a little bit sad. In "Toots," written by Gwendolyn Rice and performed by Jessica Wilson, a soon-to-be grandmother recounts her family's struggle and tells the story of her daughter's rule-bending interracial marriage - the product of which might seem vaguely familiar. In "Bert, One Year Later" by Dave Carley, with some great character work by Ron Clark, an old man deals with grief by watching ducks until a depressed teen by the river gives him an unexpected new lease on life.
Then there are those characters who are just stuck, doomed, or destined to fail; their stories are no less compelling to watch. In "Inner Child" by Amy White, a young girl, played with charming and heart-breaking accuracy by Katherine Smith, sits in the doctor's office and fantasizes about how her teen pregnancy could have gone differently. In "Shakytown" by Gordon Mennenga, performed by Tim Budd, a man recalls his big-city uncle who always promised to take him out of the dead-end town he grew up in, but never delivered. In "Lost in the Flood" by Amanda Petefish-Schrag, peformed with boundless energy and bitter humor by Fannie Hungerford, Noah's wife gives us a different perspective on the story of the Ark, as she tries desperately to save the majestic mastodons from extinction.
Then there are stories that take unexpected, sometimes tragic twists. In "Mia" by Jen Silverman, performed by Fannie Hungerford, a sixteen-year-old girl takes on the world, moving out to New York to live with her big sister and become a dancer. The reality of what she finds there is an ambivalent mixture of a romantic teenager's notions of the Big Apple and the worms that writhe within. In "Double Barrel" by Brent Boyd, performed with chilling calm and precision by Tim Budd, a man's carefully orchestrated revenge plot suddenly goes catastrophically awry. In "A Pigeon in a Dress," written and performed by Janet Schlapkohl, a pair of sisters are deposited into the standardized, cookie-cutter world of the 1950s, a world whose rigid expectations twist the girls both physically and emotionally.
There are plenty of examples of great storytelling in the writing, and the actors, under the expert direction of Jody Hovland, pursue these rash, sometimes ridiculous objectives with reckless abandon. All of the performers do an excellent job of interpreting the stories, and their physical choices often fill the stage, creating an entire world out of a ten-minute monologue.
Mike Moran, who writes, performs and sings in "In Hank's Brain," paces about the stage with the unchained anger of a spurned lover, until his temper tantrum takes him through a window, falling through imaginary trees, and right into Hank Williams' brain. It's a bizarre and infectiously creative concept, and Moran's acting executes it perfectly. A wild drop onto the stage and a change of cadence transports us suddenly into a different space, as the protagonist tries to tell Hank his troubles.
Fannie Hungerford is excellent in both her performances. In "Mia" she plays the energetic and nubile teen as realistically as the tired, regretful mother telling the story. In "Lost in the Flood" she fills the stage with apocalyptic energy, gathering invisible beasts with full commitment to the physical choices. The result is wonderfully comic.
Janet Schlapkohl's "A Pigeon in a Dress" creates a world most completely and remarkably. She performs not only the speaker but the speaker's sister, parents, teachers, classmates and everyone in-between with specificity and care. The story is inspiring and disheartening at the same time, as the two sisters each try to break the mold and become someone unique. Schlapkohl's wry humor and warm, impassioned vocal work endear us to the characters and make us sympathetic to their struggle. This one has the feel that it could be a larger piece; though the ending is appropriate to the story, there's a whole world that could be explored between these two sisters, and "A Pigeon in a Dress" leaves the audience craving more.
It's always a joy to see Riverside's annual monologue show, Walking the Wire, and this year is no exception. These stories of man's reach exceeding his grasp range from the restlessly funny to the shockingly tragic, all performed with the skill and care of professional performers. So what do you want? Tickets.
Walking the Wire: This Will Never Work runs through March 11th at 213 N Gilbert St. Showtimes are 7:30pm Thursday - Saturday, 2pm Sunday.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
University Seeks Actors for New Play Festival
The University of Iowa is looking for two actors for Collective Amnesia by Janet Schlapkohl. Auditions are March 3rd & 4th and the show will be performed on May 5th.
Roles:
1) Dr. ZWEIFEL, MD. PhD Male 60’s -90’s German. A diligent scientist and caring mentor to Judith.
2) JUDITH JONSON, PHD; Female 50’s Caucasion. An ambitious and conflicted scientist, grieving for and striving to understand her mentor.
If interested, contact leeann-yeckley@uiowa.edu to set up an audition.
What Are You Doing This Weekend?
We're going to the theatre. How about you?
Another weekend in the Corridor runs the gamut of theatrical selections. Here's the long and the short of it:
@The Englert
ICCT brings you Lerner and Loewe's Gigi. It's a musical about a bored womanizer and who becomes enchanted with a young courtesan-to-be; check out the review here. The show opens March 1st at 7:30 and runs this weekend only.
@ICPL
Riverside is hosting a talk on the historiocity of the character Shylock from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, which they will perform in repertory with As You Like It this summer. The talk, by UI professor Miriam Gilbert, is entitled: "Shakespeare and 'the likeness of a Jew' Shylock, Fagin and Disraeli." The lecture is free and open to the public and will be presented at the Iowa City Public Library in Meeting Room A at 7pm on March 1st.
@Riverside
At Gilbert St. itself, Riverside opens its annual monologue festival Walking the Wire this weekend. The show features a variety of performers and writers, and centers on the theme "This Will Never Work." Opens March 2nd and runs through March 11th.
@TCR
TCR closes its run of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde in the Grandon Studio this weekend. See the review here.
@The Ox Yoke Inn
Murder Rides Again, the dinner theatre murder mystery that refused to die, rides on at the Ox Yoke Inn this weekend.
@UI
On Friday and Saturday, MFA acting students present their showcase at Cosmo Catalano Acting Studio.
In Theatre B, Nathan Halvorson directs Sidewinders, a new play by Basil Kreimendahl. It's "an absurdist-western genderqueer romp" that promises to provoke a lot of discussion about sexual identity. (Friday through Sunday)
@UNI
At the University of Northern Iowa, students are offering Dying City by Christopher Shinn, a dark drama about a war widow who encounter's her dead husband's twin brother.
From comedy to drama to intellectual discussion, there's plenty to chose from, so what are you waiting for? Get out to the theatre!
Gigi Sparkles
By James E. Trainor III
ICCT - Gigi is a Tony-Award winning musical from Lerner & Loewe, known for the exuberance and charm of its title character. ICCT's production, directed by Josh Sazon, opens tonight at the Englert.
The show is set in early twentieth-century Paris and tells the story of Gaston (Per Wiger), a bored bon vivant, and Gigi (Noel Vandenbosch), his young friend, who is idiosyncratic but charming.
Gaston is pushed into the Parisian nightlife by his womanizing uncle Honore (Stephen Swanson) night after night, but he has grown tired and jaded by the sensual excess. Meanwhile, Gigi is becoming a young woman, and is being prepared for the life of a courtesan by her Mamita (Mary Wedemeyer) and her Aunt Alicia (Krista Nuemann).
When Gigi and Gaston meet, they find such relief and respite together, enjoying such a simple and unique delight in each other's company that they hardly realize they are falling in love. Mamita and Alicia are not so oblivious, however, and Alicia quickly maneuvers Gaston into a grandiose offer of love in the style of the most fashionable prostitutes in Paris. Such an arrangement, however, would destroy the the spirit of the vibrant Gigi. Gaston is faced with a dilemma: keep her on as a mistress and ruin her reputation, or propose marriage to a poor girl far below his social station?
For a funny and romantic musical, Gigi has some rather dark undertones, and this production does a wonderful job of navigating them. It's very conscious of the misogyny of the setting, and the bawdy jokes and jaunty songs play alongside the serious dramatic decisions the characters must make. Josh Sazon's direction draws this all together well, and his cast is energetic and charming.
Noel Vandenbosch's Gigi is a particular delight. The structure of the show is challenging for an actress, as the carefree childish moments are spent quite quickly and Gigi must undergo a complete transformation as she grows up and learns her family's trade.
In the early scenes she flies around the stage with youthful energy. She is adorable with Wiger and works particularly well with Neumann, responding to her aunt's lessons with befuddled attempts to comply. In her innocence she is immensely adorable, which makes the story that much sadder. Vandenbosch is an excellent singer as well, and her energetic renditions of "The Night They Invented Champagne" and "I Never Want to Go Home Again" are a lot of fun.
The true triumph, however, is in the transformation into the adult Gigi, trained by her Aunt in the petty, vain concerns of social climbers. She's ready to accompany Gaston, according to Aunt Alicia - and earn a pretty price for it - but in the meantime she's lost a lot of the girlish charm that he fell for in the first place. It's a devastating effect, carried off quite well by Vandenbosch's acting choices. When she comes on stage at the top of the second act, her choice of words and tone of voice tells volumes about the "training" that went on offstage.
Per Wiger, for his part, is entertaining and sympathetic as Gaston. He is strong right from the beginning, able to pull of the challenging acting trick of being extremely bored without being boring. He is a great scene partner with Swanson and a refreshing companion for Vandenbosch. In his solo moments, he takes the stage with charisma and confidence: his "Gigi" goes from funny to sad to sentimental in a few well-played roller-coaster verses.
The other principals round out the cast well. Krista Neumann is energetic and very funny as the vain and greedy Alicia. The first time she comes on stage, the energy of the piece increases tenfold. Stephen Swanson is also quite good as Honore. Though his physical choices are sometimes stiff and awkward, he fills the role with energy and charm and has a wonderful voice. Mary Wedemeyer does not seem as solid next to these two; in the early scenes she is timid and doesn't commit to choices with a lot of energy. The jokes don't land and "I Remember It Well" in particular is not the witty back-and-forth it could easily be. In the later scenes she brings it around, however, standing up firmly but quietly for Gigi's choices.
The ensemble is very strong here, with a lot of great individual performances - Jeff Emrich, K. Linsday Eaves, Stephen J. Polchert, and Roxy Running stood out in particular - and a general feel of a world with a lot going on. The final scene in Paris was staged quite well, as was "She's Not Thinking of Me." The set is flexible and allows a lot of room for these dynamic ensemble numbers.
Gigi is a fun and energetic show that really has a lot to say about love and being true to yourself. ICCT's company has done a great job bringing this classic musical to the Englert. The show opens tonight, March 1st, at 7:30pm, and continues through March 4th, with a 7:30pm show Friday and Saturday and a 2pm matinee on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets here.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Gigi Opens March 1
ICCT - This weekend, Iowa City Community Theatre brings the lovable Lerner & Loewe musical Gigi to the stage at the Englert.
The show, based on the 1958 film of the same name, won the Tony for Best Score in 1973. ICCT's production features Noel Vandenbosch as Gigi, Per Wiger as Gaston, Stephen Swanson as Honore, Krista Neumann as Aunt Alicia and Mary Wedemeyer as Mamita.
Shows are 7:30pm March 1st, 2nd and 3rd, with 2pm matinees on March 3rd and March 4th. Tickets here.
Walking the Wire opens March 2
Riverside – Some ideas sound crazy, others really are…creating a homemade medical device, falling in love with a Barbie doll, channeling direct orders from God, moving to a far away city to chase a dream.
Walking the Wire, Riverside Theatre’s annual festival of original work from playwrights across North America, will bring to the stage a wide variety of potentially implausible scenarios as part of this year’s theme, This Will Never Work.
This year’s Walking the Wire is directed by Riverside Theatre Artistic Director Jody Hovland. The show is sponsored by Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT).
“Walking the Wire has all the theatricality of an aerial act - a single performer telling a story in a single spot of light. And this year’s theme insures plenty of daring twists and turns as well,” Hovland said.
With over 100 submissions from across the U.S. and beyond, the dozen monologues reflect a diverse range of original work from playwrights both near and far.
The 12 playwrights whose work will be presented are: Brent Boyd (North Hollywood, CA); Dave Carley (Toronto, ON); Ron Clark (Iowa City); Mark Harvey Levine (Pasadena, CA); Deborah Magid (Cleveland Heights, OH); Gordon Mennenga (Iowa City); Mike Moran (Mount Vernon); Amanda Petefish-Schrag (Maryville, MO); Gwendolyn Rice (Madison, WI); Janet Schlapkohl (Iowa City); Jen Silverman (Astoria, NY); and Amy White (Mount Vernon).
Three area writers, Clark, Moran and Schlapkohl, will perform their own work, with an additional cast of actors including Tim Budd, David Busch, Fannie Hungerford, Katherine Smith and Jessica Wilson.
Walking the Wire runs March 2-11. Showtimes are Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $28 for adults, $25 for 60 and over/30 and under, $15 for youth (18 and under). $15 student rush tickets are available 20 minutes before curtain on a first come, first served basis for any remaining seats. Tickets can be purchased online at www.riversidetheatre.org, by phone at (319) 338-7672 or at the Riverside Theatre Box Office. The Box Office is located at 213 N. Gilbert St, Iowa City. Box Office Hours are: 12 - 4 p.m. Monday – Friday, and one hour before performances.
Dreamwell Announces 2012-13 Season
Dreamwell - Now on the September - June "school year" model, Dreamwell has announced its next season, which will begin in 2012 and end in 2013. The theme this year celebrates female playwrights.
The shows:
The Women of Lockerbie by Deborah Brevoort
The House of Yes by Wendy MacLeod
The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek by Naomi Wallace
Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom by Jennifer Haley
The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
There will also be a Writer's Joust - a call for original submissions - included in the season.
Auditions for Bent March 7 & 8
Dreamwell - Auditions for Martin Sherman's Bent will be held at the Iowa City Public Library on March 7th (6-9, Meeting Room C) and March 8th (6-8:30, Meeting Room E).
Scripts may be checked out from Iowa City Public Library. Auditions will consist of reading from the script. The show runs June 1-9 with rehearsals beginning April 22nd. Angie Toomsen directs.
Bent tells the story of homosexual men persecuted by the Third Reich of Germany. Roles are as follows:
Max, Age 34. An attractive gay man, brimming with confidence and sex appeal and appears to be intimidated by no-one. However beneath the brash surface lurks a quiet and loving person.
Rudy, Aged 22-28. The caring and loving partner to Max, who loves his home and yearns for a quiet life with Max. He is a dancer in a nightclub.
Horst, Age 22-28. A gay man already imprisoned in the concentration camp. A level headed and educated person who is strong willed and has a determination to survive.
Wolf / Kapo. A stereotypical ‘Aryan’ male. He is an officer in the SA. Rather gullible and easily swayed.
Uncle Freddie. A very well spoken and well dressed middle aged gay man who shows every sign of wealth and extravagance.
Greta (MALE). The middle aged transvestite owner of a cabaret club in Berlin. (sings)
Captain, Aged 28-35. The German ‘Aryan’ head of the concentration camp. Not a nice guy.
Lieutenant, Aged 28-35. A German ‘Aryan’ Lieutenant who is particularly keen on obeying every order with precision. Also, not a good guy.
Auditions for Five Women Wearing the Same Dress March 4 & 5
TCR - Auditions for Alan Ball's Five Women Wearing the Same Dress will be held on March 4th & 5th, 7pm, at TCR.
No preparation is expected for the audition; actors will read from the script. The show runs April 13th - May 5th in the Grandon Studio. Angie Toomsen directs.
Submissions Being Accepted for Summer Show in Bloomfield
Davis County Players - The Davis County Fine Arts Council is accepting submissions for the Third Annual Davis County Players' Short Play Festival. The show goes up August 3rd; submissions are due May 15th.
Playwrights must be from Iowa; scripts must be unpublished. Several plays will receive a stage production and one play will receive a $100 prize. There are also $50 prizes for the best play written by a Davis County resident and the best play written by a Davis County student (18 or younger).
The plays should be 5-15 pages and on the theme "It's Over." No adaptations, musicals, or plays with "excessive profanity, sex and violence."
To submit a play, e-mail jg4horsemen@yahoo.com with the subject line "Summer Shorts." For additional information, click here.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
3 Brothers Looking for Stage Manager/House Manager
3 Bros - A new theatre company in the area is looking for volunteers to help with Stage Management and House Management. Interested parties e-mail 3brotherstheatre@gmail.com.
Toymaker's War Is Imaginative and Thought-Provoking
By James E. Trainor III
photos by Jennifer Fawcett
WGT - As tales of dead journalists make headlines everywhere, Toymaker's War -- the tale of a young woman risking everything to tell a career-making story -- seems eerily timely. The piece is not set in Syria but in Bosnia; it involves a conflict that began nearly thirty years ago today -- long enough ago to give us some poetic distance but recent enough to be emotionally resonant. The script, a new piece by Jennifer Fawcett, examines the role of the West in such conflicts, the devastating effects of civil war on the native population, and the gray areas around which harsh and very real battle lines are drawn.
The story centers around Sylvie, played by Ottavia DeLuca. She is a young Canadian journalist looking for a break, desperate to make an imprint on the world. She's drawn to the conflict in Serbia but is getting nowhere in Sarajevo. When she hears a rumor of a village of orphaned children, she steals a jeep and heads off into the wilderness towards her destiny.
The young Sylvie is idealistic, energetic, and hopelessly naive. She is determined to make herself heard and get the international community to do something about the ethnic cleansing. The story also takes place in the present, however, and the older Sylvie is completely transformed. The experience made her career -- she's now a seasoned war correspondent -- but it also scarred her deeply. When her colleague, Peter (played by Martin Andrews), pries into the details she left out of her story, we find out exactly how.
Young Sylvie thinks she can save Milan (played by Alec Hynes) and his little sister Lejla (played by Dorothy Jolly) by telling their story. Milan, however, is increasingly evasive about just what his story is. The charming teenage boy is something of an enigma. He's playful and childish enough -- the son of a dollmaker who clearly loves the craft -- but he's also cunning and dangerous. He's viciously protective of his sister and suspicious, though tolerant, of the western journalist with her probing questions and fantastic promises. He scoffs when she attempts to use her neutrality as a shield. "It's not my war," she claims. He responds that it wasn't his, either, until it came to him.
The village was already dividing among Serb and Muslim lines before the parents killed each other. Milan explains how his father, half Serb and half Muslim, had summed up the situation, back when there was still hope of clinging to peace: " 'My left arm must fight my right arm. How do I make dolls, how do I eat?' He tells this to the Imam, he tells this to the priest. They say 'no one wants dolls now.' "
Milan, still only 17, has fallen on the Serb side of the battle line, and does not know how to explain to his sister why she can no longer play with her Muslim friends. The Muslims hide out in the mosque and throw dirt at her. The Serbs take to the forest. All are armed; all are orphans. It's only a matter of time before they imitate their parents. "Like they were playing a game of 'all fall down,' " Sylvie later says.
Back in the present day, Sylvie is numb and haunted, no longer the young idealist she used to be. Milan has shown her the true face of war, and she can hardly face the cost. She says to Milan, "I didn't think children could do that," to which he responds, "When the children bury their parents, they are no longer children." Sylvie grows further away from the black-and-white present of Peter and further into the gray world of Starajena (Kayla Prestel), the mythical old woman who comes for the dead.
DeLuca's Sylvie is excellent. She's very sympathetic, even when a little bit clueless, with the dangerously charismatic Hynes. They have an immediate, if cautious, connection, and the pair works quite well together. Hynes himself creates a very memorable character in Milan. He wears a grin that is somehow bold and sheepish at the same time; he's still a little bit a child, still a little bit too pleased with himself. He has a lot of lovable, childish energy but at the same time is able to navigate the more serious moments of the play with appropriate gravity. DeLuca is a very giving scene partner here, drawing the audience into this charming and frightening character.
DeLuca also works quite well with Andrews. They play a very serious game with high stakes, and their scenes together are extremely tense, though not without humor. With all the moral ambiguity and big questions brought up in the play, there's a danger in these two being talking heads, but they're not; they've very realistic people whose very different lives have brought them into bitter conflict. DeLuca and Andrews, with the help of Sean Christopher Lewis' direction, have done an excellent job of realizing Fawcett's script in these scenes.
Dorothy Jolly is lovely as the fragile and imaginative Lejla. She doesn't speak any English, so everything she says must be translated by Milan, or left for the audience to guess at, but her physical presence is incredible and she adds a desperate energy to the piece every time she is on stage. While it is clear that she is in grave danger -- she is lost in fantasy and has only a stuffed dog for protection -- her presence creates a warm center to the play. She embodies the lost innocence that no one else is allowed to cling to.
Kayla Prestel strikes a foreboding presence without saying a word; completely shrouded, she crosses the stage to collect the souls of the dead. She has a real connection to DeLuca in these scenes, and they do a lot of storytelling with their physical work here.
The scenic design (by Shawn Ketchum Johnson) as well as the sound and light (by Sean Christopher Lewis and Courtney Schmitz Watson, respectively) create a very evocative atmosphere for this story. The set is made primarily of glass panels, and is open enough to create a great flexibility of playing areas. With the help of the light rig, the place can be an office, a tent in a war zone, a picturesque forest, or an abstract memory realm. The dolls strewn about the stage are an excellent symbol of the fragile innocence of the Bosnian children. The sound creates a real feeling of dread that cements the atmosphere of the play together quite well.
Fawcett's writing is perfect for the subject matter; she's not afraid to ask the hard questions about what this all means. It's very difficult to take sides; even as we dislike Peter for pointing out all the missteps the protagonist made, we can't help concede his points are valid. It's equally difficult to square Sylvie's reckless idealism with the grim realities of Milan's situation. Fawcett crafts this story in an emotionally evocative way, and while the violence described is graphic and gruesome when it needs to be, she speaks volumes with what she does not say, using subtle foreshadowing and wry irony to paint a larger picture.
Lewis' direction keeps the story moving at a steady and dramatic pace. He also makes excellent use of the scenic elements at his disposal, and the cast plays a very grim story in an almost fantastic environment. The final tableau is as incredibly imaginative as it is heartbreaking.
Toymaker's War is a testament to the imaginations of these theatre artists. The story is grand in theme but uncompromisingly personalized. This show runs just one weekend in Iowa City before going on tour; you don't want to miss this gripping story told from the heart.
Toymaker's War runs from February 23rd to February 26th. More information here.
What Are You Doing This Weekend?
We're going to the theatre. How about you?
There are a variety of choices available for the finicky theatre-goer out there. Let's look at the freshest first:
@Riverside
Working Group's brand-new play Toymaker's War opens tonight (February 23rd) at Riverside Theatre on Gilbert St. Written by Jennifer Fawcett and directed by Sean Christopher Lewis, it tells the story of an ambitious young journalist sucked into a world of child soldiers and ambiguous ethics. (Review here.)
@TCR
In the Grandon Studio at TCR, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde continues. It's Moises Kaufmann's look at the persecution of the famous satirist (Look here for a review).
@The Ox Yoke Inn
Murder Rides Again continues riding strong. (If you haven't made reservations for this weekend, never fear: they've added dates!
@Oster Regent Theatre
If you're in the Cedar Falls area (or you're not, and you're just up for a trek), you might want to check out the Oster Regent Theatre's production of Gogol's classic comedy, The Inspector General. It's a laugh-a-minute spectacle of mistaken identity, in its final weekend (7:30pm Friday & Saturday)
@The Englert
If you've been following the campaign season this year, you've probably heard a lot of talk about "Lincoln/Douglas" style debates. Wondering what all the fuss is about? Seeing The Rivalry might be informative. It's a docudrama by L. A. Theatre Works, using the original transcripts to create a entertaining and educational night of theatre. (Tonight only, 7:30pm)
@U of I
Or maybe you're thinking you'd sell your soul to see some college theatre? Then Dr. Faustus is the show for you! Christopher Marlowe's classic tale of reckless bargains, showing in Theatre B (Thursday through Saturday 8pm, Sunday 2pm)
@Cornell College
And if you're wondering what the devil that noise is next door, it's Cornell College's production of Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play. The play tells the curious and hilarious history of the creation of the vibrator, in Kimmel Theatre at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon. (Friday through Saturday 7pm, Sunday 2pm).
Last but not least, there are two special annual events going on in the area: Diamonds and Denim, by Riverside Theatre and Puppets and Pastries by Eulenspiegel. Diamonds and Denim includes an auction to support live professional theatre, and Puppets and Pastries involves a puppet show and some tasty treats. Both are guaranteed to be a great time, so get out there to celebrate and support local theatre!
That's your roundup for the week. Variety is the spice of life, so pick something and get out to the theatre!
Alice's Wonderland Cast List
TCR - TCR has announced its cast for Alice's Wonderland, a new adaptation of the Lewis Carroll's classic tale, adapted by Jason Alberty and directed by Leslie Charipar.
Actress #4 – The Caterpillar/7 of Spades - Theresa Alt
Actor #1 – Charles Dodgson/Lewis Carroll (Knave)- Andrew Clancey
Actress #5-The Cheshire Cat/Ace of Spades/Executioner - Amanda M. Eulberg
Actor #2-Mad Hatter (Manly) - Andy Lesieur
Actor #3-Dormouse (The Guinea Pig Sasha)/5 of Spades - Skylar Matthias
White Rabbit - Arjun Palaniappan
Actress #3-The Queen of Hearts - Mary Pat Schulte
Actor #4-The March Hare (Crazy Squirrel)/2 of Spades - James E. Trainor III
Actress #1-Alice Liddell - Victoria Virag
Actor #5-The King - Steve Worthington
Don't Drink the Water Auditions March 3 & 5
ICCT - Auditions for Woody Allen's Don't Drink the Water begin March 3rd. The piece is a comedy about a family on a European vacation that ends up in the communist country of "Vulgaria."
Dates: March 3rd @ 10-12 and March 5th at 6-9 the Iowa City Public Library.
Preparation: A two-minute monologue is requested but not necessary. Sides will be available at the door.
Roles:
MR. KILROY 20’s-30’s
AMBASSADOR – male 50’ish
AXEL MCGEE – 20’s
MARION -50’s
WALTER- 50’s
SUSAN -18-24
CHEF – male or female any age
KROJACK – male 30-50
BURNS – male or female 20-60
FATHER DROBNEY – Man of God 30-70
KASNAR – male any age
SULTAN OF BASHIR – any age
SULTAN’S WIFE – any age
COUNTESS – any age
GUARD – any age
More info: auditions@iowacitycommunitytheatre.com
UI Student Seeks Actor
Taylor Bradley, the author of an Honor Thesis Project entitled When the Lights Go Out, is looking for an actor to perform in his play.
The play: "a combination of a Classic Southern Drama, and Modern Melodrama; it takes place in Tennessee in 1936 and revolves around the growth of a young woman, Mae, coping with abuse, obsession, and abandonment."
The role: "RICHARD: Mae’s father (40-50). A strong and intimidating man struggling to cope with the unbearable mistakes he’s made; and through the rapid unraveling of his daughter’s life, he fully discovers what he’s responsible for."
Dates: March 23, 25, April 6, 18, 19
Contact taylor-bradley@uiowa.edu for more information.
Our Town Cast List
City Circle - The cast for Our Town has been announced. The show will open March 23rd at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts.
Stage Manager: Steve Rosse
Emily: Sage Behr
George: Samuel White
Howie: Andrew Mehgan
Professor: Robert Kemp
Sam Craig: Grant Linden
Doc Gibbs: Kenneth Van Edgon
Mrs. Gibbs: Mary O’Sullivan
Mr. Webb: Patrick DuLaney
Mrs. Webb: Robyn Calhoun
Rebecca: Anna Lindower
Wally: Andy Stewart
Mrs. Soams (1st Act): Roxanne Gustaveson
Mrs. Soams (Rest): Theresa Mosley-Meeks
Joe Cowell: Daniel Burgess
Si Cowell: Andrew Burgess
Simon Stimpson: Jesse Jensen
Joe Stoddard: Charles Lynch
Constable Warren: James Little
Emily’s Friends / Choir Members:
Ali Heath
Genevieve Wisdom
Serena Collins
Women / Choir Members:
Lois Crowly
Lori Beatty-Fye
Tess Wisom
Paula Grady
Rebecca’s Friends:
Kiva Meeks-Mosley
Katey Halverson
Ruby Murray
Men / Choir Members:
Mike Young
Stephen Castillo
George’s Friend:
Logan Natwig
Murder Rides Again Run Extended
Old Creamery - The dinner theatre murder mystery Murder Rides Again, now playing at Ox Yoke Inn, has added dates. Tickets are available for shows on March 23rd and 24th. More information here.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Dessert Theatre for Adults
Eulenspiegel - Every year, the Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre of West Liberty, Iowa, offers an evening of Puppets and Pastries, which they describe as "dessert theatre for adults." The show runs February 24 and 25 at 8 pm.
We sent Joe Jennison to review last year's offering and this is part of what he wrote:
"The evening reminded me of the absolute joy that is performance art: Puppets, theater, bluegrass, cabaret, wine, chocolate and kazoos – how lucky we are to have all this talent in one place, and all of these people who are willing to share said talent with us. I walked away reminded again of not only the talent available in the area, but rather, about how regularly that talent is given the opportunity and encouragement to get out onto a local stage and share through performance."
So consider tickling your imagination and your sweet tooth by attending "dessert theatre," featuring Eulenspiegel Puppets and their talented friends. Enjoy delectable desserts created by the inimitable Chef Mickey and the fabulous Acapulco Bakery. Drink delicious beverages and enjoy an evening of unique theatre. To reserve tickets, email owlglass@avalon.net.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Toymaker's War Opens February 23rd
WGT - Working Group Theatre marks the 20th anniversary of the beginnings of war in Bosnia with Toymaker's War, an original piece by Jennifer Fawcett.
The production opens February 23rd at Riverside Theatre.
Toymaker's War is the story of Sylvie Bernier, an ambitious young journalist, and Milan, a Bosnian Serb who is a "toymaker-turned-child-soldier."
From the press release:
"Milan’s little sister, Lejla, inhabits an imaginary world of dolls, knights and dragons. Beyond the perimeter of her childlike fantasies, however, a gathering storm of violence and hostility swells, exploding in a horrific climax for the children of the village.
Years later, Sylvie is a successful journalist summoned to the Hague to testify in a war crimes trial about the brutality and horror she was a part of. Haunted by memories of Milan, Lejla, the massacre—and a mysterious old woman who may or may not be real—Sylvie must face what really happened in Bosnia, actions taken in the name of revenge and love, and the part she played as a journalist and witness."
Fawcett is a graduate of the U of I's Playwright's Workshop who has received multiple awards for her work. In Toymaker's War she explores the moral ambiguity inherent in civil war:
"I am fascinated by the psychology of war and what happens inside someone that allows neighbor to turn on neighbor. Particularly with civil war, groups can work together one day and then divide, having to dehumanize or make a monster of a group to justify what they feel they must do to them. And when we are talking about children, it becomes unthinkable."
Toymaker's War is directed by Sean Christopher Lewis, with set design by Shawn Johnson. It stars Ottavia De Luca as Sylvie and Martin Andrews as Peter.
Performances are February 23-25 at 7:30pm, February 26 at 2:00pm, at Riverside Theatre (213 N Gilbert St). Tickets are $12-15 and can be reserved at 319.338.7672. There will be a talkback after the February 24th performance.
Auditions for Guys and Dolls March 23 & 24
City Circle - City Circle will hold auditions for Frank Loesser's Guys and Dolls on March 23rd from 6:30 - 8:45 pm at the Iowa City Public Library, Meeting Room D, and March 24th from 9:00 am - 3:30 pm at the Coralville Public Library, Meeting Rooms A and B.
Singing and dancing actors should e-mail director Josh Sazon at jsazon@citycircle.org to set up an audition. All interested performers should prepare 16 bars of a song.
The show runs June 15-24 at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts.
House of Wonders and Honk Casts Announced
ICCT - Both House of Wonders, opening March 23rd, and Honk, opening June 8th, have cast lists posted.
House of Wonders
Holly Edwards: Jen Brown
Rachel Hughes: Roxy Running
Chris Ferguson: John Bednarik
Myrta Jane Wonders: Kathy Maxey
Eugene Fugent: Chris Woodhouse
Cree LaFavour: Kaitlyn McCoy
Garthlene Calvert: Jill Van Dorpe
Juneau Jim Littlefield: Rip Russell
Honk
Ugly: Samuel White
Cat: Jeffrey Mead
Ida: Kait Skaggs
Drake: Jim Verry
Penny/Floor Manager: Marek Muller
Maureen: Haley Severance
Henrietta/Father Swan: Wesley Tener
Turkey: Mike Young
Grace/Froglet: Katey Halverson
Beaky/Bewick/Froglet: Claire Green
Downy/Froglet: Lily O’Brien
Fluff/Froglet: Bailey Raso
Billy/Froglet: Joseph Verry
Dot: Jill VanDorpe
Barnacles/Froglet: Grace Huber
Pinkfoot/Froglet: Jilly Cooke
Snowy/Froglet: Serena Collins
Maggie Pie: Michelle Altmaier
Queenie/Mother Swan: Ali Heath
Lowbutt: Amber Jannusch
Bullfrog: Avery Cassell
ICCT is still looking for additional male actors (all ages) for Honk. E-mail auditions@iowacitycommunitytheatre.com for more information.
Cast List for Baby With the Bathwater Announced
Dreamwell - Dreamwell has chosen the cast for its upcoming production of Christopher Durang's Baby With the Bathwater. Directed by Rachael Lindhart, this dark comedy explores the challenges of being a parent and the anxieties of being a child. The show will run April 20-28 at the Unitarian Universalist Society.
Helen – Kait Skaggs
John – Bryant Duffy
Nanny – Doreen Loring
Cynthia/Susan – Rebecca Wright
Kate/Principal – Annette Rohlk
Angela/Miss Pringle – June Kungu
Young Man (Daisy) – Brian Tanner
Auditions for University of Iowa School of Music Summer Opera
We just learned of an opportunity to audition for the University's production of Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore, this evening beginning at 5:30pm.
Details below.
Performances: July 13-15, Coralville Center for the Performing Arts
July 20 & 21, Hoyt Sherman Place, Des Moines
(An honorarium will be paid for the DSM performances)
Music rehearsals will begin mid-May
Staging rehearsals will begin June 4
Audition date/time/location:
Sunday, Feb. 19 5:30-10:00pm
CSM6 Room 160 (on the University of Iowa Campus)
Back-up Auditions/Call Backs: Monday, Feb. 20, 8:30 – 10:30 p.m.
Please sign up for a Sunday time. Use the Monday times only if there are no more times available on Sunday.
Guest artist Tony award winning actress Alice Ripley will present a two-week voice and movement workshop for the cast as part of this production.
Audition Requirements:
Auditions will be heard in groups of three. Please prepare a song/aria in English and a short monologue of one minute or less. The monologue does not need to be from a G&S show. You may be asked to sing only a portion of the piece you offer.
Monologues:
Singers, if you don’t have a monologue email Dr Muriello and he can make one available for you. (John-muriello@uiowa.edu)
Roles:
The Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Porter, KCB, First Lord of the Admiralty (baritone)
Captain Corcoran, Commander of the H.M.S.Pinafore (baritone)
Ralph Rackstraw, Able Seaman (tenor)
Dick Deadeye, Able Seaman (baritone)
Bill Bobstay, Boatswain’s Mate (baritone)
Bob Becket, Carpenter’s Mate, (bass/baritone)
Josephine, The Captain’s Daughter (soprano)
Cousin Hebe, Sir Joseph’s First Cousin (mezzo-soprano)
Little Buttercup, A Portsmouth Bumboat Woman (mezzo-soprano)
Chorus of Sailors, Sir Joseph’s Sisters, Cousins and Aunts
Questions: email john-muriello@uiowa.edu
Sign up for an audition time here.
Retrieve the audition form & monologue (if you don't have one) here.
If you do not have a UI hawk id, please follow the instructions below to sign up for an audition
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
1. Go to http://wiki.uiowa.edu/dashboard.action.
2. Click on "Log In" (top right of page)
3. Sign in on the "Guest Account" section to the right
4. Username: wikiguestuser@gmail.com
5. Password: wikiguest
*now you are logged in and can access the audition page at https://wiki.uiowa.edu/display/OnlineCallboard/AUDITIONS
Saturday, February 18, 2012
SPT Corners the Market on Comedy
By James E. Trainor III
SPT - Last night a crowd gathered at the recently-renovated CSPS building to see the latest installment of SPT's Tales from the Writer's Room. The theme this year is "The Games People Play;" each show revolves around a specific popular board game. This weekend's fare involves that classic game of money-grubbing, Monopoly.
The Writer's Room shows have been a cornerstone of SPT's work for a while now, but it is a new deveolpment that they have a large, flexible space in which to present them. The stage at CSPS, now with more seating, is deep enough to comfortably fit a band, with a lower space downstage for the skits and scenes, or for Doug and Jane to come down and do a fun number.
The stage offers a lot of options, and however director Richard Barker stages the action, everyone can be seen. Sightlines were becoming a serious problem as the Writer's Room series outgrew its previous accommodations. Monopoly makes great use of the larger space, employing a number of entrances on different levels to keep things moving. Actors talk to the band, one scene can set up while the other finishes, and people can enter from the mainstage, the smaller stage, or the house, altogether allowing for a show that doesn't stop to catch its breath unless it wants to. Arranging for a larger, more flexible performance space is probably the smartest move SPT has made, and they take full advantage of it here.
The band, as always, is great. Joined by local pop/rock musician Layton White as well as regular guests Greg Kanz and Dave Ollinger, they fill the space with sound, keep the show moving along, and provide a groove that keeps you tapping your feet. Band regulars are Janelle Lauer (who sits at the piano and sings a bouncy, defiant version of "I'm not Falling for You Anymore"), Doug Elliot, (who applies his clear charming voice to such nostalgic numbers as "Boardwalk" and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World") and Jane Pini (who brings down the house with "Little Pink Houses").
It's a rare treat to hear Dave Ollinger sing a number. His take on "Folsom Prison Blues" is a perfect choice to end an act; the catchy beat stays in your head throughout intermission and leaves you hungry for more.
Layton White is a young artist with a strong, soulful voice and a lot of passion. His versions of "Billionaire" and "Talk is Cheap" are a lot of fun. He's also game to join in the fun onstage, playing characters in "Rich Uncle Pennybags Falls on Hard Times" and "The People vs. Hallmark."
The actors — Akwi Nji, Mary Sullivan, and Adam Witte, with Jason Alberty and Dr. David Martino filling out the writing credits — are joined onstage by special guests Jim Kropa and Susie Streit.
Kropa is an excellent addition to this group, and he fills the stage with a very large and energetic presence. A great interstitial in this show is Kropa coming through between scenes, telling us in choppy, nervous monologues about how his ex-lover "monopolized" all his favorite love songs, and now music is ruined. In a comic twist on Aesop's "Grasshopper and the Ant," he creates a wild, loud, fun-loving insect to counter Nji's focused, industrious ant. He also sings, offering a steady, irreverent take on "King of the Road."
Streit is a solid performer with a great sense of comic timing. In "The People vs. Hallmark" she does a hilarious turn as a drunken, confused Judge Judy presiding over a case wherein a spurned lover tries to sue Hallmark for a faulty Valentine's card. With precision and biting sarcasm, she is able to hold her own against Kropa's larger-than-life Cupid, making for a lively, fast-paced skit.
There are a couple of interesting ideas that play out in this show. Part of it feels like an easy stroll around the block, reflecting on themes of hearth and home. In "Cedar Rapids," Adam Witte calls out Stephen Bloom with a witty, poetic counter to Bloom's much-reviled essay. In an inspiring note he remarks on our "battleship federal buildings" built to raise a defiant middle finger to the river; the sentiment, made in the midst of a New Bohemia that is decidedly in recovery, makes one wonder how cultural cornerstones such as CSPS failed to make a blip on Bloom's radar.
In a more comic vein, "A More Perfect Union" takes and turns Iowa's progressive marriage policies, as Sullivan and Witte play a straight couple who have come up from Arkansas to have a "happy, gay wedding," confounding the attempts of the "Pride Productions" wedding planner (played masterfully by Nji) to be inclusive. It's a very funny scene that leaves a warm and homey feeling, even as it pokes fun at the bitter state of our national discourse.
On the darker side, we are reminded in Monopoly of the economic realities we live in at the moment. The board game took off during the Great Depression, when people forgave the game its quirky mechanics for the chance to roleplay wheeling-and-dealing millionaires. Our own time is similar, and the "Monopoly" theme gives SPT a chance to compare and contrast these days to those. In "Rich Uncle Pennybags Falls on Hard Times" the masses revolt and occupy Park Place, a sardonic nod to the political turmoil going on even here in Iowa. In "Back to Start" a young woman gives herself a second chance to get the finances right. The pacing itself reflects the ups and downs of hard times — or a game of Monopoly: at times the show is fast-paced, energetic and restless, pulling itself up by its own bootstraps, and at others it is reflective, uncertain, assessing its situation. The timing always feels right for the moment, and director Richard Barker's hand is clearly at play here, bringing a wide variety of scenes and songs into a cohesive whole.
SPT's The Games People Play: Monopoly plays one more night: tonight, February 18th at 8pm at CSPS. If you don't have tickets to see this show, do not pass Go, do not collect $200 - get them now!
Monday, February 13, 2012
Precise, Nuanced Performances Make Gross Indecency Brilliant
By Elizabeth Breed
Admittedly, I don’t consider myself to be a scholar when it comes to the life and works of Oscar Wilde. Of course, being involved in the theatre world, I have studied his play The Importance of Being Earnest and I knew of An Ideal Husband and his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. I had no pre-existing knowledge, at least no extensive knowledge, of his personal life as I entered the Grandon Theatre at Theatre Cedar Rapids on Saturday night. To be honest, all I really knew was that he was famously homosexual, a label that was coined soon after, and perhaps as a result of, his London court trials beginning in 1895. TCR’s Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde chronicles those trials in a precise and affecting manner.
Written by Moises Kaufmann and the Tectonic Theatre Project in 1997, Gross Indecency utilizes letters, biographies, and Wilde’s own work to tell the story of his persecution and ultimate conviction of gross indecency, a term defined by Victorian law as being any actions that could be considered immoral. In Wilde’s case, it was an accusation of sodomy stemming from his relationship with his companion Lord Alfred Douglas. Kaufmann et al. are most famous for creating The Laramie Project, a work that tells the story of the aftermath of the murder of Laramie, Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard, and Gross Indecency is written in a very similar manner. Nine actors portray 40+ characters in a fast paced show that elaborates on Wilde’s three trials - not just the criminal court cases, but also the trials of Wilde’s sexuality, his morality, and his art.
Walking into the Grandon Studio on Saturday, I can’t say that I was “transported” into the world of Oscar Wilde, at least not in the literal sense. A minimalist set, the stage floor painted black, serves as an empty canvas on which the actors play. The very intimate space has no large set pieces, but three upholstered period chairs, a platform and rail for the witness stand, and several boxes to provide for levels served many different purposes effectively. An interesting feature of the set was a series of hooks on stage right and stage left. Hanging coats, hats, and other costume pieces there allowed the actors easy access to them when needed and helped create a smooth transitions for the actors' many characters. One particularly nice choice was to have all of the actors playing newspaper reporters wear the same hat, which they would pass off to one another in a staging ballet. The accessibility of the costume pieces was very helpful in keeping up the pacing of a quite difficult script, and the audience was able to stay in the world of the play that the nine skilled actors were able to create.
The actors’ portrayals of the 40 or so characters necessitated fast changes from one role to the next. Many of those switches were gracefully accomplished by the change of accents or dialects, or even slight nuanced postures or gestures. The cast was able to master several English dialects, as well as Irish, Scottish, French, and even a stereotypical American accent. The majority of the time the actors were able to hold their accents with ease, with only occasional slip ups, such as a few dropped accents here or there, and the occasional insertion of an accidental Southern accent, but overall, very realistic and unforced, all around! Since I did not notice a credit of a dialect coach in the playbill, I assume it was the actors and director who worked to make their dialects genuine. 
David Morton elegantly portrayed the role of Oscar Wilde. As the doomed playwright, Morton’s Wilde was sophisticated, regal, and even at times gamesome, especially when being questioned by the opposing attorney in Act One. Morton successfully fused a masculine energy with a somewhat feminine gait and posture; mixing that with a timbre one would liken to that of a skilled Shakespearean actor made his performance nothing less than entrancing. When he was speaking, the audience could barely tear their eyes away from Morton; it was evident early on in the production that he had the audience wrapped around his little finger. My friend who attended the performance with me professed her disappointment felt the very few times that Morton was not onstage. Delightfully eloquent and beautifully portrayed!
Matthew James filled the part of Lord Alfred Douglas, Wilde’s companion and lover, with the grace of any nobleman of that time period. Taking full ownership of the role of Lord Douglas, he also mastered several smaller roles with gusto, especially that of Marvin Taylor, a modern day Wilde scholar, in a cute, but slightly misplaced scene. Every role James plays is realized with his entire body, and his moves and dialect are precise. In one particularly touching scene towards the end of the play, Lord Douglas is reading a letter that Wilde has written, which Morton narrates. James does not speak a word, but entire volumes of emotions are recited in his glossy eyes. It is truly heartbreaking.
In Act One, the two counsels are played aptly by Greg Smith and Keith A. Kenel. Smith’s Sir Edward Clark is very intelligent and assertive, but it sometimes seemed was bogged down by the dialect. Despite this, moments of true sympathy occur between Clark and Wilde, and Smith is able to adjust to his strength to meet his powerhouse scene partner. Also lovely are his moments of cross-examination, when he defends his client against his accusers with a cleverness that was very enjoyable to watch. Kenel’s Edward Carson, the prosecuting attorney, was a bit uneven at times, suffering from an imprecise portrayal and an occasionally dropped accent, but he was able to recover during times of direct philosophical dialogue with Wilde and he was truly able to shine.
Kevin Burford’s Act One character is that of the Marquess of Queensbury, Lord Douglas’s father and the man accused of libelous remarks in the first trial. Burford’s portrayal is passionate and unyielding, but again was hindered by the dialect. Many of Burford’s early speeches provide a fair amount of exposition in the first few minutes of the play, and most of them were quite hard to understand, perhaps due to the strong dialect as well as the fast pace that for a majority of the time is very precise, but early on seemed a bit careless. Burford was skilled enough to remedy this as the play progressed, and the rest of his performance, and his other roles, were stellar. 
The cast is rounded out by ensemble actors Mike Wilhelm, Paul Freese, Andrew Clancey, and Bryant Duffy, with all the men in the cast serving as narrators, newspapermen, prostitutes, and others. Perhaps my favorite scene in the show was when the four men portrayed the four men who were Wilde's accusers in his sodomy trial. A mixture of smarm, sympathy, and detestation was adamant in this scene. Due to the relationship the audience had established with Wilde early on in the performance, we felt as if we were to despise these men, but all four actors were able to keep empathy and surprising likability in their portrayals, particularly that of Freese’s Fred Atkins and Wilhelm’s Alfred Wood.
One of my favorite performances of the night was that of Wilhelm’s George Bernard Shaw. The only other familiar name to me, Wilhelm’s Shaw was exceedingly likable and almost playful, to the point of nearing close territory of becoming a caricature due to the thick Irish accent, but he was able to hold back just enough that the portrayal stayed truthful. Duffy’s Act Two role of Frank Lockwood, prosecutor in the final, damning trial, was haunting and contained, even in a simple hand gesture made in a non-speaking moment, a moment paralleled in an earlier scene where Duffy portrays one of Wilde's accusers, Sidney Mavor, a time where a powerful, nuanced turn of the body can say so much by speaking so little.
All in all the cast and crew of Gross Indecency has much to be proud of. Through the use of little more than their bodies, the nine actors are able to convey a very big message through very nuanced performances. The text of this piece is not easy to perform, and it’s relevance is not at first evident. But in an age of societal morality issues, particularly those of the rights of homosexuals in this country, this piece is far too relevant, tragically it seems. A truly lovely night of theatre!
Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde plays through March 3rd in the Grandon Studio at Theatre Cedar Rapids. Showtimes are 7:30pm Thursday through Saturday, 2:30pm Sunday. Tickets here.
SPT offers Monopoly this weekend only
SPT - "We are now in the age of acquisition. For some reason gain equals status. We must have what we want, and the chase is no longer the ends, but the means to have more than others."
SPT Theatre is in the midst of their "Games People Play" season. Previous shows this season were inspired by the classic games Twister and Trivial Pursuit. Running just two nights, February 17 and 18, SPT will next present an evening of music and sketches inspired by the granddaddy of all board games, Monopoly.
At this blog, we've been encouraging you to check out one of their shows for a while now. Reviewer Sarah Jarmon summed up the experience well last November: "A sketch show feel spliced with powerhouse vocal performances and a comfortable lack of barriers between the audience and the performers makes this somewhat expensive ticket well worth the admission price."
SPT performs at CSPS (1103 Third St SE) in Cedar Rapids. You can get tickets here.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Sans Merci is Intense and Inspiring
By James E. Trainor III
Dreamwell - "Love is the intersection of two poetries," says Elizabeth in the first act of Sans Merci. It's a romantic statement, fitting coming from a lover of Keats, but it comes with a catch: our "poetries" are mad. Elizabeth likens them to demons within, which make us passionate and protective, but tend to drive us to destroy the very things we cherish.
Elizabeth is tormented by the loss of her daughter, Tracy. Tracy was killed in Columbia, where she had gone to help the U'wa Indians protest against drilling in their homeland. She learned about the U'wa from her classmate Kelly, a Political Science major and budding activist.
When Tracy and Kelly meet, their poetries hit head on and intertwine. They tiptoe around for a brief time, admiring each other. Tracy admires Kelly's courage and strength; Kelly admires Tracy's beauty and intellect. Neither is sure how to tell the other she is gay, but when the tension finally breaks, they dive in headfirst and fall completely in love. They live for each other.
And very shortly they die for each other. Except Kelly survives, miraculously, to continue on broken, in agony, and wallowing in grief. She blames herself for Tracy's murder. Elizabeth blames her, too. She, a religious conservative who disapproves of her daughter's relationship in the first place, has taken a pilgrimage to meet Kelly and discuss the incident face-to-face. Elizabeth is seeing her first "lesbian apartment," and Kelly is having her first serious conversation with a Republican. These two woman, who would be sworn enemies at a political rally, must somehow meet across the palpable tension in the room. They both very intimately know very different parts of Tracy, who is gone forever. They're uncomfortable with each other, but they need each other to navigate their shared grief.
The script, by Johnna Adams, is darkly poetic and preoccupied with the more destructive aspects of humanity, but it is also quite funny in parts. The play is littered with uncomfortable moments broken by wry observations, and there's a bit of gallows humor as the characters attempt to get some sort of grip on destinies spun out of control. It's well-crafted, very smart, and altogether haunting. Meg Dobbs' direction shows a deep feeling for the story, and she navigates the peaks and valleys with confidence and care.
The ghost of Tracy's death hangs over the play, talked about by Kelly and Elizabeth, ironically foreshadowed in the scenes with Kelly and Tracy, portrayed explosively on stage in the last scene. In stands for a lot of things, but one of the biggest is humanity's capacity for cruelty.
The experience takes Kelly down a notch. She still has posters of Rachel Corrie and César Chávez on her wall, but her passion is a bit muted. She still doesn't want to live in a world without pity or mercy, but now understands the price for standing up. Elizabeth, for her part, can't bring herself to feel pity for anyone but herself and her daughter. The clash between the two brings up interesting questions. Should Gandhi have kept his head low and looked out for his family? Is it reckless for a young American woman to go to Palestine to stand in front of a bulldozer, or is the only way to be heard? If no one speaks up out of fear, have we lost all hope for peace?
The play doesn't answer these questions - it leaves them hanging, like the bitter, unresolved grief of the main characters - but it does do an excellent job of portraying exactly what the stakes are. And Dreamwell's actors do a fabulous job of inhabiting these dark and passionate characters.
Elisabeth Ross plays the fragile and lovable Tracy. Her first scene is quite effective; Tracy has a fear of public speaking, and must give a presentation on Keats to her class. Ross starts with confidence, but gradually builds into a shaking, nervous panic. She takes great care here with her physicality and vocal energy, and the result is quite uncomfortable to watch. If you've ever seen a speaker overcome with stage fright, it's embarrassing for everyone in the room, and Ross hit the tone exactly. With Kelly, however, Tracy opens up and finds her voice, and these scenes are a delight. The two hang on each other's every word, the sexual tension is apparent, and the romantic relationship is believable. Her final monologue is extremely powerful; what was at first a timid but compassionate young woman has become a creature of feminine fury, a symbol of unkillable moral outrage.
Avonique Tipsword is incredible as Kelly. Her physical choices are subtle and well thought-out; she walks with a cane, having been shot in the leg, but doesn't exaggerate the posture or oversell it at all. In both the present day and in the flashbacks, she leans into the character with all her attention and energy. Tipsword is a very generous scene partner; in particular she is good at listening and responding during the speeches of others, and in saying a lot with just a few words. It's a skill that's well applied in this play, which is full of moments where the action hinges on subtext and unspoken but overwhelming feelings.
Annette Rohlk also masters these moments well. She plays a character a bit more sophisticated than the two young woman, one who has learned to cover up her animosity with a chatty nervous energy. She sets the pace of the first scene when she comes on, trying to make little jokes to cover the enormity of the situation, creating an awkward buzz that drops into an uncomfortable silence when Kelly realizes who she is. Another good moment for Rohlk is when Elizabeth is sorting through the backpack Tracy wore on the fatal trip to Columbia. In an absurd but heartbreaking gesture, she cuts half of the hair from Tracy's brush and hands it to Kelly. In a bizarre, self-made ritual, she divides all the possessions thus, composed and matriarchal, demarcating the two very different experiences of the dead woman.
Meanwhile, Kelly lays out Tracy's clothes on the couch in the shape of a person, creating a ghost lover in her living room. She will later cuddle up against this avatar while listening to Tracy's last words on her iPod. It's in little gestures like these that Sans Merci really succeeds; faced with the problem of how to dramatically portray an internal emotion like grief, Adams comes up with these almost expressionist tableaus to show us women actively struggling for stability, creating a cliff wall to dig into and hang on to for dear life. It's a wonderfully written, directed, and acted scene, and it stands as a testament to why we still go to live performances in the digital age.
The acting and pacing in this production were excellent; kudos to Meg Dobbs for selecting a great cast and guiding them through the process. The set, designed by Rich Riggleman, was simple and effective; a realistic apartment, separated by curtains for the flashback scenes, and just a few well-chosen props to suggest a college dorm. The costumes were equally effective, and all quick changes went off smoothly. Ross' costume in Scene 3 is a great example of storytelling by wardrobe; her outfit, along with the bit of rouge on her cheeks, tells us a lot about how she feels for Kelly. The lights (also by Rich Riggleman) and sound (by Brian Tanner) do a great job of setting the emotional tone for each scene; the rain for the present-day scenes is particularly dreary and oppressive.
All the elements come together in the end, when we see Tracy appear behind the window to rail at the men who raped her. The staging and lighting create a striking image - she is naked and haunting, already a ghost, but powerful in her fury - and Ross' acting and the reactions of Tipsword and Rohlk carry through the setup very effectively. One wonders if Rohlk's sobs go on a touch too long, as Tracy's last words speak loudly and clearly for themselves, but that's more a matter of taste than anything.
Sans Merci is a difficult play to watch, gripping as it is in its depictions of grief, but it's also quite a moving and inspiring spectacle. Grim as these women are, they will carry on, and Tracy's memory will live to inspire future generations who wonder whether they have the courage to stand up against injustice. It's easy to see why this piece was chosen for Dreamwell's "Here I Stand" season. It reminds us that life, if it is to be lived fully, requires love and joy but also pity and mercy, and that our destinies, if we are to meet them, require profound sacrifice.
Sans Merci plays February 11, 17 and 18, at the Unitarian Universalist Society in Iowa City. Tickets are $13 ($10 for students). The production contains nudity and a gunshot, and is recommended for mature audiences.
