Brigadoon

Bagpiper Elizabeth Shull greeted patrons arriving at the Woodland Opera House, playing “Scotland the Brave,” and setting the stage for the trip back to 18^th century Scotland before anyone even entered the theater.

The Lerner & Loewe classic, “Brigadoon,” directed by Chesley award winner Bob Cooner, opened for a five-week run and, despite a disruptive toddler running back and forth, talking, and crying in the balcony at Sunday's matinee performance, the production was, in most areas, a success.

Brigadoon is the story of two disgruntled Americans lost in the Scottish highlands, who discover a strange village, learn of its miracle and discover the power of love.

Scott Reese (as Tommy Albright) and Michael Lie Murphy (as Jeff Douglas) are a bit stiff on stage, especially early in the show, but Reese has a wonderful voice and does justice to the role of the young man searching for meaning in his life.

Gina Marchitiello, as Fiona MacLaren, however, is absolutely marvelous as the sister of bride-to-be Jean (Laura Franklin), and a woman who is still “waiting for her dearie” and wondering if she will ever find love. Marchitiello has a beautiful, strong voice and brings a yearning wistfulness to her character. She alone is worth the price of admission.

The opening choral number, beautifully sung, was sung mostly in the dark. If this was by design, it was not a good one. Too many of the townsfolk who only have a brief moment for solo lines were unable to be seen at all. One hopes it was a lighting error at this performance.

As Tommy and Jeff try to figure out what sort of town they have stumbled upon, they meet many of the townsfolk, including Meg Brockie (Marcy Goodnow), a lusty, boisterous lass who quickly gloms onto Jeff and drags him off to her shack where, presumably, some hanky panky eventually takes place. Goodnow gives the role all the gusto that it requires and is great fun to watch in action.

Archie Beaton (Mark Fejta) is the town tailor whose son Harry (Justin Kelley) is in love with Jean and angry about her upcoming marriage to Charlie Dalrymple (Tim Dunlap). Kelley is dark and brooding and dances a mean sword dance, along with Kevin Little, Jon Shaffer and Shane Wright.

Dunlap is a likable Charlie, with a good voice and good chemistry with his bride-to-be, Jean. Laura Franklin is a wonderful dancer, and a less wonderful actress, but the role of Jean requires more dancing than acting, so it works well for her. Her wedding ballet was beautiful.

Jeff Nauer is Andrew MacLaren, father of Jean and Fiona who displays a strong voice in the chase scene, where all the men of the town chase after Harry, who has decided to leave Brigadoon, bringing an end to “the miracle.” (Sadly, the role of Angus is not listed in the program and so I don't know who sang that role, but he had a wonderful voice.)

(Traditionally, there is a funeral scene following Harry's death, and I assumed the bagpiper would be joining the group on stage, but the funeral procession was dropped in this production.)

Jim Lane is just wonderful as the wise Mr. Lundie, the man who holds the secret of “the miracle” (and check those genuine muttonchops!)

This is such a good looking production (scenic design by Jeff Kean) and such care is taken with the Scottish accents, and the sword dance that it is appalling that no consideration whatsoever was taken to make the costumes authentic. As a person of Scottish descent, I know that the plaid of a tartan indicates the clan to which a person belongs. To see the three MacLarens, for example, standing side by side, each wearing vastly different tartans was jarring and it was even more jarring during the parade of the clans at the start of Act 2, when there was no cohesiveness whatsoever. There are even mis-matched tartans, one design at the top of a dress, another for the skirt. Laurie Everly Klassen is too good a designer to make such an egregious error.

Music for this production is provided by pianists Sam Schieber and Chris Schlagel, who are so good one does not notice the lack of a full orchestra.

This is a production with some problems, but the good far outweighs the bad and should provide an entertaining couple of hours for anybody who comes to see it. (Please leave your small children at home!)

Laughter on the 23rd Floor

It is a sad fact that over the years I have been reviewing for The Davis Enterprise, I have seen that a mediocre musical will consistently get a bigger audience than a first rate play. I have often left a half-full theater thinking what a shame it is that people in this area just don't seem to come out for straight plays any more, and how sad that they don't realize what they are missing.

A case in point is Davis Musical Theater Company's new comedy series, which opened with one of Neil Simon's funnier plays, “Laughter on the 23^rd Floor.”

“Laughter” is Simon's homage to the time he spent working on “Your Show of Shows,” the old Sid Caesar weekly variety show, in the waning days of the golden era of television variety shows, and in the middle of the McCarthy era, when the networks were afraid of topical humor and were “dumbing down” shows to be more “family friendly.” The writing staff included some of the greats in comedy – Caesar himself, of course, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, and Larry Gelbart, among others. (Reiner would go on to create his own homage to this period, in the form of “The Dick Van Dyke Show”)

Director Michael McElroy has hit a triple (not quite a home run, but close) on his first directing effort with a fast-paced, funny, well acted production that features a top notch cast.

Joshua Smith is Lucas, the Neil Simon character, who acts as both the narrator, introducing each writer in turn as he or she enters the room, and is also a participant in the action. Smith's Lucas is a fresh-faced, wide-eyed, innocent looking young man who is somewhat in awe of the company in which he finds himself on this high powered writing team. Sadly, actor Smith's lines aren't always distinct enough, so that you miss pieces of dialog or narration here and there, but overall he turns in a believable performance.

The group is writing for “The Max Prince
Show,” and Kevin Caravalho turns in an inspired, frenetic performance as Max, a comic genius whose insecurities cause him to throw up before each show, who pops pills and drinks too much. He rants and raves, throws the telephone, and punches holes in the wall, but he is intensely loyal to his writing staff and is in constant battle with the network to keep the show on the air. Caravalho always gives 110% and this role is no exception.

While this is a generally above-average cast, there are some, like Caravalho, who stand out. Paul Fearn as the head writer, Val, a Russian-Jewish immigrant, who is taking elocution lessons so that he can pronounce curse words properly, is another who lights up the stage when he makes his entrance, transforming “OK” performances into something electric. Val's exit line, at the end of the show, is one of my favorites.

Jeff Labowitch plays the hypochondriac Ira (based on Woody Allen), who arrives late each day and who seems to suffer from the malady du jour, everything from a heart attack to a brain tumor, and dreams of having a virus named after him.

Darryl Strohl is Milt, the womanizer who revels in his flashy dress. It's hard to know which is the more notable—his all white suit, or his red plaid pants (kudos to costume designer Jean Henderson).

Clocky McDowell is the chain-smoking Brian, who is always just about to make it big in Hollywood, once he writes that perfect script. His “shoe fight” with Ira was a very funny moment.

Lauren Miller is Karen, the lone woman on the writing team, who has been around so long she really is “one of the guys” (think RoseMarie in the Dick Van Dyke Show). Kris Farhood is Helen, Max's long-suffering secretary.

Kenny (Brennen Cull) is the peacemaker, the one who seems to be the solid rock of the group, constantly trying to talk sense into the other writers. By Act 2, when it becomes obvious that the show is on the way out, Kenny remarks, poignantly, “Maybe we'll never have this much fun again in our entire lives.”

Kenny was probably right, but Simon made sure that the fun didn't die entirely by recreating it in “Laughter on the 23^rd Floor,” which will give the audience a taste of what it was like to turn out one of the best variety shows in the history of television.

Fortunately, Davis Musical Theater Company has done well by the script. Treat yourself to something other than a musical and revel in the humor of a bygone day—and remember what television was like when the likes of Sid Caesar and his writing team ruled the airwaves.

Moving Midway

Miss Mary was not happy.

It was Dena Williams’ first Christmas at Midway Plantation and she decided to set up the Christmas tree in the parlor (“what we would call the living room,” she explained).

Williams’ husband, Charlie Silver tried to warn her that it was Miss Mary’s special room and that she wouldn’t want the tree there, but Williams was adamant that it was the best place to put it. “We put the tree in the parlor and had it all decorated and then, in the middle of the night we heard a crash and found tree down, but only one ornament broken. Miss Mary had been gentle but made her point,” she laughed.

“Miss Mary” was Silver’s great-great aunt, Mary Hilliard Hinton, the tiny matriarch, who dressed as her heroine, Queen Victoria, who was the teller of all the family stories, and who died in 1961. Miss Mary’s ghost (along with several others, including a cat) inhabits Midway Plantation.

(“How do you know the ghosts are there?” I asked Williams. “We see them,” she replied, with her husband adding that since these were relatives he knew in life, their ghosts don’t appear scary. Williams had some discussions with the spirits when she and Silver first married and moved to Midway Plantation. “I walked around from room to room and asked them to be nice to me and wait until I felt comfortable before showing themselves. They waited and they’ve always been very nice.”)

The spiritual side of Midway Plantation is only one aspect of a fascinating documentary which will kick off the Fifth Annual Davis Film Festival, This year's festival features films on topics ranging from movement and music to community and the consequences of war, and includes innovative short works by new filmmakers as well as feature-length films from around the world.

"Moving Midway" is an acclaimed documentary and multiple film festival award winner and an excellent choice to start the 2008 festival. In its simplest form, “Moving Midway” is the story of moving a family home from one location near Raleigh, North Carolina to another, but in the process of documenting the move, film critic turned filmmaker Godfrey Cheshire not only shows the mechanics of relocating an historical building, but also traces the importance of the Southern plantation in American history, gives us a glimpse into his own ancestry, and discovers a whole new side of the family, and more than 100 cousins he never knew he had.

The land on which Midway Plantation and two others (The Oaks and Beaver Dam) was built (420,700 acres) was given by the British crown to Miss Mary's family in 1739, before the American Revolution. Midway was built in 1848 as a wedding gift to Miss Mary's father, David Hinton. Over the years, the house became the gathering place for all the family and Godfrey Cheshire remembers happy times playing with his cousins, Charlie (Nicknamed "Pooh"), Winston ("Winkie") and John (Possum").

Things had changed in 2004, when Cheshire went to visit Silver, who now owned Midway Plantation. Where once lay a dirt wagon track, now was a major highway with more than 55,000 cars a day passing the home. Instead of looking out at rolling hills and trees, the former plantation faced a McDonald's, a bank, and several other shops in a strip mall. Silver's 80-something mother was looking to the house's upkeep and had rented it out, but she was getting calls from developers every day offering to buy the property and it had become a burden on her.

Silver and Williams decided to move into the house to make things easier on his mother. They lived there only two years before the couple made the fateful decision to buy another plot of land and move the house to a new location. What was most important to Silver was preserving the house for future generations, and he realized that in its present urban setting, his children didn't experience the house he remembered from his childhood. "I realized that none of my children would what to live in it, and that spelled doom for the house," he said. "Our big concern was to make sure the house was attractive enough to have someone else in the family live there.” They had offers from developers to make it the center point of the new mall development, or to tear it apart and reuse timbers. But Silver was adamant that the best thing for the house was to pick it up and move it. It would allow them to rebuild the aging foundation and the chimneys and to make improvements that would make it last another 150 years."

They even hired Rick Lambeth, a consultant who does historic architectural finishes who examined the house and told the couple what all of the original colors were in the whole house—trim, walls, outside, shutters, etc., so that they could restore it to the original appearance.

Godfrey Cheshire immediately felt there was a story to be recorded, but even he didn't realize where that story would lead.

The extended family had mixed emotions about the move, expressed at the last Christmas party held at Midway before the scheduled moving of the house. Midway was always a party home and always looked its best when filled with people. Brother Winston (Winkie) said that growing up in Midway was like nothing any child ever experienced and didn't believe that Charlie was actually going to move the house. "I'll believe it when I see it," he laughed. Brother John ("Possum") made his views on the moving of the house known in no uncertain terms. "I thought he was full of sh*t!" he said emphatically.

Silver and Williams were also concerned about how the ancestors would feel about the move. "We literally sat on the steps and talked to them. 'We hope you guys are all right with this,'" he said.

A part of the history of the house concerned the slaves who once worked on the plantation. There were records showing that the original slave was a man named Mingo, who had been a gift when the house was first built. (Previous work had been done by indentured white laborers.) The family Bible also held a photo of an African American man, Ruffin Hinton, who looked very much like Charles Lewis Hinton, the plantation owner (who also served two terms as State Treasurer of North Carolina). It was generally acknowledged that Ruffin was the result of a relationship with the house cook.

As Godfrey Cheshire was preparing for his film about Midway, a letter on some unrelated topic from Robert Hinton, a professor of African American Studies at NYU, appeared in the "New York Times." In the letter he mentioned that his grandfather, Dempsey Hinton, had been born on Midway Plantation in 1860. Cheshire made arrangements to meet with Hinton and through comparing their various family stories, they realized that Hinton's grandfather had been a slave at Midway Plantation. Hinton was invited to Midway Plantation to meet his cousins and travel around the grounds where the slave quarters had once been, and to explore the slave cemetery.

“I always thought I would meet another Hinton, but I hoped it would be someone I wouldn't like," Robert Hinton smiled.

Charlie Silver found a 47 acre plot of land three miles from Midway Plantation and purchased it. Mike Black, a professional house mover, was hired to handle the actual move of the main building and several of the out-buildings. When the day came to move the house, Robert Hinton was invited to join the rest of the family in breaking a bottle of champagne over the metal bars which held the house on dollies before the truck started to slowly pull the house over back roads to its new location.

"I felt it was important to help launch the move and represent my family,” said Hinton.

It took four days to move the house the three miles and set it down on its new foundation.

One of the most hair-raising segments of the journey involved crossing a narrow bridge. "We didn’t know for sure if the bridge would hold the weight," Charlie said. It had been designed by twins brothers and it had been their first job out of college 8-10 yrs before. They did lots of calculations to see if it would hold the weight of the house. The bridge was also so narrow that the house cleared the guard rails by less than an inch. The supports actually scraped the rails as it crossed over the bridge.

It was two years before the house was ready for parties again. When it held its first social gathering, several of the descendants of Ruffin Hinton were invited to attend, including Abraham Lincoln Hinton, Ruffin's grandson, born in 1909.

“I think in order to be a healthy individual, you have to know where you come from and how you got to be who you are. I cannot make sense of myself without understanding this house and being involved with the house,” said Robert Hinton.

And the ghosts? Did they move with the house? “We know that my dad has moved,” said Charlie Silver. “My great great aunt also moved and the ghost cats have moved. The 'nice lady' has moved. (We think it’s my grandmother. We haven’t seen her really clearly, but my granddaughter does.) Miss Mary came with us and has been very pleased. We usually see her as a wren. She came and flew thru the house.”

But employees at PetSmart and Target, which were built on the land once occupied by Midway Plantation, have reported strange things happening at night, with items being moved and found in odd places, so apparently some of the Hinton clan stayed behind to watch over the land as well.

Cyrano de Bergerac

At the risk of pandering to an obvious pun, Sacramento Theatre Company's current production of Edmund Rostand's “Cyrano de Bergerac” hits it right on the nose.

Sandford Robbins, the founder and director of the Professional Training Program (PTTP), one of the top ten dramatic education programs in the country, and "Cyrano" director Peggy Shannon adapted Rostand's classic especially for Sacramento Theatre Company. The result is a romantic tale of a 17th Century French cavalier poet, a master swordsman as skillful with the pen as with the sword, in love with a beautiful lady, but afraid that his protuberant proboscis will get in the way of his search for true love.

John Pribyl brings dignity, humor, and panache to the role of Cyrano, a man who covers up a lot of his insecurities by laughing at his own physical oddity, while inside pining away for the love of the beautiful Roxanne (Jackie Vanderbeck). Pribyl's diction is impeccable, as he delivers long discourses, equally eloquent on subject of love, or on put-downs of his own prosthetically enhanced nose.

Instead of embarrassing himself by declaring his love for Roxanne, Cyrano becomes the mouthpiece for the handsome, dashing, but somewhat inarticulate cavalier Christian (Brett Williams), helping him woo and win the hand of Roxanne by putting words in his mouth and in his pen, the words that Roxanne longs for and that ultimately help her fall in love.

Williams does a fine job as Christian. Most roles in this play are subordinate to Cyrano and Williams does not stand out.

Vanderbeck is a lovely Roxanne, swept away by the eloquence of Cyrano's words, which she feels are coming from Christian, only to realize, much too late, that the man with whom she has been in love for so many years is really Cyrano.

Matt K. Miller, who has become a master at playing the snide villain undergoing some sort of ultimate noble transformation does not disappoint as the Comte DeGuiche, with his own designs on Roxanne, outwitted at the last moment by Cyrano, who arranges a hasty marriage before Christian is sent off to war.

(Times were apparently different in the 1600s and it appears that even cads respected the bond of marriage.)

Others in lesser roles all performed well. Adrian Roberts is a commanding presence on the stage as Cyrano's lifelong friend LeBret.

Lynn Baker is Roxanne's Duena, and later in the play dons the habit for a role as a nun in the abby where Roxanne retires following Christian's death.

Michael RJ Campbell is resplendent in pink as Cyrano's enemy, the actor Monfleury.

Doug Kester is Ragueneau, a pastry chef with a particular love of poetry.

John Dalmon is the poet Ligniere, whose life Cyrano saves by single-handedly battling 100 men.

Incidental music is provided by Moises Rodriguez, softly playing the guitar at one side of the stage, occasionally as accompaniment for on-stage choral singing, or solos by Erik Smith, who has a pleasant, if not memorable voice.

Chris Uchman-Douglas, playing the role of the Vicomte Valvert is also credited with fight choreography and has done a masterful job of creating the feel of a band of cavaliers for whom swordplay comes as second nature.

Kudos to Todd Roehermann for his magnificent costume design. The costumes, particularly of the cavaliers gave a wonderful richness to the look of the show.

Arthur Roch's scenic design was utilitarian, though nothing spectacular, primarily dictated by the number of people needed to be on stage in several scenes. The abby scene, however, was especitally lovely. I took particular offense, however, to his "man in the moon" rising across the nighttime sky. As this production seems to have been designed more for realism than for fantasy, a big yellow moon with the face of a man on it seemed jarringly out of place.

"Cyrano de Bergerac" is a classic with a contemporary feel. Director Peggy Shannon's production is wonderfully accessible and with a tragic triangular love story and all the swash-buckling battles that take place on the stage, it should have broad appeal across the spectrum of audience members.

Putnam County Spelling Bee

If you want to get a real feel for "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," the touring Broadway company production which opened last night at the Sacramento Community Center, go see it with a teacher.

Through all the stress, the angst, the mayhem and the fun, my friend was nodding her head. “I believe it all,” she said after the show, remembering the years that she helped to put on spelling bees in her school in Wisconsin.

The Tony-award winning musical comedy is based on “C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E,” an original play by the Farm. The book for the musical is by Rachel Sheinkin, conceived by Rebecca Feldman with music and lyrics by William Finn, perhaps best known for his “Falsettos” trilogy, about a man dying of AIDS.

There are no such heavy themes in “Putnam County Spelling Bee,” which is peopled not only by a delightfully zany cast of characters, but also assisted by four volunteers from the audience (there is an opportunity to sign up to become one of the on-stage members of the spelling bee team in the lobby, before entering the theatre). The audience members participated for a surprisingly long time and each received rounds of applause when they eventually misspelled a word.

How can you make a children’s spelling bee an interesting nearly two hour musical (it is performed without intermission)?

You start with the delightfully over the top Rona Lisa Peretti (Roberta Duchak), a former spelling bee winner and real estate agent, who now runs the annual spelling bee. Her delivery would do an aging Beauty Pageant participant proud.

Her cohort, and reader of the words and the delicious definitions and sentences is Douglas Panch (James Kall), now back from that unfortunate incident five years ago. He’s much better now, he reassures the audience.

Mitch Mahoney (Kevin Smith Kirkwood) is the guy who leads the pledge of allegiance, and is the guy who escorts each loser off the stage and presents them with their commemorative box of apple juice. (Kirkwood also has several other smaller roles throughout the evening.)

And then there are the children themselves, each a perfect depiction of a certain type of child. Olive Ostrosky is a latchkey kid whose mother has gone off to India to find herself, and whose father forgot to come to the spelling bee and who doesn’t have the money to enter, but is allowed to compete anyway. She learned to spell because she grew up in a house with an oversized dictionary that she liked to read while sitting on the toilet.

Leaf Coneybear (described as a home schooled kid from Davis) got into the contest on a fluke when both the real winner of the previous spelling bee and the runner up had to attend a bat mitzvah. He insists he’s “not that smart,” a notion which he seems to have picked up from his many siblings, and keeps surprising himself with his correct answers.

Marcy Park (Katie Boren) is an overachiever who speaks six languages, is good in music and in sports and everything else she attempts, but is a girl who just wants to be normal and eventually seeks advice from a surprisingly unlikely source.

Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre (Dana Steingold) is president of the Gay Straight Alliance in her school, has two dads who dote on her, is a budding feminst, and yet wonders “what about me?”

Chip Tolentino (Justin Keyes) won the contest last year and, dressed in his Boy Scout uniform, is confident that he will easily win this year too, until an unfortunate hormonally induced incident spoils his chances. Chip has perhaps the most unusual song of the night—certainly a first for song lyrics!

William Barfee (whose name rhymes with ‘parfait’ but whose size makes him the perfect victim of jokes mispronouncing the name) has a “magic foot” and an unusual technique for figuring out the correct way to spell a word. Eric Roediger is delightful in the role, and his character’s growing friendship with Olive is very special.

You are not going to leave the Civic Center humming any of the tunes from this show (except perhaps the title song), but you will smile as you think back on the enjoyable evening you have just spent.

Is this a show worth seeing? D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y.

Moving Midway

Miss Mary was not happy.

It was Dena Williams’ first Christmas at Midway Plantation and she decided to set up the Christmas tree in the parlor (“what we would call the living room,” she explained).

Williams’ husband, Charlie Silver tried to warn her that it was Miss Mary’s special room and that she wouldn’t want the tree there, but Williams was adamant that it was the best place to put it. “We put the tree in the parlor and had it all decorated and then, in the middle of the night we heard a crash and found tree down, but only one ornament broken. Miss Mary had been gentle but made her point,” she laughed.

“Miss Mary” was Silver’s great-great aunt, Mary Hilliard Hinton, the tiny matriarch, who dressed as her heroine, Queen Victoria, who was the teller of all the family stories, and who died in 1961. Miss Mary’s ghost (along with several others, including a cat) inhabits Midway Plantation.

(“How do you know the ghosts are there?” I asked Williams. “We see them,” she replied, with her husband adding that since these were relatives he knew in life, their ghosts don’t appear scary. Williams had some discussions with the spirits when she and Silver first married and moved to Midway Plantation. “I walked around from room to room and asked them to be nice to me and wait until I felt comfortable before showing themselves. They waited and they’ve always been very nice.”)

The spiritual side of Midway Plantation is only one aspect of a fascinating documentary which will kick off the Fifth Annual Davis Film Festival, This year's festival features films on topics ranging from movement and music to community and the consequences of war, and includes innovative short works by new filmmakers as well as feature-length films from around the world.

"Moving Midway" is an acclaimed documentary and multiple film festival award winner and an excellent choice to start the 2008 festival. In its simplest form, “Moving Midway” is the story of moving a family home from one location near Raleigh, North Carolina to another, but in the process of documenting the move, film critic turned filmmaker Godfrey Cheshire not only shows the mechanics of relocating an historical building, but also traces the importance of the Southern plantation in American history, gives us a glimpse into his own ancestry, and discovers a whole new side of the family, and more than 100 cousins he never knew he had.

The land on which Midway Plantation and two others (The Oaks and Beaver Dam) was built (420,700 acres) was given by the British crown to Miss Mary's family in 1739, before the American Revolution. Midway was built in 1848 as a wedding gift to Miss Mary's father, David Hinton. Over the years, the house became the gathering place for all the family and Godfrey Cheshire remembers happy times playing with his cousins, Charlie (Nicknamed "Pooh"), Winston ("Winkie") and John (Possum").

Things had changed in 2004, when Cheshire went to visit Silver, who now owned Midway Plantation. Where once lay a dirt wagon track, now was a major highway with more than 55,000 cars a day passing the home. Instead of looking out at rolling hills and trees, the former plantation faced a McDonald's, a bank, and several other shops in a strip mall. Silver's 80-something mother was looking to the house's upkeep and had rented it out, but she was getting calls from developers every day offering to buy the property and it had become a burden on her.

Silver and Williams decided to move into the house to make things easier on his mother. They lived there only two years before the couple made the fateful decision to buy another plot of land and move the house to a new location. What was most important to Silver was preserving the house for future generations, and he realized that in its present urban setting, his children didn't experience the house he remembered from his childhood. "I realized that none of my children would what to live in it, and that spelled doom for the house," he said. "Our big concern was to make sure the house was attractive enough to have someone else in the family live there.” They had offers from developers to make it the center point of the new mall development, or to tear it apart and reuse timbers. But Silver was adamant that the best thing for the house was to pick it up and move it. It would allow them to rebuild the aging foundation and the chimneys and to make improvements that would make it last another 150 years."

They even hired Rick Lambeth, a consultant who does historic architectural finishes who examined the house and told the couple what all of the original colors were in the whole house—trim, walls, outside, shutters, etc., so that they could restore it to the original appearance.

Godfrey Cheshire immediately felt there was a story to be recorded, but even he didn't realize where that story would lead.

The extended family had mixed emotions about the move, expressed at the last Christmas party held at Midway before the scheduled moving of the house. Midway was always a party home and always looked its best when filled with people. Brother Winston (Winkie) said that growing up in Midway was like nothing any child ever experienced and didn't believe that Charlie was actually going to move the house. "I'll believe it when I see it," he laughed. Brother John ("Possum") made his views on the moving of the house known in no uncertain terms. "I thought he was full of sh*t!" he said emphatically.

Silver and Williams were also concerned about how the ancestors would feel about the move. "We literally sat on the steps and talked to them. 'We hope you guys are all right with this,'" he said.

A part of the history of the house concerned the slaves who once worked on the plantation. There were records showing that the original slave was a man named Mingo, who had been a gift when the house was first built. (Previous work had been done by indentured white laborers.) The family Bible also held a photo of an African American man, Ruffin Hinton, who looked very much like Charles Lewis Hinton, the plantation owner (who also served two terms as State Treasurer of North Carolina). It was generally acknowledged that Ruffin was the result of a relationship with the house cook.

As Godfrey Cheshire was preparing for his film about Midway, a letter on some unrelated topic from Robert Hinton, a professor of African American Studies at NYU, appeared in the "New York Times." In the letter he mentioned that his grandfather, Dempsey Hinton, had been born on Midway Plantation in 1860. Cheshire made arrangements to meet with Hinton and through comparing their various family stories, they realized that Hinton's grandfather had been a slave at Midway Plantation. Hinton was invited to Midway Plantation to meet his cousins and travel around the grounds where the slave quarters had once been, and to explore the slave cemetery.

“I always thought I would meet another Hinton, but I hoped it would be someone I wouldn't like," Robert Hinton smiled.

Charlie Silver found a 47 acre plot of land three miles from Midway Plantation and purchased it. Mike Black, a professional house mover, was hired to handle the actual move of the main building and several of the out-buildings. When the day came to move the house, Robert Hinton was invited to join the rest of the family in breaking a bottle of champagne over the metal bars which held the house on dollies before the truck started to slowly pull the house over back roads to its new location.

"I felt it was important to help launch the move and represent my family,” said Hinton.

It took four days to move the house the three miles and set it down on its new foundation.

One of the most hair-raising segments of the journey involved crossing a narrow bridge. "We didn’t know for sure if the bridge would hold the weight," Charlie said. It had been designed by twins brothers and it had been their first job out of college 8-10 yrs before. They did lots of calculations to see if it would hold the weight of the house. The bridge was also so narrow that the house cleared the guard rails by less than an inch. The supports actually scraped the rails as it crossed over the bridge.

It was two years before the house was ready for parties again. When it held its first social gathering, several of the descendants of Ruffin Hinton were invited to attend, including Abraham Lincoln Hinton, Ruffin's grandson, born in 1909.

“I think in order to be a healthy individual, you have to know where you come from and how you got to be who you are. I cannot make sense of myself without understanding this house and being involved with the house,” said Robert Hinton.

And the ghosts? Did they move with the house? “We know that my dad has moved,” said Charlie Silver. “My great great aunt also moved and the ghost cats have moved. The 'nice lady' has moved. (We think it’s my grandmother. We haven’t seen her really clearly, but my granddaughter does.) Miss Mary came with us and has been very pleased. We usually see her as a wren. She came and flew thru the house.”

But employees at PetSmart and Target, which were built on the land once occupied by Midway Plantation, have reported strange things happening at night, with items being moved and found in odd places, so apparently some of the Hinton clan stayed behind to watch over the land as well.

Resting Place

Seven year old Ashley is dead. We know this because a huge grave stone dominates the set for the world premiere of “Resting Place, a new play by local playwright Richard Broadhurst (whose play "Benched" was given its world premiere at STC in 2001 and whose holiday comedy "Crib" was performed at River Stage in 2005).

Ashley’s grave is the meeting place for Ashley’s mother Margaret (Kelley Weir), who seems to be a very uptight and angry woman and the cemetery’s groundskeeper Paulie (Robert Sicular), a man of limited intelligence and education, lonely and desperate for company.

The first meeting does not go well. Margaret is angry because she feels Paulie is desecrating her daughter’s grave, though softens somewhat when she discovers he is the groundskeeper. When she tries to end their encounter, he seems desperate to keep her there, talking.

As the two talk, it becomes apparent that both have secrets they have buried and that both need a “resting place” where they can just get away from everything.

Paulie reveals a childhood of neglect and abandonment, a life lived in detention centers and then, saddest of all, his decision to rob a bank to get money for medical care for his grandmother. Prison, he confesses, taught him a trade and when he was released, he deliberately violated his parole so he could go back to prison and continue his education in gardening.

Margaret eventually reveals the marital abuse and alcoholism that drove her to leave her husband and the circumstances of Ashley’s death, for which she blames herself. She also confesses to estrangement from her younger daughter.

A casual friendship develops between the two, though each has more to reveal which will result in plot twists the audience does not see coming.

In attempting to hold on to Margaret’s friendship, Paulie suggests the two assume fantasy identities, Paulie a pirate, and Margaret “Monique,” a woman of mystery. This was perhaps the weakest part of the plot.

Though this is a serious story, there are lots of funny lines. In places the script seems not to ring true and it’s difficult to know if this is the part of the script itself or of Weir’s delivery, since it is her character who is the less believable of the two.

Sicular is excellent as a man who has never had to learn proper manners, but who is trying to be polite to this very proper woman. His persona is enhanced by his costume, the rough-hewn clothing of a man who is accustomed to working with the soil. Costumer Jessica Minnihan has added perfect little touches, like the heavy horn-rimmed glasses held together with duct tape.

Weir’s Margaret is an uptight woman whose grief over her daughter’s death is buried deeply and gives her a hard edge. The edge cracks at one point and anyone who has lost a loved one, particularly a child, will be able to identify with her pain.

The third member of the cast is a non-speaking child, dressed, head to toe, in a skeleton costume. The role is shared by Jack Hughes and Andrew Standriff.

Scenic Designer, Steve Decker, has created a realistic cemetery, somewhat hampered by the short space between the back of the stage and the front row of seats. In order not to step on “graves,” the actors always seemed to be close to stepping on the toes of those sitting in the front row.

Lighting Designer Dale Marshall has done some wonderful work, including a beautiful “morning,” as Paulie wakes up from a night of drinking. The “sun through the leaves” effect was perfect.

“Resting Place” is a show about coming to terms with the secrets in our past and learning to deal with them, to forgive ourselves for our past transgressions, give ourselves a “do over,” and to move forward. `

Fate and Spinoza

Any idiot can say God works in mysterious ways but only the scientists are proving it.

This is one of the central themes of "Fate and Spinoza," a new work by Granada Artist-in-Residence and 2007 Pulitzer Prize Finalist Rinde Eckert, with music composed by Eckert and Rich Gaarde, which premiered at the UCD Main Theatre on Friday evening. Gaarde also provides the musical accompaniment for the show from a spot off to the side on the stage.

Writers use lots of material as inspiration for plots of books or plays or musical works, but it seems fair to say that “Ethics” by Spinoza, a philosophical treatise based on geometric principles, would probably not be high on the list. But then Rinde Eckert is no ordinary playwright, as his large body of work will attest. Still, Eckert manages to make it all work, in a visually pleasant production filled with rich vocabulary and a gorgeous choral work which seems to come from out of nowhere somewhere in the middle.

“Fate and Spinoza”is more “philosophy driven” than “plot driven,” but the story revolves around April Lansky (Hope Mirlis), a wife, mother and engineer who designs satellites and telescopes. Lansky is inexplicably compelled to revisit a hotel from her past that is about to be torn down. There she encounters the ghost of artist David (Spinoza) Cornell (Matt Moore) and also the Devil (Timothy Orr) and, in conversation with them, reflects on her life choices and begins to come to terms with her present.

The action of the play is seen from the viewpoint of April. Through dialogue with the characters in the room that once was the artist's studio, she recovers that which she lost 20 years earlier.

The room seems to be a magical place, not necessarily a rational place. Things happen which may not happen in the real world (such as the meeting with the Devil). By virtue of the fact that April spends the entire play in the room, she is separated from her family but is still able to witness what they are going through.

There are a lot of story-telling issues that go into a study of something so complex and Eckert uses several devices to do it. Anna Schumacher plays April’s daughter Delia, and is also one of the classic “Fates” who provide much of the narrative. Vicky Zelaya is another of the fates.

Perhaps the clearest bit of philosophy is offered by two tile setters, Victor Toman and Travis Dukelow, who put their lunch boxes down and discourse on the notion of “wasting time.” The particular scene is very funny, yet at its conclusion you realize that you have just been given a lot of very deep thoughts to mull over.

“What do you mean waste of time?” “What do I mean what do I mean ‘waste of time?’ A waste of time is a waste of time! We all know what we mean!” “No we don’t. No one knows what we mean by that.” The character goes on to say that discussing “a waste of time” is in itself a waste of time.

Hope Mirlis is one of the actors who shines in this strong cast of characters, as does Timothy Orr, whose “Devil” is less evil than we have come to expect. His identity is hinted at in the red accents to his costume and the red bath of light in which he stands (costume design by Nancy Pipkin, scenic and lighting design by Carrie Mullen).

“Fate and Spinoza” may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but, as with everything Rinde Eckert does, it will leave the audience thinking about things that they had never thought about before.

And that definitely is no waste of time!

Renaissance Man

Rinde Eckert was in a taxi, heading to the airport on his way to Montreal, when he learned he was one of the top three nominees for a Pulitzer Prize for his 'Orpheus X.'

'I got a call from The Los Angeles Times, asking how I felt about none of the actual finalists have been chosen, and the award going to the fourth guy on the list,' Eckert recalled. 'The newspaper was looking for some sort of controversy.'

Eckert, who didn't realize his piece had been under consideration, was thrilled just to have his work nominated.

'I didn't care. I was happy to be close.

'The three of us who were Pulitzer finalists were very unconventional,' he continued. 'None of the pieces that were finalists made it to Broadway. They had, at best, been off-Broadway shows, but ultimately a Broadway piece was chosen.' (That would be David Lindsay-Abair's 'The Rabbit Hole.')

Eckert, a familiar name to UC Davis theatergoers, is back on campus as a Granada artist-in-residence. The Pulitzer near-winner will be presented for one performance only, at 8 p.m. Saturday at UCD's Main Theater, as a special American Repertory Theater presentation, prior to its heading off to a theater festival in Hong Kong.

This performance will be followed, next week, with a two-week run of Eckert's original piece, 'Fate and Spinoza,' now under development with a student cast.

Almost winning a Pulitzer has its advantages, Eckert acknowledges.

'It alerts people to some of the intricacies of the work, because the people choosing works for consideration aren't stupid, and they're aware of dimensions of a work that perhaps deserve attention. It helps to have someone in authority say, 'This stuff is worth getting. There's some deep stuff here.'

'That's an alert that says to the normal theatergoer, 'Wow ... I'd better take a closer look, because ... look, he was he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize! That isn't pig doots!' '

Eckert laughed.

In setting his piece, Eckert was inspired by the translation of a poem by German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, called 'Orpheus, Eurydice and Hermes.' In the classic myth, Orpheus is broken-hearted at the death of his love, Eurydice, and descends into Hades to bring her back to the living world.

'It's Greek,' Eckert explains. 'There is only Hades. There is no other place. They don't have any choice in the Greek world. They all go to Hades. Unless they're rescued in some way and made into a god, but that doesn't happen very often.'

In the Rilke poem, Eurydice already has become comfortable with the afterlife. Her memories of a life with Orpheus have faded, and she's not interested in returning to his world. She's perfectly content to remain in Hades:

Already she was root. And when suddenly, abruptly the god stopped her and in a pained voice said, 'he's turned around,' she did not understand and quietly answered 'who?'

Eckert's Orpheus is a rock star who substitutes an electric guitar for the traditional lyre. ('I needed to have him have mythic proportions, and the modern rock star fits that.') Eurydice is a street poet whose writing has become mundane and unsatisfying to her. She's struck by the taxi in which Orpheus is riding. He becomes obsessed with the woman, who dies in his arms.

He gives up everything to go to Hades, to bring her back to his world.

The trip is arranged by his agent.

'Agents always have connections,' Eckert laughs.

In Eckert's version, Eurydice no longer makes a sacrifice for Orpheus' poetic life, but for hers.

'She doesn't want to go back to what was terrifying and hellish for her,' Eckert explains. 'There's nothing for her up there.'

The 'X' in 'Orpheus X' indicates a variable that denotes the 'x' number of previous productions of the classic Greek myth.

'I've tried to honor each of the dimensions of the myth, while putting a spin on it that was of much more intrigue and interest to me, and would be a worthwhile addition to the great number of iterations of Orpheus, rather than trying to do yet another kind of straight-ahead depiction that already has been done extremely well.'

Whether a 'stunning music-theater production ... powerfully acted and gorgeously sung' (Variety), 'a multi-sensory extravaganza' (Tufts Daily) or 'a lugubrious and second-rate piece [that] nevertheless offers a fresh slant on a familiar but always haunting myth' (Edinburgh Festival Review), it's clear that in the hands of a masterful playwright/performer, Eckert's 'Orpheus X' will be an evening to remember.

*******

While 'Orpheus X' has been traveling around the world since 2006, 'Fate and Spinoza' will have its world premiere at the UCD Main Theater in a few weeks.

Christine Samson, a master of fine arts student playing a dual role (as are most of the actors), finds working with Eckert a novel experience.

'It's something he's creating as we go,' she said. 'It's the first time I've worked in a devised piece versus a pre-existing script. It's interesting to see his process, and what will and won't work as things change. Ultimately, it all makes sense and comes together.'

'I love working with Rinde,' said Hope Mirlis, who plays April Lansky. 'I love devised work; I love his language. I understand how his brain works, and I get his humor. He's an incredibly intelligent guy.'

The work grew out of Eckert's readings of Baruch Spinoza's 'The Ethics,' but as the work has progressed, the philosopher gradually has become more removed from the theatrical piece.

'I increasingly came to strip my character of the name 'Spinoza,' and it's come further and further into the fabric of the work,' Eckert said. 'It's imbedded in the work, certainly, but it's not an obvious connection.'

Eckert's Spinoza is a fatalist, and he hastens to assure me that Spinoza himself was no fatalist.

'Quite the opposite, in fact,' he said. 'He did have a lot to say about free will, and how free will is a kind of mistaken notion. He basically said that all of this religious lore is essentially superstition: stories you're telling yourselves for various purposes, but they have nothing to do with God. In the 17th century, this was radical stuff, which is why he was excommunicated. He was just too radical.'

Eckert's enthusiasm for the subject is infectious.

'This guy was writing in the 17th century. You suddenly appreciate why he survived. You realize he anticipated almost everybody. It's a remarkable work! He anticipated Freud. He identified subconscious desires.'

But how do you transform what might sound like a dry work of philosophy into a vibrant stage piece?

With music, dance, song, dialogue, visual intrigue and splendor.

'There's a line in 'Fate and Spinoza' that says any idiot can say 'God works in mysterious ways,' but only the scientists are proving it. We start the piece with this symbol of people looking up at a rocket launch of some kind, and then someone happens to say 'God forbid,' and it starts a discussion about whether the two characters believe in God.

'So we put that in the room to start with.'

Burlesque touches are added here and there for comic relief, while at the same time delivering powerful messages in the most matter-of-fact way.

Mirlis noted that the middle of the piece includes a big choral work, where the entire ensemble gathers and sings.

The play itself revolves around April Lansky, a wife, mother and engineer who designs satellites and telescopes. She's inexplicably compelled to revisit a hotel from her past, which is about to be torn down. While there, she encounters both the ghost of artist David (Spinoza) Cornell ... and the devil.

Through dialogue with these characters in the room that once was the artist's studio, April recovers what she lost 20 years earlier.

Spinoza's mythic presence permeates the work, as characters examine the past in order to come to terms with the present.

Spinoza concluded that most of what we claim about the world actually isn't true, and that free will is a figment of our imagination.

'Rinde's pieces always are theatrically surprising. He has that rare, happy knack of being both entertaining and thought-provoking,' said UCD theater and dance department chair Peter Lichtenfels. 'Rinde layers his pieces through singing, dancing, acting and playing musical instruments. I admire this range, and how he uses it to tell stories; that's why I'm so excited about his creation of 'Fate and Spinoza' with our students.'

The show was cast last quarter, and things were different right from the start, Mirlis explained, because Eckert gave the actors homework to complete during the quarter break.

'We had to come up with a sentence that used the words 'red' and 'hat.' We had to create a 30-second dance with a small box. We had to create a song in praise of Greenland, and we had to create an odd sound with either glass or metal. He wanted to see what we'd bring to the table, but he actually got some additional ideas. This play has been in his brain and in his book for awhile. We definitely were the next step, bringing it to the ensemble.'

'It's a great ensemble show with lots of energy,' said first year MFA student Rebecca David, who plays two minor characters. She loves the show for its 'otherworldly quality and its surreal set.'

'It takes awhile to generate a new work, especially in a university situation, where your time is really limited,' Eckert said. 'I'm usually working in professional situations, where my actors are there for eight hours a day, and they ain't doing nothing but this. We can go out to dinner after rehearsal, and discuss problems.

'Here, the cast disappears when rehearsal is over, because they have stuff to do, and they don't show up again until the next rehearsal.'

'I'm grateful to have a director who'll work with my schedule,' said Samson, an MFA student and mother who must plan around children's schedules. She explained her time constraints to Eckert before she was cast in the play.

'I needed some more mature actors within the company,' Eckert said, 'so I was willing to accept the limitations on her schedule.'

Samson, in her first year at UC Davis, finished her bachelor's degree at Sacramento State University in 1994, and then taught at Sacramento High School for several years before deciding to obtain her master's degree here. She'll eventually return to teaching.

What's ahead for Eckert, after he leaves UC Davis in March?

'I'm working on music for a performance at Joe's Pub in New York in May, and then I'm on a Guggenheim fellowship as a composer, so I'm doing a lot of compositional work over the summer. I have the money now to do that, thanks to Guggenheim.'

In the fall, he'll work with the medical school at the University of Iowa, under a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable trust. The piece will focus on issues surrounding blindness.

'I've interviewed doctors and people who are going blind. Out of that welter of information and impressions, I'll write a piece about the worlds that I've encountered, and some of the issues around blindness, and what it really is to see.

' 'Fate and Spinoza' actually is a precursor to that project. My artist is going blind, so I was imagining that maybe it would end up being a trilogy of pieces. I've been calling the Iowa piece the 'eye piece,' for lack of anything better. I thought the trilogy would be 'Fate and Spinoza' and 'The Eye Piece,' and then I'm doing another piece called 'Slide,' which is about perception.

'I suddenly realized that 'Fate and Spinoza' is about the lens and that transmission of light, so I've focused on the idea of the lens. The Iowa piece will be the retina: the place where light is collected and transmitted to the brain. It will be about blindness, to a degree, and then it will go into dealing with blindness.

'And then I wanted to get into perception: what happens in the brain after you get the information, and how does that stuff get over...'

And he was off.

As Eckert's fertile brain spewed a veritable cornucopia of ideas for future projects, I knew that the theatrical community would see a lot of this multi-talented man.

For decades to come.

Dinner With Friends

We never really know what’s going on in the lives of our friends when we part and they go behind their own closed doors, or so we learn in the Pulitzer Prize winning play, “Dinner With Friends” by Donald Margulies, now at Capital Stage, under the direction of Peter Mohrmann.

Karen (Jamie Jones), Gabe (Eric Wheeler), Beth (Karyn Casl) and Tom (Kenneth S. Figeroid) have been friends forever. In fact Karen and Gabe introduced Beth and Tom and now they spend lots of time together, their children play together.

As the play starts, Karen and Gabe, who are food and wine connoisseurs have just returned from a fabulous tour of Italy and are gushing to Beth about their eating, drinking and other food experiences, totally oblivious to Beth’s obvious state of disinterest and agitation. Karyn Casl is brilliant in this section of the play, completely conveying a woman whose life seems to be falling apart, trying to hang on to her sanity and stay focused on her friends, though her brain is a million miles away. Her pain is palpable and only the self-absorbed Karen and Gabe are unable to see it.

(Food is, by the way, central to this play, as each scene takes place in or around a kitchen, and fine foods and wines play an integral part in each of the discussions. The mouth-watering description of the dessert in Scene 1, which actually momentarily sidetracks an argument in Scene 2, sent me to Google looking for a recipe when I returned home!)

Karen finally notices that Beth is out of sorts and pulls from her the news that Tom has been having an affair and has announced that he is leaving their marriage.

Through the following scenes, we see what happens when close friends divorce, and the effect it has on their friends. Can you be friend with both husband and wife? Who is really the injured party? Aren’t there two sides of every story? If Tom has been Gabe’s best friend and Beth has been Karen’s best friend, where does that leave Karen and Gabe?

Margulies beautifully allows development of the effect of the break-up on the other couple. Karen feels betrayed when Beth finds herself a boyfriend, feeling she is rushing too quickly into another relationship, almost adamant that Beth break it off with her new love interest. Is Karen jealous that Beth is feeling the glow of fresh love? Or is she upset that this is someone Beth found on her own, without Karen’s assistance?

When Tom meets Gabe for drinks and extols the praises of his new girlfriend, Gabe is discomfited because he felt that he and Tom were going to “grow old and fat together,” and now Tom is feeling healthy, getting fit, and keeping up with a younger love interest.

Beth’s and Tom’s ability to move on is almost more difficult on Gabe and Karen than the news of their breakup was.

There is no resolution, or even a message, in this play. It’s simply an entertaining character study that gives much food for thought as we watch the chemistry between the characters, and their effect on one another. Just when we think one character is the bad person for whatever reason, we suddenly see things from the other side and it forces us to reassess who may be to blame. In the end, nobody is to “blame.” It’s just what happens.

The actors are marvelous. Jones and Wheeler are very funny as a couple absorbed in their passions for food and secondarily for each other. They are comfortable together and can’t seem to understand the temptations that have led to the break-up of their friends’ marriage.

Casl has perhaps the meatier part in the second relationship, conveying her utter despair and then her giddy happiness as she shares news of her new love with her friend.

Figeroid nicely portrays the man who never quite grew up into a responsible adult and who is ready to let himself be remolded into a middle-aged “man toy” for a new woman. It is not impossible to see this as a short-term relationship, but he’s enjoying it for all it’s worth at the moment.

Set designer David Fulk manages to find a way to use every bit of the Capital Stage stage to get more than one scene set at a time and somehow have it all work beautifully. The moveable windows were a particularly effective touch.

“Dinner with Friends” is a funny, yet thought-provoking play, that will leave you wondering what really does go on with your best friends behind closed doors.

Topdog/Underdog

Can anything good come of naming sons “Lincoln” and “Booth”? Especially if you admit you did it for a joke.

Lincoln (Hassan El-Amin) and Booth (Adrian Roberts) are the characters in a 2-act Pulitzer prize winning drama called “Topdog/Underdog,” written by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Benny Sato Ambush, and currently presented on the main stage of Sacramento Theater Company, through February 17th.

(You will never be tempted to play Three Card Monte again!)

The play had a successful off-Broadway run with actors Don Cheadle and Jeffrey Wright in the lead roles. It then had an extended run on Broadway in 2002, in which Cheadle was replaced by MosDef.

By all means get to the theater in time to see director Ambush give the pre-show talk, which is one of the best I’ve heard at Sacramento Theater Company and beautifully sets up the play you are about to see.

Entering the main theater you see the lights glowing softly on the beautiful set by Kathryn Kawecki (lighting design by Victor En Yu Tan). As the lights come up a the start of the play, we find it is a shabby room with thrift-shop style furniture.

“Topdog/Underdog” is the story of two brothers, Lincoln, the older and Booth, the younger. The men were abandoned as children by both of their and have grown up as best friends and support for each other. Through their interchanges (which often have the cadence and lyricism of poetry), it is clear that the pain of abandonment has sunk deep roots in both men and there is always something that brings them back to the parental love of which they were deprived throughout their lives. They are unable to trust anyone, as a result, even each other.

Both men are struggling to find their way in the world. Lincoln, having been thrown out of the house by his ex-wife is sleeping in a recliner in his brother’s room in a seedy boarding house. There is no bathroom; it is down the hall. Linc pays the rent, as he is the only brother with regular employment. He works at a local arcade, where he dresses as Abraham Lincoln (which includes covering up his dark skin with white make-up) and lets customers pretend to shoot him with a cap gun. In former days, Linc was a champion of the card game, Three-card Monte and could bring home hundreds of dollars a day which he’d bilked off of unsuspecting customers on the street. But he’s trying to become an honest man and has sworn off the cards. (“There’s more to me than that. There’s more to life.”)

Booth’s specialty is shoplifting. He can steal almost anything, from clothing to jewelry to large pieces of silverware. But he longs for Linc’s success with Three-card Monte and practices the banter and throwing the cards endlessly. He changes his name to “Three-Card.” He begs Linc for lessons and longs for the two of them to be partners in the game. He chides Lincoln for “dressing up like some dead white man” in order to make a living. Linc feels Booth is too bumbling to ever be a success at the con game.

As the play progresses towards its inevitable conclusion, there are mounting tensions involving employment and a girlfriend, and always a return to the core question: why did our parents leave, and did they ever love us? Are we worthy of love ourselves?

A very poignant scene has Booth waiting for his girlfriend to come for dinner. He has “boosted” tableware, silver service, flowers. He arranges and rearranges things, checks the food in the silver chaffing dish, and cries out for her to come. Linc arrives home to find Booth waiting at the window, certain that she will come, though she was due at 7 p.m. and it’s now 2 a.m.

El-Amin, Roberts, and director Ambush have worked together beautifully, to paint a well constructed picture of love and loss, of ambition and frustration, of the complexities that enter into family relationships and the tragedy that sometimes accompanies intense emotion.

It is a drama that will haunt you long after you have left the theater.

N*W*C*

I wish I could tell you the name of the play I saw at the Mondavi Studio Theater last night, but it can’t be printed in a family newspaper. “N*W*C*” stands for the racial slurs that are used for African Americans, Latinos, and Asians, but most newspapers use the shortened form to avoid being offensive. Publicity material from the University cautions, “Patrons should be advised that the production uses offensive language.”

The reaction to the title of the piece pretty much explains the purpose of writing and performing it in the first place.

The production was scheduled for only three performances, but brisk ticket sales necessitated adding a fourth performance, January 26th at 10:30 p.m.

N*W*C* is a 90-minute original work for the stage produced by L.A.-based Speak Theater Arts that co-writers Rafael Agustin, Allan Axibal, and Miles Gregley say “traces the origins and evolution of three derogatory terms that shaped our lives and took the place of a genuine understanding of our distinct cultures.” N*W*C* mixes comedy with the real-life stories of three young men from different ethnic backgrounds to deconstruct the notion of race in America.

It won the 2003 award for “Best Play” from the American Readers Theater Association, as well as the Audience Prize and four other major awards.

Gregley, Agustin and Axibal were all best friends (in itself an unusual thing, given their mixed racial ethnicity, the actors told the audience at a Q&A following the show) who developed N*W*C* as a one-night senior project while attending UCLA. It was so successfully received that a six-week engagement in downtown Los Angeles followed, and then they were booked for a national tour. It has now been touring for four years and has been playing to sell-out crowds across the country.

Neo-Nazis threatened one performance in Olympia, WA, while the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People sent out fliers condemning their use of the ethnic slur against blacks at another one (proving that the show really does bring people together, joked one of the actors).

The show begins with Axibal, dressed in a blue satin outfit you might find on any mannequin in Chinatown, stepping out from behind a panel chanting the Asian epithet over and over again. He is joined by Agustin dressed in stereotypical Latino garb joining in the chant with his own particular epithet, and finally Gregley, wearing a flowing full-length coat and a red feathered hat chants the “N-word” over and over. By the time the chant has finished, the audience is already starting to become inured to the terms.

Gregley lets the audience know how many times they have heard the N-word during the piece, Agustin repeats with how many times he has said the W-word, and when Axibal says that he has said the C-word 270 times, the other two complain that he always has to overachieve.

This sets up a section where the three men list the various stereotypes attributed to each of their ethnicities (such as the overachieving Asian).

They compare their individual experiences growing up, and learning first that they were different and then how those differences would set them apart in a predominately white world. (“You don’t know how to hate yourself when you’re 8 years old,” says Axibal. “That’s what school is for!”)

They talk about the things that they tried to do to blend in with their surroundings. In a funny monologue, Gregley talks about growing up in California and the culture shock he received when his mother moved the family to Georgia, where he had to learn to “be black,” when he was not accepted by his peers because looked and sounded too Californian.

Axial recalls how his mother promised him she would raise the money so he could have “the operation,” which he explains is the slitting of his eye-lids to make his eyes look more rounded, and more “western.”

Agustin shows headshots of himself as a blonde, when he bleached his hair to give himself a chance at being cast in shows when directors felt he looked too Latin.

In the end, the audience sees how we are all more alike than we are different, if we open ourselves to dialog with others.

N*W*C* is a funny show with a powerful message, the message being that everything really is all about race: the human race.

Imaginary Invalid

Warning: Attending a production at the Woodland Opera House any time between now and February 10 could be hazardous to your health. I’m serious. I will not be responsible for anybody who suffers convulsions of laughter, splitting of sides, or inability to breathe because of laughing.

The Opera House is presenting a madcap production of Moliere’s classic “The Imaginary Invalid,” translated and adapted by James Magruder and directed by Rodger McDonald, who also plays the title role.

The fun starts as the audience enters the opera house, along with costumed actors, who take their places in the box seats, and along side members of the audience and interact with each other and audience members.

A Nurse Maid, Jenn Smuda-Cotter begins the production with a speech comparing “classic” playwrights Wm. Shakespeare and Moliere and then all hell breaks loose with perhaps the most energetic opening you are likely to see on stage.

The members of the cast are anticipating the arrival of Argan, “the imaginary invalid” and the nonsense begins.

There are not enough superlatives to describe the Rodger McDonald’s Argan, the hypochondriac to end all hypochondriac who revels in reciting the ailments of and treatment of his bowels. Moliere takes lowbrow humor and raises it to new heights, and this translation uses just about every euphemism for the act of emptying one’s bowels as one can find. McDonald handles the slapstick humor beautifully and has a catalog of facial expressions that seems endless.

Amy Vyvlecka is Toinette, Argan’s servant, whose caustic relationship with her master is dependent on the chemistry between the two actors, and it’s a chemistry which works well in this instance. Toinette is the person in the house who really runs things, who knows everybody’s secrets, how to keep them and how and when to reveal them. Vyvlecka is delightful to watch, a real pro at work. She is the character that everyone seems to trust, thus she is enlisted to help Angelique (Marissa Gamble), Argan’s eldest daughter in winning Argan’s permission to marry the love of her life, Cleante (Ben Moroski).

Argan has betrothed his daughter to the son of his doctor, Dr. Diafoirus (Phillip Pitman), Thomas Diafoirus (Mark Garbe), a man repulsive to Angelique, but chosen by her father because, as he freely admits, he wants to be sure to always have a doctor in the house. Garbe beautifully handles the role of the bumbling simpleton trying to remember the flowery speeches his father has written for him, but failing miserably, while his personal mannerisms are grossly distasteful to just about everyone.

Gamble is adorable and spends most of the show lip-locked with Moroski. The two perform an impromptu “opera,” when Cleante poses as a music teacher in order to spend time with his love. In the “opera,” they are able to speak their love to each other, hoping Argan will not be aware of what is transpiring. Moroski is also very funny, with the woebegone look of a lovelorn loon, as he sighs for the love of his lady.

Argan’s second wife, Beline, is played by Anne-Marie Trout. The gold-digging Beline has married the miserly Argan to get his money after his death, but flutters about him like a dutiful wife. He calls her “Mommy” and she speaks baby talk to him until her duplicity is revealed. Trout is very funny and plays the exaggerated Beline to perfection.

Franchesca Jimenez as Louise, Argan’s youngest daughter, is cute as a button and has little to do in Act 1, but gets her chance to shine in Act 2, and shine she does as she feigns terror at her father’s anger.

The hilarity and nonsense of Act 1 is dulled a bit in Act 2, where Moliere takes the chance to present his views of the medical profession of the day (perhaps with good reason, since the playwright died shortly after “Imaginary Invalid” opened!). Jeff Nauer gives a solid performance as Argan’s brother, Beralde, but gets the unhappy task of delivering much the “serious” material and doesn’t get a lot of laughs, because there are none to be had.

However the show ends with a zany ceremony, arranged by Beralde and headed by Smuda-Cotter, and all ends happily.

The feel of this production is greatly enhanced by the fabulous costumes of Laurie Everly-Klassen and wigs of Klassen, Chris Medina, Rachel Klassen.

This a sparkling gem, from first to last. As the Nurse Maid states at the outset, Moliere doesn’t get as much attention as Shakespeare. Based on this Woodland Opera House production, it’s hard to understand why.

THIRDeYE Festival

The University of California Davis Department of Theater and Dance is presenting its annual THIRDeYE Theater Festival, showcasing the work of three talented student playwrights and three student directors at the Wyatt Pavilion Theater, through January 27th.

The plays are written in various UC Davis playwriting and English classes, some taught by Jade McCutcheon, reprising her successful 2007 role as Artistic Director for the festival.

Kellie Raines, who wrote last year’s delightful “Saving Trophies,” is back for her second THIRDeYE experience. This time it’s “Miracle Fish,” directed by Jason Masino, and inspired by a story from the Internet about a pair of men in London who found a fish they claimed had the word “Allah” on it. The men put it on display and people came to view the fish, nicknamed “Miracle Fish.” From this Raines formed the central theme of her play which is how we often look for answers or signs in objects and ephemera that are man made.

Heidi Kendrick is Samira, an aspiring writer suffering from writer’s block and wracked with guilt over an issue which is not revealed until midway through the play. She seeks guidance from a “Magic Eight Ball” (“Should I have told him no?”) Kendrick shines in this piece, nicely conveying her frustration and her reliance on outside objects to give her a sign that will help her make major life decisions.

Thomas (Kevin Ganger), with whom we assume she is romantically involved, arrives with his friend Matt (Roth Wiedrick). The men had been at a club and on their return home during a big storm Thomas asserts it began raining fish. A fish with the likeness of Jesus on it landed on their car windshield and the men plan to put it up for auction on eBay and become rich.

While Matt and Thomas are in the bedroom watching the bids on eBay rise, Samira’s former boyfriend, Steven (Mark Ferrando) arrives. Steven apparently dumped Samira for his Uruguayan boyfriend, Eluid (Nathan Lessa). Revelations are made, decisions are made, and Samira finds her inspiration in an unlikely place.

Scenic design of Samira’s apartment by Kelsey Nix, is particularly nice.

I didn’t feel nearly as bad during intermission following the second play, “Brigid’s Reign,” by John Crosthwaite (directed by Cary Babka), when a large group of people sitting next to me huddled and compared notes, trying to figure out what the play was about. I had difficulty following it myself. While the 8-member cast is strong, the combination of their Irish accents, Wyatt acoustics, and my seat on the side of the stage rather than in front made it difficult to catch large parts of the dialog, which made it nearly impossible to follow the plot.

The play was inspired by testimonies and legends surrounding the Troubles of Northern Ireland from the late 1960's to the mid 1990's. Seannan (Daniel Reano-Koven) loses his wife (Gia Battista) and daughter Brigid (Bridgette Davis) as a result of the violent Irish conflict. Reano-Koven brings an intensity to the role which underscores the pain of his loss, the depth of his guilt, and the anger which fuels the conflict that rages within him.

Seannan and his friend Jared (Bryan Marcus Pham, who has one of the best of the Irish accents)) come to America to stay with relatives. Katie Hulse gives a wonderful performance as Casey, the mother of the transplanted Irish-American family. Cory McDaniel, Ulysees [sic] Morazon and JT Reece are Casey’s sons. "Secrets drive the family apart, but experience brings them closer," says the playwright.

What do the ghosts (the afterlife in general having a huge impact on the play) have to say about the outcome of the living? I’m not exactly sure–and my seatmates at Wyatt Pavilion weren’t sure either!

“Ghost, Bathtub and Windmill,” a comedy by Elise Kane (who appears to have a particular love for bathtubs, as her performance art piece last year was entitled “The Bathtub Experiment”) was directed by Daniel Guttenberg,

Its nine-member cast is headed by Figg (Brian McFadden) and Czewski (Erin Cookston), the ghost of a Polish Holocaust victim, now working as a costumer in a New York theater. McFadden is wonderfully droll and Cookston gives a gentle dignity to the ghost of this little costumer.

Matt Moore is also quite funny as Alastair and Kelly Fleischman sparkles as the diva, Echo. Others in this excellent cast include Geoffry Jenson as Clifford, Alison Stevenson as Minnie, and Stephanie Hankinson, Cody Messick and Daniel Storrow as Producers.

The bathtub features prominently and is the location for some of the funnier bits of physical comedy.

THIRDeYE Theater Festival has once again shown us that talent is alive and vibrant at the Department of Theater and Drama!

Those seeking something fun to do this rainy weekend need look no further than the Acme Theater Company's production of 'A Thurber Carnival.'

How often do you get a chance to see someone wear a lampshade for a hat?

With Acme founder Dave Burmester gradually divesting himself of company responsibilities, longtime patrons have been concerned by what would happen to the company when he's not around.

'A Thurber Carnival' - directed by Emily Henderson, Daniel 'Pheelyks' Guttenberg, Alicia Hunt, Joshua Nielsen, Anthony Pinto, Jennifer Provenza Wallace, Betsy Raymond, Lisa Voelker and Dara Yazdani - leaves no doubt that Burmester has trained his actors well over the years. The alumni are more than competent to take over the reins of the company, after he directs his final play this summer.

'A Thurber Carnival' consists of 17 sketches based on a selection of Thurber's stories and cartoon captions, including the famous 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' and 'The Unicorn in the Garden,' along with lesser-known works. The show ran on Broadway in 1960; Thurber performed - as himself - in the sketch called 'File and Forget,' which rings even more true today, as the ultimate customer service nightmare.

The setting for 'A Thurber Carnival' is a raised scaffolding; a jazz combo - Hannah May, JT Rakitan, James Blake and Jonathan Kelly - occupies its center and performs before the show and during scene changes.

Large versions of Thurber's drawings hang at jaunty angles on the scaffolding, and make a perfect backdrop for the action on stage.

The cast has no weak links: Alex Kravitz, Hope Raymond, Kate McFarland, Delany Pelz, Elliana Bisgaard-Church, John Ramos, Sean Olivares, Vivian Breckenridge, Nathaniel Guttenberg, Emily Tracy and Ethan Jaffe all appear in several sketches.

While each sketch is excellent, little jolts of pleasure here and there raise the experience to 'outstanding.' Raymond, for example, is hilarious as an American woman trying to explain the 'real' plot of 'The Macbeth Murder Mystery' to McFarland. This brief bit could have been one of the less interesting sketches, but Raymond's accent and character make it a total delight.

Kravitz, taking on the Thurber role in 'File and Forget,' is exceptional. Tracy appears here briefly as Jeannette Gaines, and she almost steals the sketch.

Pelz is charming, but as a little girl in 'The Little Girl and the Wolf,' and as a termite in 'The Elephant Who Changed the World.'

Tracy is wonderful as the wife in 'A Couple of Hamburgers.' Jaffe is very funny in 'The Pet Department,' as a television host giving advice for pet owners. (The fireplace in this scene may be the most inventive part of the evening.)

In addition to the major cast, the 'Magic Hands Ensemble' - Geoffrey Albrecht, Kane Chai, Rachel 'Duckie' Cherones, Brandon Raphael, Celsiana Warwick and Genevieve Whitman - portrays everything from tables and ottomans to a potted plant, the flames in a fireplace and, yes, the standing lamp (with a lampshade on someone's head).

The Magic Hands Ensemble also presents an 'Improv Fable' at the start of the second act, during which they act out a sketch chosen at random from a fishbowl.

The opening and closing pieces - 'Word Dance, Part I' and 'Word Dance, Part II' - will be familiar to fans of 'Laugh-In'; this dance and stop-motion for one-liners (actually the captions to Thurber cartoons) was the inspiration for the weekly opening dance party on the 1960s television show.

Once again, Acme delivers a sparkling evening of gentle humor, expertly directed and acted.

Now in its 27th year, the Davis company just gets better and better.