Urinetown

There is a real problem writing a review of the hilarious “Urinetown,” the musical with the unlikely title, currently entertaining audiences at UCD’s main theatre, through June 3.

The problem is that it contains so many funny things on so many levels that I’m reluctant to give anything away—part of the fun is in the discovery.

“Urinetown,” with music and lyrics by Mark Hollman, and book and lyrics by Greg Kotis, began life as a production for New York’s International Fringe Festival, where it was so successful that it moved first to an off-Broadway theater, and in September 2001 (not exactly a great time for theater – in fact, the opening was postponed following 9/11), it opened on Broadway, where it ran through January of 2004, for a healthy 925 performances.

This timely piece, which explores a world where water is in short supply and the ability to relieve oneself becomes a social / political firestorm.

Travis Dukelow acts as the quasi narrator, Officer Lockstock (whose partner (Yahya Rouhani) is Officer Barrell), who opens the show in conversation with “Little Sally” (Allison Minick). Dukelow is perfect for this role. He has a deep voice that exudes confidence, and the sardonic delivery that lets the audience know that the whole show is really a big joke.

Minick is cute as a button as Little Sally, as she goads Lockstock into telling the story.

“Say, Officer Lockstock, is this where you tell the audience about the water shortage?... The hard times. The drought. A shortage so awful that private toilets eventually become unthinkable.”

Lockstock sets the stage with the explanation “suffice it to say that in Urinetown (the musical) everyone has to use public bathrooms in order to take care of their private business. That's the central conceit of the show!

Better hope your pennies
Add up to the fee -
We can't have you peeing
For free
If you do, we'll catch you
We, we never fail!
And we never bother with jail

All the public restrooms are owned by one company, run by Caldwell B. Cladwell (Jesse Merz), who believe he is above reproach, that he can do whatever he wants, that he can reward his cronies and the hell with the rest of the people (any resemblance between Cladwell and any current politicians is purely coincidental).

Cladwell’s daughter, appropriately named “Hope” (Emma Goldin) is returning home after graduation from college. Daddy expects her to take over the running of his company, but the idealistic Hope isn’t exactly ready to follow in Daddy’s footsteps.

Goldin is absolutely great. Her costume helps to make her the center of attention (kudos to costume designer Maggie Morgan) and throughout the show, she exudes wholesomeness and goodness. She is at her absolute best in act 2, after her abduction. She’s a walking cliché and pulls it off flawlessly.

Bobby Strong (R. Andrew Hess) works for the worst public toilet in town, under the leadership of Penelope Pennywise (Ara Glenn-Johanson). Hess is delightfully idealistic, a young firebrand who is determined to win back the right to “pee for free” for all the people. He imbues Strong with the same impish likeability that he gave to Sancho Panza in the recent “Man of La Mancha.” His “Run, Freedom, Run” is the high point of the show.

Glenn-Johnson would make a great Evita. Her spirited Penelope is great fun and she does a wonderful job with “It’s a Privilege to Pee.”

This whole show is an homage to classic musicals, with the musical arrangements as much fun as the songs themselves. How many classic musicals can you spot?

The appeal of this particular production, in addition to a stellar cast, is director Mindy Cooper’s crisp direction and choreography. Dancers dance with Rockette-like precision and she creates wonderful groupings and angular freezes that are simply delicious.

Robert Broadfoot has designed a set which nicely represents some futuristic time, without being so over the top that it is unbelievable.

The entire evening is great fun and there are parts which are so funny they will …. well … have you wondering if you can “hold it” until you can get to the public facilities!

Midsummer Night's Dream

If you’re going to set a play in a leafy glade, what better stage for it than a leafy glade? It seems impossible that Acme Theater Company is presenting its 25^th free Shakespeare in the Park – where has the time gone?

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” staged and directed by David Burmester, is being presented free of charge at the Outdoor Pavilion behind the Davis Art Center. It seems fair to say that in Shakespeare’s day, the performers didn’t have ambulance sirens and skateboarders zipping through the audience to contend with, but the actors handle all the auditory distractions with aplomb. The lack of amplification in the outdoor venue is always a problem and some actors handle it better than others, but it is still an enjoyable production nonetheless.

Every couple of years Acme faces a big turnover in company, where the more experienced actors graduate out of the company and there is an influx of younger, less experienced talent. From the look of “Midsummer Night’s Dream”’s cast, we’re in for a couple of exceptional years as these younger actors hone their skills. Only a couple of the cast of this show are seniors and the rest are 9^th, 10^th and 11^th graders. Heading the list of actors to watch are Delany Pelz as Puck and John Ramos as Bottom.

The play tells several stories, each of which occurs during a single summer night in a magical forest outside Athens, in which fairies play pranks on lovesick mortals, earnest youths endure comical romantic confusion, and a group of mechanics attempts to rehearse a play in secret.

Acme, which often sets its productions in strange time periods, seems to have chosen no specific time period for this production. Instead, the three groups of characters are color coded. The mortals of the court of Thesius, Duke of Athens (Ethan Jaffee) are all dressed in black and white. The “Rude Mechanicals,” who are rehearsing their play to present to the king all wear pastel jumpsuits, and it is the members of the fairy kingdom who sport the colored costumes. (Tatiana Ray gets credit for costume design.)

The Duke and his bride-to-be, Hippolyta (Kate McFarland) direct the events of the evening, with their request to Philostrate, the Mistress of Revels (Anna Sparrevohn) to arrange entertainment for their upcoming nuptials

Plans are interrupted by the arrival of Egea (Victoria Gimpelevich), a noble woman asking for help in forcing her daughter Hermia (Genevieve Whitman) to marry Demetrius (Alex Kravitz), the husband of the mother’s choosing, though Hermia is in love with Lysander (Brandon Raphael). (Whitman is particular good as the rebellious daughter.)

To further complicate things, Hermia's friend Helena (Vivian Breckenridge) is in love with Demetrius--setting the stage for all of the twists and turns which develop over the course of the story.

Hermia and Lysander flee Athens into the woods, intending to be married at the home of his aunt. They are followed by Demetrius, determined to win his bride's hand, and Helena, determined to win Demetrius' love.

The mechanics are rehearsing in the woods, under the direction of the carpenter, Quince, a delightful interpretation by Celsiana Warwick. Her four actors are Bottom, Flute (Matt Northup), Starvelling (Julieanne Conard) and Snout (Anthony Estrella). Ramos’ Bottom is expansive, hammy and delightful. Northrup is particularly funny in the female role of Thisbe in the play within a play, while Ali Moreno as Snug is just plain adorable. Anthony Estrella is a solid “wall” with a chink through which the lovers Pyramus and Thisbe communicate and Julieanne Conard makes a good moon under which the lovers die.

No production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" would be effective without a solid Robin Goodfellow ("Puck"), Oberon's jester, a mischevious fairy who delights in playing pranks on mortals. Delany Pelz is just what the doctor ordered. She is lythe and impish and delights in the tricks she performs.

Emily Tracy is tall and regal as Titania, the Queen of the Fairies, under a spell to fall in love with a donkey. Sean Olivares is her king Oberon, while the fairy band is rounded out by Tatiana Ray as Peaseblossom, Hope Raymond as Cobweb, Hanna Feldstein as Moth and Madelyn Ligtenberg as Mustardseed.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a delicious piece of merriment, and a nice diversion on a warm summer's evening. Take the night off and go romping in a magical forest with a bunch of fairies. And if a skateboarder happens to roll through the audience at an inopportune time, think of it as one of Puck’s pranks.

Urinetown

There is a real problem writing a review of the hilarious “Urinetown,” the musical with the unlikely title, currently entertaining audiences at UCD’s main theatre, through June 3.

The problem is that it contains so many funny things on so many levels that I’m reluctant to give anything away—part of the fun is in the discovery.

“Urinetown,” with music and lyrics by Mark Hollman, and book and lyrics by Greg Kotis, began life as a production for New York’s International Fringe Festival, where it was so successful that it moved first to an off-Broadway theater, and in September 2001 (not exactly a great time for theater – in fact, the opening was postponed following 9/11), it opened on Broadway, where it ran through January of 2004, for a healthy 925 performances.

This timely piece, which explores a world where water is in short supply and the ability to relieve oneself becomes a social / political firestorm.

Travis Dukelow acts as the quasi narrator, Officer Lockstock (whose partner (Yahya Rouhani) is Officer Barrell), who opens the show in conversation with “Little Sally” (Allison Minick). Dukelow is perfect for this role. He has a deep voice that exudes confidence, and the sardonic delivery that lets the audience know that the whole show is really a big joke.

Minick is cute as a button as Little Sally, as she goads Lockstock into telling the story.

“Say, Officer Lockstock, is this where you tell the audience about the water shortage?... The hard times. The drought. A shortage so awful that private toilets eventually become unthinkable.”

Lockstock sets the stage with the explanation “suffice it to say that in Urinetown (the musical) everyone has to use public bathrooms in order to take care of their private business. That's the central conceit of the show!

Better hope your pennies
Add up to the fee -
We can't have you peeing
For free
If you do, we'll catch you
We, we never fail!
And we never bother with jail

All the public restrooms are owned by one company, run by Caldwell B. Cladwell (Jesse Merz), who believe he is above reproach, that he can do whatever he wants, that he can reward his cronies and the hell with the rest of the people (any resemblance between Cladwell and any current politicians is purely coincidental).

Cladwell’s daughter, appropriately named “Hope” (Emma Goldin) is returning home after graduation from college. Daddy expects her to take over the running of his company, but the idealistic Hope isn’t exactly ready to follow in Daddy’s footsteps.

Goldin is absolutely great. Her costume helps to make her the center of attention (kudos to costume designer Maggie Morgan) and throughout the show, she exudes wholesomeness and goodness. She is at her absolute best in act 2, after her abduction. She’s a walking cliché and pulls it off flawlessly.

Bobby Strong (R. Andrew Hess) works for the worst public toilet in town, under the leadership of Penelope Pennywise (Ara Glenn-Johanson). Hess is delightfully idealistic, a young firebrand who is determined to win back the right to “pee for free” for all the people. He imbues Strong with the same impish likeability that he gave to Sancho Panza in the recent “Man of La Mancha.” His “Run, Freedom, Run” is the high point of the show.

Glenn-Johnson would make a great Evita. Her spirited Penelope is great fun and she does a wonderful job with “It’s a Privilege to Pee.”

This whole show is an homage to classic musicals, with the musical arrangements as much fun as the songs themselves. How many classic musicals can you spot?

The appeal of this particular production, in addition to a stellar cast, is director Mindy Cooper’s crisp direction and choreography. Dancers dance with Rockette-like precision and she creates wonderful groupings and angular freezes that are simply delicious.

Robert Broadfoot has designed a set which nicely represents some futuristic time, without being so over the top that it is unbelievable.

The entire evening is great fun and there are parts which are so funny they will …. well … have you wondering if you can “hold it” until you can get to the public facilities!

Death of a Salesman

Willy Loman is living the American dream, the dream of being rich and well liked by lots of people. The problem is that for 60 year old Willy, after years of chasing the dream, it still remains just a dream.

Willy Loman is the central figure in Arthur Miller’s 1949 classic, “Death of a Salesman,” now being presented at the Woodland Opera House, under the direction of Dean Shellenberger. In Patrick Murphy, Shellenberger has found an excellent Willy. He so beautifully plays the complex emotions of a man who is coming to the end of his life, leaving so much undone, yet whose personality will not allow him to admit failure, a man who is beginning to lose his grip on reality and lives much of his life in a dream state, remembering the past, when the dream seemed possible.

Willy tells his sons, Biff (Eric Baldwin) and Happy (David Campfield) that personality is more important than smarts. He explains, "the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want."

Willy has given up a lot chasing that carrot that always hangs just out of reach. At one point he decides he must buy seeds. "I've got to get some seeds. I've got to get some seeds, right away. Nothing's planted. I don't have a thing in the ground." He talks about retiring and buying a little place in the country where he and his wife Linda (Lydia Venables) can raise chickens.

Despite Willy’s view of his world, the Loman family is a classic dysfunctional family. Biff, the favored son, hit his peak as the high school football star and has never been able to live up to his father’s inflated goals for his son. He blames Willy for telling him that he can do anything, when he is finding the reality quite the opposite. "I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been!"

Baldwin gives a fine performance, bringing out all the bitterness and hopelessness of the character, with a seething anger just under the surface, waiting to explode at his father. "Pop! I'm a dime a dozen, and so are you!" he yells at his father.

"I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman!" his father insists.

Hap shares his father’s dream and has tried all his life to live up to the promise that his father found in Biff, but remains the invisible son, nothing quite good enough for his father. Campfield gives a compelling performance as the son who has tried all his life for his father’s recognition.

Lydia Venables is Linda, the woman who tries to hold it all together, who supports her husband and tries to believe his dreams, though she understands the reality of his life. She acts as the referee between Willy and their children. She is a woman who is beaten down by life but who is the soul of the family.

Venables does not inhabit the character consistently. In the earlier scenes one is aware that she is “acting,” saying the roles, following the directions, but it’s not until later that she truly becomes Linda and then her performance is riveting.

There is a mostly strong supporting cast. Greg Collett is Charlie, the next door neighbor who has always been Willy’s friend and who attempts to lend a helping hand when things begin to go sour.

Dan Slauson is Bernard, Charlie’s nerdy son. Micail Buse is Uncle Ben, "The man knew what he wanted and went out and got it! Walked into a jungle, and comes out, the age of twenty-one, and he's rich!" It is Ben, with whom Willy has many imaginary conversations, who is Willy’s excuse for continuing to chase the dream, even as it begins to fade.

Philip Pittman is Howard, who has to let Willy know that his usefulness to the company he has served for all of his career has come to an end.

Early in the play Willy fantasizes about the hoards of people who will come to his funeral, which will show his family how much he is loved. The reality is just the opposite, with just family and neighbors gathered at his gravesite, where it is Hap who vows that his father will not have died in vain and who promises never to let go of the dream.

The audience for opening night was small, which is a shame because this is an excellent production which will wring every ounce of emotion from those who immerse themselves in the action.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Oscar Levant once said that “a pun is the lowest form of humor…if you didn’t think of it first.” For lovers of puns, “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” by Jeffrey Lane and David Yazbek, this week’s Broadway Series presentation at the Community Center in Sacramento, will have you in hog heaven. The puns come fast and furious. Groaning was a frequent response of the audience throughout the evening. (“I’m Muriel of Omaha.” “Pleased to meet you.” “It’s mutual.”)

Based on the 1988 movie starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin, this production is slick looking with fabulous sets by David Rockwell and costumes by Greg Barnes.

Tom Hewitt is Lawrence Jamison, who has been living on the Riviera, playing a faux prince and bilking rich American women out of their money for years. He becomes a Henry Higgins-esque mentor who takes a brash American con-man, Freddy Bensen (D.B. Bonds) under his wing to teach him the finer points of swindling.

“Chimp in a Suit,” sung by Jamison’s right hand man, the gendarme Andre Thibault (Drew McVety) is a scene right out of “My Fair Lady,” as Jamison attempts to teach Freddy how to dress and act the part. Freddy is a more than willing pupil when he looks around Jamison’s mansion and decides that he, too, wants “Great Big Stuff.”

When the first lesson, the wooing of the hyperactive oil heiress Jolene Oakes (Jenifer [sic] Foote), goes terribly wrong, Jamison is helped out of his predicament by Freddy pretending to be a brother with one too many (or perhaps too few) chromosomes in his DNA.

It soon become apparent that the Riviera isn’t big enough for two scoundrels, and so when the “Soap Queen,” Christine Colgate (Laura Marie Duncan, from the Broadway cast of this show) arrives on the scene, Jamison and Freddie agree to a contest—whoever can get $50,000 out of her will be the winner and the other will leave town. The contest soon turns personal, as they each vie not for her money, but for her affections. There are more than a few surprising twists and turns in the plot before the finale.

This is a delightful cast, with Hewitt the suave, elegant and debonair gentleman to Bonds’ crass yet delightful cad.

McVety is a Frenchman (“only by birth and affectation”) who hasn’t learned to be a ladies man yet, until forced to deal with Muriel Eubanks (Hollis Resnik), one of Jamison’s conquests, who must be kept distracted. The two provide a delightful subplot to the central story.

Duncan is earnest and saccharine as the naive heroine, who proves to have more than one side to her.

Foote is high powered, brash and deliciously over the top as she describes life in the panhandle of Oklahoma to the clueless Jamison, who finds himself engaged in more than just a little hanky panky with her. She has one of the better dance numbers, aided by some outrageously costumed cowboys.

There are no songs in this show which are memorable, but a few, like “Dirty Rotten Number,” a duet for Freddy and Jamison, and Jamison’s “Love Sneaks in” hit high marks.

This is a new musical which has the feel of a classic musical with modern elements to it. It is at times raunchy, the dialogue is rapid-fire and the jokes come one on top of the other. The two heroes are lovable scalawags, so we forgive many of their antics.

While this show may never go down in theatrical history as one of the greats, it is nevertheless a fun evening and worth checking out.

fig (a): the heart

The heart beats approximately 100,000 times a day and 40 million times a year. The left side of the heart could shoot water 6 feet in the air.

These are just two of the bits of information from the program of what is perhaps one of the most original plays you’re likely to see, “fig (a): the heart,” written and directed by Emily Davis, about an organ which, the author points out is, both “meat and metaphor.”

“fig (a)” is part play, part medical lecture, part philosophy, and all intriguing. It also has the most original finale that I think I have ever seen.

The printed program for this play is a little difficult to follow, given the frequent difficulty in understanding names spoken from the stage (or the fact that characters apparently have names, but they aren’t ever used except in the program) and the fact there is no “cast of characters” per se, but only a list of performers. Actors play more than one role so, though the many roles are included in individual bios, this review may confuse one actor for another.

The experience begins before the actors take the stage, with pre-show music by Susan Alexjander. “Sequencia” is derived from the vibrational frequencies of molecules found in the chemistry of DNA.

As the action begins on stage, Ruby (UC Davis visiting lecturer, Melanie Julian) has just had a heart transplant. She received the heart of a young man, Luca (Christopher Jee), who died in an auto accident. The one-act play follows Ruby as she adjusts to her new heart, attempts to discover the identity of her donor, and to find her old heart. Julian is such a natural for this sometimes odd role that it would seem it had been written for her.

Jzeela Refah plays the role of Ruby’s doctor, Dr. Al-Qalb. Refah appears to be handling the acting well, but even straining to listen in the small confines of the Mondavi Studio Theatre, most of her lines were inaudible and important pieces of information were missed. She definitely needs to work on projection.

No such projection work is needed for (I think) Sara Zimmerman, who plays a medical lecturer who introduces various medical texts and philosophical readings about the heart, illustrated by clever shadow puppets created by Art Grueneberger and performed by Shayna Carp and Dustin Murray.

In her surgical recovery, Ruby is met by Wepawet (Daniel Reano-Koven), the Egyptian Jackal Guard Dog, who guides her to the Hall of Two Truths, where her heart is to be weighed and judged. But when she explains that the heart in her body is not her heart, she is returned to the present time to begin the search for her own heart.

(The boat in which she is transported is also very clever, with kudos going to Carrie Mullen, the scenic designer. I don’t have a clue as to the name of the masked character or identity of the actor who steered the boat, whose Hannibal Lecter-like breaths were quite effective.)

On her quest to find her old heart and the donor of her new heart, Ruby finds herself in the Egyptian Underworld, in Venice under the guidance of The Venetian (Brittany Barba), and at the Heartbreak Hotel.

She is visited by a number of mythical figures, including an hilarious Cupid (Bradley Castillo) and his Hindu counterpart, Kama (Reano-Koven). And Elvis, of course.

Ruby attempts to relate her experiences to her sister, Maddie (Lauri Smith), who feels she needs some sort of psychotherapy. Enter Dr. Beatrice Bloomset (Claire Blackstock), who explains that the kinds of experiences Ruby is having are not uncommon among transplant patients, and she gives a fascinating explanation of the workings of the heart, which is described as much more than “just a pump,” and is often called a “little brain,” because of its seeming ability to “think” independent of the brain itself.

The play comes to a logical, if unusual, conclusion.

In the end, incorporating all the various information we have received throughout the evening, we are left with questions about what exactly makes us human. It is up to each of us to find the answer to that questions by…following our own heart.

Hair

Margaret Mead once wrote, “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

I wonder if anybody believes that any more.

In 1967, when “Hair,” the “American Tribal Love-Rock Musical” by Gerome Ragni and James Rado, with music by Galt MacDermot, first burst on the scene, they did.

Artistic Difference’s excellent, energetic production, now running at The Space theater in Sacramento, is both a reminder of a time, 40 years ago, when we were engaged in a disastrous war — and the passion with which people protested that war. It was a time when, despite the horrors of a bad war, people still believed they could make a difference, they cared about raising their voice in protest.

“It’s no coincidence that we’re presenting this show at this particular time in history,” writes director Maggie Hollinbeck. “We’re here all over again, aren’t we? In a war that has divided the country, fighting for equal rights, witnessing horrific acts of violence and racism and hatred on the nightly news.”

The experience of this production of “Hair” begins with the somewhat dilapidated building itself, which could easily have served as some hippie pad in the 1960s. Members of the cast greet the arriving audience with smiles, flowers, and happy pills. Upon entering the theater itself, the audience is transported back 40 years by the set decoration, the cast wandering around the theater offering to share drags of herbal cigarettes (at least we assume they were herbal!) with anyone who wants. There are even seats on the stage for those who want to interact more fully with the cast.

Scenic designer Ian Wallace has nicely recreated the feel of Greenwich Village in the 60s.

The company has also devised an ingenious way to make the opening announcements about cell phones, pagers, and exit signs.

There is a plot of sorts – Claude Hooper Bukowski (Christian St. Croix) has received a draft notice and struggles with his conscience over whether to present himself for induction, or burn his draft card and remain with his friends, enjoying the free lifestyle and protesting the war. St. Croix brings poignancy to the role.

But while Claude’s struggle may be the plot line that drives the action, this is really a show about music, and this was the country’s first “rock musical,” with minimal dialog. Songs like “Aquarius” (hauntingly sung by Netty Carey) and “Let the Sunshine In,” the closing anthem, led by Lindsay Grimes and the irrepressible Cierra Tahsini, have a permanent place in our musical history.

Director Hollinbeck has a strong cast for this production. Jerry Lee, who was so perfect as the very British Earnest in Woodland Opera House’s production of “The Importance of Being Earnest” is equally perfect as Claude’s good friend George Berger, long-haired, barefoot, anti-establishment, and rocking out to songs like “Donna.”

Lee and St. Croix work well together, with Grimes the third point in a love-triangle. Grimes has the task of pointing out that the free-living, free-loving lifestyle is not always what it’s cracked up to be (“Easy to be Hard”).

Joelle L. Wirth as Jeannie, hopelessly suffering an unrequited love of Claude has a stand-out moment with “Hippie Life,” while Tygar L. Hicks stands out in the poignant “Frank Mills.”

Ryan P. Adame adds comic relief as Margaret Mead.

The first act “nude scene,” so shocking when “Hair” first opened in 1967, seems a more natural part of the action than anything to raise an eyebrow over, in this day when nudity in the media has become more commonplace. Some of the cast continued the partial nudity into the second act.

Michael Coleman is costume and wig designer and has done a terrific job recreating the period. The Afro on Inertia deWitt as Dionne is particularly striking.

Musical direction is by percussionist Elaine Lord, aided by DMTC’s longtime musical director Erik Daniels, while the production manager for the show is Mike McElroy, last seen as Frank in DMTC’s “Annie Get Your Gun.”

I was living in Berkeley when “Hair” premiered and I remember the feeling of hope and possibility. Seeing this production makes me realize that I’ve lost that feeling, and I came away from the show wondering if we will ever again see the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, when peace will guide the planet.

Someone's Somebody

Regina Louise would like you to know that love is never wasted, and the love you give a child can change that child’s life forever.

To raise awareness about issues concerning foster care, Sacramento Theater Company is kicking off “May is National Foster Care Month” with the world premiere of an original one-woman show, “Someone’s Somebody,” adapted from her autobiography of the same name, performed by Regina Louise, a survivor of the foster care system, and directed by Peggy Shannon, who helped Regina develop it for the stage.

“Every pair of shoes tells a story,” begins Regina. The set, designed by Marion Williams, consists of a couple of chairs and two racks of shoes, which the actress removes, one pair at a time, and puts on, to illustrate the various periods of her life.

You begin to think about the simple things most children take for granted — like shoes that fit. On stage is a sign for ShoesThatFit.org, an organization which provides new shoes and clothes to children in need to help bolster their self esteem and enable them to do better in school.

Regina remembers her first shoes were a pair she made herself by cutting up the belt that was used to whip her and nailing sections of it to blocks of wood.

The child of a wannabe singer father and an alcoholic don’t-wannabe-mother, Regina was placed into the foster care system at an early age and passed around from foster home to foster home, each with its own set of problems. She took to running away and boasts that her shortest stay in a foster home was 17 minutes.

“I just wanted someone who smelled good,” she says, wistfully.

In time she was placed with Jean Kerr, a white woman who gave her the first sense of love and stability she’d ever had. She began to gain confidence. The simple task of learning to use a napkin took on great significance for the young girl. More importantly, she received something she had never had before: a sense of belonging.

The two created a strong bond and Kerr petitioned to adopt Regina, but her petition was denied because it was felt that Regina belonged with a black family. She was removed from Kerr’s home and put back into the system again.

She talks about mental health hospitalizations where she was kept doped up for over a year, and sexual molestation which occurred in the home of a minister over a six month period of time, and records which branded her as borderline retarded.

When she turned 18, she was handed all of her belongings in a garbage bag and set out on the streets--she had aged out of the system.

Regina Louise is a remarkable woman of great strength, who never forgot the kindness of Jean Kerr and who says that throughout her life, whenever she needed to fill out an application which asked for her parent’s name, she would use Kerr’s and make up an address. It was the closest thing she had to a real “mother.” The inner strength she gained from her short stay in Kerr’s home taught her that she was better than the system assumed her to be.

She began writing her memoir, “Somebody’s Someone” and following its publication, she decided to quit her day job as a hair stylist and salon owner and become an advocate for the more than 500,000 misplaced children in the foster care system.

Now a strong, successful woman, a published author and lecturer, Regina Louise has racked up over 100,000 rail reward miles on Amtrak, traveling across the country to share her amazing story of triumph in every state of the union.

The translation of her story from book to stage, with the haunting musical accompaniment of Aladrian Elmore makes “Someone’s Somebody” a thought provoking evening whose triumphant finale will bring the audience to its feet with applause.

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.