Is It That Time Already?

by James E. Trainor III

It's that time again, as the 00s roll over to the 10s, to take stock. What Cedar Rapids shows really stand out as memorable over the last ten years? Why? And what's this whole theatre thing all about, anyway?

Of course this list is highly subjective, and I'm sure to have missed some pretty amazing productions (according to what I've been told, for example, Moving Home is something I should not have missed), but here is my personal top five favorite shows in Cedar Rapids, 2000-2009:

5) Urinetown - Kirkwood Community College

Since I went back to school for a big chunk of the 00s, I saw a lot of college shows. It's always good to see growing artists honing their craft, and Kirkwood's faculty helps give the shows a real professional feel.

Urinetown is a satirical musical by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis. It tells the story of a community under the oppression of a brutal 20-year drought, and the "pay-to-pee" plan instituted by the Urine Good Company, which owns all the public toilets. Done in a fourth-wall demolishing Brechtian style, it serves as a hilarious send up of Marxist politics, the excesses of corporate greed, and the form of musical theatre itself.

Kirkwood's music program is very good, and the students shined in this production. Jillian Noah (whose soulful voice is known to fans of Funk 101) played Hope, the disastrously optimistic daughter of Caldwell B. Cladwell, the villainous head of the Urine Good Company, brilliantly acted by Ryan Westwood. Alex Chapman played Bobby Strong, the naive, headstrong boy who takes a stand and dares to "pee for free." Other notable performances included Colin Rail as Officer Lockstock, Molly Pratt as Little Sally, and Sheila Wagner as Penelope Pennywise.

The design of the show created a wonderful environment. Doug Anderson's lighting design created the dark, cynical atmosphere of this story, and his set gave the cast plenty of room for this rather large show. Annie Noah's costumes reinforced the themes quite well; when the poor people stood up to the rich in the end of the first act, it looked like something lifted directly from an old propaganda poster. All in all, a hilarious and thought-provoking piece.

4) Cosi - Theatre Cedar Rapids

Of all the diverse shows I've seen at TCR in the past ten years, the fun and outrageous Cosi is actually the one that makes me the most sentimental. I think it was the clash of the idealistic protagonist with the grim realities of mental illness that drew me into the piece. It's based on playwright Louis Nowra's own experience in 1971, when he was hired to direct Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial By Jury at a mental institution. In Cosi, the play has been changed to Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, but the time and task are the same. Lewis (played passionately and honestly by Gareth Strope), the protagonist, at first clinging to his baby-boomer idealism, discovers real, practical, messy humanity in these people, and in the process reaches a deeper understanding of what it means to make a difference in the world.

As I recall, there was nothing fancy in this show; it was just good storytelling. Richard Barker's direction was unencumbered and straightforward, and the energetic performances of Jason Alberty, Marty Norton, David McCauley and David E. Hein were delightfully funny while still getting the message across. This charming production is one of my fondest recent memories of TCR.

3) A Number - Stage Left Productions.

Stage Left was a short-lived but energetic project, charged with bringing affordable and thought-provoking theatre to the Cedar Rapids area. Many of their productions were a little raw around the edges, but Caryl Churchill's A Number stood out as being carefully planned and artfully produced. Steven Marc Weiss and Steve Wunderlich performed in this two-hander, and Josh Beadle directed.

Churchill has a knack for dropping the audience directly into an intense emotional moment without needing to spend a lot of time on backstory. What can be pieced together about the plot of A Number is this: Salter at some point cloned his son, in order to make up for his catastrophic failure as a father the first time around. However, he got more than he bargained for, and as the show opens we learn that there are an unspecified number of clones walking around.

The plot may sound a little far-fetched, but the play is really about universal emotional issues: the problems of fatherhood and the difficulty of putting one's finger on personal identity. Weiss and Wunderlich did a lot of work on Churchill's extremely challenging text in order to bring it to Cedar Rapids, at the Paul Engle Center for Neighborhood Arts. The small, three-quarter round set was very effective in setting an intimate mood for this piece.

A Number was one of the most professional and effective shows of the short-lived Stage Left Productions, and my personal favorite.

2) Pillowman - Urban Theater Project

UTP shows are few and far between, but they have enough of an effect on the community that the company deserves a mention here. The brainchild of Leslie Charipar, the Urban Theatre Project strives to bring Cedar Rapids, in the words of its website, "its own brand of visceral, messy, in-your-face theater in non-theatrical settings all over the city."

Martin McDonagh's Pillowman was directed by Jason Alberty, who took over as Artistic Director when Charipar was succeeded Richard Barker at Theatre Cedar Rapids. The production took place in the empty space above Blend, which contributed a lot to its toned-down, minimalist approach.

McDonagh's play is a mix of gritty realism and Orwellian fantasy. Katurian is an writer of horror stories who is being interrogated by the police in an unspecified totalitarian state. The police believe the subject matter in his stories, most of which deal with children being gruesomely murdered, connects him to a recent string of disappearances. We soon learn the truth, but not before we are introduced to the macabre background stories of Katurian, his brother Michael, and the two detectives.

This is dark comedy at its finest, and Jason Alberty certainly stepped up to the task here. I think the best thing about this production was that everything was hemmed in; the set was simple and functional, and nearly all of the extras were replaced by some rather chilling animation shorts (produced by Paul Huenemann and Right Purdy Productions).

Most significantly, the performances themselves were minimalistic. One expects outrageous flights of fancy from Jason Alberty, but the humor here was rather small and subtle. Jim Kropa, who played Katurian, was intensely committed throughout the piece. Only for brief moments did he seem to get lost in his head; for most of the time he was entirely present, acting moment to moment. Scott Humeston, who played Tupolski, was subtle and never over-performed. His approach to the material was simple and his objective work was clear, and the result was that his wry sense of humor really showed through. On the other end of the spectrum, Alex Williams was a delight. A terrifying delight, to be sure, but there was something magnetic about his portrayal of the psychotically violent Ariel. Though his approach was a lot more dynamic than the others, every bit of physical work was well thought-out and full of dramatic purpose.

I really enjoyed this show. A great script, a great cast, and skillful direction made it one of my favorites.

1) The Crucible - Classics at Brucemore

There's something about the right show at the right time that reminds us why we do theatre. The Crucible, Arthur Miller's masterful indictment of McCarthy-era politics, was the perfect selection for the summer of 2002, when the civil-rights abuses of the PATRIOT Act were fresh in our minds.

Perhaps choosing the right play would have been enough, but this production, director by Jim Kern, made such a lasting impression on me for two reasons. First, they made excellent use of the Brucemore grounds, which is not always suited to a lot of shows that are produced there. I was particularly struck by the way the show started. There was no announcement or curtain speech; rather, the girls ran off to play at witchcraft in the woods, drawing the audience's attention offstage, and Parris ran off to catch them at it. Other scenes made simple and effective use of what really can be a magical playing space.

Second, the acting was simply superb. Everyone involved seems to understand the stakes in the story, and everyone was honest, passionate and committed. In particular, David McCauley was frightening as the ruthless Deputy Governor Danforth, and Rip Russell was strong and noble as the complex John Proctor. His stand against authority was particularly reassuring at the time, at the beginning of the Bush years, as it served to remind me that I was not alone in being troubled by the aggressive stance being taken by the newly authoritarian government. Dramatizing a resistance to injustice gives us a feeling of control over our own destiny.

And perhaps that's what theatre is for: to look at issues that are too complex be covered in a sound byte. To show us not only our opponents' follies, but our own. To act out our struggles, both small and large, right now, in front of us, using real people and physical props. It's an incredible philosophical exercise, to sit safely in the cover of darkness, while we take a stand against the oppressive state by proxy.

Or are crushed underneath its heel, if only our stories can be saved. Or question our fathers, or heal the sick, or lead a hopeless revolution with an optimistic song. All of these shows, in different ways, reminded me why I love the theatre, and how lucky I am to have such a variety of quality theatre here at home.

Of course, I've left a lot out. Congratulations to the successes of all Cedar Rapids theaters, big and small, and good luck in the next ten years. I can't wait to see what 2010 will bring.

(For some thoughts about theatre in the Iowa City area, check out Matt Falduto's piece here.)

Stage Left is done

Stage Left - In an email sent August 16, 2009, Josh Beadle officially ended Stage Left's five year run as a theatre dedicated to providing the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City cultural corridor with quality productions of contemporary theatre. A lot of talented and passionate people worked with Stage Left and I'm sure we'll see them in other venues. They created a lot of theatre in that short period of time. The one that stands out in my mind was their production of Caryl Churchill's A Number from last March. Good wishes to all involved in Stage Left.

A Review of A Number

Stage Left - On your way to A Number you may drive through a downtown awaking from a coma, discovering missing and paralyzed limbs. You may hear on the radio the words bankruptcy, financial crisis, market meltdown, record unemployment, toxic assets. As you turn right on 12th and left on 3rd and right on 16th, you may drive past a group of young men, wandering aimlessly past dark houses, yelling obscenities and throwing stray punches.

Then, on the corner, you will find the Paul Engle Center Neighborhood Center for the Arts’ white façade glowing, drenched in swooping murals of rainbow people and bicycle spokes, looking like a remnant of the Old West met the Wizard of Oz.

And then, as you sit down to Stage Left’s exacting production of Caryl Churchill’s short play, you may remember that even amidst the low hanging clouds of natural disaster, recession and poverty, the human spirit is as free to imagine and create as it ever was.

You sit down. The house lights go dark. Two men take their places in the ad hoc living room before you: one older, slightly hunched and defeated, in a dingy sweater; one younger, shoulders back, in a button-down shirt. Four lamps come up to warmly illuminate their faces, and they hold you spellbound and intrigued on the tip of their tongues for the next brief hour with Churchill’s fast-moving fragmented sentences and mythic-scaled themes.

“A number…” the play begins. There are a number of—not twins, but scientifically engineered copies of the younger man, Bernard (Steve Wunderlich). His father, Salter (Steven Marc Weiss), is deeply troubled by this news. There weren’t supposed to be copies. How could they? Without his consent? “They’ve damaged your uniqueness, weakened your identity. How dare they?” the father says. Bernard wonders if he himself is the original, or if he is a copy too. For how would he really know?

And we are introduced to one of the play’s themes. Who are we? And how do we come to know ourselves?

Bit by bit, Bernard discovers through his father’s reticent revelations challenging truths about who he really is and how he came into the world, while his father tries to hang onto his relationship with his son, and Bernard tries to hold on to some sense of self.

Bernard tells his father about these copies. They are the same, but not the same. They are exactly the same genetic person, but culturally, personally, they differ. Does Bernard want to meet them, the father wonders. Yes, Bernard thinks. He does.

But the story unfolds around the father, who is visited (almost Christmas Carol style) first by the secret original son and then by a cheerful copy whom he didn’t raise. The familial secrets revealed make the plot something of an unraveling mystery that I don’t want to unwind here, but the deep questions of identity persist throughout. In the final scene, the father talks to a copy of his son whom he’s never before met. “Tell me something about yourself,” he commands. The copy begins telling a story. No, that’s something you did. The copy lists things he likes: blue socks, banana ice cream. No, those are only things you like. “Tell me something intimate.” The copy obliges by telling about how he’s fond of his wife’s ears. That’s something about somebody else. In the end, the father is unsatisfied. The copy cannot satisfactorily articulate who he is; he can only tell what he likes and what he does. These are not the things, the father feels, that constitute a human being. There must be something more to being oneself, to being a unique person.

The copy wonders if the father can tell him apart from the son he raised. The father tells him that he wouldn’t mistake him for his son, “because of the eyes. You don’t look at me in the same way.” But by this time, after so many twists and revelations, we wonder if the father is telling the truth. Could he actually tell this copy from the son he raised? In the end, what makes his son unique is his relationship with him—how they know each other and the experiences they share. Identity is almost beside the point.

The story unfolds briskly and is deftly handled by Wunderlich and Weiss whose cadences amount to something of a linguistic duet. They interrupt and finish each other’s sentences with natural timing and use silence as effectively as sound. They build tension-filled relationships without resorting to melodrama and inhabit their characters physically as well as emotionally. Wunderlich, who plays three different versions of “himself,” does so with pleasing understatement; and Weiss handles highly dramatic moments with delicate authenticity, as when recounting his wife’s suicide.

After the show, the “house” lights return you to the interior of the Paul Engle Center, which is just as colorful as the outside, seeping with bright blue and pink walls lined with sculpted masks and portraits of diverse faces painted thriftily onto narrow paper lunch sacks. You realize this setting has conspired with its inhabitants to create an absorbing aesthetic experience.

Director Joshua Beadle mingles with the small crowd and the actors. He explains that he’ll graduate from the University in May, and that he began Stage Left Productions so he could have the opportunity to direct, and also because he wanted to see more contemporary productions in the area. He found the venue because he happened to be waiting on the table of its proprietor: a happy coincidence.

That a fertile oasis like the Paul Engle Center exists and that a handful of people can grab a couch and some lamps and create a theatrical experience that opens up a plane on which you can ask big questions about life and identity in the midst of a gloomy economy and a challenging flood recovery is edifying and heartening. I hope more people take advantage of this opportunity to be entertained while pondering their own humanity.

What makes you who you are? Culture? Nature? Experience?

And who are you anyway?

Stage Left Productions might just help you come closer to an answer. Go see the show, playing next week in a town near you (Iowa City) at another great arts incubator-type venue (Public Space One).

--Vicki Krajewski

Vicki Krajewski has acted and directed with theatre companies in Chicago and Iowa including the Prairie Center for the Arts, Sandcastle Productions, Dreamwell, Catalyst, Iowa City Community Theatre and City Circle. Several of her short plays and monologues have been produced in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. Along with her performance pieces, she does occasional newspaper reporting, freelance feature writing, technical writing, personal essays and even some poetry.

Stage Left's Number

Stage Left - Cedar Rapids' plucky new company Stage Left Productions will present A Number by Caryl Churchill, the first show of their second season. This weekend you can see the show at the Paul Engle Center in Cedar Rapids. They will follow that with a second weekend of performances at Public Space One in Iowa City.

A Number is about a man who clones his son and his son's reaction to discovering he is not unique. According to director Josh Beadle, “A Number is simultaneously about cloning and yet not at all about the subject but about the effects”.

Beadle says what he enjoys most about this piece is the way “Churchill writes a direct and pointed play about the effects of an almost forgotten controversial topic, and writes not about the act itself, but about the ethical implications therein. The show, in all its linguistic simplicity, shows how the most well intentioned lie can produce the most disastrous results for anyone.”

The production features Coe College professor Steven Marc Weiss as the father and Steve Wunderlich of Cedar Rapids as the sons.

A Number will run March 6-8 at the Paul Engle Center located at 1600 4th Ave SE in Cedar Rapids, and March 13-15 at Public Space One 115 E. Washington St in Iowa City. All performances will begin at 7:30 PM; the box office will open 30 minutes prior to the start of the show. Tickets may be purchased at the door the day of the show or reserved in advance. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for students and senior citizens. For tickets, call (319) 329-6612.

Check back for a review of this show.