Annie Get Your Gun

Because the writers of a musical create encore numbers, to be performed when the number itself gets lots of applause and the audience obviously wants more, this does not mean that those encore numbers should be performed routinely as part of the show.

Davis Musical Theater Company’s new production of “Annie Get Your Gun” is replete with unwarranted encores. With a show which runs just slightly under 3 hours, some thought might be given to leaving out the encores that aren’t demanded by audience applause.

Director/Choreographer Ron Cisneros has chosen to use the original 1946 version of the Irving Berlin classic (with book by Herbert & Dorothy Fields). The show was updated by Peter Stone in 1999 to be more politically correct, particularly in its depiction of Native Americans. The DMTC version, however, is the one we all remember from either Ethel Merman belting out “There’s No Business Like Show Business” on stage, or the M.G.M. musical, starring Betty Hutton.

Lauren Miller, last seen as the hormone-charged Ado Annie in DMTC’s “Oklahoma!”, is a spunky and vivacious Annie Oakley, the backwoods sharpshooter who can’t read or write, but who can outshoot almost anyone. Miller has a strident sound to her voice, which is perfect for the newly emerged Annie, in songs like “Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly,” or “You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun,” but which would be more pleasant if modulated somewhat in slower numbers like the lovely “Moonshine Lullaby” or “They Say It’s Wonderful.”

Annie’s little siblings are played by Petra Favorite, Arrin Graham, Sabrina Schloss and Matthew Fyhie, each of whom give engaging performances.

DMTC’s Renaissance Man, Mike McElroy (who designed the set and lights for last year’s “Titanic”) gives a solid performance as Frank Butler, the headliner of Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. He is at his best singing “My Defenses are Down,” where his winsome appearance explains why all the ladies fawn all over him.

Annie is also taken in by Butler’s good looks and falls in love with him, though his tastes lean toward a more refined woman (“The Girl that I Marry”) and he is also threatened by her ability to shoot.

Claire Impens is the brazen Dolly Tate, Frank’s buxom assistant, who harbors an unrequited passion for Frank.

Paul Schechter is Charlie Davenport, the Wild West Show’s advance man. Schechter has a real flair for being a salesman.

Mary Young is suitably bombastic as Wilson, who runs the local hotel and has had enough of show biz folks messing up her fine establishment.

Adam Sartain is Buffalo Bill; Dan Linebarger is his competitor, Pawnee Bill; and Steve Isaacson is Chief Sitting Bull, who invests in Cody’s show and adopts Annie as his daughter.
The adoption scene was dropped from the 1999 revision because of the stereotypical image of Native Americans it presented, and the because of objection to Annie’s song and dance (“I’m an Indian Too,” with lyrics like “Looking like a flour sack / With two papooses on my back / And three papooses on the way” and names like “Battle Axe, Hatchet Face, Eagle Nose and Big Chief Hole-in-the-Ground.”

In 2007, and especially on the heels of the recent Imus incident, it can be an uncomfortable scene to watch, despite the fact that it is designed to be humorous – or perhaps because it is designed to be humorous.

Director Cisneros has made maximum use of the Hoblit Theater, bringing his wild west show in from the back of the house and down the stairs to the stage, which gives a bigger feel to what is going on, in this show which really needs to be a “spectacle.”

Costume design is by Jean Henderson. Steve Isaacson has designed the set, which, in the opening scene, appeared to wobble a lot whenever someone slammed the door to the hotel. Dannette Vassar has done a nice job with lighting design.

“Annie Get Your Gun” is a pleasant show which drags a bit, but is nonetheless enjoyable. It does not, however, warrant the number of encores contained within the body of the show, with the possible exception of “You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun,” whose encore gives Mary Young a chance to join Annie in the song and dance.

Three Days of Rain

(this review appeared in The Davis Enterprise on 4/19/07)

What if you stumbled across your parent’s journal, written at approximately the same age that you are currently? Our parents are always our parents, with all of the stern taskmaster persona that we remember from our youth. But what were they like when they were younger? What sorts of things would you read into the youthful scrawls of the parent, based on knowledge of the qualities of the adult parent?

This question is at the core of Richard Greenberg’s “Three Days of Rain,” now playing at Capital Stage on the Delta King Riverboat in Sacramento, directed by Peter Mohrmann.

Sometimes called “a puzzle in two acts,” “Three Days of Rain” was a runner-up for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize, which may be apparent by the eloquent use of language by playwright Greenberg. It tells the story about how the life choices made by parents and the back stories crafted through the years affect the lives of their adult children. Of course, as in any gripping story, they are all members of a prominent, but dysfunctional family.

Walker (Jonathan Rys Williams) and Nan (Megan Smith), adult offspring of the legendary architect, Ned, who has recently died, have come together in Ned’s old apartment and are ready to go to the attorney’s office to meet their friend Pip (Gillen Morrison), soap opera icon and son of Ned’s partner, Theo, for a reading of the will.

The angst-ridden Walker has just returned from Italy, where he disappeared some time ago. “We thought you were dead this time,” says his sister, exposing the fact that “disappearing” is something Walker does rather than face his problems.

The early scene between the two is tense, uneasy, with a lot of unspoken emotion. Nan has always been the responsible one, who now lives in Boston with two kids and a husband and is still trying to keep everything together. Walker engages in flights of fancy and his speech becomes more and more expansive as he paces around the small room speculating about the life his father lived in this garret, at the start of his career.

He confides that he found his father’s journal stuck under the mattress of the room’s bed and he begins reading it, more, it seems, in anger at his father than in curiosity about the life of his emotionally distant parent. “You know, the thing is with people who never talk, the thing is you always suppose they're harboring some enormous secret. But, just possibly, the secret is, they have absolutely nothing to say,” he says, reading the journal’s cryptic opening entry: April 3rd to April 5th. Three days of rain.”

We meet Pip following the reading of the will, where things have not gone as Walker has expected and which sets Walker off into a depressive, uncommunicative mood while Nan and Pip reminisce about their childhood and reveal more than they intended.

Act 2 takes place 35 years previous, the weekend of the starting of the journal and we discover what the cryptic entries imply, all leading up to an ending so abrupt that the audience wasn’t really sure the show had ended until the cast came out to take its bows and the house lights came up.

This is a remarkable cast. Megan Smith has an amazingly expressive face, which runs the gamut of emotions from Nan, the stern taskmaster and loving sister to Lina, the free spirit. She creates two distinct characters, inhabiting each fully and making each unique through body language as much as through accent and actual script.

Gillen Morrison has an easy affability, a devil-may-care attitude which was as engaging in the father, Theo, as it was in the son, Pip. His dark moments are brief, but he makes the most of them.

But it is Jonathan Rhys Williams who will take your breath away, with portrayals of the tormented Walker and the shy, stuttering Ned so completely different from each other than it’s difficult to find the Act 1 actor in the Act 2 character. He is mesmerizing.

Rebecca Redmond deserves mention for her costume design, which so clearly delineates 1995 life from 1960 life.

“Three Days of Rain” received lukewarm reviews in its recent revival in New York, starring Julia Roberts, which is a shame because with the right cast this is an intelligent, emotional, often funny, thoroughly enjoyable play -- and Capital Stage has “the right cast.”

New Kids on the Block

It’s always nice to feel you have the inside track on something very special that the rest of the world hasn’t discovered yet.

That’s how I felt when I went to see “Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol” at Capital Stage, on the Riverboat Delta King in Old Sacramento in December of 2005. Of all the shows I’d reviewed that year, this was my favorite. The production was so good that I continued to attend the shows through the 2006-2007 season and with each show, I came away with a real appreciation for the quality of the productions and the realization that there is more to quality than a fancy venue and a big budget.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with managing director and sometime actor Peter Mohrmann and with Megan Smith, who is starring in the 3-person play, “Three Days of Rain,” directed by Mohrmann, and set to open on April 13.

Both are Davis natives who left Davis, received their degrees in theater and then discovered that to find their heart’s desire (employment in theater), they didn’t really need to look farther than their own front yards. Both credit their successes to the good start they received at Davis High School.

“Dave Burmester and his Improv group had a major influence on my life,” says Mohrmann, who graduated from Davis High School in the mid 1970s. “That experience has stayed with me through all my years. The training that we did, being in the moment, thinking ‘right now’ has never left me as a performer. I worked with an amazing group of people that I learned from and played with at that time.”

“Peter was one of my favorite people,” commented Burmester. “As a freshman at UCD, he was my assistant director on the only Davis Senior High School show I ever did -- A Thurber Carnival -- which led directly to the founding of Acme. He was also a stalwart in Improv! while at DSHS.”

“Acme Theater was a big deal for me,” added Smith, who graduated in 1994, and who credits her role in an Acme production of “A Shayna Maidel” with setting her plans for a career in theater into motion. “Dave was a fantastic director. That was the moment when I definitely committed to being in theater for as long as I possibly could.”

She also joined the Madrigal Choir, under Karen Gardias. “Karen was quite a mentor, especially in my senior year,” she says, adding that Gardias has remained a good friend and great supporter.

While Smith was still in grammar and high school, Mohrmann was already learning the ins and outs of theater. He attended San Francisco State, but then returned to Davis to get his Bachelor’s Degree at UCD (“I just have Davis in my blood.”). He did all the things that aspiring actors do. He worked as a waiter at Brewster House and worked for a time at Davis Lumber (“I think everybody has to work here at some point, if you live here long enough.”)

Eventually he took an office job at UCD and realized he had a knack for administrative work, even then.

After a 3-year stint in Chicago, where he received his Master of Fine Arts Degree from DePaul University, he moved back to Davis to care for his ailing mother. “I thought that I’d get my Equity card quickly in Sacramento and then move on,” he laughs.

To support himself while he was working on getting his equity card, he took a temp job, which landed him in Sacramento Medical Center’s nursing administration department, which turned into a full time job as office manager. (“Office work tends to work well with theater when you are just starting out,” he notes.)

Eleven years later he was still working for Sutter and occasionally performing with theaters like The Show Below, Garbeau’s Dinner Theater in Rancho Cordova, Foothill Theater Company in Nevada City, and the Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. Then a bit of synergy changed the direction of Mohrmann’s life.

Along with a group of other artists, Mohrmann founded Synergy Stage, which performed several shows on the riverboat Delta King. One of the founders of the group was actress Stephanie Gularte, who eventually started the Delta King Theater and asked Mohrmann if he was interested in becoming managing director.

“I loved Sutter, but I’d been there eleven years – how did that happen?” He met with Gularte, “and all of a sudden I’m managing director.” It brought all of his training in theater and work in administration full circle.

Gularte was in the process of separating from the Delta King and forming a separate theater company, which would continue to perform on the river boat, but which would be it’s own entity. It was purely a financial decision. As the performing wing of the Delta King, the group had to be considered a for-profit theater group, which put limits on funding resources. As a separate theater group, they could be a non-profit organization and raise money through sponsorships and individual donations, something which was crucial to establish the kind of quality theater Gularte and Mohrmann wanted to create.

“Theater is not cheap. Art is not cheap,” said Mohrmann, wryly.

The biggest challenge for any theater company is always the money — continuously asking for donations, constantly trying to figure out ways to stretch the dollar. “People don’t realize that the ticket price is only 50-60% of what it costs to put on a show,” Mohrmann explained.

You start with the royalties (the money paid for the rights to perform a show) and add “all those things that could turn you into a republican -- workers comp, health insurance. I am proud that we are a company that pays union actors and pays non-union actors as well.”

The group negotiates with Equity and agrees to hire a certain number (usually 2-4) union actors , plus a union Stage Manager. Then there are designers to hire as well, which is not always an easy task. “Our space has some real specific limitations to it so it’s a challenge, but it can be interesting,” said Mohrmann, pointing out the low ceiling which adds to the intimate feeling for the audience, but can be a problem for designers.

Capital Stage works closely with the community colleges and with UC Davis and offers a strong opportunity for actors and designers to work together.

“Part of the mission of Capital Stage is to play an integral role in creating more opportunities for actors, directors, writers and designers so that our talented artists will stay here in our community,” says Gularte.

“I love working with Capital Stage,” says Smith, who has returned to Davis from San Francisco, where she now lives and performs, to work with the company. “I can’t stay too many positive things about how professional this company is and what an absolute delight it is to work with them.” She feels the intimacy of the small theater is “one of its calling cards.”

Smith points out that when she was growing up, the opportunities for professional actors in the Sacramento area were not as plentiful as they are now, especially for straight plays. “Sacramento Theater Company, B Street Theater and Capital Stage all complement each other. They offer wildly different options for people to see different sorts of theater.”

“We’re not here to copy STC or B Street,” explains Mohrmann. He adds that Capital Stage wants to do things that have not been done in this area, critically acclaimed pieces, not just award winners. “We want to make you think,” he says. “We’re not here to advocate a certain way of thinking but we’re here to illuminate other ways of thinking. We’re not here to say ‘this is how you lead your life,’ but to explore how others are leading their lives to help you understand their viewpoint.”

Smith feels that the current production, “Three Days of Rain” fits the bill perfectly. “When I first read it, I loved the quality of discovery about it, how all the characters in the first act are searching for the truth and they think they’ve found the truth about their parents. The challenge of the second act is to really tell the story in the moment so that the audience discovers those epiphanies with us.”

“Any play where you see people you relate to on stage making discoveries about themselves, is the kind of theater I’m interested in” she added. “It’s the kind of theater that makes people get in their cars and talk about it all the way home.”

I attended two rehearsals for “Three Days of Rain” and enjoyed watching the collaborative process between director Mohrmann and his actors. “Peter has a great sense of fun and discovery. Capitol Stage is choosing people who have the same artistic value that they do and can bring something new and fresh to what they’re trying to do.”

News of the existence of Capital Stage is slowly getting out to theater-goers in the Sacramento area. “It takes awhile for people to realize we are there,” says Mohrmann. “As we go out to make calls and ask for individual donations and for corporate sponsorships, people still ask ‘who is Capital Stage’? We’re the new kids on the block and it takes awhile.”

It would seem that the group has all it needs to make a success of things. An intimate venue in Old Sacramento, where parking is plentiful (the parking lot is only a block away), and there are lots of places for a pre-show dinner or an after-show drink. The group presents quality professional productions, and has experienced management and support staff.
We have consistently provided a quality product with our limited resources and the limitations that the theater physically holds for, but on the other hand we are continually growing. Our audience members believe that you make it good and they will come. Our subscribers are our biggest word of mouth,” concludes Mohrmann.

Electricidad

The “Greek chorus” in Sacramento Theater Company’s new production of Luis Alfaro’s “Electricidad” is really “cleaning up.”

“Electricidad,” directed by Susannah Martin, takes the classic “Electra” myth, told at different times by Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides and puts a modern day twist on it, setting the story in a barrio in Los Angeles.

The original tale is set after the Trojan War. Electra and Orestes are the grown children of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra. When Clytemnestra and her lover murder Agamemnon and seize the throne, Electra persuades her long-exiled brother to slaughter their mother and her lover in revenge. These guys put the “fun” in dysfunctional and are the poster children for family troubles, All are members the House of Atreus and every one of them either sleeps with a relative or murders a relative or does both.

The classic “Greek chorus,” traditionally used to give background information in order to help the audience follow the plot, thus becomes three neighborhood busy-bodies, with their hair tied in up in scarfs and their brooms busily sweeping the steps, and the imaginary ugliness that they find around them out of the street.

Therese Llanes, Nancy Silva and Irene Velasquez provide not only narration, but comic relief as well. But they keep up a constant conversation in their scenes which must be listened to very carefully, since their lapses into Spanish or barrio idioms sometimes masks the message they are trying to get across.

Saffron Henke, in the title role of the current production, may be playing her grittiest, meatiest character to date, the rage-filled Electricidade, obsessed with revenging the murder of her father. Henke’s anguish is palpable and the level of her fury fairly ignites the stage with its strength.

As her mother, Clemencia, Elisabeth Nunziato is riveting. Clemencia is a feminist who claims she killed her abusive, drug-addicted husband in order take over the barrio herself and turn it away from the crime-ridden place that it is now.

Electricidade is not buying it. She guards her father’s body, in the front yard of their home. She speaks to him, sings to him, and refuses to allow anyone to move the body, even though it has begun to decay.

"How many neighbors keep a body in the front yard as if he was a car without wheels, on cinder blocks?” ask the women of the chorus.

Electricidade’s grandmother, Abuela (Janis Stevens) and her sister Ifigenia (Katherine C. Miller), newly released from prison and perhaps “born again,” attempt to intercede. Abuela is an “old school cholo,” who isn’t above turning a trick herself or whipping out a joint to smoke with her granddaughter. She brings the wisdom of having lived a long life and having buried three sons, each a victim of gang violence in the barrio. Stevens gives Abuela an intensity that is both languid and fiery at the same time.

Gabriel Montoya appears in the second act as Orestes, a loving and devoted son, returning home after a lengthy absence in Las Vegas, where he was being toughened up by his tutor Nino (Roscoe [yes, Derrick--no last name]) to one day take his father’s place. He has no hint of the situation which is waiting for him, or how to deal with his sister’s insistence that he kill their mother to avenge the death of their father. She shames him by calling it an “honor killing.”

This is a play which is appropriately named. It crackles with electricity, it grabs your attention and doesn’t let go through the hour and 45 minutes of its performance. Anyone with a knowledge of the Electra myth knows people are not going to live happily ever after, but the performances make this worth watching.

Throughout the play we sympathize first with Electricidad and then with her mother until we realize that there is no “right” here, merely a bad situation and two different opinions about how it should be dealt with. Each of the women, in her own way displays dignity, pride, family loyalty, and an understanding of the cholo code. The tragedy is that there is no good solution and both, ultimately, suffer for being caught in the middle.

Steven Decker has created a lovely set within the small confines of the Stage Two theater, using muted adobe and blue tones, setting votive candles into slanted boards, and giving center stage to a Dia de los Muertos type altar, dominated by a likeness of Our Lady of Guadelupe.

Oliver!

“Consider yourself one of the family” is more than a song lyric in The Woodland Opera House production of Lionel Bart’s classic musical “Oliver!” Several families have more than one member participating on or off stage ... the Stapp family alone has four members on stage, Samuel in the title role, his father Curtis as Oliver’s grandfather, Mr. Brownlow, and sisters Julia and Rachel in the ensemble (Julia also plays the milkmaid in the “Who will buy” number).

“Oliver!” is part of the opera house’s Theater for Families series, and they obviously take that title seriously.

Angela Shellhammer, Education Director for The Woodland Opera House, has directed this sprightly paced, delightful musical and, with Eva Sarry, has choreographed numbers with the professional precision.

The opening chorus, with the orphans entering the dining hall of the workhouse from some basement enclosure gives a hint of the quality to come. The kids have been drilled to a fare thee well, sing well and impress with their dancing.

Eight year old Samuel Stapp was the opening night Oliver, the orphan whose mother dies in childbirth, leaving him a ward of the state. He shares the role with Davis fourth-grader Devon Hayakawa, in her first role at WOH. Samuel is an absolute delight. He is the perfect age for the role, he is a good actor, sings well and hits all the right notes, especially when he sits huddled under a blanket on the floor of Mr. Sowerberry’s (Micail W. Buse) funeral parlor, to which he has just been sold by the workhouse beadle, Mr. Bumble (David Wilkinson) and wistfully sings “Where is Love?”

Emily Delk is delightful as the Widow Corney, the matron of the workhouse, who is sweet talked by Bumble. Their duet, “I shall scream” was funny, though her bouncing up and down on Bumble’s knee should elicit a bit more reaction from him.

Fagin, the seemingly good-hearted leader of a band of youthful pickpockets is given a very good, if not outstanding, performance by Jes Gonzales.

The talented Casey Camacho, who appears slightly older than the usual Artful Dodger, nevertheless brings a cocky assurance to the role of Fagin’s right hand boy, who introduces Oliver to the group. He is a good actor who moves well on stage and has a strong singing voice.

Simply stunning is the Nancy of Katie Ichtertz. She has a voice as rich as melted chocolate and her plaintive “As Long as He Needs Me” will break your heart. Ichtertz is only 19 years old and should have a long successful theatrical career ahead of her.

Jason Hammond infuses the character of Bill Sikes with the proper black soul and is the bad guy you love to hate.

Others in the cast worthy of note are Carver Simmons as Noah Claypool, employee of the funeral parlor, and Micaela Zambrano as his girlfriend Charlotte. Micail W. Buse is appropriately sepulchral as the undertaker Mr. Sowerberry, while his wife (Lynnette Blaney) is nicely overbearing. Kara Sheldon has the small role of Bet, Nancy’s young sidekick, and handles it well.

“Oliver!” like “Fiddler on the Roof” is one of those stories that you forget has a black side to it. Act 1 is much more fun than Act 2, which always appears to be one long series of tragedies after another. Shellhammer’s otherwise excellent direction fails her in the final scenes, where Oliver’s life is threatened by Sikes. The set (designed by Jeff Kean) is such that Oliver could easily escape Sikes’ clutches by running up stairs to the overhead bridge, though he stands still, as if waiting to be snatched by the villain.

The 9 piece orchestra, under the direction of Dan Pool does a serviceable job, though there were some difficulties with some of the horn passages.

Shellhammer and her cast have given us a better than average production of this Dickens classic, which should nicely fill the bill for family entertainment, especially since the good guys come out OK in the end.

Spring Concert 2007

Pamela Trokanski, who has been entertaining Davis Audiences for over twenty years, is examining life, love, sex, relationships -- and voice mail.

The Pamela Trokanski Dance Theatre’s Spring Concert 2007 continues March 30, 31, and April 6 at 8 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center, 2720 Del Rio Place in Davis. The concert is performed by members of the theater (Caitlin Barale, Nicole Bell, Robin Carlson, Katy Lundgren, Bekah Shepard, Cindy Robinson and Trokanski herself) and members from “Third Stage,” Northern California’s only multi generational contemporary dance company. Maj Hapworth, Allegra Silberstein and Claire Finn join in on the second of three pieces.

The evening opens with a delightful (if overly long) look at voice mail hell and everyone in the audience will be able to relate to the relentless telephone sound (Hank Lawson is credited with “music,” though this isn’t exactly “music”) and with the recorded announcements from the disembodied operator, who wants to assure the dancers that their call is very important to her.

The piece is clever and funny and the robotic movements of the dancers match the mood perfectly, though it runs something like 16 minutes and the humor begins to wear thin at about 10 minutes.

The second piece is entitled “Singing Over Bones.” The original cast of dancers is joined by Claire Finn, with Hapworth and Silberstein playing the roles of old village women who gather wolf bones and sing over them, the legend being that as the songs build in intensity, the bones reconstitute, fill in with muscles skin and fur and the wolves run off in the direction of the forest. Those who make it to the trees are reborn into women, women who know where they come from and women who can laugh.

Lighting designer Myvanwy Morgan creates a mystical place for women to gather. The older women are circled by women in purple who dance in slow, sensuous movements, much like harem dancers. As the chorus and rhythm (music also by Hank Lawson) builds they are joined by the rest of the group, dressed in red, the lights become warmer and you feel as if you are watching a very special ritual, which is primitive, uniquely female, and reminiscent of drum circles.

After a brief intermission the original group is back with the premiere of “Come Naked, Bring Beer,” which examines the who, what, when, where and how of courtship, defined as “the process of selecting and attracting another for an intimate relationship such as love, sex, commitment, living together, marriage, and having children, or any combination of these. Courtship may last days, months, or even years, but some lovers skip courting altogether as in cases of (mutual) love at first sight, casual sex or arranged marriage.”

The sense of a “hunt” is depicted by the animal print added as sleeves to the original costume, sleeves which later extend to floor length and move as wings in describing courtship rituals and comparing them to bower birds.

The various little things that a woman is looking for a mate are described in intimate detail through music by Lawson, Crash Test Dummies, and They Might be Giants. Guest Dancer Bill Tuck joins the women as “Superman,” and the piece concludes with the realization that a man’s wants and desires are much less complex and much more basic.

Othello

Revenge! Passion! Lust! Greed!...and Love.

Shakespeare’s great tragedy “Othello” has it all, and the Sacramento Theater Company’s sparkling new production, under director Peggy Shannon serves it well, from the magnificent set designed by Marion Williams, to the powerful performances delivered by the members of the cast.

While the play centers around Othello (Marc Antonio Pritchett), the noble Moor and general in the defense forces, who has just eloped with the lovely Desdemona (Michele Hillen), Act 1 really belongs to Iago (Matt K. Miller), a 17th century Karl Rove who manipulates all action, convinces people to do terrible things and traps them in an intricate web of lies, while all the while feigning innocence and friendship with Othello himself.

Iago is angry because he feels he has been passed over for promotion in favor of young Cassio (Brett Williams) and so he sets in motion an elaborate plot to convince Othello that his young bride has been unfaithful, which ultimately results in the demise of just about everybody.

Miller’s Iago is more mischievous than villainous as he plots to bring down Othello. There is always a smirk on his face and a twinkle hidden somewhere in his eye even while he is doing the most dastardly deeds or expressing his hatred of Othello. It is easy to see why everyone believes him and is taken in by his manipulation. He’s a likeable bad guy.

Iago’s character resonates strongly in this day and age, where jumping to conclusions and acting on those misguided conclusion can have lasting negative effects.

Pritchett is subdued, almost an afterthought, in the first act. His Othello seems to be little more than a prop off of which Iago plays. His love of Desdemona is obvious, though gentle, without any foreshadowing of the rage he will develop in Act 2 at the suspicion that his wife has been dallying with another man.

He comes into his own, however, in Act 2, fulfilling the promise of passions only hinted at in Act 1. He displays genuine anguish at the thought of his wife’s unfaithfulness, and deep remorse following her murder. Pritchett doesn’t exactly take command of the stage so that you center on him, but he has flashes of smoldering intensity.

Desdemona is exquisitely played by Michele Hillen, who gives her a sweet and innocent persona. She exudes a gentle love for Othello. In this production, theirs is a quiet love, not a sizzling passionate love, and she feels true confusion at his later accusations of her infidelity with Cassio (Brett Williams).

Williams is the perfect hero, tall and handsome, intense, and exuding sexuality. His principles crumble when Iago gets him drunk, which results in Othello stripping him of his rank.

Marie Bain turns in a memorable performance as Iago’s wife Amelia, who unwittingly gets drawn into the plot to bring down Othello, yet displays a feisty personality unafraid to stand up to either her husband or to Othello himself.

Brian Rivera is the hapless Roderigo, in love with Desdemona and fooled into thinking Iago is helping him press his suit, while all the while being drawn into Iago’s plot to destroy Othello. Rivera gives his character an endearing gullibility which gives him deep pockets for Iago’s greed.

The atmosphere is aided by the lush costumes of Todd Roehrman and the somber lighting design of Arthur Rotch. Michele Hillen doubled as dance choreographer for the belly dancers, and Marc Antonio Pritchett also choreographed the fight scenes.

While not, perhaps, an “Othello for the ages,” this is a very accessible Othello which will keep one enthralled from start to finish.

Let's Murder Marsha

This review appeared in The Davis Enterprise on 3/13/07.

Monk Ferris may not exactly be a household name.

“Monk Ferris” is the nom de plume of a writer named Jack Sharkey, who started his career as a copy writer for Sears Roebuck, went on to write novels, science fiction, humor articles, and mysteries, and ultimately began writing stage plays. Prior to his death in 1992, Sharkey had written some 82 plays under his own name and four other names, one of which was Monk Ferris.
As “Mike Johnson” Sharkey wrote stage thrillers; as “Monk Ferris” he wrote comedies.

“Let’s Murder Marsha,” written in 1984 and currently running at the Winters Community Theater, under the direction of Trent Beeby, seems to be a blend of stage thriller and comedy which spoofs the world of campy murder mystery novels.

The script is never going to win any writing awards. There are lots of inconsistencies, lots of things that happen just because they need to get characters off stage for a few minutes (how many of you take your guests into the dining room “to show them where they are going to eat”?), and it seems to fizzle out in the overly long second act, but none of that mattered to the audience, which laughed appreciatively at the funny one-liners and the ludicrous situations and seemed to be having a great time.

Marsha Gilmore (Joanie Bryant) is the wife of wealthy stockbroker Tobias (Greg Lanzaro). Marsha’s secret passion is “sleazy slasher novels,” which she hides because her husband disapproves of their content. As the play opens, she is concerned because she has lost her current novel, “The Creeping Slasher,” which is overdue at the library. She enlists the aid of her maid, Bianca (Janette Dahn) and there follows a series of comings and goings and misheard conversations worthy of a French bedroom farce, which all lead to Marsha coming to the conclusion that her husband is plotting to kill her, with the assistance of his new girlfriend.

In truth, Tobias has purchased a sea plane as a birthday gift for his wife (though it is impossible to imagine the air-headed Marsha as the pilot of a plane. That is only one of the points where the audience is asked to suspend disbelief!). To assist him in the surprise, Tobias has hired interior decorator Persis Devore (Jenell Novello), to help with the design of the plane’s interior (we also aren’t sure how Tobias can be choosing upholstery the night before he is to give the plane to his wife...but let that pass too).

The cast seems unsure of whether Devore is pronounced with a silent e at the end or not and I was convinced that once she had been invited to stay for dinner, as a cover-up for the real reason why she was in the apartment, that she would be required to eat with her leather coat on, as nobody ever seemed to ask her to remove it.

The maid suggests that Marsha enlist the aid of a neighbor, Virgil Baxter (Jim Hewlett), a pharmacist who has his own secrets, with the murder of her husband, which she feels is her only defense against her own untimely demise. Baxter agrees to concoct some sort of odorless, tasteless poison which will leave no clues for police following the poisoning of Tobias and his assumed mistress.

Again there are more comings, goings, prop switches and the entrance of Marsha’s mother, Lynette Thoren (Germaine Hupe) to further confuse things.

Over the course of the evening, the cast attempts to eat dinner several times, never all at the same time (and all off stage). I lost track of whether the soup was supposed to be hot or cold, actually.

Conveniently, after Bianca accidentally drinks the poison (or so everyone thinks), her boyfriend shows up. Ben Quade (Ben Moroski) just happens to be driving a police ambulance in which he can carry whichever people need to be transported, whether for medical attention or arrest.

It’s all very silly, makes no sense whatsoever, and yet many in the audience were still chuckling as they filed out of the auditorium.

And isn’t that what theater is all about? Leaving them all entertained?

Kudos to the costume crew, which is listed as “the cast, JoAnn May, and Trent Beeby.” It was fun to see how all the colors blended with each other and with the walls and furniture of the apartment, without being obvious about it.

12 Angry Men

There is something magical that happens, sometimes, in straight drama – when it’s good. During the course of a play, a dramatic moment will come and you suddenly become aware that there is total silence in the theater. You could literally hear a pin drop. It is as if the entire audience were holding its breath so as not to miss a single word coming from the stage. When the venue is a large arena, it’s even more impressive.

Such a moment happened more than once during the opening night performance of Roundabout Theater Company’s traveling production of “12 Angry Men,” directed by Scott Ellis, the current Broadway Series offering at the Sacramento Community Theater.

Reginald Rose’s screenplay for “12 Angry Men” was initially a 1954 CBS “Studio One” production, later made into a feature film with an all-star cast which included Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, and Jack Klugman, among others.

The 90 minute intermission-less play is set in a jury deliberation room, where 12 jurors are to decide the fate of a 16 year old boy accused of murdering his father.

Six time Emmy nominee George Wendt (Norm from “Cheers”) and Emmy winner Richard Thomas (who has had a long, successful Broadway career since he said his last “Good night” as John Boy on “The Waltons”) are the big name stars who will pull in audience dollars, but they head a stellar cast of lesser known names but no lesser talented co-stars, each of whom seems exactly right for the part.

Wendt is Juror #1 who, as foreman, seems to have the least to do, other than calling for the vote and trying to keep peace among his increasingly frustrated and angry co-jurors.

Thomas is Juror #8, the only one who is not quick to condemn a 16 year old to death, though all the facts presented during the trial seem conclusively to prove his guilt. #8 admits that he isn’t convinced one way or another, but he passionately believes that the mandatory death sentence demands the group at least spend a little time examining all the evidence.

His fellow jurors present a broad spectrum of backgrounds and personalities, each of whom has accepted the boy’s guilt, for a variety of personal reasons.

#3 (Randle Mell) has a bad relationship with his son and his anger toward the defendant is based on anger with his own son’s behavior.

#10 (Julian Gamble) is a bigot whose prejudices against those who are “different” reveal themselves very quickly. (“They're no good! There's not a one of 'em who is any good!”)

#7 (Mark Moretti) doesn’t really care. All he knows is he has tickets to a baseball game and he’s eager to get the whole thing settled before the first ball is tossed out.

#9 (Alan Mandell) is an elderly man with a failing body, but a keen mind who sees more than some of the other jurors see.

#11 (David Lively) is an immigrant who feels a strong sense of his civic duties and whose dedication to the rights of the defendant are more finely tied to his sense of privilege for being allowed to participate in the legal system of his chosen country.

Others in the cast include Todd Cerveris, Jeffrey Hayenga, Jim Saltouros, Charles Borland, T. Scott Cunningham and Patrick New.

“12 Angry Men” is an interesting and engrossing look at our judicial system, with all its strengths and weaknesses, and, though set in the 1950s, is as relevant today as it was when it was first presented.

Man of La Mancha

After seeing director Art Grueneberger’s delightful "Man of La Mancha," performed with life-size puppets, the only question one must ask is: why didn’t anybody think of this before?

"Man of La Mancha," written by Dale Wasserman with music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion, which opened Friday night at the University Main Theater, tells the story of author Miguel Cervantes (Mario Castro Martinez), imprisoned for crimes against the Catholic Church (he attempted to foreclose on a monestary for non-payment of taxes), who is awaiting interrogation by The Spanish Inquisition.

Darrell F. Winn’s set is magnificent, dark and mysterious, with a long staircase which can be lowered from an upper level to the dungeon. The orchestra, under the direction of Pete Nowlen, is set off to the side behind bars and almost invisible. The only jarring element on the otherwise perfect stage is the guitar of Taehun Lee. Lee opens the show by walking out, sitting on a box and beginning to play a tune. It is a shame that into this perfectly created dark and murky world, a shiny, light colored, modern electric guitar, with a spotlight on it, should stand out like a sore thumb.

Cervantes comes into the prison with his manservant (Richard Hess). The pair are set upon by the other prisoners, who insist that the newcomer must be judged by his fellow prisoners at a mock trial for the crime of being "an idealist, a bad poet, and an honest man."

Cervantes demands that he be allowed to defend himself and does so by presenting "an entertainment." Traditionally, Cervantes now begins to apply make-up from his trunk while his manservant passes out costumes to the prisoners as they prepare to tell the tale of Alonso Quijana, an old man who fancies himself a dauntless knight, Don Quixote de la Mancha, determined to travel around the world and make it a better place.

In the current production, Cervantes is a puppeteer rather than simply an actor. Instead of costumes, the prisoners are given puppet figures to use in the presentation of the entertainment. The major character puppets are worked by two actors, Quixote and his squire, Sancho Panza, by three.

(Puppets were designed and built by Kristen Phillips)

Using puppets brings the musical into a different dimension. It allows for unusual casting, for example. Castro Martinez admits that he is entirely wrong for the role of Don Quixote. He is too young and too short, for starters. Yet with fellow puppeteers (Kate Cryan, torso, and Cary Babka, legs), you lose sight of the physical appearance of the actor and concentrate, instead, on that marvelous voice coming out of the body of the perfectly fashioned puppet. Castro Martinez thus becomes the perfect Quixote.

Babka deserves special praise because his operation of Quixote’s legs is so seamless that at intermission, my husband asked why there were 3 people listed in the program for that character, when he only noticed two.

Quixote’s squire, Sancho Panza, being short and round, becomes more of a cartoonesque character, with Kelly Fleischmann operating the torso and Matthew Escarcega the legs. Unlike Quixote’s long, lanky, articulated legs, Sancho’s are short and stubby and his little run step adds greatly to the appeal of the character. Hess is also a delightful comedic actor and his voice for Sancho is perfect for the puppet he controls.

Laura Snell is Aldonza, the prison whore, in whom Quixote sees only goodness and purity as his "Dulcinea." (Allison Minick controls the torso). This is a demanding role, vocally, and Snell had some difficulty in spots, but there was no denying her ability to instill the character with all the emotion necessary.

Matthew Moore was suitably threatening as the "Governor," whose job it was to preside at the prisoners’ trial of Cervantes and his manservant. Moore later played the Innkeeper in the fantasy (torso by Spencer Tregilgas) as a sympathetic man who understands Quijana’s need to have him believe his Quixote persona.

Daniel Reano-Koven was a menacing Duke, and later Dr. Carrasco (torso by Lee Riggs), the cynical, self-centered fiancee of Quijana’s niece (Franchesca Jimenez with torso by Kelsey Yoro)

Lowell Abellon added comedic elements as the Barber in the fantasy (with Jocelyn Tripet-Diel as the torso).

Other major characters included Bryan Pham and Lowell Abellon as Padre, Kaitlin Shaw and Kristina Stasi as the housekeeper, and Melanie Levy and Kaitlin Shaw as Maria/Fermina.

This production may seem to be about special effects (the night of the mirrors, when Quixote is forced to face reality, is quite impressive), but despite the use of puppets – or perhaps because of the use of puppets – this is a memorable production which touches the heart.

He's Got the World on a String

Any parent who has ever spent hours watching children hide behind a couch to put on a puppet show with sock puppets, or Sesame Street characters needs to get to the University Main Stage to watch “Man of La Mancha,” opening March 2, and see what a kiddie puppeteer can accomplish, if his love of puppetry is allowed to grow.

“My poor mom,” laughed Art Gruenberger, director of the upcoming production. “She had to sit through so many puppet shows of me just sitting behind the couch. I had a box full of puppets. I would just put on show after show after show for her.”

Despite his early love of puppets, Gruenberger didn’t get serious about becoming a puppeteer until his senior year at CSUS, when he enrolled in a puppetry class taught by famous puppeteer, Richard Bay. Gruenberger was headed for a career in teaching, but figured that, given his experience and love of puppets, the course would be an easy A.

He worked with Bay on a show called “A Thousand Cranes,” the poignant story of Sadako Sasaki, a young victim of the Hiroshima atomic bomb disaster, who believes that if a she folds a thousand paper origami cranes the gods will grant her wish and make her well again.”

“We used life-sized bunraku style puppets (a Japanese style of puppetry where a full-bodied puppet is manipulated by any number of visible puppeteers who may or may not be dressed in black), very Americanized,” said Gruenberger. “It was my first real experience with puppets for adults and I was just hooked from then on.”

“Richard saw some talent in me,” Gruenberger explains, saying that was hired by Bay to put on some children’s shows. When Gruenberger felt he wasn’t getting enough work, Bay challenged him to build his own show, and “Frankenswine” was born (“It’s Frankenstein with a bunch of pigs.”). The show opened at Fairytale Town in October of 1993 or 94 and “it just skyrocketed from there.”

Gruenberger formed his own group, Puppet Art Theater Company,” which is now the resident puppetry troop at Fairytale town and has been the catalyst for international recognition.

A show called “Perspectives,” eventually landed him at the Here Theater in New York. “It’s these little yellow guys operated by 3 puppeteers. They are a bit smaller than traditional bunraku but the puppeteers are hooded and gloved.” Gruenberger was invited to bring the show to an international puppet festival in So. Korea. It opened the doors.

“They invited us to bring the show into Seoul and one of the colleges, and then to Chuncheon for the actual festival itself. Then I toured with Wendy Morton and Shadowlight Theater to Huddersfield (England) to do a large screen shadow puppet show. We did “Coyote Stories,” an American Indian tale with a Balinese gamelan orchestra and shadow puppets. It was just such a wonderful mashing together of all sorts of cultures.”

He discovered that puppetry is its own international language when he met a master puppet builder from the Shanghai Theater Academy, who spoke “not a lick of English.” “He was obviously a brilliant builder, and there was this connection through movement and the study of how things move and how to make them move how we want them to move that was just an amazing thing to see span across language, which I think is what movement, especially puppetry is all about.”

The idea to do “Man of La Mancha” with puppets came when Gruenberger was studying for his MFA in Acting at U.C. Davis. A scaled down version of the show became his thesis project which was presented for 2 performances only last summer.

“I wanted to get these puppets on stage and see how they moved and see how ‘Man of La Mancha’ accepted the idea of puppetry.” There have been other productions which have used bits and pieces of puppetry, but this will be the first to use puppets in such a major way. “In our production all of the characters that you find during Cervantes’ story-telling where he’s talking about Quixote, are all represented by various levels of puppets.”

(While Gruenberger has made some of the “cruder” puppets himself, almost all of the heads were sculpted by his colleague, Kristen Phillips, who recently received her MFA from the University of Connecticut, the one place in the country where you can get an MFA in puppetry.)

Gruenberger was invited to direct a full scale production of the show this year, complete with full orchestra, under the direction of Pete Nolan, with whom he has presented the holiday treat, “Amahl and the Night Visitors” in Sacramento (“at the BIG Catholic church”) for the last two years, and which they will present at Memorial Auditorium in December of 2007.

For actor Mario Castro-Martinez, playing Don Quixote in this production, it was the opportunity of a lifetime. “This is one of those roles I never thought I would do because I’m not tall, old, or skinny, which are all the things that Quixote is. So this is just an ideal situation where it’s my voice coming out through the body someone who fits the part perfectly and who is created just for this role.”

Castro-Martinez is only 1/3 of Don Quixote, though. He operates the character’s head and left arm. His right arm is manipulated by Kate Cryan and his legs by Cary Babka.

None of the actors had any previous puppetry experience. The cast attended what Gruenberger calls “puppet boot camp” for the first week and a half of rehearsal. “The thing that will make actors better puppeteers is just having puppets in their hands for as much of the rehearsal process as possible, and so I used the puppet boot camp to give them basic principles of puppetry.”

“We worked on group puppets,” says Lee Riggs, playing the torso of Dr. Carasco’s (Daniel Reano-Koven plays the actual character). “Some of the puppets take 3 handlers, some of them are single one person, one puppet, so we did a little of both and because the puppeteers will be visible the whole time, you and the puppet have to be one. If you have two different people doing the arms, usually arms are somewhat symmetrical in look, coloring and length, gesture.”

The groups spent a lot of time rehearsing in front of a mirror, getting to know the other puppeteer and the puppet.

Richard Hess, playing Sancho Panza (Kelly Fleischmann, torso; Matthew Escarcega , legs) is reprising the role he played in the workshop (as is Castro-Martinez). “We’ve spent so much time in the puppets that they’ve just kind of become second nature. It takes so much more concentration to, say, pick up anything or transfer something from one hand to the other to hand it to somebody else. In our case it takes 3 brains to make one.”

Giving his actors lots of time with the puppets is part of Gruenberger’s philosophy. “Over the course of the rehearsal I try to keep them in the puppets as much as possible, and playing with them in between rehearsals. I don’t tell them that I want them to do that, but they do it because they begin to get the hang of it and so they start doing wacky dances with puppets and they discover things that their puppet can do as a result of that. The rehearsal process can be kind of chaotic and I think it drives my stage manager up the wall because they have a toy on stage and actors with toys. But I want them to play as much as possible because they’ll discover subtleties that are necessary to enhance the character that they’re portraying.”

That extra time worked well for Melanie Levy, playing the innkeeper’s wife. Levy was not in the workshop production, but saw it, and thought it would be fun to learn something about puppetry. “I felt very insecure about doing it, so I have to take a lot of time to watch the other actors. I think I’ve started to come to a balance between the two.”

Gruenberger and his cast are definitely working together to create the final piece, trying to be true to the characters and the period. “We don’t know what their gestures were like in the 1700s. It’s impossible to know. There’s no video. We don’t know what they sounded like back there because there are no audio tapes, but we can use our imagination to the best of our ability and the magic of theater to make some decisions, to have some sort of unity on that. That’s what we did.”

Even the set pieces become characters in this production, explains Riggs. “There are lots of boxes and crates that are moved around the prison to create the different scenes. To help the actors remember which pieces they moved, things were given names. The small box is Tiny Tim, we have Darrel and Carol the Barrel, and Bob the Box and Dave the Box. Ropey is a crate with rope handles.”

The experience has been a voyage of discovery for Gruenberger. “It’s huge for me. The biggest cast I’ve worked with up to this point was 5 people. 60-70% of the shows that I do are either one or two people and self-directed, self-written, so this is incredibly different -- and amazing, too. The biggest problem with working with a huge group of people in any sort of professional setting is that you have to pay 22 people, which is why most puppeteers work with one or two people. It makes it more profitable. If I had to tour ‘Man of La Mancha’ with 22 people and a 16 piece orchestra and my crew of 10+ people, it would be insane. It would be ‘the impossible dream.’”

Gruenberger’s “impossible dream” will become “possible” when the show opens at the university’s Main Theater on March 2. I had the opportunity to watch a rough run-through of Act 1 and the audience is in for a real treat. There are moments in the show that are going to have people sitting up and saying “wow!”

It's the magic of puppetry.

Camelot

There are stunning moments that one finds in theater. Moments that surprise you and take your breath away.

There was such a moment at Friday night’s Davis Musical Theater opening of Lerner & Lowe’s classic “Camelot,” directed by Lenore Sebastian (in her first directorial position with DMTC). The show had opened well. The set design by John Ewing and Steve Isaacson was not opulent, but utilitarian and for the low-budget production it worked just fine. The pared down orchestra, under the direction of Steve Isaacson was adequate, if lacking in the richness that one would like to hear in a big work such as “Camelot.”

Gil Sebastian’s King Arthur was fine, nicely balancing the shyness of the boy who never expected (or wanted) to be king with the man who has become one of the most powerful rulers of the land and yet is terrified to meet his bride-to-be.

Paul Fearn, returning to DMTC after an absence of 13 years, was a wise Merlyn, Arthur’s mentor, soon to fall victim to the spellbinder Nimue (Bridget Maguire, vocalist and Meg King, dancer). (Fearn would go on later to add delightful comic relief as the doddering old Pellinore.)

Marguerite Morris gave one of her better performances as Guenevere, whose “youth was sold” when she was given in marriage to this stranger, King Arthur. Guenevere is not ready for maturity before she has had an opportunity to experience the “simple joys of maidenhood” -- “Shall two knights never tilt for me / and let their blood be spilt for me?” “Shall a feud not begin for me? / Shall kith not kill their kin for me?” Morris had the lovely bearing of a queen, and the voice of an angel.

Arthur admits his own nervousness about the upcoming nuptials, but convinces Guenevere that “there’s not a happier spot for happily ever-aftering” than Camelot.

Up to this point it has been a delightful first scene. As the royal couple exited, the curtains closed and Lancelot du Lac (Tae Kim) appeared in a spotlight. When Kim opened his mouth to sing, everybody in the near-capacity audience sat up straighter. We all experienced a stunning moment together. Kim, a medical student newly moved to the Davis area, is, amazingly, making his very first theatrical appearance--ever, yet he has the confidence of a seasoned professional and a voice worthy of any professional production. He lifted the production to a higher level. It is unfortunate that he had slight pitch problems in Lancelot’s signature,“If ever I should leave you,” and seemed to be unable to get solidly back on pitch throughout the song, but other than that slip, he was first rate throughout the evening.

Another outstanding performance was turned in by Jon Jackson as the deliciously bitchy illegitimate son of Arthur, Mordred, who is responsible for bringing down Arthur’s dream of a world where disagreements are solved by rule of law rather than by swordplay. Like Kim, Jackson lifted the production to a higher level and made it something more than a run-of-the-mill, decent community theater production of an old classic.

“Camelot” is the story of honor, of love, of friendship, of betrayal, of remorse, and of honor again, as Lancelot and Guenevere deal with their love for each other and their mutual love of Arthur, whom they do not wish to hurt. Arthur must also deal with his love for his wife and his best friend, but sets thoughts of revenge aside following their betrayal, because he still loves them both and would rather see them happy together than to lose them completely.

In the end, nobody wins.

Sebastian and Morris, who give fine performances at the start of the production, grew into their roles and their relationship as the evening (and the Camelot years) progressed, so that by their final scene together, there was genuine affection between them and their farewell was wrenching.

The supporting cast is small, lacking the “oomph” for a production this grand, but they do the best they can to be a decent crowd.

Jan Isaacson choreographed a May pole dance for “The Lusty Month of May” which was colorful, and gave the chorus lots of business to do.

Young Griffin Jackson is Tom of Warwick, on whose shoulders Arthur places the responsibility of keeping the dream of the principles of the Round Table alive. Jackson is very cute, but could speak up a bit more in order to be heard.

Jean Henderson designed the costumes and Morris, in particular, has never looked lovelier.

This production of Camelot has a lot of good things going for it, but it is worth seeing especially for the debut of Tae Kim who, if he chooses to continue doing theater, has a long successful career ahead of him.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses

There is a Disney ad running on television now for the latest version of the cartoon “Cinderella.” In it, we are shown the now-familiar face of the sneering evil stepmother. I thought of that image several times, watching Janis Stevens’ portrayal of La Marquise de Merteuil in Capital Stage’s lusty production of “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of the 1782 French novel by Choderlos de Laclos, directed by Michael Stevenson.

Stevens’ Merteuil may be the most malevolent female character you see on stage this year. With her head tilted back, her eyes mere slits, and her mouth forming an icy smile, Stevens is the perfect bad girl.

The setting is pre-Revolution Paris. Merteuil enlists her former lover, Le Vicomte de Valmont (Jason Kuykendall), to avenge a wrong done to the both of them by the unseen Gercourt, who has seduced a lover of Valmont while in the midst of a liaison with Merteuil. Merteuil wants Valmont to seduce Gercourt’s young bride to be, the 15-year-old virginal Cecile Volanges (Michelle Murphy). However, Valmont, feeling Cecile too unchallenging and uninteresting a victim (“humiliating, if you fail; commonplace, if you succeed”), is more intrigued by the virtuous, married La Presidente de Tourvel (Stephanie Gularte).

Let the games begin!

Kuykendall is a perfect co-conspirator for Stevens’ Merteuil. Tall, handsome, charming, and totally smarmy. Kuykendall has it all. He appears believable in his interactions with the young Cecile and the virtuous Tourvel, yet his personality can change in an instant when he flops down on the chaise lounge to report progress on his path of seduction. Valmont doesn’t plan on one thing: he actually falls in love with Tourvel and he’s not quite sure how to handle those feelings, which are his ultimate undoing.

Gularte is positively luminous, struggling with her response to Valmont’s advances, juggling the conflict between her duty to her husband, whom she does not love (“I am so lonely!”) and her desire for Valmont.

Michelle Murphy is so innocent, so young, that her rape by Valmont is so disturbing, we almost hope someone from “To Catch a Predator” will pop out from behind the secret panel and prevent the attack. Her later delight in the pleasures of the bedroom are likewise disturbing, given the age discrepancy between the two partners.

Paul Alary is Le Chevalier Danceny, a young man hopelessly in love with Cecile who innocently allows Valmont to control both his life and his pursuit of the object of his desire. Alary plays this young man as a bumbling adolescent whose transformation later in the piece is striking.

David Campbell makes much of the small role of Azolan, Valmont’s valet.

The supporting casts is equally strong – Gail Dartez as Cecile’s mother, Mme de Volanges; Vada Russell and Mme de Rosemonde; Megan Smith as the courtesan Emilie; and Michael Pollock as the Major-domo.

This production is so good that one would wish for a larger venue to greater present the opulence of the period, but Capitol Stage does what it can with the space it has to work in. Jonathan Williams has designed a generic drawing room which can be transformed into various boudoirs or drawing rooms by the movement of the ubiquitous chaise lounge, the changing of a vase of flowers, or the addition of a card table.

Gail Russell’s costumes are luxurious, and well suited to the character in question, whether the deep scarlet of Merteuil or the more virginal beige for Tourvel.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses is a sexy tale of love, lust and lies, beautifully served up by Capital Stage. The production contains brief nudity and is not recommended for the under-18 crowd.

Jack Lynn

Actor/director Jack Lynn owes his illustrious nearly 70-year career in the theater to giving the worst audition anybody had seen in ages at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in England, at age 15.

The 84 year old Lynn, director of the Woodland Opera House’s current delightful production of “The Importance of Being Earnest,” spoke with Oscar winning actor Robert Donat (“Goodbye, Mr. Chips”), an adjudicator for RADA, following his audition. Donat explained that they were not looking for finished or polished performances because “if someone is already polished there would be no need for instruction.” “We’re looking for potentiality,” he said. “We can see that you have talent, but you just don’t know what to do with it.”

Donat became one of Lynn’s mentors. Another mentor was a man named Robert Atkins, best known in England (at that time) for being the only man to have directed all 37 Shakespeare plays, some of them many times.

Lynn apparently fulfilled his mentors’ view and within three years he had done “a little directing, a little instruction and a lot of acting” (including a season at Stratford-Upon-Avon, under Atkins’ direction).

He was recommended by Donat for a position at the prestigious Pasadena Playhouse, at the conclusion of the World War II. The Playhouse, established in the late 1920s, had become an accredited college by 1937. It had as many as five independent stages in operation at any given time, making the it the single most prolific theatrical producing organization in the world.

Donat, who expected his protege to concentrate on acting was surprised to discover that he preferred teaching. “I love instructing,” Lynn admitted, clarifying that he feels you can’t teach acting. “The talent has to be there in the first place, so ‘teaching’ is the wrong word.”

(A lifetime of instructing has formulated one of his philosophies – “The more I learn, the more I realize the less I know. I hope when I was young I never had the attitude that I find so many young people have today--learn a little and think they know everything.”)

In 1947, the 25 year old Lynn moved to the United States for what was to have been one term at the Pasadena Playhouse. Before the end of his term, he was invited to stay on permanently. He eventually became the head of the Shakespeare Department and, in 1956, became dean of the college. “ I was told that I was the youngest dean of any educational institution in the U.S.,” he says, modestly.

For personal family reasons Lynn returned to England in 1959. “Until then I had been visiting England every summer while living in the states. Now, between 1959 and 1987 I reversed my life and was living in England and coming to California every summer. I think that might be a record — since 1947 there has not been a single year I have not been in both countries. It’s what has kept me poor all my life.”

Upon his return to England, he was contacted by John Fernald, who had taken over as head of the RADA in the early 1950s, and asked to join the staff as an instructor/director. “I told him I thought it was a very good idea to employ ex-students,” Lynn said. “Fernald’s reply was ‘We’re not employing you because you’re an ex-student, but because of your work with founder Gilmor [sic] Brown at the Pasadena Playhouse.’ It was then I realized how famous the playhouse really was,” said Lynn. “It was world renowned.”

His students, at Pasadena Playhouse and RADA span the gamut of theatrical greats from Anthony Hopkins to Ruth Buzzi, and include such luminaries as Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman and Charles Bronson.

During his time back in England, Lynn became the producer of Knightsbridge Theatrical Productions, with over 10 West End productions in London, including “Pygmalion,” with Diana Rigg and a then-unknown Bob Hoskins (“We can claim to have helped him start his career”), “Candida,” with Deborah Kerr (“A wonderful person”), “Hamlet,” with Ian McKellan, and “Lord Quex,” with Judi Dench and John Gielgud.

Both Dench and Gielgud became good friends. Lynn wistfully remembers the late Gielgud fondly. “He was a wonderful actor, a wonderful man. So modest it was unbelievable. He had no idea how good he was.”

His “closest and greatest friend” is Paul Scofield, who won both an Oscar and Tony playing Sir Thomas More in “A Man for All Seasons.” “A very fine actor and friend.”

"I've been so lucky over the years with people I've worked with and the friends I’ve made,” Lynn said. “Great actors are some of the nicest people. They have a basic humanity and a basic kindness. They have to be nice, unprejudiced and open minded if they are to portray people of all types and styles. If you have a closed or prejudiced mind, you are unable to really understand the characters and it affects your performance.”

But Lynn saves his greatest pride for his “adopted son,” actor, novelist, playwright and director Ian Ogilvy, well known in England as Simon Templar in “Return of The Saint,” and seen in the U.S. in many television productions including “Murder She Wrote,” “Jag,” “Murphy Brown” and “Diagnosis Murder.” He is now making a name for himself as an author of children’s books. By mutual agreement, Ogilvy did not take his adopted father’s name, feeling that nepotism was a terrible thing. “His attitude was that because I’d been a producer and goodness knows what if he changed his name people would think I used my influence to get him work, and he wanted to earn it on his own.”

As an actor, Lynn has been in several television productions, such as the Rabbi in “Bar Mitzvah Boy.” His last movie appearance was as the bookseller in the film “Yentl,” and says he adored director/star Barbra Streisand. “She was an angel to work with,” he said, contradicting those who warned him that she would be difficult. “She’s kind and considerate as long as you do your work. If you don’t she can be critical.”

In the early 1990s, following a run as Cardinal Woolsey in a production of “A Man for All Seasons,” with Charlton Heston, Lynn was invited to come to Sacramento to work with friends Jerry and Laura Grisham, who ran the now defunct Stagedoor Comedy Theater in Sacramento for over 25 years. He remained with the Grishams, doing some coaching and some directing, and acting in local productions.

“To talk about my life would fill a three volume novel,” Lynn laughs. Instead he now does a one-man show, “Life and Laughter in the Theater,” in which he reminisces about his over 68 years in the theater. It was this show which first brought him to Woodland at the invitation of Woodland Opera House Artistic Director Jeff Kean. He has since taken the show to Scotland and England, and will present this one man show for the last time at the Chautauqua Theater in Sacramento on Sunday, February 11 at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m., as he plans to retire to England soon after.

The show is described by Chautauqua as “the story of his life in entertainment, filled with humour and poignancy. A fascinating talk followed by questions.”

Health problems have compromised his ability to direct as he always has. “I’m one of those directors who likes to get up on the stage and demonstrate things, but the most frustrating thing is that I have to stay seated because I’m being incapacitated.” Instead he now sits in the house and actors come to him following a scene, in order to get instructions.

“The Importance of Being Earnest,” currently at the Woodland Opera House, will be his swan song as a director (“It’s one of my favorite plays”). He is very happy with this production. “The secret of good directing is to cast the play with the best possible people,” he says, pointing to all of the cast, but particularly Jerry Lee, in the role of Jack Worthing, with whom he first worked when the young actor was merely 15. “Jerry has made the greatest advance of any young actor I’ve ever worked with,” he says, proudly.

When he returns to England, Lynn will move into Denville Hall, a retirement community for theater persons outside of London, where he recuperated from surgery on his previous trip to England.

“It’s going to be a terrible wrench for me,” he says, sadly “I shan’t be coming back to the States every summer. Thank goodness a lot of my English friends whom I see every summer are very happy that I’m going to be there.” Among those friends is the Chairman of the Board of Denville, a former RADA classmate, Richard Attenborough, who first suggested that Lynn make Denville his permanent home.

For health reasons, Jack Lynn may be giving up the more energetic of his career activities, but something tells me that we have not seen the last of this delightful, talented gentleman.

The Importance of Being Earnest

This review appeared in The Davis Enterprise on 1/24/2007


It’s a world of polite society, cucumber sandwiches, and a world where “smoking” is considered a proper activity for a young man. “A man should always have an occupation of some kind. There are far too many idle men in London as it is.”

It’s a world where “being Earnest” is very important.

In fact, that’s the name of the play, “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde, who can skewer high society pomposity better than most. It is currently delighting audiences at the Woodland Opera House.

Jack Lynn, who, in his 70 year career has taught such luminaries as Sir Anthony Hopkins, Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman and worked with the likes of Dame Judi Dench, Sir Derek Jacobi, and Sir John Gielgud, is making this production his directorial swan song. The veteran director is going out with a bang, not with a whimper.

He has assembled a talented cast, with keen comic timing, and several are new to the Woodland Opera House.

Chris Quant is delicious as the n’er do well Algernon Montcrief whose life seems to consist of partying and heading off into the country for dalliances. For this purpose he has created an imaginary friend named Mr. Bunbury (whom Quant pronounces “Bombury,” for some inexplicable reason), who becomes conveniently ill when Algernon needs to get out of town. The young man is quite pleased with the effectiveness of his deception.

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!”

Algernon’s friend is Earnest Worthing (Jerry Lee) who is absolutely perfect as the young man who is hiding the fact that his name is really Jack Worthing, and as a baby, he was abandoned in a handbag at Victoria Station and adopted by the wealthy Thomas Cardew, who, on his deathbed, made the young man the guardian for his granddaughter, Cecily (Janey Pintar). Jack has invented a wayward brother named Earnest who lives in the city and whose antics force Jack to have to leave the country and come to town.

Earnest (or Jack) is in love with Algernon’s cousin Gwendolyn Fairfax (Katherine C. Miller) whose mother is the formidable Lady Bracknell (Shelly Sandford), who has some of the most memorable lines in the play.

Miller is the perfect spoiled upper crust daughter, who fell in love with Jack because she has always dreamed of marrying someone named “Earnest.”

Sandford is prim and ultra proper as she questions Jack about his qualifications to marry her granddaughter. All seems to meet with her approval until he admits that he has lost both of his parents. “To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”

Deciding that a handbag is not a proper mother, Lady Bracknell forbids the marriage and, when asked by Jack what he can do to change her mind replies, “I would strongly advise you, Mr. Worthing, to try and acquire some relations as soon as possible, and to make a definite effort to produce at any rate one parent, of either sex, before the season is quite over.”

The action moves to Jack’s house in the country, where Algernon has traveled in order to meet Jack’s intriguing ward and introduces himself as Jack’s elder brother Earnest. Pintar is cute as Cecily, whose dream has been to meet a truly wicked man and can hardly wait to meet her guardian’s brother.

But wait, there's more. Cecily’s teacher, Miss Prism (Georgann Wallace), is hiding many things, including a love for the rector, Chasuble (Paul Fearn) and a shameful secret which sheds light on Jack’s parentage, after which everyone learns the real importance of being Earnest.

Mark Garbe and Chris Lamb have minor roles as the manservants Merriman and Lane, respectively.

Laurie Everly-Klassen has outdone herself in the elaborate costumes. The women’s hats alone are not to be believed.

Scenic and lighting design are by the reliable Jeff Kean, who can do more with a few flats than most. One never feels a lack of opulence in any of the scenes.

If you have never seen an Oscar Wilde play, this is the one not to miss. From the sparkling dialog to the keen comic timing of this cast, to the visual delight of the sets and costumes, “The Importance of Being Earnest” delights on all levels.

THIRDeYE Theatre Festival

The annual THIRDeYE Theatre Festival [sic], presented by the UC Davis Department of Theater and Dance, features three new plays by three undergraduate playwrights: Rachel Skytt, Natasha Tavakoli, and Kellie Raines. All three plays will be performed on each night of the festival, which will continue January 25-28 in Wyatt Pavilion Theater.

The plays are created in the Playwriting and English courses at UC Davis and the actors, designers, stage managers, and crew are all undergraduates, many performing their role or task for the first time.

The evening opens with “Over the Line,” by Natasha Tavakoli, directed by Amy Kronzer. While all the actors throughout the evening were excellent and I would be hard pressed to find a weak link anywhere, this particular play had some of the strongest performances. It is unfortunate that the script itself had the most problems.

Tavakoli set out to create a political drama which dealt with issues of immigration, relationships between parents and children, and between lovers, and a myriad of topics which, crammed together into a short one-act piece became sensory overload. There was no time for development of relationships or completion of scenes. Meals are served, eaten (or not eaten) in one bite and dishes immediately removed from the table. Parents arrive from Mexico, after a harrowing trip across the border to the home of a daughter they have not seen for years and the mother has no time for pleasantries; she only wants to go to bed. The Mexican mother emotionally speaks to her husband, complaining that he refuses to answer her in English.

Despite the problems with the story itself, this play had wonderful performances, particularly from Alma Ruelas, as Maria, the heroine of the piece, who may have given the strongest performance of the night. Her boyfriend Eli was played by Mike Yost, who likewise turned in a solid performance.

Matthew Moore’s performance as Eli’s father, Hank, was good, but his character was less believable because he looked more like Eli’s renegade brother than his father, a danger when all members of the cast are roughly the same age.

Christina Moore gave a sympathetic performance as Maria’s mother, Esperanza.

The second play was “Saving Trophies,” by Kellie Y. Raines, directed by Orion Al-Shamma-Jones. As a person who saves “things” in excess, I found I could relate to this story about a Sofia (Melanie Levy) who has a passion for collecting, cleaning, and displaying old trophies. “It’s about the way we all give pieces of ourselves to each other in small moments. It's in the pieces that we try to find something whole, something worth saving,” explains the author.

Levy’s seemingly strong performance was marred by her lack of projection so that too many of her lines, and thus the plot points, were lost, which is a shame because I was most impressed with her involvement with the character, a woman with a broken heart filling the space left by her former boyfriend with these trophies that she incessantly polishes.

Carolyn Hodson had no projection problems as Lozzie, Sofia’s lesbian friend who tries to make Sofia understand that she needs to get out into the world and live her life. Lozzie is that very rare character, an incapable lesbian. When Ken (Daniel Reano-Koven [Derrick--your computer won’t pick it up in an e-mail but the “n” in Reano should have a tilde over it]), a street person who has come into the shop where Sofia is polishing her trophies, collapses, it is Lozzie who doesn’t know what to do and leaves Sofia to handle the situation.

Rounding out the evening was “Baetylus” by Rachel Skytt, directed by Travis Dukelow. The death of a classmate was Skytt’s inspiration for this play about Felix (Daniel Hakim) whose fiancee Annabelle (Rebecca Backer) is the victim of a drive-by shooting. Hakim skillfully handles the conflicting emotions of a man trying to find meaning in life and struggling with his desire to hang onto the past and his growing affection for Babette (Jessica Herman). “If you don’t have a ‘now,’ you will never have any more ‘pasts,’” Babette tells him.

Shea McWhorter is delightfully ditzy as Mrs. Allen, an old woman mourning the loss of her beloved dog. The believability of the character is due as much to the costume design of Jennifer McEwen as the acting ability of McWhorter.

Jade McCutcheon is Artistic Director for this year’s festival. Scenic designers are Sam Hardie (Baetylus), Chris Lee (Saving Trophies) and Cary Babka (Over the Line), each of whom creates a pleasant environment, with Babka’s apartment particularly lovely.

Mame

This review appeared in The Davis Enterprise on 1/11/07

If you want a good looking musical theatrical experience, make certain that your show is directed by a choreographer, and costumed by an experienced costumer. The opening chorus of Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee’s “Mame,” Jerry Herman’s musical adaptation of Patrick Dennis’ delightful book, “Auntie Mame” is a visual delight, thanks to director/choreographer Ron Cisneros. From Jeannie Henderson’s colorful and opulent appearing costumes to the precision of the chorus, it is a sample of the kind of good things that can be done with community theater.

The production itself, however, is spotty and does not maintain the level set by the opening chorus throughout. There are both good things and bad things about the production.

It is nice to see Mary Young given something other than matronly roles for a change. She doesn’t quite pull off the “flamboyant” Auntie Mame, but does a credible job with a huge role as the free spirit who suddenly finds herself saddled with her brother’s child, following the death of the child’s parents.

Thirteen year old Andrew Lampinen was an unfortunate choice to play the young Patrick. He is nearly as tall as his aunt, making description of the games played at his progressive school sound less innocent than they were intended. As Andrew has performed in 19 musicals with DMTC, I am assuming that he had the great misfortune to go through a sudden voice change during rehearsal, as none of his songs were in his key and he had great difficulty with all of them. That said, however, he is a talented young actor and brings great depth and pathos to the part. His duet with Mame, “My Best Girl,” following a disastrous incident in play in which she had been cast, was very poignant and one of the sweeter moments of the evening.

As the grown up Patrick, Robert Coverdell is excellent. Coverdell also appears as part of the ensemble throughout the first act and displays, yet again, his talent for dance and the handsome figure that he presents on stage.

Making her DMTC debut, Peggy Schechter plays Mame’s best friend, the famous actress Vera Charles, who seems to spend her time either bored or drunk or both, but who obviously cares for Mame and comes to her aid when Mame has reached her lowest point.

William Hedge gives a solid performance in the role of Beauregard Picket Jackson Burnside, the southern gentleman who falls in love with Mame while she is giving him a manicure.

Dannette Vassar, who is getting larger roles these days, was a perfect choice for Mother Burnside. The diminutive actress becomes larger than life as the commanding matron of the Burnside clan.

Wendy Young is outstanding as Sally Cato. Her lifetime in theater shows in her stage presence and she is deliciously catty toward her former fiancee’s girlfriend when Mame visits the family plantation.

Agnes Gooch is everybody’s favorite nerdy female character and Monica Parisi does well with her. Her transformation into glamour girl was a bit less spectacular than it should have been (couldn’t a wig have been used to give her a more glamorous appearance?), but her return to Mame’s house, heavy with child, was very funny.

Rebekah Shepard was perfectly cast in the small role of Gloria Upson, Patrick’s snobbish society fiancee, an airhead who would rather discuss rinsing her hair with beer than anything more serious. Shepard had the upper crust New England accent down perfectly.

There was a strange set decision made by designer Steve Isaacson (who also plays Mr. Babcock, the trustee for young Patrick’s estate). Mame’s living room has one couch mid-stage, one easy chair on the far right and another easy chair on the far left. Had things been staged differently, it might not have been so noticeable, but with Mame sitting in one chair and Mr. Babcock sitting in the other, they had to practically yell at each other across the vast expanse of stage in order to have a conversation.

People in the audience, and in the lobby following the performance seemed to enjoy the show very much. I would not list this among the best the company has done, but this is a hard working group and their dedication to DMTC shows.

The Women of Lockerbie

This appeared in The Davis Enterprise on 1/9/07

“The Women of Lockerbie,” one-act play by Deborah Brevoort, presented by Acme Theater Company at the Veterans Memorial Theater, will grab your attention immediately and hang on tenaciously until the very last scene. Except for a few humorous moments when the audience laughed, you could hear a pin drop throughout the entire 75 minute duration of the piece.

When director David Burmester first read the play, he knew that Acme had to perform it. “Never before have we found a play so timely,” he writes in his director’s notes. “It is not hyperbole, I feel, to hold that terrorism is the single most pervasive political reality of our time. Since September 11, 2001, no one human activity has occupied our political leaders, our media and our lives as has the threat of terrorism.”

Lockerbie is known internationally as the site where, on December 21, 1988, the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 landed on the town as a result of a terrorist bomb. Eleven townspeople were killed when the plane's wings and fuel tanks crashed to earth in a fiery explosion, leaving a huge crater.

Until the September 11, 2001 attacks, the bombing of Flight 103 was the worst act of terrorism against civilian citizens of the United States. The 270 victims (259 on the plane, 11 on the ground) were citizens of 21 nations. Of them, 189 were Americans.

“The Women of Lockerbie” opens in a pre-dawn setting in the hills around Lockerbie. Set design by Victoria Gimpelvich is effective, with a series of platforms arranged to approximate a hillside, and a long piece of cloth which represents a stream running through the hills, a shimmering light on it making it come alive.

John Ramos plays Bill Livingston, who has traveled to Lockerbie with his wife Madeline (Emily Tracy). It is seven years past the tragedy of flight 103 and the Livingstons are visiting the site for the first time. Madeline has been grieving openly for seven years and Bill felt that if she could actually see the place where their son lost his life it might help her to get past the grief.

Madeline abruptly left the memorial service taking place in the town and is roaming the hills looking for her son. Her husband has come to the hills to search for her.

He is joined by Olive Allison (Cami Beaumont) and two women, identified as First Woman (Julieanne Conard) and Second Woman (Kate McFarland), who aid in the search and who attempt to bring peace to Madeline when she finally appears. They share their own experiences of that terrible day when horror rained down on the town, killing some of their own. With Madeline they ask “what if?” questions. What if I hadn’t gone to get petrol that day? What if I had changed the date of my party? What if...? What if...? What if...? Could I have changed the ultimate outcome? Questions that will always remain unanswered in the face of the reality of what happened.

At the same time the United States representative, George Jones (Sean Olivares) has given orders for the warehouse holding all of the items recovered from the crash to be burned, now that the investigation into the incident has ended. The government feels this is the best way to bring closure to the tragedy and help people move on with their lives.

The women of Lockerbie are fighting Jones. The women want to take the clothing stored in the warehouse, wash them, and return them to the relatives of the victims of the tragedy, feeling that the way to combat hatred is not with more hatred, but with love.

Playwright Brevoort has created a gripping story which deals with ordinary people coping with extraordinary horror. As we deal with escalating violence in so many parts of our world, it is good to step back and ask whether fighting hatred with hatred is really the best policy. The gentle strength of the women of Lockerbie suggests that there may be another way.

As director Burmester puts it, “Until we look at the whole, complex set of conditions that result in terrorism, until we stop trying to react to incidents and begin to look at and understand the root causes of the dilemma, until we treat each other with love and respect instead of hate and disdain, terrorism will continue to haunt us at every turning of our lives.”

“The Women of Lockerbie” is a powerful play with a powerful message presented by an amazing group of young people. Everyone is encouraged to check out this play, which runs through November 13 at the Veterans Memorial theater. It will provide much food for thought and discussion.