Coming to the Public

I though this looked fascinating at the Public and thought I would share.

URGE FOR GOING


By Mona Mansour
Directed by Hal Brooks
March 25 - April 17
Three weeks only!



Featuring Omid Abtahi, Jacqueline Antaramian, Tala Ashe, Demosthenes Chrysan, Ramsey Faragallah, and Ted Sod

Jamila, a 17-year-old Palestinian girl growing up in a Lebanese refugee camp, is desperate to escape the small and impoverished world she calls home but her greatest source of inspiration, her father, may also prove to be her biggest obstacle. Mona Mansour, a member of The Public's Emerging Writers Group making her major debut with this production, fuses global politics with the intimacy of coming of age in this searing new play.

Playwright Mona Mansour was recently profiled as a "talent to watch" in The New York Times' preview of the Spring Theater Season.
The Public Web Site will direct you to $15 tickets.

Laughing Liberally: Humor without the Hate

The comedic show now playing through May 22 at the Midtown Theater is called Laughing Liberally; This Ain’t No Tea Party certainly has truth in advertising going for it.  It is a often hilarious look at our politics from a decidedly liberal sensibility.  And it gives the current political situation all the respect and deference it is due.

Which is none.

Having watched straight play parodies of the current political situation fall flat, Laughing Liberally benefits from simply pointing out the real world idiocy with our current political system and making jokes.  Our political climate is so caustic and impaired that parodies cannot compete with the grandiose proclamations made daily – apparently devoid of irony.   The observational humor presented by these comics is topical and funny. 

Laughing Liberally uses a rotating series of comics, six on the night I saw the show.  Some are astoundingly funny, some are merely humorous, but none fell flat.  Interspersed between the comics are faux commercials that keep the pace and topicality up.  These aren’t necessarily stock jokes, as many of the comics referenced facts from the day or week immediately proceeding the show.

Laughing Liberally takes primary aim at the Tea Party Republicans, but there is plenty of outrage to share among all politicians, a vocation that appears to have no prerequisites.  Sarah Palin jokes would begin to feel old, but Michelle Bachman breaths new juice into the feminist crazy side of the equation.

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Laughing Liberally : Website with Tickets and Line Up

Is One Just A Number?

A Number, now playing at the Cherry Lane Studio Theater through April 3^rd, explores the definition of self, by taking the idea of cloning down to a very intimate level.  It is a counter-intuitive way to look at cloning, but extremely effective in addressing the issues that arise for the individual.  What defines a person as unique? And how unique can a person be when there are exact copies at a DNA level?  In unexpected ways, these questions effect all people - how much of “ourselves” are based on traits we have no control over?

This is no science-fiction exploration of the mechanics or even possibility of cloning; it is an emotional piece dealing with the after effects of the act.

James Saito plays Slater, a father who has cloned his only son, after the loss of his wife and child.  Slater is not forthcoming about the fact of his son’s birth, revealing both the act of cloning and his motivations only when confronted by his son.  Mr. Saito does a great job of opening up only as much as he is forced to, and only when he is forced to.  It is clear that he has no desire to share information with his son.  He is a father required to justify actions he hoped would never be exposed, and Mr. Saito does an excellent job with the role.  He is nervous not because of what he did, but of the rift it may inflict on his relationship.

Joel de la Fuente plays the son, in three different incarnations over the course of the quick play.  The confusion and questions about the manner of his birth both confuse and anger him.  And the fact of cloning, the fact that he isn’t the original frustrates him - even though intellectually he realizes it is no different than having a twin.

Part of the beauty of A Number derives from the quiet moments of the play when trying to understand the motivations of Slater, and so I don’t want to share too much of the plot.  It is enough to say that the father’s motivation is universal and understandable, albeit a little self-serving.

On the other hand, the weakness of the piece is in the hurriedness of much of the dialog.  Executing interrupted dialog is a tricky business.  When it works, it mimics real life in an intense manner.  And in A Number, it works most of the time.  But when it doesn’t work, uninterrupted sentences sit half finished; raising the question if the though was unfinished or if the interruption just didn’t come fast enough on queue.  This manner of speaking is a character trait of the father, and mimicked in the son, so it is pretty constant in the play.  It is obvious when it misfires.

As written by Carly Churchill and directed by Maureen Payne-Hahner, A Number flows quickly at a nice pace.  Even though it is short, plenty of time is given to absorb the material.  A less confident playwright might have stretched this character study out too long, instead this play clocks in less than 90 minutes.  The decision to have Joel de la Fuente make minor wardrobe changes on stage to indicate different characters is a great and effective device to break the scene without breaking the mood.

I recommend A Number, is a thought provoking and interesting look at personality and humanity.  The show uses cloning not as a gimmick, but as a tool to investigate our uniqueness and commonality.

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A Number (theater website, company website)

Playwright: Carly Churchill

Director: Maureen Payne-Hahner

Cast: James Saito, Joel de la Fuente

Play Nice: Or Else

Play Nice, premiering now thru March 27^th at 59 E 59 Theaters, bills itself as a “gothic fairy tale”, but is set in the modern day.  This confusing definition is indicative of how difficult this absorbing tale is to accurately describe.  Play Nice is the story of three siblings with a vain and evil mother, who is obsessed with appearances and status – Hyacinth Bucket with a disciplinarian streak.

Mother is never seen, but her presence is feared by all the children.  They have found a refuge in the attic, whose stairs are too steep and narrow for the lame and fat mother to traverse.  The oldest child, Matilda, is played by Lauren Roth, a lonely young woman limited to role of housekeeper and surrogate caregiver.  Ms. Roth provides the ground of realism and heartbreak in the home.  She is forever anchored in the reality of trying to keep her siblings from upsetting the mother.

The two younger siblings are Luce, an effeminate high school boy played by Andrew Broussard and the youngest girl, Isabelle, played by Laura Hankin.  Luce and Isabelle use pretending and role playing to escape the drudgery of their home, creating elaborate games and situations for each other. They have created a mental bond which they believe can cross physical space.

Over the course of a Thanksgiving week-end, Luce causes embarrassment to his mother by his involvement in the High School Marching Flag troop, when he performs in the Macy’s Day parade.  She responds by delivering to a mental institution to live until he is “fixed”.  Dinner and tenuous calm for the remainder of the day is interrupted when Mother is poisoned.

What transpires next is the frantic result of trying to avoid Mother’s wrath when she returns from the hospital.  There are two major stories from here.  One concerns Luce and Isabelle.  They communicate telepathically and Isabelle wheedles and begs for Luce to come home.  There is a piece of business with an imagined character, played convincingly by Debby Brand, who embodies Isabelle in Luce’s presence.

More interesting, and truly fascinating, is watching the siblings try to understand what happened on that fateful Thanksgiving Day.  At different times all three role play being “mother”.  Their interpretations of Mother, and her motivations, are starkly reveling both to the audience and the siblings themselves.  A full portrait of their mother emerges from these characterizations, and this motivates them to action.

A healthy imagination and the ability to ignore reality are key to enjoying Play Nice - in the same manner that you have to believe Snow White’s Step-mother can cook up a poison apple.  If you can go with the flow of the story, then Play Nice is intriguing piece of theater.  To see Mother reflected through the eyes of these siblings (and the actors that do so admirably with the characters) is like watching a puzzle piece together.  And the puzzle produces a satisfying picture and resolution.

Director Joan Kane does very good job of introducing this twisted reality and keeping it cohesive.  She supports Robin Lice Lichtig’s writing, which is interesting, but not a normal linear piece.  Play Nice uses this fairy tale structure to tell the moving story of children forced to grow up in a bad situation.

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Play Nice (website and tickets)

Playwright: Robin Lice Lichtig

Director: Joan Kane

Cast: Debby Brand, Andrew Broussard, Laura Hankin and Lauren Roth

Noir Festival at The New School

It is technically "Off Broadway", but so much of Off-Broadway has roots in Film Noir - I think this is of interest.

The New School Arts Festival Presents Noir
Friday thru Friday, April 1–8

The New School Arts Festival is a first—a cultural showcase reflecting the artistic and intellectual energy of the entire university. Each festival will explore a single theme by presenting works from genres with an artistic home at The New School, including design, drama, film, literature, music, and critical theory.  Each festival will feature renowned guest artists and theorists, discussion of contemporary criticism, and original work created by New School students and presented at festival events all around campus.

The theme of our first arts festival is Noir, a cinematic style of shadowy expressiveness that had its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s.  Coined by a French critic in 1946, the term film noirrefers to movies depicting a morally ambiguous world of cynical private eyes, lonely gangsters, and femme fatales.  Since then, the influence of noir has been felt in areas ranging from fashion design to fine art, graphic art to fiction, suggesting the alienation and disorientation of modernism through stark silhouettes, sexual frankness, stylized emotion, and the absence of sentimentality.  Join The New School community in an exploration of noir in a festival of iconic films, hard-boiled storytelling, graphic art, and illustration inspired by this uniquely 20th century style. 

(more here)

Clifford Chase’s Winkie: Innocence Lost (check Gitmo)

Clifford Chase’s Winkie, now at the 59E59 Theaters, looks at current absurdities in the name of homeland security. It is an area that, at first glance, seems ripe for parody. Winkie is a Teddy Bear come to life, and thrust into the middle of a man hunt for a Unabomber-type terrorist. This set up is given to the audience in the form of a 24 hour news channel’s special report, a medium where the real, the fantastic and the scripted meld into a blob of infotainment.

Elliot Hill plays reporter Dan Abrams, who provides the requisite hushed and serious British tone needed – everything sounds more serious with British intonation. Just as Dan Abrams grounds the show within the play, Mr. Hill grounds the actual play. He constantly brings the tone of the show back to earth when it threatens to dissolve into camp. Nick Paglino plays Clifford Chase, Winkie’s last owner, and provides the voice of Winkie – a twinkling and twee voice that every child has used for their stuffed animals. Mr. Paglino has a very difficult role to manage. He has to provide both the background of Winkie – and voice the mainly reticent Bear. Mr. Paglino does a great job here by playing it perfectly straight.

The rest of the surprisingly large cast is giving huge room to camp up this over the top tale, since the story is kept in check by Elliot Hill and Nick Paglino. The ensemble does a admirable job with the material. In particular, Adam Kee as Winkie’s court appointed attorney is hilarious.

But there isn’t enough story to stretch out this parody for the full 90 minutes. Once the easy targets are mocked (and mocked well) the play has nowhere to go. Sure it’s funny that a Teddy Bear is arrested as a terrorist, but once Joan Rivers has actually been held in Costa Rice as a possible terrorist – reality has actually passed parody into the theater of the absurd.

The playwright understands the limitations of the material, and moves the show into Winkie’s story. Unfortunately it is a mawkish story of lost youth, which is both bizarre and unbelievable. While the audience can buy into the story that the Teddy Bear has come alive, it is a step too far to listen to him rhapsodize about his first bowl movement.

Director Joe Tantalo starts the proceedings strong, but ultimately loses the pace, as the story wanders towards conclusion. The tale of lost innocence in the big wide world just isn’t enough when delivered by a teddy bear.
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Clifford Chase’s Winke (website)
Director: Joe Tantalo
Playwright: Matt Pelfrey (from a novel by Clifford Chase)
Cast: Nick Paglino, Elliot Hill, Gregory Konow, Geraldine Johns, Michael, Shimkin, Adam Kee, Sean Phillips, Erin Wheelock, Chris Cipriano

Shakespeare on the Sound: Connecticut Throws a Benefit

SHAKESPEARE ON THE SOUND TO HOST

“ A   B I G   T O – D O   F O R   M U C H   A D O ”

ANNUAL GALA SET FOR APRIL 2, 2011

AT WOODWAY COUNTRY CLUB

Rowayton, CT – Shakespeare on the Sound, Connecticut’s premier outdoor summer theater company presenting free Shakespeare in the park today announced that the company will host a gala for its 16^th summer production, Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing, under the direction of Joanna Settle.  Stew and Heidi Rodewald will again create music and songs for the upcoming production.  A Big To-Do for Much Ado will be held at the Woodway Country Club (540 Hoyt Street, Darien, CT) on April 2, 2011 at 6:30 p.m.  This event will raise funds for the production and the company’s ongoing educational outreach programs.  Much Ado About Nothing will play two beautiful locations on Long Island Sound, Pinkney Park in Rowayton and Baldwin Park in Greenwich.  Performance dates and further details will be announced shortly. 

“We are planning a big, fun party for this summer with one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies and we plan to do-it-up Shakespeare style at the gala,” commented Emily Bryan, the company’s Managing Director.  “Our gala makes it possible for us to put on high quality productions every summer, and to offer programs in schools, community centers and libraries across Fairfield County,” added Leslie Lawrence, the gala chair.  “It’s a wonderful way to support the arts in our community – for so many in our area, Shakespeare on the Sound’s production or educational programs are their first encounter with Shakespeare.  This is a wonderful gift for our supporters to give the community,” added Dulcy Brainard, the gala’s Honorary Chair, “Shakespeare on the Sound is proud to be a cherished institution in the community and this is a great way to kick our season off!”

There will be a silent and live auction with exciting items, including vacations at Exclusive Resorts and the Ocean Reef Club, golf packages, a baseball signed by Mariano Rivera and tickets to a taping of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”  The auction will also offer cultural experiences: tickets to SPIDER-MAN Turn Off The Dark on Broadway, a night at the Metropolitan Opera and a special access to Shakespeare on the Sound rehearsals in New York City. 

Shakespeare on the Sound has established itself as one of the most popular summer theater companies on the East Coast, drawing large audiences to each performance in the unique under-the-stars settings of its waterfront venues.  16,000 people seeShakespeare on the Sound performances and 20% of the audience is children.  Admission is free, though donations are greatly appreciated. For more information about the gala or sponsorships, call Shakespeare on the Sound at 203-299-1300 or visit www.shakespeareonthesound.org.