A Review of Romance/Romance

by Meghan D'Souza
 

Photo by Emily McKnight

Iowa City - Lean in, I've got a secret. I've had a long week and wasn't sure that I was in the mood for two one act musicals. On a normal day, I'm excited to see a play or musical that I've not heard of, but on Friday? My brain was on cruise control and wanted to be spoon fed something familiar in a familiar format:

Enter theatre.
Sit.
Watch.
Become engaged.
Enjoy a cookie during intermission.
Consider favorite parts, why they are favorites, and what I hope to see more of in second act.
Sit.
Watch.
Contemplate feelings of play.

Backstage with Romance/Romance

Photo by Emily McKnight

Iowa City - This weekend, the Iowa City Community Theatre will present a lesser known musical, Romance/Romance, book and lyrics by Barry Harman and music by Keith Herrmann. The show wasn't originally part of their season, but a replacement for the large cast show The Man Who Came to Dinner, which was canceled when the theatre couldn't find enough actors. By contrast, Romance/Romance has only four actors, all of which play two roles in the show. They are Colin Nies as Alfred/Sam, Stephanie Fahey as Josefine/Monica, Brett Borden as "Him"/Lenny, and Kristina Rutkowski as "Her"/Barb. We had the opportunity to ask Jaret Morlan, the director of the show, a few questions. Here's our look backstage.

ICCT announces 60th Season

The ICCT press release...

Iowa City - The Iowa City Community Theatre is so excited to announce the shows for our landmark, 60th Anniversary Season. To celebrate these 60 years of ICCT, each show represents one of the six decades, from the 1950s-2000s. We are so proud of our role in the artistic community. Stay tuned for audition info and FlexPass information!

Auditions for Romance/Romance

Iowa City - The Iowa City Community Theatre will hold auditions for Romance/Romance on Monday, March 2nd from 7:00 pm-10:00 pm and Tuesday, March 3rd from 7:00 pm-10:00 pm at their theatre space on the Johnson County Fairgrounds. Callbacks will March 4th from 7:00 pm-10:00 pm. The show is directed by Jaret Morlan and performances are April 24-26 and May 1-3. 

Two one act musicals take varied looks at romance seekers. The first is a delightful romp through the sexual ennui of turn of the century Vienna based on Schnitzler’s tale The Little Comedy. Act 2 is a modern look at affection and disaffection in a two couple summer house in the Hamptons based on the Jules Renard play Summer Share. An Off Off Broadway sensation that successfully moved to Broadway, Romance/Romance is a perfect change from the modern mega musical.

The director will provide scripts/sides for cold readings from the script. There is no need to prepare a monologue. Please prepare a one-minute piece of music; a pianist will be provided.

If you would like to download an audition form to complete and bring with you, please click HERE.

ROLES:

Alfred Von Wilmers/Sam – Strong legit baritone.
Josephine Weninger/Monica – Strong alto, with high belt.
Him/Lenny – Tenor
Her/Barb – Soprano

Spelling Bee Opens Tonight

Iowa City - The Iowa City Community Theatre's production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee opens tonight. It's a musical about six young people in the throes of puberty spelling their hearts out while being overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves. They learn that winning isn’t everything and that losing doesn’t necessarily make you a loser. It was a hit on Broadway in 2005 and won two Tony Awards, including Best Book. 

The cast: 
MITCH MAHONEY – John Bednarik 
RONA LISA PERRETTI – Krista Neumann 
VP DOUGLAS PANCH – Mike Wilhelm 
CHIP TOLENTINO – Jon Davies 
WILLIAM BARFEE – Adam Nardidi 
LEAF CONEYBEAR – Brett Borden 
OLIVE OSTROVSKY – Emmy Palmershiem 
LOGIANNE SCHWARTZANDGRUBENNIERE – Stephanie Fahey 
MARCY PARK – Lindsay Raasch 

Director Ken Van Egdon has assembled a great cast for the show. You might remember Brett Borden from a very different role, George in Of Mice and Men. However, he has comedic chops as well, as he showed in area productions of Noises Off and A Year with Frog and Toad. Krista Neumann has directed many shows in recent years, including Annie and most recently Camo: The Musical! Emmy Palmershiem is probably more recognizable to Cedar Rapids audiences, where she graced the stage in such shows as Jake's Women, Eurydice, and August Osage County. You might remember Mike Wilhelm from Camo: The Musical! or from such TCR shows as Damn Yankees and Gross Indecency. Both Mike and Emmy were singled out for outstanding performances in 2011. The show runs through March 7. Tickets are available here.

ICCT Holds Competition to Select Plays for AACTFest

Iowa City - Iowa City Community Theatre is thrilled to announce that it will be returning to the AACTFest this year! The AACTFest is an opportunity filled to the brim with fun, collaboration, quick thinking, meeting oodles of like-minded thespians across the country, and being exposed to many hours of performance. The festival pulls together community theaters from across the nation to compete at a state, regional, and national level. It is a fun and unique experience that ICCT is eager to once again participate in.

Saturday, January 24th, ICCT is holding a competition to select a show to represent ICCT at the 2015 Iowa AACTFest competition. There will be two standalone shows from 3-6pm followed by three entries from the ICCT Love & Marriage production beginning at 7:30 pm. Tickets for the competition will go towards hotel and transportation costs associated with the AACTFest. All feedback provided by the stellar adjudicators will be open to the public, making each show a vehicle for new perspectives and learning for everyone in attendance.

Cost: $5 for the stand-alone competition pieces and $16 for Love & Marriage.

Date & Time: January 24th, 3-6pm/7:30pm-10:30pm

Location: Johnson Co. Fairgrounds, Exhibit Hall A. 4261 Oak Crest Hill Rd, Iowa City, IA 52246

Adjudicators:
Megan Gogerty
Jennifer Fawcett
Leslie Charipar

3:00pm Spot's Community by Taylor Cook
Directed by Catherine Shook
Starring:
Spencer Hawk
Yannik Encarnação
Megan Henry
Therese Pechacek

4:30pm A Clean Escape by John Kessel
Directed by Jori Slodki
Starring:
Genevieve Heinrich
Matthew Brewbaker

7:30pm Love & Marriage

1. Bridal Terrorism by Bill Rosenfield
Directed by Nate Sullivan
Starring:
Brad Quinn
Sarah Falcon
Austin Wedemeyer
Kassia Lisinski
Mary Wedemeyer

2. Laundry & Bourbon by James McLure
Directed by Jen Brown
Assistant Directed by Sandy Goodson
Starring:
Erin Mills
Audrey Thompson-Wallace
Valerie Davine Bills

3. I’m Herbert by Robert Anderson
Directed by Katie Boothroyd
Starring:
Evie Stanske
Scott Strode

So come on down and support the teams, watch the shows, and observe the judging.


Source: ICCT

Love and Marriage Opens January 16

Iowa City - Opening this FRIDAY, January 16, The Proposal (directed by Christina Patramanis), a Chekhov play about a hypochondriac who tries to propose to his neighbor’s daughter and ends up with all of them getting into arguments. Bridal Terrorism (directed by Nate Sullivan), a woman shows up in a park in a wedding dress looking for a groom. Laundry & Bourbon (directed by Jen Brown), three women share gossip and their disappointment with their marriages. I’m Herbert (directed by Katherine Boothroyd), a conversation between an elderly couple with memory problems who tries to remember their former relationships.

ICCT Holding Auditions for 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Iowa City - "Iowa City Community Theatre is holding auditions for:

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Directed By Ken Van Egdon
Musical Direction by Wes Habley

OPEN AUDITIONS: Monday, December 15th 7:00-10:00pm and Tuesday, December 16th 7:00-10:00pm.
Callbacks: Wednesday, December 17th 7:00-10:00pm.
Location: Iowa City Public Library

Camo! Is a Clever Collaboration

By Sharon Falduto
Photos by Emily McKnight

L-R: Kalvin Goodlaxon, Rip Russell, Iver Hovet, Bob Shaffer

Iowa City - Iowa City Community Theatre’s Camo! The Musical is a snapshot of a time in our recent past when men were the men who hunted and wore camouflage, and women were the women who kibitzed and crocheted. It is a joint effort with Combined Efforts Theatre, “Iowa’s only theatre company with a mission purposefully to include individuals with disabilities in compelling and entertaining performances.” CET and ICCT both serve the mission well with this seriocomic piece.

The musical was written by local talents Janet Schlapkohl and Chris Okiishi. How lucky are we to have such world class song and story writers in Iowa City? Camo! dips into many topical subjects — the role of women and men in a changing word, the disconnect between brothers who have different goals in life, racism, the wounds of childhood, and posttraumatic stress disorder.

Camo! The Musical

Mike Wilhelm and Rip Russell. Photo by Emily McKnight.

Iowa City - "Camo! The Musical opens December 5th at ICCT. ICCT is very proud to be collaborating with CET, Iowa’s only theatre company with the mission of purposeful inclusion of individuals with disabilities in compelling and entertaining performances. This fun and original new musical is written and co-directed by CET founder Janet Schlapkohl, with co-director Krista Neumann, and music written by Chris Okiishi.

Auditions for Love and Marriage

Iowa City - OPEN AUDITIONS: Saturday, November 15th 1:00-4:00pm and Sunday, November 16th 4:30-8:00pm.

***Auditions will be very casual. Sides will be provided for Cold Reads***

PERFORMANCES: January 16-25 2015

Cat Clings on By Its Claws

By James E. Trainor III
Photos by Emily McKnight

Rachel Korach Howell and Aaron Weiner

Iowa City - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is one of Tennessee Williams's most iconic plays. Set on a southern plantation in the middle of the 20th century, it tells the story of Brick (Aaron Weiner), who drinks to avoid his family, his past, and his conflicted sexual identity. His sexually frustrated wife Maggie (Rachel Korach Howell) must keep his head above water as his squabbling family threatens to disinherit him. It is a whirlwind of a drama, delivered in three powerful acts, and it is a challenge for any community theatre. Iowa City Community Theatre's production of Cat (directed by Brett Borden) manages to stay on the roof - thanks mainly to the acting chops of Weiner and Howell.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Opens October 31

Aaron Weiner and Rachel Korach Howell.
Photo by Emily McKnight.

Iowa City - ICCT's production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opens this Friday, October 31.

Sponsored by STEVE HALL and THE JOHNSON TEAM
October 31, November 1 & 7-8 at 7:30pm
November 2 & 9 at 2:00pm

One of Tennessee Williams’s best-known works and his personal favorite, is set in the “plantation home in the Mississippi Delta” of Big Daddy Pollitt, a wealthy cotton tycoon. The play examines the relationships among members of Big Daddy’s family, primarily between his son Brick and Maggie the “Cat”, Brick’s wife; examining the conflict between truth and illusion. Winner of the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Directed by Brett Borden

Tickets are available at http://www.iowacitycommunitytheatre.com/.


Source: ICCT Press Release

Camo! The Musical Cast

Iowa City - ICCT has announced the cast for its upcoming production of Camo! The Musical.

A group of hunters prepares for the fall season. Women gather to drink coffee and discuss men, marriage, their own camouflage, and a thing called Lamaze. The woods become magical as army-buddies reunite; brothers discover what they need most and for two outsiders, love blossoms. A comedy set in the early 1980’s, the themes and characters will be familiar to anyone who knows what a prune Kolache is.

Auditions for Camo! The Musical

Iowa City - ICCT announces auditions for its upcoming production Camo! The Musical

Directed by Janet Schlopkohl and Krista Neumann
OPEN AUDITIONS: Monday, September 29th 6:00-9:00pm and Tuesday, September 30th 6:00-9:00p.
Location: Iowa City Public Library
123 S Linn St.
Iowa City, IA 52240
Meeting Room B

***Auditioners should prepare a one-minute monologue and 16 bars of a song, followed by a cold read.***

The Mist and Magic of Brigadoon

By Genevieve Heinrich
Photos by Emily McKnight of emcknightdesign.com

the ladies of the village

Iowa City - Every hundred years, or so the story goes, a village emerges from the mists of the Scottish highlands and lives out a single day of its existence. This is a village that, by all appearances, manages to pack more life into each of those days than humanity is able to in that whole century. This seems so true that a young world-weary idealist from the United States of the 20th century is smitten by its charms, and those of one of its inhabitants. Still, not all in this hamlet is as pristine as it seems and, despite its happy ending, Brigadoon touches on some serious themes along the way. Issues of self-determination and profound disconnection weave throughout this show's lilting melodies.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Cast

Iowa City - ICCT is thrilled to announce the casting of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the second show in our exciting 59th Season! Thank you so very much to all who auditioned and a special congratulations to the cast of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof:

Auditions for ICCT's Brigadoon

Iowa City - Iowa City Community Theatre is holding auditions for its upcoming production of Lerner and Loewe's Brigadoon. Auditions are July 16th from 6pm - 9pm and July 17th from 7:30pm - 9pm, at the Robert A. Lee Rec Center in Iowa City. ICCT is also looking for a lighting designer for this production. More information here.

Man of La Mancha Inspires

By Genevieve Heinrich
Photos by David Busch

Kehry Anson Lane as Miguel de Cervantes

Iowa City - "I charge you," prates Josh Sazon's Governor, addressing Kehry Anson Lane's Miguel de Cervantes, only barely after they've met in the common room of a Spanish prison, "with being an idealist, a bad poet, and an honest man!" Hardly the indictment he implies, at least not to those of us who happen to self-identify quite similarly. However, to the hardened prison inmates who surround them, those crimes are worse than any of their own, and Cervantes embarks on mission of desperate storytelling to try to win them to his point of view.

Man of La Mancha is a story woven into a story that is ultimately about the stories we choose to tell ourselves and others. Iowa City Community Theatre holds up its end of the arrangement by delivering a beautifully told rendition of this beloved story-within-a-story, keeping the audience as enthralled as the prisoners become. From the moment we enter the space, we are transported. The inmates wander, keeping varying degrees of engagement with each other and their surroundings, maintaining distinct behaviors and characters. The set design (Michael Blake) is lovely and evocative, with unobtrusive pieces that appear seemingly out of nowhere for use in the action.

ICCT Breathes Life and Laughter Into Wilder's Classic The Matchmaker

By James E. Trainor III
Photos by Paul VanDorpe

Howard Meadows, Catherine Shook, Lindsay Vincent,
Nicole DeSalle (foreground)

Iowa City - It's been nearly fifty years since Thorton Wilder's The Matchmaker first graced our stages, and though the play does show its age, it's also very clear why it has had such a long life. Wilder uses a very curious structure, which seems a bit quaint in our fast-paced times but works quite well: while the content of the plot is very much that of a farce, he stops the traditional breakneck pace of such a comedy to reflect on the action and the themes with short monologues directed to the audience. These are moments that Wilder uses to philosophize, and are full of some of his quotable platitudes (Take the line "Money, pardon the expression, is like manure. It's not worth a thing unless it's spread around, encouraging young things to grow." Classic). These could be easily be stumbling blocks to a company, as they stop the action dead, but in the hands of director Rachael Lindhart they're refreshing breaths of air that invigorate the characters and invest us in the story. It's this careful attention to style and pace that makes ICCT's production of The Matchmaker such a charming evening of theatre.