Riverside Theatre -Riverside Theatre invites playwrights to submit monologues for performance in Walking the Wire: Monologues at Riverside. This annual celebration of original work features monologues of ten minutes or less by both established and up-and-coming playwrights. The focus for this season’s monologues is: HOLIDAY TALES. Submissions must be postmarked July 15, 2009 or emailed as a Word document and dated by midnight July 15; final selections will be announced no later than September 1. The monologues will be performed November 19-22 at Riverside Theatre. Go here for more information.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Theatre in Amana
ITAC and Old Creamery - Both professional theaters in Amana have shows opening this weekend. Old Creamery has The Odd Couple by Neil Simon while Iowa Theatre Artists Company offers Squabbles by Marshal Karp.
ITAC's website offers a description of the lesser known Squabbles.
Jerry Sloan is a successful writer of advertising jingles married to Alice, an equally successful lawyer. Living with the happy couple is the not-so-happy Abe Dreyfus, Jerry's curmudgeon of a father-in-law. Abe's presence turns the young couple’s lives slightly upside down, but it is not until Jerry's mother Mildred is added to the household mix, that the recipe for disaster boils over. Strong-willed Mildred and the equally strong-willed Abe form a mutual animosity society that provides plenty of complications as well as lots of laughter. Meg Merckens and Patrick O’Brien team up in this wonderful comedy to play two cantankerous senior citizens forced to move into the home of her son and his daughter, with one hilarious confrontation after another.
Of course, most everyone has heard of The Odd Couple, one of Neil Simon's most 
popular comedies. Oscar Madison with his beer drinking, poker playing buddies and Felix Unger with his neat-freak ways, will take the stage this weekend. The cast includes Old Creamery favorites Sean McCall as Felix and Tom Milligan as Oscar, with local radio personalities Dennis Green, of Jazz 88.3 KCCK-FM, as Roy; and Ric Swann of Schulte & Swann morning show on Z102.9, as Murray. Joe Jennison of the Cultural Corridor Alliance will portray yet another poker player, while two other Old Creamery Company favorites, Jackie McCall and Deborah Kennedy will play the Pigeon Sisters, Cecily and Gwendolyn. Rounding out the cast is Old Creamery regular Steve Weiss, as Vinnie.
Check out Amana for some great theatre!
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Hair Review
TCR - Theatre Cedar Rapids is putting on their spring production of Hair at a temporary location located at the parking lot Lindale Mall. Other theaters in the area could be so lucky as to claim this as a temporary location.
The opening of the show was electric, as the ensemble immediately took us back to the 60s with the song "Aquarius." The momentum carried us for a while until the lack of a storng plot becomes a little wearing. Fortunately, there are excellent performances all the way through.
Jim Kropa is very watchable as one of the main characters, George Berger. He spends much of the play shirtless and uses his lithe body language well to convey the looseness of the character. Kropa's stage presence is something that cannot be taught. He draws every eye in the theatre. Unfortunately, his voice isn't always quite up to the requirements of the role.
Tim Arnold shines as the musical's protagonist, Claude Hooper Bukowski. The plot, what there is of it, revolves around his indecision regarding the draft. It's never quite clear why he is so indecisive; is he worried he will go to prison? Does he just not want to go to Canada? His struggles would have had more resonance had we understood his motivations. I suppose it's possible that at the time the show was written, the audience would understand completely Claude's indecision. Modern audiences didn't live through the Vietnam War and do not have that frame of reference. That said, however, Arnold infuses every song with the proper emotions, and is a pleasure to watch and listen to, and the audience ends up very much caring what happens to him.
The women in this play aren't given much character development. Although many of them do have solos, they never quite cohere into a plot. That's the fault of the script, though, not the actresses, who were each delightful in their own way. Brooke Harlander as Crissy, a Kennedy High School senior, sounds wonderful when she plaintively sings about the boy she met in front of the Waverly; unfortunately she lost his address. Kelsey Madsen as Sheila does a moving rendition of "How Can People Be So Heartless?" She has a wonderful deep voice with a bit of an edge to it, and I would 
have liked to hear her sing more, and to know more about her character.
The costumes in this production were absolutely wonderful and spot-on. The girls were braless in shapeless long dresses, and the boys were embroidered, fringed, and shaggy. Most of the choreography was beautiful and seamless and aptly suited the music. However, A couple of instances of everyone moving in step during moments when individual activities would have made more sense stood out more because of that discrepancy.
I have to laud the band which accompanied this musical. When the show first began I actually got a little annoyed that TCR had used what was clearly recorded music, since it sounded so professional, and went off in my mind on a little mini-tangent about out-of-work local musicians. So I was pleasantly surprised when I realized that there was a band; they were just tucked off behind a wall on the other side of the makeshift auditorium.
The show ends as strongly as it began as Claude's decision and the consequences of that decision are made clear. The ending song involves the entire audience and more than one person was singing along. The electric energy that opened the show was back and the cast received a standing ovation. Despite the flaws of the script, this show is definitely worth seeing as the cast and the musicians infuse it with an energy that is contagious.
--Sharon Falduto and Matthew Falduto
Sharon Falduto has been involved with theatre for many years. Notable roles include Corrie in Barefoot in the Park with Dreamwell and Myra in Hay Fever with ICCT. She has directed God for the now defunct student group, West Side Players, and Of Mice and Men for Dreamwell. She is currently out of the theatre scene, as she is busy directing the lives of Rachel, Samantha, and Piper at her home in Coralville. She still enjoys the stage, however, and hopes to trod the boards again in the future.
Matthew has a Bachelor's degree in English from the University of Iowa. He has directed, acted in, and produced theater in the Iowa City area for over ten years. He has worked with the Iowa City Community Theatre, City Circle and Dreamwell, of which he is a founder. Two of his plays have been produced in the Iowa City area. In another brief life, he also worked as a technical writer.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Hair opens tonight
TCR — Janelle Lauer and Leslie Charipar love the 1960s. Even though both are too young to really remember them.
Still, the Theatre Cedar Rapids directing team is making sure their young actors understand exactly what era they’re portraying in Hair, the groundbreaking rock musical about the 1960s hippie movement that opens Friday, May 1 and continues through May 16.
“A lot of the concepts behind what this show was written about were very near and dear to my heart because of my parents’ history, and the way I grew up the first 10 years of my life,” says Lauer of Cedar Rapids, who is music-directing the TCR production. “So when our actors first picked up their scripts, I had an assignment for them: Get a hold of everyone you can who lived through that generation, and find out what it was like to go through that — living with the Vietnam War, worrying about getting drafted, and understanding what that hippie lifestyle was like.”
As some of the cast has discovered, there are more similarities to modern times than one might think. And that’s exactly why Hair continues to endure, more than 40 years after its debut on Broadway in 1968.
In fact, Hair is now back on Broadway in a celebrated revival. Local audiences, however, can catch the show right here when Hair performs at TCR Lindale, 4444 1st Ave. NE.
With book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt McDermot, Hair tells the story of a tribe that struggles against war, the status quo and all of society’s norms. Led by the charismatic Berger (Jim Kropa), they gladly burn their Vietnam draft cards — except for Claude (Tim Arnold), who struggles with whether he should go to war after all.
The show is famous for songs like “Let The Sunshine In,” “Aquarius” and “Easy To Be Hard,” as well as the title song.
“There’s something about Hair and how accurately it recreates the environment of the 1960s, which is thrilling for either the people who lived through it or the people who sort of have a romantic notion of it,” says TCR Artistic Director Leslie Charipar. “Like all good period pieces, it remains relevant throughout time.”
For actor Jim Kropa, who plays Berger, the fact that Hair is a musical is a key part of what makes it feel so authentic.
“To see people singing and dancing is a representation that’s closer to the actual experience, because it’s such an overwhelming thing to imagine yourself living as a hippie,” Kropa says. “Living on the streets, begging for your next meal, trying to stop the war and staying high all the time —in the same way that music touches a chord that is beyond words, what we have in Hair is the music and the dance reaching a level of experience that a play can’t.”
Tim Arnold, who plays Claude, is quick to point out what a thrill the show is, for the performers as well as the audience.
“You create this tribe, and this family, and if you do it right then it’s an incredibly fun show to be a part of,” Arnold says. “I think that’s why it keeps coming back.”
“The message still applies today,” adds Kelsey Madsen, who plays Sheila. “You should love life, and love your neighbor. And we shouldn’t be going over to kill people in wars that don’t make sense.”
For Lauer, it’s those similar experiences of today — a war overseas, a call for change by the younger generation — that make the show still resonate with audiences today.
“I hope people can see that even though it’s a period piece from 1968, that there’s a lot of the same ideals and idealism,” she says. “We can still overcome adversity, and we can bond together to create something wonderful.”
Hair will be performed May 1-16 at TCR Lindale, 4444 1st Ave. NE, at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $20 and $25, with $10 rush tickets available one half hour before each performance. For tickets, call 366-8591 or visit their website. Hair is sponsored by GreatAmerica Leasing Corp.
Hair is intended for adult audiences only.
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