Balm in Gilead

Thomas Dean as "Dopey"
Photo credit David Kamminga

If you’re a people watcher, especially the kind of person who goes to a bar or restaurant to watch the other patrons, “A Balm in Gilead” is the play for you.  Now presented by Resurrection Theatre Company at the California Stage Theater, directed by Margaret Morneau.

This is a difficult play to get into, as it has overlappping dialog, simultaneous scenes and mostly unlikable characters.  It takes place in a seedy bar populated by drug addicts and dealers, prostitutes (male and female), lesbians, transvestites, and thieves.

To complicate things, there are 30 in the cast, all of whom are listed by name and actor in the program, but only a handful are ever called by name in the script.  Trying to figure out who is who is pretty much impossible.

That said, it is an oddly entertaining play, the central characters of which are Darlene (Jennifer Berry), a good hearted prostitute freshly arrived from Chicago, and Joe (Vernon Lewis), a drug dealer with whom she becomes infatuated.  Berry delivers what may be the longest monologue I have heard when talking with Ann (Aviv Hannan), a world weary prostitute, about her past in Chicago.  It’s a tour de force but I was perhaps even more impressed with Hannan, whose expression of someone trapped listening to this monologue when she wants to be anywhere else, was perfect.

There is an electricity to this play that makes it oddly compelling.

Bachelorette

 Is the new form of entertainment to be as crude and disgusting as you can be? Is that what passes for art these days? I cannot deny that I disliked Leslye Headland’s Bachelorette, now at Big Idea Theater.  I disliked it a lot, though it was peopled with six talented actors who portrayed their highly unlikable characters very well -- its only redeeming quality!

It is set in a New York hotel suite, decorated for a wedding, with stacks of gifts and an offstage bathtub filled with bottles of champagne. Into the room burst Gena (Leah Daugherty) and Katie (Taylor Fleer), both very high and laughing. Every sentence contains the F word. They discover the champagne and each take a bottle and begin to drink, as they trash the apartment. Regan (Taylor Vaughan) arrives. She is the maid of honor but hates the bride (Shelby Vockel) and has invited the other two because she knows the bride does not like them. The word "fat" is used many times as an insult which I, as a fat person, found distasteful. I hurt for the bride. (The word "retarded" is also used a lot, which many will find offensive.)

Two men, Jeff (Russell Dow) and Joe (Jacob Garcia) that the girls picked up at the bar arrive. Simulated sex and possible rape is added to the drugs, and alcohol. There is vomiting on stage.

Maybe this is the wave of the future, but I don’t want to be entertained by watching the worst of people, especially women.

Daddy's Dyin' Who's Got the Will

Del Shores’ “Daddy’s Dyin’,Who’s Got the Will?” is playing to near sell-out houses at the Ooley Theatre, under the direction of Corey Morris, making his Sacramento directorial debut.

This black dramady is the story of the dysfunctional Turnover family, from Lowake, Texas, gathering after years of estrangement, for a death watch on father Buford.  All the children are desperate to find his will. but it is missing and Buford (Lew Rooker) is so demented, he is of no help.

The roost is ruled by Mama Wheelis (Deborah Shalhoub – Tony’s sister), Buford’s mother-in-law, who rules with a strong hand, doesn’t allow profanity or pre-marital sex in her house.  She has aprons for all occasions, including a black one for funerals.

Sara Lee (Adriana Marmo) is the “good child” who stayed home to care for her father, while sister Marlene (Elise Hodge) is a born again preacher’s wife who lives nearby and helps, when she can, with their father.

Evalita (Bethany Hidden) has not been home for years.  She arrives with metallic red hair and a costume in danger of having a wardrobe malfunction at any moment.  She’s working on husband #6 and hopes to use her inheritance to pay for costs to produce her first record.

Son Orville (Rob McCrea) is a stereotypical redneck wife-beater whose wife Lurlene (Elizabeth Anne Springett) is obsessed with her recent weight loss.

Rounding out the cast is Evalia’s barefoot boy toy Harmony (Mitchell Thompson) who is getting a little tired of Evalita’s self-centeredness, and finds a friend in Lurlene.

God of Carnage

As Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage opens at Resurrection Theater, two couples meet for a civilized discussion. Veronica (Adrienne Sher) is reading an agreement they are all to sign concerning their young sons, who have had a playground scuffle that cost one of the boys a couple of teeth. Veronica and husband Michael (Steven Minow) want to be very civilized about the damage done to their son.

Over a delicious apple clafouti (recipe included in the program), the other parents, Annette (Beth Edwards) and Alan (Shawn B. O’Neal) arrange for the boys to work out their differences.

Pleased with how reasonably they are all behaving, one parent asks “How many parents, when standing up for their children, become infantile themselves?”

Over the next 90 minutes, we find out just how infantile four reasonable parents can be as the discussion turns heated, through a series of very funny disagreements and violent attacks, as all four bare their souls, and relationships shift.

Veronica, an art historian, is a stark contrast to her husband, who runs a hardware store. The veneer of the apartment’s expensive art books falls apart when he lets loose his inner Neanderthal.

Edwards’ Annette is nervous and fearful of her bombastic attorney husband, who answers cellphone calls until his wife finally cracks.

What makes this production soar is not only Reza’s very funny script (translated by Christopher Hampton) but Natasha Hause’s crisp direction and the verbal dexterity of her strong cast, each of whom gives a spellbinding performance.

Caifornia's Everything Man

It’s likely that Ray Tatar is a familiar sight to many who visit California Stage. Tall and white-haired, the theater company’s hands-on artistic director greets every patron cheerfully.

Tatar’s theater roots go deep—although he’d initially planned a career in film. A theater gig in Southern California at Knott’s Berry Farm would eventually change that course, however. After graduation, Tatar worked in Hollywood as an intern on many TV series and films, including Funny Girl, but realized it just wasn’t his passion.

“I just couldn’t get film into my heart. Live theater always excited me,” Tatar said.

This week, Tatar finds new excitement at California Stage, directing Leslie Lewinter-Suskind’s A Revolutionary Mind, which opens June 17. The production explores the tumultuous Vietnam-era 1960s—a period that unarguably shaped Tatar’s outlook and ethos.

Back then, he attended UC Berkeley, where he worked at the Magic Theatre and received an MFA in directing. In the ’70s, Tatar ended up in the United Kingdom, where he worked at a theater for the deaf in London. Tatar also taught method drama at a junior college in the area—a job he got thanks to a connection he had with famed acting teacher Lee Strasberg.

When he returned to the states, Tatar worked as a drama critic for a TV station in Los Angeles, and in 1977 was named executive director of the LA Stage Alliance. In 1982, he went to work for the California Arts Council, serving under then-Gov. Jerry Brown and helping to raise millions for the theater community.

That same year, however, he also wanted a change and moved to Sacramento, where he founded the Sacramento Area Regional Theatre Alliance. SARTA, which bands together local organizations, actors, technicians and administrators to produce and promote work in the region, helped Tatar realize just “how powerful that kind of [organization] can be to service theater and community.”

Tatar only planned to stay in Sacramento for a few years, but after meeting and marrying his wife Susan, he decided to make it his home.

These days, Tatar is still active in the theater community, discovering new works for California Stage, including A Revolutionary Mind. The show, told in flashbacks and flash-forwards, tells the story of protesters who marched against the war in Vietnam.

“It’s a different type of play,” Tatar said of its unusual structure.

Its activism storyline and counterculture themes are also meaningful for him. “The heroine represents to me the boomer generation—we who marched against the Vietnam War, and who wanted to make the world better. We didn’t succeed.”

Tatar says the play speaks to the legacy of that generation and passes down the message to future generations.“We may not have been successful,” he said of the ’60s, “but maybe our grandchildren will be.”

Alice in Wonderland

 

“You must be mad,” said the Cat, “Or you wouldn’t have come here.”

Greg Alexander’s adaptation of “Alice in Wonderland,” now at the B Street Theater as part of the Family Series is billed “for ages 5+.”  They got that right.  The little kids sat entranced and laughed uproariously at the zany antics on stage.

This is not your mother’s “Alice,” nor is it Lewis Carroll’s.  The outrageous frenzy was great for the kids, but wore a bit thin.  The beloved fairy tale turned into a moralistic lesson in 12 step programs, self-help groups, and parenting lessons thinly disguised as life in Wonderland.

Alice is not a little girl, but a petulant, self-indulgent teenager, with lots of food allergies, and glued to her cell phone.  She, with her friends, speaks in Internet-ese and says “OMG!” and “Like-Like-Like!” a lot.  When she follows the White Rabbit she loses first loses her GPS and then her cell phone itself, in strange ways peripherally related to Carroll’s story, and has no clue how to survive.

Ultimately, this becomes a lesson in realizing she had those skills all along (I expected someone to invite her to click her heels together).

The weirdness of the script should not take away from the fine acting by the cast, particularly Stephanie Altholz as Alice, who has developed the annoyingly accurate screeching inflection of a spoiled teenager and John Lamb, in several roles, each one fun to watch, particularly the caterpillar.

Music composer Noah Agruss along with playwright Alexander has written some cute songs, particularly the opening number, familiar to anyone living in the Internet age.

DMTC for SNR

It was 3 a.m. on a day way back in 1984 when Jan Isaacson woke husband Steve and told him it was time to start a family. Not that kind. Rather, she told him they needed to start a theater company. Jan envisioned a company that would encompass all ages and feature only musical theater productions.

And so they did. The Davis Musical Theatre Company spent many years “homeless and wandering,” according to Jan, looking for a permanent location. It found that stability in 2005, when the company built the Jean Henderson Performing Arts Center, a 240-seat theater in Davis.

At 32 years of age, DMTC is now the state’s longest-running, year-round, nonprofessional musical theater company that includes a full orchestra and a young performer’s theater.

“We must be doing something right,” Jan says of the company’s longevity.

For its principal players, DMTC’s success is rooted in its homey vibe. “There’s a real sense of family about the group,” says DMTC actress Dannette Vassar, who joined in 1997. “There’s not the backstage drama that you sometimes find in other theater groups. It’s a very comfortable place to be.”

Over the years, the company has grown from a struggling community theater to a first-rate amateur theater.

After a recent performance of Man of La Mancha, Nancianne Pfister, a veteran of the Davis theater scene, was so impressed she wrote a letter to its directors. “Everything about [the show] was without flaw: music, acting, directing, set, costumes … the show was a true lift to my soul,” she wrote.

There are two shows left in DMTC’s current season: Brigadoon, which opens April 22, and The Music Man, which will open June 17.

[Title of Show]

Nephi Speer, Brian Bohlender, Lauren Ettensohn and Eimi Taormina
photo credit:  Meredith Nixon

[Title of Show], directed by Mariana Seda, is a musical about two guys writing a musical about two guys writing a musical. This delightful production showcases the best of four talented actors, Brian Bohlender as Jeff, Nephi Speer as Hunter, Eimi Taormina as Susan and Heidi Lauren Ettensohn, with David Taylor as Larry, the accompanist.

Jeff and Hunter are musical writing partners who have hit a dry pach, but when they hear of a new musical theater festival they decide to enter something; They have ony three weeks to come up with a show.  As they brainstorm ideas (book plots, poems, etc.) they decide that their brain storming session themselves, set to music, might be an interesting idea.

With the help of Susan and Heidi they develop their musical, which is successful at the festival, finds an off-Broadway home and then plans to move to Broadway.  The changing relationships among the four friends as their fame grows teaches them ultimately what is important in life.

This is a show that musical theater buffs will love because of its in-jokes and obscure references. Those less enlightened will enjoy the tuneful songs, the inventive choreography and the camaraderie among the actors.

Adult language and themes make this inappropriate for young children.

Three Sisters

left to right Nina Dramer (Masha), Samantha Hannum (Irina),
Megan Aldritch (Olga) photo by Bruce Clarke

“They'll forget us. Such is our fate, there is no help for it. What seems to us serious, significant, very important, will one day be forgotten or will seem unimportant,” says Lt. Col. Vershinin (Earl Victorine), in one of the many melancholic moments of Anton Chekhov’s “Three Sisters,” now at Sacramento City College’s Art Court Theater, under the direction of Adrienne Sher.

Over four scenes, we watch the three sisters of the Prozorova family, and the others who inhabit the house run the gamut of emotions from the sheer joy of young Irina (Samantha Hannum) on the morning of her 20th birthday to the overwhelming depression of the whole household five years later.   

This is a powerful, moving, sometimes funny production with an excellent cast.  The sisters are played by Megan Aldrich (Olga), Nina Dramer (Masha) and Hannum.  Each has her own personality, from the stern Olga, forced to be the family leader following the death of their father; Masha, stuck in an unhappy marriage and secretly in love with Vershinin; and Irina, whose idealistic dreams slowly die with the passage of time.

Brother Andrey (Thomas Dean) is a talented young man with no drive whose best job seems to be head of the village council.  Wife Natasha (Devon LaBar), the subject of derision for her fashion choices, becomes the shew of the household.

Also outstanding are Tom Rhatigan as Dr. Chebutikin, an eccentric alcoholic doctor, Sean Thomas Olivares as Soleni, a social misfit in love with Irina and Paul Scott as Baron Tuzenbach, also in love with Irina.

With all of their problems, the emotional connection among the sisters remains strong and is the tie that holds this family together.

Three Days of Rain

Photo by Yarcenia Garcia

Siblings Walker (Eric Baldwin) and Nan (Beth Edwards) are the central figures in Richard Greenberg’s engrossing drama, “Three Days of Rain,” now at Big Idea Theater, directed by Shaleen Schmutzer-Smith. It is about what Walker and Nan believe about their family history, particularly the mind of their emotionally distant world famous architect father, and what they want to find out, based on the father’s enigmatic journal Walker has found, which gives tantalizing hints about their parents’ past.

When the father’s will gives his prized accomplishment, a famous home once featured in Life magazine, to Pip (Ryan Snyder), the son of his collaborator, it is a blow that none of the trio can understand.

Act 2 is set 35 years earlier, with the actors playing their parents and giving the audience answers to the some (but not all) of the questions posed in Act 1.

This is a strong trio of actors.  Baldwin gives and honest and gut wrenching performance as Walker, but it is as Ned, his reserved, stuttering father, where he really shines.

Edwards is a strong Nan, who loves her brother, but can’t quite trust him, since he has disappointed her so often.  As mother Lina, she is less like the described “Zelda Fitzgerald’s less stable sister” and it is difficult to see how she became the mentally needy, alcoholic mother described in Act 1.

Snyder is wonderful as the suave handsome TV idol Pip, and also deftly plays the emotionally unstable Theo, whose untimely death will affect everyone forever.

Though the second act seems rushed, trying to fit in too much too quickly, following the more solid first act, this is a compelling drama certain to satisfy.

Four Stars