THE DOLL via Unbound and Wicked Lit

THE DOLL Adapted by Jeff G. Rack

A unique opportunity awaits locals who love innovative theatre.  I’m late to the party, but there’s a week left to see THE DOLL presented by Unbound Productions at the astonishing Strub Hall Manor on the Mayfield School campus in Pasadena.

Wicked Lit and Unbound Productions have created a unique environmental theatre piece that sweeps us back in time and into the crisp and almost courtly era of the 1930s.  Similar to the production of Tamara, presented at the old American Legion Hall on Highland in the 1970s, The Doll moves a small audience from room to room as we sit or stand inches from the actors as they unfold a Gothic Tale of mystery and horror.  Horror may be a slight over statement, however, the two women in the audience in front of me were huddled tightly together and were holding hands as the spooky story unfolded. 

Designed by Wicked Lit specifically for Strub Hall, the short production immerses the audience in mystery. Our no nonsense guide/Hilda (Tanya Mironowski) is the head maid/servant of the manor.  She guides us into to the mansion’s dining room for the introductory scene and then through the mansion with efficiency. 

Amelia Meyers as Jane Joska

 

In the dining room, the delivery of an arcane parcel specifically for Colonel Masters (bombastic Andrew Thatcher) is misdirected to his slightly spoiled darling daughter, Monica (Asia Aragon), just before the colonel’s actual return from the British campaign in India.  Estate manager Jane Joska (beautifully prim and spotlessly precise Amelia Meyers) runs a tight ship.  She takes her management duties very personally. When troubles arise, she takes responsibility.  Mrs. O’Reilly (warmly portrayed by Jennifer Novak Chun), another maid, has heard strange voices coming from Monica’s bedroom.  Upstairs, we gather outside the bedroom door to witness the women’s attempt to find out just what is going on. Armed with a poker, a rosary and a Bible, they see and hear something through the keyhole!

All in all, the short play is a Penny Dreadful that brings the action inches from the audience, perfectly directed by Paul Millet. 

The Wicked Lit company has teamed with the drama department at Mayfield School to fully stage their gothic within the mansion built early in the last century by an oil magnate who was certainly a conspicuous consumer.  The intricately carved woodwork, marble floors and exquisite décor are from another, more elegant time.  Just to wander through the space is an experience that most common folks shall never experience.  To see the mansion is, alone, a very good reason to see this show!

Scheduled to close next weekend, I highly recommend this one to the theatre aficionado who appreciates a unique approach and highly professional acting. Director Millet has taken into consideration that the audience is inches from the action. The actors bring their characters to life with nary a hint of “acting.”  

Christine Cover Ferro’s costumes are perfect. Tech by Ric Zimmerman is spot on.  This is a short but memorable trip back to an elegant past with some really spooky stuff thrown in.  

A well done staged reading of The Shadowy Third is also being done in conjunction with The Doll.

Unbound Productions presents:

THE DOLL (A Wicked Lit Installation)

Adapted by Jeff G. Rack

Based on a story by Algernon Blackwood.  

Mayfield School

500 Bellefontaine

Pasadena, CA 91105

Final Performances:

July 24-26 at 7pm, 7:30pm and 8:45pm
All tickets are $25.00

Get Tickets at unboundproductions.org 

(323) 332-2065

ONCE: IN DUBLIN'S FAIR CITY

ONCE…  

Dubliner, John Carney, wrote and directed a sweet little indy film in 2006 called Once.   It featured a simple story line with some dynamite music that reached into the hearts of not only the movie audience, but a couple of years later was expanded into a workshop theatre piece that brought The Guy and The Girl (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) and their movie story to the stage.  In the stage production, Guy (Stuart Ward) is busking on the streets of Dublin.  He is sad and depressed; ready to hang it all up.  Czech cutie, Girl (Dani de Waal), a sweet muse, comes to the rescue and in an innocent and loving way guides Guy back to the path he has been born to travel. Ward’s guitar licks on his ‘old Martin’ with signs of big, big passionate stroking are amazing to the point of beautifully unnerving.  

Stuart Ward guitar, Dani de Waal piano.  Photo credit Jamie Loeb

Opening Night at The Pantages Theatre was loaded with celebs and a huge crowd.  Somehow a drunk and his tweeter/texter girlfriend were seated next to me.  That the Pantages serves adult beverages and allows them in the audience is a choice, but in this case, a choice that was distracting until Tweetie kicked over her drink and left and the drunk split before the end of act one leaving a trail of trash.

That said, the audience is encouraged to take part in the festivities on stage where a working bar is serving up drinks before the show as well as at intermission.  The cast and audience mingle.  House lights dim. The audience is hustled back to their seats and a rousing pre-show warm up with all the musicians/actors dancing and singing and playing their instruments commences.  It’s a hootenanny.  It’s street music. It’s the film come to the stage with creative bells and whistles.  The bar becomes various locations, enhanced by scenic designer Bob Crowley’s well placed mirrors behind the bar giving us a double view of the action.  Natasha Katz’s subtle lighting continually enhances the mood. We are transported from the streets of Dublin to Guy’s little room over the Hoover repair shop and a dozen places in between.  It works.  Carney’s script has been nicely expanded by Enda Walsh using again, the soaring music of Hansard and Irglova. “Falling Slowly” is irresistible.  In Act II, “Gold” is sung very quietly almost like a hymn, acapella, by the entire cast. 

The cast is the orchestra. The orchestra is the cast.  Doubling and tripling, the talent scoops us up and transports us to Romance, Song, Subtle Nuance, Wit and a Rousing Celebration of what the Theatre, given the resources and this cast, sharing the stage, gift so generously to the audience.  ONCE is a celebration of music and muse and knocking the roadblocks clean off the stage.  Even in a huge venue like The Pantages, the story and the music bring the audience to its feet. Director John Tiffany and Chorographer Steve Hoggett team to move the actors / musicians through complicated paces that flow like clockwork.  No wonder this show won eight Tony Awards and a Grammy for best album from a musical.

Highly recommended.  Closer to the stage is a good idea.

ONCE

By John Carney via Enda Walsh

THE PANTAGES THEATRE

6233 Hollywood Boulevard

Hollywood, CA 90028

Tuesday – Friday at 8PM

Saturday at 2 and 8PM

Sunday at 1 and 6:30PM

July 17 through August 10, 2014

Tickets (Starting at $25.00) and information

HollywoodPantages.com or Ticketmaster.com

FAMILY PLANNING : A WORLD PREMIERE

LAUGHTER at The Colony!

Michelle Kholos Brooks’ brand new play (World premiere of FAMILY PLANNING) brilliantly directed by Cameron Watson, celebrates forty years of the Colony Theatre’s bringing new work and old to the stage.  After early beginnings down on Riverside Drive, The Colony landed in Burbank in their beautiful mini Taper in 2000. In her curtain speech, executive director, Barbara Beckley, welcomed an enthusiastic audience, which rose in one body to a standing ovation to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the theatre.  Overwhelmed with the ovation, Ms Beckley recovered to announce that after major financial struggles (Imagine that!  Money issues for the theatre??) the Colony is on its feet and in the black.  An atmosphere of fun filled the air. 

Playwright Brooks’ play may feel a little like a situation comedy as there are some major situations and there is comedy afoot, but on David Potts’s beautifully executed set (the money is on the stage) we see that “Family Planning” for the characters is very necessary and in more ways than one.

Sidney and Michael (Dee Ann Newkirk and Jack Sundmacher) now live in the home where Sidney grew up.  Her parents long ago divorced, but dear old dad, Larry (tweeting flower child Bruce Weitz) who has had some setbacks, is ‘temporarily’ back in the home. This forces the couple into the living room for an intimate moment.  Coitus interruptus ensues as rattling at the front door makes the couple think that someone is trying to break in.  It’s Mom, Diane, (lovely Christina Pickles).  Situations advance a bit predictably as the parents who raised their daughter together in their home (now the domain of the youngsters) are forced to become some semblance of a family again.

Watson puts the cast through its paces.  It’s professional actors in a well crafted piece of theatre.  The laughs are fast and furious as the parents pretty much take over and the kids reveal their desire to have a family.  Family secrets are revealed and a truly touching moment is shared by Weitz and Pickles as they slip into their cups via martinis and memories.

Christina Pickles and Bruce Weitz Photo by Michael Lamont

Brooks’ style is reflective of some of the best of Neil Simon, leaning toward The Odd Couple.  Clever dialogue and creative character development work especially well for Pickles and Weitz, both well known and well loved from their long television careers.  We are left wanting more. The story lines are well founded to possibly expand. 

Family Planning has surprises and well placed jokes that surprise and as with Simon’s best work, leaves us bursting with joy and stopping for a moment to consider a little pathos at the same time.  Lovely work.  Do not miss this one for a totally enjoyable evening in the theatre. 

FAMILY PLANNING : World Premiere by

Michelle Kohlos Brooks

The Colony Theatre

555 N. Third Street

Burbank, California

Through August 10, 2014

CORIOLANUS?

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CORIOLANUS by William Shakespeare

Just south of Little Tokyo there’s some art going on.  The Friday night crowd wanders the summer streets, parking is dear and there’s a festive atmosphere around the neighborhood.  The Archway Theatre on South Hewitt is housed in a former bar with great ambiance and exposed bricks that may be a hundred years old. 

Director Steven Sabel has chosen to mount the seldom produced Coriolanus.  With doubling, his cast of over twenty, we find that the actors are sincere…  and loud.  The brick walls of the 45 seat space make the recitations of the enthusiastic thespians bounce as they escalate to show their strong emotions. 

The trouble with this tragedy is that it doesn’t make a lot of sense. A brave soldier, Caius Marcius (later to become Coriolanus), (Robert Beddall) goes to defend his city: Rome.  Sword play ensues.  Inches from the audience, sword play needs be cautious, which, of course looks like stage combat.  Casting women as soldiers may be politically okay, but it is very difficult to see these women being smacked around by men.  The issue of shouting, virtually by every member of the cast, was unnecessary. Please don't tear a passion to tatters.

Suffice it to say that the fault is in this choice of productions.   A very difficult Shakespearean tragedy, read by relatively inexperienced actors in a tiny space has two strikes against it as the curtain goes up.   Coriolanus post dates by eight years Julius Cesar (which is also tragic, but easier to understand, at least.)  In Julius Cesar we hear “Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!”  However, in this play, Shakespeare has Menenius Agrippa (Frank Gedden) use the line to attempt to calm the common folk, “Do not cry havoc, where you should but hunt with modest warrant.”  And though, the ‘havoc’ in Archway’s production is mostly in the marginally adept actors, it’s enough to make us question, "Why this play and why now?"

CORIOLANUS by William Shakespeare 

as adapted and directed by Steven Sabel

The Archway Theatre

305 S. Hewitt Street

Los Angeles, CA 90013

Through August 16, 2014

Tickets and information

www.archwayla.com

213 267 9933

In fairness, this email is from the director of this play.   He seems to be a sincere and dedicated person.  His criticisms of my review are valid.  Of course, had I stayed for the second act of his production and wanted to discuss the issues of tech and the other aspects of his production, I would have had to spend another two hours dodging the obvious.  This is the director's email to me.  He is right. I am a lazy critic.  I can think of lots of things worse than that, though.   It's much more fun to write a rave. Michael Sheehan

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"Your viewpoints aside, as you are entitled to your opinion; still there is nothing worse than a lazy critic. You might have read the Director's Note to find an answer to your overriding question of why this play, and why now. You also might have checked your spelling of the title of the play throughout your post, and the director's last name before going to hasty print.

Journalism 101, my friend.....

Also - no mention of production values in a theatrical review? Costumes, scenic design, lighting - are all artistic aspects of a production worthy of more words than your sexist viewpoints about women.

Steven SABEL"