What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

When  Lorraine Hansberry selected the line from Langston Hughes’ poem as the title of her 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun she had no clue she had written one of the most important American plays of the 20th century. In fact, when the play previewed on Broadway to mixed reviews, she didn’t know if it would succeed at all, much less break so many barriers so completely.

It was the first play by an African American woman on Broadway, also first with an African-American director.  At age twenty-nine Hansberry became the youngest American playwright, the fifth woman and the only African American to date to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play of the Year. In its authentic, realistic depiction of everyday life for an African-American family expressed with such superlative artistry, A Raisin in the Sun ended, definitively, the American stage’s neglect of the African American experience, its creativity and issues. In 1961, a film version, now considered classic, won a special award at the Cannes Film Festival and Hansberry’s screenplay received nomination for a Screen Writer’s Guild Award. A Raisin in the Sun has been translated on all continents into over thirty languages, and performed in numerous productions abroad. In the U.S., through stage, film, television and book publications, literally millions of people have had some acquaintance with the American Southside Chicago Younger family—their fears, challenges and…dreams-some deferred and some realized. Dreams are what it’s about.

On Friday March 27, African American Repertory Theater in Desoto opened a bold, lyrically energized production of A Raisin in the Sun, as fresh and relevant to today’s issues and concerns as it was in 1959. One of few Caucasians in the nearly sold out house, I sat with regional award-winning African-American playwright, director and producer Willie Holmes. With delight we observed the house fill up with an enthused, eager audience— toddlers and moms, pre-teens in small herds, entire families, pairs of young adults on dates, business people rushing straight from the office, retirement center residents, some people clearly well-to-do, others close to indigent. The hall throbbed with noisy anticipation. Holmes and I wondered if the play could still reach today’s audience and hold their attention. As the first scene unfolded, our fears were allayed. Hansberry’s play, William Earl Ray’s sharp, relevant direction and a truly outstanding ensemble cast featuring film and stage star Irma P. Hall had the full focus of the rowdy, diverse crowd. It’s a refreshing experience to be part of an audience that reacts honestly, spontaneously and vociferously to the twists and turns of plot, the successes and failures of family life as depicted by on stage actors. The laughter, the sighs, the groans, the hoots and shouts in on-going response were all visceral testament to the exquisite caliber of art emerging before us.

It’s a rare pleasure to watch an actor own a role. Many inhabit roles well, give unique interpretations and inspire heated discussion long after the final curtain. But to really OWN a role? That doesn’t happen very oft. An honor to watch it take place. I’ve seen Vince McGill give solid artistic performances before but none like this. As Raisin unfolds, we watch his character Walter emerge from a  numb sleepwalker state, through rage, sorrow,  desperation, bitter dejection and self-recrimination, to a sweet transcendent self-actualization. Effortless, naturally flowing, understated, this “raisin in the sun” does explode and finds inspired validation as he triumphs over mundane distractions to live his dream. McGill masters the role and carries the production.

There is no weak performance in the ensemble. From Regina Washington who portrays Walter’s ambitious younger sister, inhabiting her role kinesthetically from her toenails up, to Taylore Mahogany Scott as Walter’s long-suffering, no nonsense wife– the “backbone” of the household and on stage anchor to reality, to quietly expressive Joshua White as the Youngers’ pre-teen son, to Alonzo Waller as effervescent African Joseph Asagi who dreams of a re-energized African nation, the realities of African-American experience are deftly brought to life with vitality, truth and interest. Presiding over all with wisdom and love is Irma P. Hall as Lena, the matriarch of the family. She reminds everyone where they came from and what paths truly matter in life, as hard as choosing those paths can be. “A force of nature” as described by Quentin Tarantino, Ms. Hall brings a poignant depth to the production. Never a stereotypical tyrant but ever the play’s moral center, her character’s love and determination inspire her confused son Walter’s transformation with credible authority and wit. It’s a refined yet earthy portrayal, a joy to watch this revered professional so at ease in her craft.

Director William (Bill) Earl Ray liberates his cast to fully explore individual possibilities while weaving them into a cohesive whole. He may claim to be ‘cursed with perfectionism’, but it’s sure fun to watch the result when he works his considerable directorial wizardry on such a text with artists of this caliber.

Don’t miss it.  A Raisin in the Sun runs through April 12 at the Corner Theater, 211 E. Pleasant Run in Desoto. For tickets, call 972-572-0998 or go online: www.aareptheater.com

Poem “Harlem” (sometimes called “Dream Deferred”) from Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) by Langston Hughes American visionary poet, columnist, dramatist, essayist, lyricist, novelist, social activist, writer of African and Native American heritage (1902-1967)

Lorraine Hansberry American playwright 1930-1965

Farther than Closer: Enter Stage Left’s Launch

I want to support emergent theatre companies with their shiny, new endeavors. I look eagerly forward to attending fresh, energized productions. But when the fragile fledgling spreads its wings, flops from the nest and plummets downward, I‘m obliged to speak truth. Enter Stage Left has just birthed such a bird. Launching on Teatro Dallas’ elongated, narrow performance space with Patrick Marber’s 1997 multiple award–winning drama Closer, Enter Stage Left made an ambitious choice for an initial venture. Set in London with lots of Brit vernacular and reference, good decision the company did not attempt the corresponding accents. Unfortunately, the text gets muddied by Americanized delivery. That’s for starters.

This production disappoints. Sappy. Maudlin. Ponderous. Unfocused. Unconvincing. Points of concern: 1) pace –funereal; 2) tone – one tortured, lengthy “emo” moan, scene after choppy scene 3) direction – hard to detect: the production lacks tension, suspense, mystery, integration and follows no well-defined arc 4) acting – sigh. One solid, believable performance: Chad Cline as Larry, with fifteen years of professional acting experience in film, commercials and stage work. He develops a multi-faceted, living persona, reveals telling, contrasting glimpses into his character’s dark side and higher nature in a steady, naturalistic manner. He understands how to utilize silence, how to allow the space, the pause moments, to shape his conversation. It’s a solo gig. The other three performers, Samantha Chancellor, Chad Halbrook and Jessica Layman, well intentioned and earnest, exhibit a range of melodramatic shtick that includes eye rolling, shoulder twitching, sighing, grimacing, wailing and…well, the superficial. No clear motivations. Buckets of crocodile tears.

Consider the women’s costumes. They do nothing to enhance the two actresses’ physical attributes, as required by the play’s emphasis on “woman as sex object.” Samantha Chancellor, a young woman with a promising, attractive face and an interesting voice and delivery, plays a stripper. But her physical being doesn’t match any sort of sex kitten image. No cleavage in a stripper? A different bra needed…. And a baby doll nightie would far better help her fit the role’s demands in the men’s club scene, The play’s “other woman”, a photographer, (Jessica Layman) looks ill at ease in her poorly conceived and oddly fitting costumes. She deserves a total re-think and a re-do, from the lifeless flat hair style worn throughout to her awkward, tight cocktail dress to the out of character shoes her husband brings her as a gift. Aside from the costume challenges, once she puts down her first scene’s prop camera, her performance waffles in confusion for the play’s duration, as though the actress got little direction and has no clue how to move or think or feel like the character she portrays. What a peculiar realization of a potentially meaty role.

The background music scoring the production certainly reinforces the pervasive “emo” mood, which does not align well with the play’s hard-edged tone. On a positive note, the lighting is crisp and professional; screen projection of an early scene, an e-mail interchange of a faux sex fantasy between the two male characters, works excellently.

Here’s yet another play about despondent, spoiled, well heeled malcontents. They puff cigarette smoke in each other’s faces, spout the f and c words liberally, occasionally take a swipe at each other and obsess about sex and broken relationships, sobbing out their sullied dreams in oceans of self-pity. Enter Stage Left’s mission statement says the company “seeks to…explore current and timeless human issues.” Hope for more artistically satisfying results in the company’s future productions. Ouch. Patrick Marber’s Closer, directed by Jason Folks, runs through April 18 at Teatro Dallas, 1331 Record Crossing Rd. Dallas, TX 75235, an Enter Stage Left inaugural production.

Tickets on the web: www.EnterStageLeft.org

Upstanding Start: Upstart Productions at the Green Zone

NEWS FLASH: Upstart Productions wins a 2009 Column Award in the Best Non-Equity Play Category for its inaugural production of Topdog/Underdog.

As if haunted by the spirit of Kurt Cobain, lead singer with the 80’s grunge icon band Nirvana, Kenneth Lonergan’s 1996 play This Is Our Youth examines the tortured states of semi-aware existence of three upper class twenty-something drifters set in a New York apartment in the Reagan 80’s. More aptly, the play focuses on their pretenses, vulnerabilities and aspirations with the exacting attention to detail of a forensic investigator analyzing a suicide’s corpse. It’s intense. The stage atmosphere crackles with pervasive chill. Project X welcomes newbie Upstart Productions in this co-production, which completed its run at The Green Zone on March 22.

Playwright Kenneth Lonergan is best known for his award-winning screenplays (You Can Count on Me – 2000, Gangs of New York – 2002). This Is Our Youth, his first play, demonstrates his early interest in creating intimate, character-driven dramas. Lonergan’s characters are consumed with jaded ennui, self-recrimination and puffed up bravado. The play fascinates its audience with fragile relationship structures and the raging, relentless flow of its vivid language and naturalistic style. You don’t root for any particular character, but you sure want to know what makes them all tick and where they’re going, if anywhere.

On stage Matthew M. Fowler as pretentious, smart-ass bully Dennis, Drew Wall as Warren–a slightly younger “male ingénue” awaiting salvation out of an unfocused drug-enhanced fog, and Barrett Nash as alluring, contentious, pseudo-sophisticate Jessica present a triumvirate of idiot ne’er-do-wells, desperately seek validation while devouring the consumerist distractions of the 80’s that prevent them from establishing any self-worth.

Snappy banter trips off the tongues and machismo oozes from the pores of both young men. Characters a contrast in style, presence and temperament, Fowler and Wall instinctively posture and dig at one another as though engaged in an imaginary fencing duel. Forget the foils; get out the rapiers. Layer upon layer of coke and hemp-induced dialogue leads each character to monologues of monolithic emotional proportion. Both actors unleash just enough “sturm” to make the playwright’s point without surging into melodrama. This fine balance reflects their individual skills as artistic craftsmen and the strength and understanding of their director Rene Moreno. He had to take them up to that teeter-y edge, allow them to lean out a ways, then reel them back in before they tumbled to manic destruction. Great fun to watch. A tightrope act.

In waltzes calculating Jessica, tossing her full head of cascading red curls with complacent knowledge of how a little revealed flesh and that gorgeous mop will affect both men. She feigns an innocence that could make her one of the nastiest onstage tease-pricks short of David Mamet. Barrett Nash rises to the challenge, as prickly as any porcupine in heels, eye-liner and lipstick could be. Ultimately she does sleep with Warren, possibly a required rite of passage for both. At least AIDS won’t involve them in the play’s sequel. Nash creates a believable spoiled girl child struggling towards womanhood, picking fights over every perceived insult and some just for fun, for power. Again, restraint lends to her success, thanks to strong direction by Moreno. It pays to know what you’re doing when you have talent this ready and willing.

If playwright Lonergan were firing up the metaphorical grill to barbecue for his drinkin’, partyin’ buddies from the 1980’s, he’d marinade the bloody meat in a liberal dose of angst-ridden narcissistic nihilism with a liberal salt shaker’s worth of misogyny. Master playwright David Mamet he is not, bludgeoning the audience with fine-tuned balance of savagery and cunning in imagery and character. Yet this initial stage endeavor shows the promise that filled his coffers with later film ventures. It also affords a young company like Upstart Theater nuanced fodder to sink their artistic teeth into, particularly under the wise guidance of a seasoned director like Rene Moreno. Look for more high caliber performance from these “upstarts.” Rate this dish? Medium rare to extremely well done.

Globe-trotting Wager: Epic Fun with Rover Dramawerks

The folks at Rover Dramawerks

Original French edition book-cover

are gutsy, to say the least. First, in tight economic times they move their production to the Courtyard Theater in Plano, a medium sized proscenium theater, twice the size of their usual performance space nearby. Second, when they can’t get the rights to a tried and true stage adaptation of Jules Verne’s 1873 epic novel classic Around the World in 80 Days, they simply write their own…very gutsy. The tale concerns a wager between a club of crusty English gentlemen that one member, stuffier than most Phileas Fogg, can win if he manages to circumnavigate the globe in precisely eighty days. Lots of exotic locales, fabulously costumed natives, steam locomotives, eclectic rafts, ocean liners adrift in typhoons, elephants. Easy stuff to reproduce on stage, right?

Not to say that Rover Dramawerks is the first to attempt adaptation. They’re in good company. Orson Welles produced and starred in a totally forgettable stage version of the show with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. An episode of the classic CBS television series, Have Gun -Will Travel, entitled “Fogg Bound”, broadcast on December 3, 1960, had the series’ hero, Palladin (Richard Boone), escorting main character Phileas Fogg (Patric Knowles) through part of his journey. A 1989 three-part TV mini-series starred Pierce Brosnan as Fogg, Eric Idle as French servant Passepartout, and Peter Ustinov as the show’s villain Fix. The best-known movie version, released in 1956, starred David Niven and Cantinflas with a huge cast of movie celebrities. The movie earned five Oscars, out of eight nominations. It’s an appealing challenge many have taken on.

In RoverDramawerks case the gamble is something of a success. Feeling a bit more like Louis L’Amour in places than Jules Verne, the show manages to inform the ambience of a rambling, eccentric race against superior odds around the world in an era when speed and travel weren’t words uttered in the same breath. The company had a double stroke of luck in the casting of their protagonist Fogg and his nemesis Fix. Embodying the unflappable, always punctual Phileas Fogg, local graphic artist Gary Anderson brings a genteel command to the role and sustains his demeanor with Sean Connery-like aplomb. The rakish working stiff detective Fix dominates the action in every scene he appears. Portraying a lovably bumbling villain who finally sees the error of his ways, Mike Hathaway somehow locates interesting dimensions in a character that bounces erratically along between melodrama stereotype and slapstick pratfall. As in Three Stooges. For some odd reason, Hathaway also portrays a minor character at the gentleman’s club. This is a confusing choice as the audience wonders if as Fix he’s just donning a disguise, not appearing as a completely different (and inconsequential) character. He takes his final bow in the “other guise.” A mistake. The casting of other main character roles is not quite so fortunate. Coby Cathey as Fogg’s French servant Passepartout effectively hacks the French language to bits every time he opens his mouth. American actors don’t generally do accents well, certainly confirmed by Cathey’s withering delivery. “Mon Dieu” is not pronounced “Mon duh.” Fogg acquires a lady friend along his voyage, an Indian woman named Aouda, who accompanies him back to England and endures the rigors of the journey as involved as any man. A role with interesting possibility. In Rover’s production, Aouda is played by the attractive but inexplicably Caucasian Sasha Truman-McGonnell. She seems stiff and bored, like a well-to-do matron suffering through a routine obligatory carriage ride around the park. Even when Fix grabs her around the torso as they are nearly swept overboard during a storm on board a ship, she hardly reacts, out of character for a proper Victorian lady.

Lesser characters ranging from ship’s captains and train engineers to marauding redskins, newspaper hawkers, cavalry officers, court judges and circus performers are played by an ensemble of six game, enthusiastic individuals. Notable among them is Nancy Lamb who creates lively believable snapshots of both genders. Part of the real fun in this production is seeing who shows up next wearing some outlandish get–up and speaking a new lingo. “If I am not always what I ought to be, ” Verne once wrote, “my characters will be what I should like to be.” In the spunky variety portrayed by the lesser characters in Rover’s production, the core vision of Verne’s teeming humanity gets effectively enlivened. And that’s what an epic should do.

This reviewer hopes Rover Dramawerks will go back to their smaller performance space where the confinement inspires invention and the intimacy forces nuanced characterization. Around the World in 80 Days won’t win any major theatre awards, but it sure offers entertaining possibilities that beat staring at the TV screen any time. Runs through March 21. www.roverdramawerks.com 972.849.0358

Charmed Seat in the Afternoon Sun: One Thirty Productions

Larry Randolph, Gene Ray Price, Cliff Stephens

Some well-kept secrets need to take a front and center seat on a sunny bench…. For example, at The Bath House Cultural Center, One Thirty Production’s A Bench in the Sun fits that category. A charmingly wry piece of theatrical fluff, it makes for an appealing afternoon’s entertainment, starting at 1:30pm, Wednesdays through Saturdays. Dedicated to producing light, “old-fashioned” plays that tell a good story and are peopled with unforgettable characters with nary a hint of questionable language or situations, One Thirty Productions is the only matinee exclusive producing theatre company in the Dallas region. It’s filling a real need, given the growing size of the audiences in attendance.

This is no Johnny Come Lately community theatre production. A seasoned professional Equity cast of three under the guidance of Charles Ballinger, one of the Dallas area’s most versatile, experienced directors with national credentials from both coasts and many respectable artistic locales in between, create an effortlessly smooth divertissement. They really know what makes comedy work: how to elicit chuckles or a few tears at exactly the right moment, how far to push humor without belaboring a joke, when to pause effectively to allow a more serious thought’s effect to sink in. It’s a pleasure to watch true pros at work—they make it seem as effortless as play. Cliff Stephens and Larry Randolph (also company producer) portray a begrudgingly devoted couple of curmudgeonly geezers, Harold and Burt, who bore each other daily with routine banter while sharing a retirement community park bench. As different in personality and style as Oscar and Felix from Simon’s The Odd Couple, Randolph and Stevens create a perfectly infuriating relationship reality that feels like a well-worn groove of predictability. Witness Harold’s announcement of his secret of getting to sleep at night; “I count my dead friends.” Ah, such excitement. Enter a woman — a flirtatious, retired film star–and suddenly the two gentlemen find their dull lives turned upside down.  Gene Ray Price as svelte, stylish Adrienne exudes plucky enthusiasm and just enough mystery to set both men on a crash-course to fervently pursue sunset romance… with a wealth of humorous consequences.

The Bath House Cultural Center’s intimate theatre space is the ideal setting for One Thirty Productions’ character-driven plays. The simple set by Larry Randolph with sound by M. Graeme Bice and lights by Cory Leugemors work effectively to support the talented cast and sweet charm of Ron Clark’s play. In the mood for some classy, light live entertainment? A Bench in the Sun runs March 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, and 28. 1:30 pm, on the dot. One Thirty Productions.

The Bath House Cultural Center is located at 521 E. Lawther Drive at the end of Northcliff Dr. off Buckner Blvd. on the east side of White Rock Lake.
214-670-8749 or on the web: www.bathhousecultural.com.

Dream of Godless Madness: KDT’s Psychos Never Dream

“I’m kinda like Ozzy Osbourne,” says award-winning novelist, poet and playwright Denis Johnson, who describes himself as a “criminal hedonist” turned “citizen of life.” “What I write about is really the dilemma of living in a fallen world, and asking: Why is it like this if there’s supposed to be a God?” Johnson is the Resident Playwright of Campo Santo, the theater company in residence at Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco,  the oldest alternative non-profit art space in a town brimming over with alternative art spaces.

Johnson’s Coen Brothers-ambienced thriller Psychos Never Dream opened Friday March 6 in Kitchen Dog Theatre’s performance space at The MAC on McKinney Avenue, a co-presentation with Project X . Set in rural remote north Idaho, dreams, delusions, and their horrific consequences explode in inebriated Technicolor array, in Johnson’s “fallen world”. Water rights issues, ex-hippies gone to seed or insane, and lust — for sex, for gold, for revenge for perceived betrayal and ancient grudges, all jumble madly together against a stark wilderness background. The play’s lyrical verbal resonance elevates its lonely desperate cacophony to a poignant search for meaning and connection, unexpectedly through gruesome savagery. “Why is it like this if there’s supposed to be a God?” From this play’s perspective, maybe there isn’t one.

The play slams open on main character Critter (Raphael Parry) reveling in surreal horror, as he rants and mumbles, wild-eyed and unkempt, digging a grave in a neighbor’s yard for a cloth-wrapped body he dragged there, a relative he presumably just murdered. The neighbor, Floyd (Sean Hennigan) stumbles upon the grisly proceedings; the action launches with merciless cat-and-mouse vengeance, riveting audience members’ attention, hearts in throats. Critter’s insanity may be due to a mercury-poisoning incident years ago. Raphael Parry cackles, grimaces, sweats and strains with blood-spattered menace and relentless malice, while somehow still conveying a wistful idealism that took a demented detour while he meandered about in life’s wilderness. Critter’s actions are out of control, over the top, random, vulgar and violent, completely irrational. Parry never misses a text-based beat and informs the bizarre script with a credible vitality; a less experienced actor could chew up a lot of idiotic scenery with a misread of this role. Parry’s portrayal never takes license with the script or launches into self-indulgent posturing. In Critter’s solo scene at a pay phone, the audience feels the sad smallness, the vulnerable bewilderment of this strange, unbalanced man, ultimately the universality of his plight, through Parry’s carefully nuanced portrayal.

Floyd comes across initially as a complete contrast, a voice of reason. Hennigan has a commanding presence and deep, gravely voice; his Floyd is a steel-eyed, take-charge sort of redneck. Perhaps he can pull Critter and the mesmerized audience back, teetering as they are at the edge of the black abyss. Soon it becomes apparent that Floyd is just as far gone as Critter, but in a less naked, amoral, manipulative way. Parry’s histrionics and Hennigan’s cool, calm demeanor work effortlessly together in revealing the depth and breadth of insanity and unfettered, calculated desire, so eloquently explored as themes in this play. “Why is it like this if there’s supposed to be a God?”

The play’s third “crazy” is Red, the deranged wife of the murdered man in the grave in Scene 1. Kitchen Dog Theatre’s artistic co-director Tina Parker gives what has to be one of the gutsiest performances of her career, clad scantily in a filthy nightie, stringy hair falling over her face in squalid disarray. She’s every bit a nightmare match for the bad boys, Critter and Floyd. Squealing with fear or grunting with tawdry sexual pleasure, she’s porcine, sub-human, disgusting–and plays her victim role to the hilt. When all is said and done, she may be the mastermind behind all the mayhem that transpires during the course of Psychos Never Dream…. She speaks of vivid dreams, unlike Critter, who reflects, “Six hours a night I sleep in the depths of deepest blackness.” If she’s not “psycho” and out of control, what is she? Trying to make sense of all the Bosch-like pandemonium is the play’s fourth character, the town deputy Sarah, played with dry, realistic understatement by Lisa Lee Schmidt. She’s so real she comes across almost like faded wallpaper when contrasted to the other three characters. But she has her share of issues, too, as her solo monologue on the pay phone reveals. No one escapes the cruel confusions and disappointments of life in Dennis Johnson’s godless universe.

Psychos Never Dream’s director, David Kennedy, worked as the former Associate Artistic Director at Dallas Theater Center, where he directed a staged reading of the play a season ago. It would have been interesting to read his perspectives on the production and his part in its development process in the playbill. His clear understanding of the play’s deranged sensibility and deft skill in holding the playwright’s vision together within modulated chaos enables his actors to create unforgettable relationships. Kitchen Dog Theatre’s mission statement says the company chooses plays that invite audiences to be “provoked, challenged and amazed.” Complimented by a reverberating rock score as sound, sallow-hued, soul-draining lighting effects and a set that unfolds like a hot pillow house hide-a-bed, this production of Dennis Johnson’s Psychos Never Dream is resoundingly awesome in its ability to do all three.

NOTE: Foul language, nudity, sex scenes, graphic violence abound.

Psychos Never Dream runs through April 4, 2009 (Wednesdays through Sundays) at The McKinney Avenue Contemporary (The MAC) 3120 McKinney Ave., Dallas TX. Tickets: 214-953-1055 or www.kitchendogtheater.org

Quotes and bio info about Denis Johnson come from a February 2003 SF Weekly interview and a June 2002 Entertainment feature in New York Magazine

Red & Floyd (Tina Parker. Sean Hennigan) Matt Mrozek photo

Ego-Surfing Out of the Loop

Ever done a google search on yourself? It’s an unusual self-reflective experience, almost like watching oneself in a mirror. Many people check it out every so often, meet with no major surprises. But what if it went terribly wrong? What if you learned that someone from your past misappropriated your name to use as a pseudonym as a gay porn star? What if you agreed to meet someone with your name who pretended to want to write an article about you and found yourself drawn into a macabre ménage a trois involving manipulative sado-masochistic violence? There’s no escape here.

Successful Showtime, Fox and ABC TV screenwriter Jason Schafer wrote the stage thriller i google myself as a topical ‘what if’ that descends into nightmarish levels of garishly intertwined relationships between three men, all of whom share names and connect through the google search engine. Featured on opening night of WaterTower Theatre’s 8th Annual out of the loop fringe festival and playing to an enthusiastic near capacity crowd, the short thriller helps kick off the diverse, creative festival in high fashion.

Mixing computer screen film projection of e-mail chat with intensely realistic overt and personal physicality, director Bruce R. Coleman (resdent artist at Theatre Three) masterfully spins his three actors through Mamet-like macho-energized scenes, never losing sight of the characters’ and script’s symbolic contrast between the remote, yet invasive, google medium and their face to face presence. What is googling yourself? “It’s ego-surfing. A surf engine snapshot of how you fit into the world,” flatly declaims one man. Schafer identifies his characters as numbers One, Two, Three in the program, which re-affirms the play’s focus on the character’s names as unique catalyst for the twisted plot. Well-crafted with skillfully potent pauses, the play’s objectives and commentary about the nature of connection in an alienating culture resonate clearly with the rapt audience.

Performances support the tightly wound script. Kevin Moore as One occasionally overemphasizes his diction as though speaking un-miked from the depths of a proscenium stage but conveys unreasonable obsession with measured fluidity. His verbal over-emphasis reinforces the character’s intense need for acknowledgement. Chad Peterson as the gay porn star Two and Joel McDonald as Three, the man from Two’s past, interact with such easy familiarity and natural calm that when they explode into violence, or promise it, the audience never doubts its valid logic for a moment. It’s a great opener for an ambitious Fringe Fest. Make you think twice about googling yourself.

i google myself , presented by Uncommon Ground at WaterTower Theatre’s out of the loop fringe festival, continues March 8, 12, and

13 at the Studio Theatre. For complete schedule times and info, go to www.watertowertheatre.org/outoftheloop.asp

A Privilege to Pee in Richland College’s Urinetown

Urinetown. What a dreadful name for a musical – images of nasty hip waders. Richland College’s drama professor Wendy Welch planned to stage the classic musical Fiddler on the Roof this semester, but it wasn’t available. On a hunch she selected the post-apocalyptic “sur-reality” of Gotham-like sewers for a timely, hip, politically relevant show about sustainable challenges, tussling haves and have-nots and the importance of love and peace to human survival. Sound grim? A little shocking in spots, for sure, but Urinetown’s highly entertaining, thanks to Ms. Welch’s clever, crisp staging.

Dystopia reigns supreme due to overpopulation and resource depletion, with pointed reference to 19th century English political economist and demographer Rev. Thomas Robert Malthus. Greedy, evil banker (!)  Cladwell B. Cladwell, played with Snidely Whiplash panache by Drew Bramlett, represses the town’s Dickensian rabble by charging them exorbitant fees to use the public toilets, hoards cash (what, a banker?), browbeats politicians and sycophants and murders the occasional upstart. Cladwell’s young, innocent, radiantly lovely daughter falls in love (“But soft, what light…”) with a principled if grimy Jimmy Stewart sort of lad from the wrong side of the plumbing pipes. A curious array of animated, jadedly comic characters lend the production elemental whiffs of Cabaret, West Side Story, Les Miserables, Sweeny Todd, and a faint hint of Our Town, at different times throughout the two act enterprise. Presiding over all action and reminding the audience and cast, often,  “This IS a musical”, leers omniscient town cop/narrator, Officer Lockstock, who controls the ebb and flow of the plot and drives the show’s rapid-fire timing.

Lockstock’s portrayal is integral to the show’s success. Director Welch had the good fortune to cast one of the region’s finest song and dance men and comic actors—Shane Strawbridge—in this crucial role. Impeccable timing, rollicking entrances, commanding presence, a soaring, well-supported, in tune singing voice with excellent diction –Strawbridge is a joy to watch perform and must inspire the young cast members treading the boards with him with his infectious enthusiasm and focused energy. Clint Hill and Rachel Legaspi are well matched as the romantic duo, Bobby and Hope. In Act I opening night, Hill’s singing pitch strayed a bit; by Act II he seemed to have found his vocal stride. Legaspi has a rich, warm, expressive instrument that sounds mature for her years and promises a great future. She’s a true talent with eye-catching stage presence, singing or speaking. In the comic relief role of Little Sally, a contrast to Strawbridge’s Lockstock, Katherine Gentsch brings charm and spunk and physical versatility to her portrayal. As the villainess with a changeable heart of gold, Delynda Moravec embodies the most Dickensian character of all in hard-edged Penelope Pennywise and elicits whoops and guffaws from the attentive audience.

Urinetown won the 2002 Tony Award for original score and demands quite a bit from its lead actors and chorus. The show’s strongest moments occur when the entire ensemble of twenty is singing and dancing at full tilt up and down the multi-level expressionistic set. Nary a detectable bobble, nor hesitation in blocking, appeared to take place opening night in Richland College’s production. Vocal harmonies flowed with well-rehearsed professionalism.  Sometimes the live band, placed behind the staging area, overpowered the miked singers, a solvable issue.

Musical theatre a dying art form? No one in Richland College’s auditorium opening night would believe that. Urinetown is definitely NOT your granny’s musical, portrays issues and relationships through searing satire that could hurtle a rightwing xenophobe into an apoplectic snit of outrage. It gives the musical art form wide spectrum relevance for today’s youth, both on stage and as audience. For art to instruct and entertain with validity, it must present a viable world through accessible metaphor and language. Excellent choice of shows for our time, delightful, engaging production, Urinetown speaks about YOUR town and to the hearts of all.

Phot0 by Tasleem Khan: Clint Hill and Rachel Legaspi

Timely Excellence in TeCo Theater Production’s One Act Winners

And the winner is….

The results are in from the 7th Annual New Play Competition: The Best of Political Theater, sponsored by TeCo Theatrical Productions (www.tecotheater.org) at the Bishop Arts Theater Center in Oak Cliff. By popular acclaim, Paula J. Sanders, local author, teacher, performer and UT Arlington graduate won for her entry The Valiant Never Taste of Death But Once, in a tough field of six diverse, competitive one act plays. The play puts a chillingly human face on the killer disease cancer. “Winning came as a total shock,” says Ms. Sanders, a four time previous competitor. “The play is very personal. During 2008 I lost five wonderful people in my life all from very different circumstances. However, the most devastating was the illness of my best friend’s mother, to whom I dedicated the play. She fought a hard battle with cancer and lost it in the spring.” Ms. Sanders feels the strong performances of Brandon Christle and JuNene K. brought her one act vividly to life. “JuNene K. symbolized the strength that we have all seen in our loved ones whether they are fighting cancer, AIDS or drug addiction.” What does she plan to do with her winnings — cash and two roundtrip airplane tickets? She laughs, “More than likely it will involve a creative endeavor or maybe a trip to Disney World with my four year old son. I do plan to put the final touches on that romance novel that I am self publishing….” Stay tuned in for Sanders’ continued success.

There’s more winning news. Each year, the playwright who receives the most points from TeCo’s Reading Committee wins the Literary Prize Award. This year’s prize with a round-trip airfare ticket goes to award-winning playwright, Richland College professor and Blacken Blues Theater founder Willie Holmes. His one act Change is part of a full play comprised of three one acts called Love Changes. Fast-paced and sophisticated, funny yet thought provoking, Change explores the challenges faced by Americans dealing with racial bias and stereotypes in developing inter-racial romantic connections. Holmes says he is honored to be recognized a winner in a political play writing contest as his favorite playwrights are August Wilson and Arthur Miller. “They blend social commentary, thoughtful humor, and provocative story telling. I try to fulfill these goals with each play that I develop.” He may head to New York, the Caribbean Islands, or Bermuda with his winning ticket.

TeCo Theatrical Productions founder and artistic director Teresa Wash glows with pride as she talks about the diversity of this year’s event. “I was particularly excited to receive an entry about immigration issues from an artist right here in District 1 (Phillip Morales) where 90% of the residents are Latino. And Paula Sanders is only the second woman to win the New Play Competition in the history of the event – I believe in encouraging women writers, there are so few of us.” Having a strong artistic success in her sparkling new performance space mattered a great deal, too. “I really wanted to raise the bar on the quality of the performances. This year, we broke box office records with over 600 people in attendance. This community has embraced us in a way I never imagined.” Next year’s competition will build on the diverse, multicultural success of this year’s thanks to Wash’s dedication and artistic vision.

What’s next for TeCo Theatrical Productions? Opening April 16, the company presents August Wilson’s King Hedley II, a “haunting and challenging tragedy of Shakespearean proportion”. It will feature TeCo’s T-an-T (teenagers and theater) in the culminating project of a four month long apprenticeship program.

Paula Sanders

Expect a sell-out.

For more of Alexandra Bonifield’s reviews, check out http://sjamaanka.wordpress.com and keep clicking on www.examiner.com.