TRANSFIGURATION at LATC

Night and Day at LATC: TRANSFIGURATION

A trek to the Los Angeles Theatre Center is an adventure.  Friday night in Downtown L.A., especially with the Stones down the street, is a mixed bag of delights.  The double one act bill in Theatre Two is a mixed bag.  “Transfiguration” refers to changes that the characters in both plays, Harvey Fierstein’s 1987 On Tidy Endings and the “World Premiere” of Rod Bramback’s TransMe  are experiencing.

I first encountered Harvey Fierstein’s work at Ted Schmidtt’s Circle Theatre in the late seventies.     The first play in Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy, The International Stud, was about a gay relationship.  What I realized then was that when human beings have romantic feelings for one another, gay or straight, they are deep and personal.   I’d never really thought much about gay men’s or women’s relationships, but through Fierstein’s adept rendition in that one act, I began to understand.

Understanding and grieving illuminate Fierstein’s 1987 one act: On Tidy Endings.  Colin, the former husband of Marion (excellent and nuanced Renee Kelly) and father of eleven year old Jimmy (Nick Ikovic-Frick) has died of AIDS. For the past three years he and his husband/companion, Arthur (Ricardo Salcido), have lived as a couple in a New York condo that was originally purchased during Marion’s sixteen year marriage to Colin.  After Colin’s coming out, Marion moved on. She remarried but shared custody of Jimmy.  She came to be supportive and understanding of Colin’s choices.  I could ‘hear’ the playwright’s voice in every line, articulate and funny; casual and caustic, as Marion and Arthur struggle with the deep loss that both are experiencing.  Jekyns Pelàez’s direction is simple.  By necessity, perhaps, Heather Fipps’ scenic design facilitates a living room in the process of becoming an empty room.   Acting styles are straightforward and realistic.  Appropriately over the top Heather Holli Oliver plays June, the attorney more worried about her parking situation than the business at hand.

For some reason the Monty Python line “And now for something completely different” has been popping into my head recently.  The second one act in Transfiguration, TransMe by Rod Brumback can only be described as a college mish mash of fun and nonsense dealing with another sort of ‘coming out.’  Ionesco meets Thornton Wilder’s Antrobus Family might be one way to describe the shenanigans.  Chris, a transgender male who has been living in New York City as a woman for three years, (Alain Thai), returns home to confront his rural Georgia family of odd balls and reveal his/her life path.  A mixture of broad college review and silliness, the diverse cast of Cal State Los Angeles students under loose direction of Whitney LaBarge, what at first sounds like a poignant coming out story quickly crumbles into Chris’s being the most normal of the bunch.  What might have been an opportunity for the issue of transgender as an evolving situation in society to be discussed becomes a burlesque in which the entire cast  (on the stage and off) are mostly in celebration of themselves.  Of course, this is a college production and some leeway may be in order.   I really don’t like to use the term ‘for a college production’ and won’t.  But, you get the idea.  The contrast between On Tidy Endings and TransMe is like night and day.  A supportive opening night audience loved the latter.  

Transfiguration

LA Theatre Center

514 S. Spring Street

Los Angeles, CA 90013

Through May 12, 2013

Tickets and Information

866 811 4111

www. Thelatc. org

SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. SUPPORT AB580!

Today, I had the good fortune to sit in on a “Listening” with the California Arts Council and local Los Angeles arts advocates at the Wells Fargo Theater at the Autry Museum.  One thing that seems to run through the Arts Community is a concerned and educated tone of voice.  I was particularly impressed with an extempore talk given by John Gallogly, Executive Director of Theatre West. 

Gallogly made mention of EIRs: Environmental Impact Reports that are made all the time to show how our physical environment is impacted by our human invasion of nature.  He suggested that the State of California organize a CIR: Cultural Impact Report that would show in a very real way how one student dropping out of school because he/she could no longer participate in art or theatre or music classes fiscally impacts the state.

Below are some of Gallogly’s comments, edited to emphasize the main point that he made that was most impressive to me: the vital importance of the Arts and Culture aspects of our daily lives in California.  By urging support of AB580, the California Arts Council may again regain funding to further the Arts and in so doing move to save lives and funds in the future. Wyoming spends more per capita on the Arts than we do in California.  I have not vetted Gallogly's statistics, but it makes sense to me that finding ways to create an atmosphere where art may thrive certainly is a very good idea.  Michael Sheehan

“Create a Cultural Impact Report (CIR) ala an Environmental Impact Report. At the beginning of any planning process across all state departments, research and apply the known, off the shelf, cheaper arts solutions wherever they are appropriate, just as one does with an EIR.  

Myriad studies in prisons, juvenile justice, hospitals, elder care, early education, after school programs etc. all show how involvement in the arts leads to better end results at lower cost.  For example in post op patients who are exposed to 1/2 hour of live music in their rooms have shorter hospital stays (by 1/2 day) and a better rate of recovery. (Americans for the Arts) 

Do the cost benefit analysis of that equation and the $100 investment in a musician pays a 5,000% rate of return in reduced hospital costs. Each high school dropout costs society $285,000 over a lifetime in lowered earnings, less taxes paid, more frequent incarceration, early and/or out of wedlock pregnancy, more use of social services, etc.  (NY Times, two articles). 

We all know many students only stay in school for athletics. There are at least as many whose reason to get up in the morning is glee club, band, drama dept, etc. If a drama teacher costs $100,000 a year and keeps one child in school every two years, it's still a huge return of investment. Instituting a Cultural Impact Report would help create access and LOWER costs for the state across multiple platforms.  It seems  clear to me that investing in the California Arts Council in this way would save the state an enormous amount of money even while providing more access to those who need it most.“

Mike Boehm's article has much of the important information that supporters of the arts should know:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-state-arts-funding-20130410,0,3361837.story 

 

Beaux' Strategem: Ribald and a Romp

Beaux’ Stratagem at ANW

By George Farquhar

Adapted by Thornton Wilder and Ken Ludwig

Malia Wright and Abby Craden Photo by Craig Schwartz

As we enter the back door of the new A Noise Within space in Pasadena, we are greeted by a notice announcing  that Caleb Mayo, the understudy for Blake Ellis will play the part of Jack Archer tonight.  The theatre has a heavy schedule with three plays in repertory and Farquar’s Beaux’ Stratagem is the last one in the cycle.  Restoration comedy can be wonderful or it can be a mess in the hands of folks who don’t get the subtleties.  It’s got to be broad, but in a stylized manner. The Manner is the key and in director Julia Rodrigues-Elliott’s hands, the show picks right up and a good time is had by all. 

ANW uses its thrust stage and aisles to best advantage, inviting the audience to come along for the ride.  Michael C. Smith’s rustic 18^th Century set with diverse country settings which evolve into several different locations beautifully sets the scene.  We’re on location for a romp.  Jack Archer / aka Martin (the wonderful Caleb Mayo, understudy to Blake Ellis, never drops a stitch) and his pal Tom Aimwell (Freddy Douglas) have a plan. Both near-do-wells, Aimwell pretends to be a moneyed and well bred courtier while Archer masquerades as his servant.  Together, they plot (thus the ‘stratagem’ part) to find a rich woman; Aimwell will marry her for her fortune and then the two will split the booty. 

Meanwhile we meet Time Winters as the rascally Gloss, a Scot  who sometimes masquerades as a parson.  Later in the play, Winters returns in the person of Foixgarde, an impatient Frenchman who stops the show with his broad accent and even broader impatience.

The “booty” in this case turns out to be more than one fair lady.  Mrs. Kate Sullen (confidence and perfection: Abby Credon) is an unhappy wife to sot and besotted Sullen (appropriately over the top in his cups Robertson Dean who is having more fun than anyone in the entire theater!).  Drunk, Sullen proposes that Archer should kiss his wife.  It takes a while with plot twists, sword fights and lots of yelling. But the strategy winds its way to a fun conclusion. Malia Wright’s Dorinda plays well with others, especially in a well staged sword play scene coordinated by Kent Merckx.

Ever wonderful Deborah Strang as a ‘healer,’ Lady Bountiful, flounces and bounces as she plies her trade with prescriptions of amputation for a scratch while sturdy assistant, Scrub (Alan Blumenfeld), gamely keeps up. 

ANW founder, Julia Rodriguez-Elliot’s direction allows the actors full reign as the audience is drawn more and more into the hilarity, the cast feeds on the palpable energy. The play moves apace with vigor.  

In a clever cinematic move, lighting designer Meghan Gray partners with sound designer Doug Newall to emphasize moments where characters ‘discover’ one another.  In a pink glow complete with heavenly harps, the action stops briefly. Ahh, love.

Excellent costumes are by Angela Balogh Calin. Hair, wigs and make-up by Monica Lisa Sabedra. 

The ensemble bursts upon the stage in cacophonous prattle as the scenes change. Production is a finely tuned machine, especially with an understudy in a key role completely in charge of every move, this is one of the best shows that the company has presented in a long time. 

BEAUX' STRATAGEM
by George Farquar
Adapted by  Thornton Wilder and Ken Ludwig
A Noise Within
3352 E. Foothill Boulevard
Pasadena, CA  91107
Through May 26, 2013
Tickets and Information  626 356 3100
www.anoisewithin.org  
 

TRUE West?

True West

Stages of Gray

Shaun Ryan, Kevin Ferris, Maureen O'Donnel

Director Randall Gray announced in his curtain speech that this production of Sam Shepard’s True West is the only production licensed here in the west or maybe in the United States.  His cast of four for the Arvin Cast (there’s a second cast called “Barstow” presenting a different take on the play) includes 

Austin: Kevin Ferris, 

Lee: Shaun Ryan, 

Saul Kimmer: Cliff Ingram, 

Mom: Maureen O’Donnell.

Director Gray may be a student of Antoine Artaud or might have been going for an odd breaking the fourth wall, audience alienation thing.    Interminable pauses and really bad acting must fall back to the director unless wooden recitation and aimless meandering were part of his plan. This play is by a pre-eminent American author whose work is raw and unique.  It should run about ninety minutes as a long one act.   Gray’s production comes in at almost two and a half hours with an intermission.    

True West by Sam Shepard

Stages of Gray Theatre

299 N . Altadena Drive

Pasadena, CA 91109

Tickets: 800 811 4111

Double Double at The Falcon

Billy and Ray 

Written by Mike Bencivenga 

Directed by Garry Marshall  at The Falcon Theatre

When Garry Marshall brought quality Equity theatre to Toluca Lake many years ago, it was a sign that someone who had done well in ‘the Business’ was giving back.  This beautiful 130 seat jewel box reflects a classy attitude, providing quality stage productions for all of Southern California. Marshall opened The Falcon in 1997  and for sixteen years has provided a venue for new plays and established theatre.   This is a tribute to what only those who appreciate the theatre understand:   giving back with art to the community.  Marshall, Dakin Matthews and  Gates McFadden (Ensemble Studio Theatre West at the Atwater Village) are among the generous  actors/producers/directors who have made a good living in the land of TV and features who now present us with these, their gifts. 

Marshall’s gift for spring is Mike Bencivenga’s well crafted “Billy and Ray.” It’s 1943. WWII is winding down. Paramount seems bent on making and releasing a gangster flick, “The Hitler Gang” before the end of the war.  This makes it difficult for producer Joe Sistrom (excellent Anthony Starke) who has been lumbered with producing it.  Sistrom really wants to find a way to get a script for Double Indemnity written because he’s invested $15K of Paramount’s money for the rights to James M. Cain’s dark novel.   

L to R Anthony Starke, Kevin Blake, Shaun O'Hagan, Ali Spuck

With the famous Paramount gate looming over Billy Wilder’s Hollywood office,  excellent set design by Keith Mitchell, we see that there’s been a major dust up here with rubble and overturned lamps.  Perfectly cast Ali Spuck as Wilder’s super efficient assistant / secretary / accidental collaborator Helen Hernandez, aids and abets as the pending  partnership between Wilder (Kevin Blake) and Raymond Chandler (Shaun O’Hagan channeling Gregory Peck or Alan Alda as the play progresses) as they struggle to work together to create what may become the film noir Paramount classic:  Double Indemnity.

Blake as Wilder slips in and out of his Austrian accent, but still delivers the essence of the frenetic director and his wild approach to making a movie.  O’Hagan presents Chandler as consistently staid and straightforward bringing his literary conceit to the collaboration.   Spuck as Helen is a perfect mordent, binding the story together.  Quick pace and snappy dialogue is not the machine gun pop of His Girl Friday, but the feeling of the forties is here with Marshall’s keen direction, assisted by Joseph Leo Bwarie, credited with a flourish by Marshall in the Talk Back after the show. 

Raunchy, bawdy, silly and fun, Bencivenga’s two act romp is a must for film afficiandoes and folks who love a well spent evening in the theatre.   The author was forthcoming about the five year journey to bring Billy and Ray to production.  His honest and direct approach to clever dialogue with deep insights into both Wilder and Chandler are all on the page.  This is a stage play with all the bells and whistles.   And, as Mr. Marshall points out with glee: The Parking is Free!

Billy and Ray by Mike Bencivenga

Directed by Garry Marshall

Falcon Playhouse

Riverside Drive across the street from Bob’s Big Boy

Toluca Lake, CA

Through April 28, 2013

Tickets and information:

www . falcontheatre.com

818 955 8101

OH LORD: Janis Rocks in Pasadena

ONE NIGHT WITH JANIS written and directed by Randy Johnson

Mary Briget Davies as Janis Joplin Photo by Jim Cox

In the little gallery just stage right of the plaza at the Pasadena Playhouse is a display of letters and memorabilia turning on the life of Janis Joplin.  In an early letter to her parents she writes about her desire to be a real blues singer, a recognized talent. She won’t settle for becoming a ‘poor man’s Cher.’  The last thing that Janis ever became was a poor man’s anyone.  Unique and driven, the young woman once voted the Ugliest Man on Campus at her Port Arthur high school, enjoyed and was consumed by her meteoric rise to stardom in the 1960s.  Mary Bridget Davies as Janis embodies her spirit and voice with enthusiasm and great joy.  Davies’ voice is similar, but as the show rocks on (quite something for the old Playhouse) she nails the uncompromising spirit of Joplin with Piece of My Heart.  Joplin’s raspy sound must be tough on the vocal chords.

As The Blues Singer, Sabrina Elayna Carten, channels performers of earlier days whom Janis admired and wore out 45s listening to in Texas.  Justin Townsend’s multidimensional set and psychedelic lighting become the Fillmore or the Avalon with a colossal cloud of white tulle loaded with lights blossoming over the proscenium. Upstage features a huge screen that becomes acid memories; an easel tablet for Janis’s early artwork and in the end old photos of the little girl and her Texas family. A nice touch downstage features numerous old table lamps from another era reflecting Joplin’s love of the women, Bessie Smith, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone who came before and inspired her.   

The sad parts of Janis's life and her eventual demise are thoughtfully abandoned in Randy Johnson’s well choreographed direction of his own show.  The decibel level for the theatre may have seismic repercussions at near by Cal Tech.  Many of the over fifty crowd in attendance hit the lobby at intermission where a thoughtful staff supplied ear plugs. The well worn seats of the Playhouse seldom stopped pulsating with the high octane retro band led by Ross Seligman including Stephen Flakus, Patrick Harry, Tyler Evans, Mitch Wilson, David Milne, Lee Thornburg and Pete DiSiena.  The audience was on its feet more than once, all rising for the finale which was then followed by a sing along with Janis on Mercedes Benz. Tricia Kelly, Shay Saint-Victor and Kimberly Yarbrough back up nicely as the Joplinaires. 

A packed house to the balcony on a Wednesday night is impressive.  Some folks in tie dye and feathers, clearly Boomers and fans from earlier days were there to rock out one more time.   I felt a little sad when our waitress at La Fiesta Grande, a lovely woman in her late twenties said that the name Janis Joplin was not familiar to her.  Man, I wanted to lay a copy of Cheap Thrills on her and point out the perfect R. Crumb images on the album cover and tell her that if you ever want to clean house in half the time, just put this on, turn up the volume and roll out the sweeper. Of course, finding a turn table these days might be problematic. Time marches on.

This is the sweeter side of Janis and her rock and roll.  Don’t miss this trip back in time.

One Night With Janis written and directed by Randy Johnson

The Pasadena Playhouse

39 S. El Molino

Pasadena, CA 91101

Runs through April 21, 2013

General Admission $64 - $94.00 (Premium seating available)

For Information call or log on

626- 356-7529

www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org

Mythology, Just Because: Eurydice at ANW

  

EURYDICE by Sarah Ruhl

Background L to R: Kelly Ehlert (Loud Stone), Abigail Marks (Big Stone) and Jessie Losch (Little Stone), Ryan Vincent Anderson (Lord of the Underworld), Geoff Elliott (Father) & Jules Willcox (Eurydice) Photo by Craig Schwarz

A Noise Within opens its second show of the current season with playwright Sarah Ruhl’s modern take on the mythological story of Orpheus and Eurydice.   Thanks to the company for a relatively simple and straightforward approach to the myth. Forgive me.. a myth is as good as a smile.  Lighthearted approach to the story of Eurydice’s (lithe Jules Wilcox's) enticement into the Underworld and Orpheus’s (Graham Sibley’s) heroic attempts to return her to the land of the living work out in creative ways. The traditional Greek Chorus become a Chorus of Stones: Little Stone (smallish Jessie Losch), Big Stone (biggish Abigail Marks) and LOUD STONE (VERY LOUD Kelly Ehlert) seated on a wall in Hell.  

(Click on photo for full image)

Thanks to The Golden Bough and wading through The Humanities, most of us are at least nodding acquaintances with Eurydice and Orpheus.  Tennessee Williams’ play, Orpheus Descending, touches on the same story.  A beautiful young maiden lost to the dark forces and the forces of Light heroically finding a way to rescue her. 

Ruhl’s examination of the myth via ANW director Geoff Elliott’s spare hand (he also plays Eurydice’s father, long since sent to the Underworld) graces the stage with a few too many black outs, but continuity manages to remain intact.  The Father misses his daughter so much that he finds a way to send her a message from Hell to the land of the living. 

Brilliant and funny, Ryan Vincent Anderson as A Nasty, Interesting Man, (returning later as Lord of the Underworld) coaxes Eurydice to join him down below by intercepting her father’s letter. (Why she doesn’t see it near a water pump where it’s fallen was a little odd).  But! Eurydice descends via a very clever elevator to the depths of Hell where a leaky roof and the Three Stone Chorus prevail.  Father creates a “room” in the Underworld (where no rooms are allowed) for love of his daughter. Clever staging aided by  Meghan Gray’s lights and Seth Walter’s projections bring the spare gray stage to life. Projection design by Brian Gale.

Orpheus is a musician, however, we never see him play. We do learn that he always has music on his mind, when not engaged with loving Eurydice.  Beautiful violin melodies permeate the space, thanks to Endre Balogh.  His original strains create a mood for and from the shadows.

In stark contrast to recent productions at A Noise Within, this one comes in at ninety minutes without an intermission.  There are strong performances throughout.  Questioning the reasoning of myth is a fool’s errand because rules for some things are just ‘because.’  One should enjoy this lively production… just because.

The lobby of the Pasadena theatre is currently hung with large artworks in oil by Michael Allyn Roy on the theme of Monsters and Maidens and When The Gods Were Young.  I applaud The Elliotts and staff for championing artwork that parallels the theme of this current production.  Bringing graphic arts into the theatre creates an atmosphere of engagement before the show.  Hopefully, the ANW lobby will entertain more local artists in the future.

EURYDICE  by Sarah Ruhl

A Noise Within

3352 East Foothill Blvd.

Pasadena, CA 91107

Three plays in repertory through May 26, 2013

Tickets and information

626 356 3100

www.Anoisewithn.org

ON THE SPECTRUM

On the Spectrum by Ken LaZebnik currently running though April 28th at The Fountain tells a story of deep love and big frustration.

The play's title refers to the spectrum of autism that we may all find ourselves on.  Asperger's Syndrome (a mild form of autism) is at one end and severe debilitating autism is at the other.  Mac (excellent Dan Shaked) is 23. For twenty years with his father out of the picture, his single mother, Elizabeth (Jeanie Hackett in a thoughtful turn), has kept him in therapy and mainstreamed him to be a productive guy.  Mac will always be an Asperger's victim, but has mastered the ability to focus, study and learn. A college graduate, he is applying to Law School.    At rise Mac is drawing on a tablet while listening to music, which he charts like an oscilloscope.  Elizabeth struggles as her job as a photographer/magazine editor begins to fade.  Their diminishing income may mean to make ends meet selling their NYC apartment where Mac has been safe and comfortable most of his life.  Shaked’s adaptation of working to keep from spinning out of control when upset is testament to a studied performance. He is at once funny and sad and making his character work.
Mac is a typical “Millennial” in many ways. He spends a lot of  time on line and listening to music as well as preparing for law school.  With the family financial crisis looming, he applies for a job on line to create computer graphics for Iris (Virginia Newcomb) who has created a web site. Newcomb is a willowy beauty in the Sissy Spacek realm. She is vulnerable and funny and tough. Her website, The Other World, is an online interactive fantasy page.  Iris is severely autistic but types like the wind and we hear and sometimes see her voice/words as she types.  The on line communication between Mac and Iris often appears on screens using John Iocovelli’s creatively functional set. Difficult to watch, Iris has many severe tics and quirks which may be very accurate for someone in her condition.  Perhaps this choice is to drive home the idea that though handicapped physically, this bright and attractive young woman aims to survive. 

Playwright Ken LaZebnik’s writing is natural and flows easily along the basic story line.  One issue that puzzled me was the long one act format.  The plot moves quickly once Mac and Iris make their strong connection but we see no insurmountable issues that might make us think that things were not going to work out.  Director Jacqueline Schultz’s input, to her credit, is mostly invisible. How Newcomb keeps up her extreme behavior for the length of the play must be a major challenge. It certainly is for the audience.

Kudos to both video designer Jeff Teeter and tech director Scott Tuomey for amazing projections that fill the stage with phantasmagorical images rivaling any tech in any theater, large or small.  Having seen other shows with marginal projections in the past few days, for the tiny Fountain to bring high end tech to their stage is commendable.

The Fountain celebrates more than twenty years of producing in this unique space on Fountain Avenue this year.  Daring and challenging work has been consistent. This show deserves an audience.

ON THE SPECTRUM

By Ken LaZebnik

The Fountain Theatre

5060 Fountain Avenue

Los Angeles, CA 90029

Through April 28, 2013

Tickets and Information

323 663 1525

www.FountainTheatre.com

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TRIBAL CACAPHONY

Tribes by Nina Raine at The Mark Taper Forum

 (Click on Photo for full view)

The Mark Taper Forum is known for trying new things. That Los Angeles patrons support this gem in the middle of the Music Center is to everyone’s benefit.  Tribes is a cornucopia of contradictions.  The story turns on a totally dysfunctional British family, the Father Christopher (Jeff Still), the Mother Beth (Lee Roy Rogers), and three adult children (Will Brill as Daniel, Gayle Rankin as Ruth and Russell Harvard as Billy), each with his or her own issues.   The story is based on Billy, born deaf and raised in family confinement with nary a clue about sign language.  His dad thinks that catering to such nonsense will hinder the boy instead of helping him to keep up with the pack.

Scott Pask’s beautiful set is mostly centered in the cluttered family home.  The clatter of arguments, all shouting at once with no one really listening to anyone else continues through the play.  Billy sits at the family table, obviously excluded, even though if one asked either parent or his siblings if they loved him or deliberately excluded him they would proclaim deep love and deny ignoring his needs to be included.

Seque to a clever scene change where Billy meets Sylvia (Susan Pourfar), a local girl who is slowly going deaf.  She has educated herself not only in sign language, but has become adept at reading lips.  Billy’s world changes dramatically. At once in deep love and on the verge of being able to communicate with the outside world and others in the deaf community, this heaps criticism and angst on his family. Christopher, is in denial, refusing to learn to sign. Eventually, the saddest of the lot, brother Daniel, who has mental issues of his own comes around as the rest of the family contemplates their shame.

For reasons that remain a mystery, this play about the issues of being deaf in a hearing world, director David Cromer has his actors delivering their lines directly up stage fully half or more of the time.  Fortunately, from time to time, projected supers  quickly translate signed speeches into English.  Over all the British accents and extra decibel screeching dominate.  

For a production to feature a talented deaf actor like Harvard, whose slightly impaired speech, combined with British accents was often very difficult to understand. To not have a way for hearing impaired subscribers and patrons to fully ‘get’ the gist of things undermines the purpose of this show.  This is not theatre of alienation, though the cast to a person one way or another (perhaps with the exceptions of Harvard and Pourfar) in their self centered rants made mish mash of the story.  Certainly, the actors are professionals and the energy of the entire show never flags.  That leaves the question of why Cromer opted for such broad arguments and shouting upstage when, lip readers and others may have been able to better understand the play by actually being able to see the actors.

Pask’s  set expands the seating capacity of the house by about forty or fifty seats off Stage Left.  The stage is placed on an angle that serves the show well, with many surfaces for superimposed projections by Jeff Sugg.

Extremely strong language flies throughout, but we become inured, realizing that this is just the way this family communicates. What parents wouldn’t be ready to scream with three adult children still living at home? 

TRIBES by Nina Raine

Mark Taper Forum

Los Angeles Music Center

Continues through April 14, 2013

For tickets and information

www. centertheatregroup.org

213 628 2772

Bilitis Going Rogue

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 Songs of Bilitis at the Bootleg

Songs of Bilitis based on the French erotic novel by Pierre Louys, circa late 1800s. Adapted for the stage by Katie Polebaum with Rogue Artists Ensemble.

The Rogue Artists Ensemble is an enthusiastic and enterprising young theatre company of actors, directors and designers who look to the past to define their future. In an ensemble, everyone does everything.  The current production of Songs of Bilitis (Bil EE tus) is taken from what has been announced as Louys true story.  In 1894 he published some very hot stuff: a fiction, about the escapades of the lesbian Greek poet, Bilitis.  Director Sean T. Cawelti has his hands full with a variety of talents, some of whom are more experienced than others.   The flow of the show using fantastically extreme scene changes, shadow puppets, simulated puffs of opium and low tech wishing it was high tech projections keeps a pace, but as enthusiastic as this company is, it comes off much like a masters thesis production instead of a cutting edge comment on sex and sin at the turn of the century. 

Aryiel Hartman as Bilitis is sensual and seductive.   Movement exercises are a big part of this ensemble’s group work. She shines while others fall somewhat behind.

Having just seen what a huge budget can do for a show at the current production of TRIBES at the Taper, unfortunately, low budget tech can only shine if the whole show transcends RM’s necessarily inexpensive budget.  Large puppets remind us of The Bread and Puppet Theatre of the seventies who used giant puppets to present their work.  It was agitprop, certainly, as is tech in this production of Bilitis, but it worked because all of the B and P Theatre company was on the same page. 

Seasoning and experience will always pay off.  Applause to the entire company for sticking their collective neck out to tackle strong subject matter.  Perhaps backing off from technical challenges and focusing on the crux of the material might help.  Projections and puppets were more a distraction than helpful to engender confidence in the story.   Support new theatre.  The effort may show, but the company has heart and it’s in the right place.

Contains nudity (brief) and adult themes (not so brief).

Correction:  We previously listed the Rogue Artists Ensemble as another theatre company. Apologies. 

Song of Bilitis

Rogue Artists Ensemble presents at

Bootleg Theatre

2220 Beverly Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90057

Thru March 30, 2013 Thursday thru Saturday  @ 7:30PM (note early curtain time)

Tickets and information:

Bootleg Theater  213 596 9468 or www.rogueartists.org

Ladyhouse: Final Production for Andak?

Ladyhouse Blues

Parking is a slight challenge for the NewPlace Theater on Peach Grove in NoHo. The adventure is worth the effort.  One arrives and is greeted by a familiar looking gentleman, Dakin Matthews, late of the recent film, LINCOLN and hundreds of other roles on stage and screen over the past many years.   He is the producer of Ladyhouse Blues, the sound technician, the box officer/concessionaire and I imagine he was the guy who tended the unisex bathroom earlier in the day.  He serves small dishes of ‘goldfish.’  It’s just charming.

The tiny 35 seat theatre space is a jewel box. The audience enters to encounter John Iacovelli’s exquisitely executed early 20^th century kitchen that will serve as the setting for the Madden sisters, the Madden Women, really, who all share the home.

Bud, son of Mother Liz’s (Excellent Kitty Swink) brood, is away serving in the Navy as WWI winds down. Eylie (bouncy Tro Shaw) unfettered and filled with ideas beyond her sixteen years flits about the kitchen as sister Helen (appropriately tired Liza de Weerd), ill with what may be TB, labors at peeling potatoes for the family dinner. Helen’s illness has driven her back home because there is fear of her young son being exposed to her illness. 

There is an immediate connection with the story and the characters that playwright Kevin O’Morrison created based on his early life in St. Louis. Written in the 1950s, we are transported back to 1919 Missouri in the days before everyone had electricity; when the times were slipping from the grasp of elders to the generation that would produce Flappers and bathtub gin.

We meet Dot (Annie Matthews), pregnant with a baby.  She met her upscale husband at the White House (she won a trip there for selling War Bonds) and as a New York model, her goal is to better herself with education and rise above her earthy Ozark roots. 

It’s the Ozarks that we hear Liz lapse into as she rails against the rise of modernity.  Firmly bound in her evangelical beliefs (and from sometimes a full bodice corset!), the Bible is quoted and her prejudice against them foreigners rears its head from time to time.  Family rebel and union organizer, Terry (Kaylee Bouwens, full of energy and hope) is a waitress and a member of what her mother calls a Bolshevik cause.  She and Eylie are the youngest of the brood and pay their own way.  This is a family of feminists in spite of Liz’s attempts to keep them out of harm’s way and in the tradition of the times which may be the equivalent of barefoot and pregnant.

Director Anne McNaughton’s hand is firm, giving each character time for revelation.  It’s a tight show and the talents of these strong actors shine.  There are moments of levity, but O’Morrison is showing us how strong women survive in a time when there were not many men to help with the families they had started.  It is gritty and rings true.  Resident Costume Designer Dean Cameron has found flour sacks and the equivalent for spot on shifts and accessories.  Tech shines.

For aficionados of fine theatre and for those who appreciate well-tuned acting, this is a show to be appreciated. Mr. Matthews has dedicated his energies to bringing quality to the stage and this project deserves an audience.  

Addendum:
Dakin Matthews has announced that LADYHOUSE BLUES may be the final production for the Andak Stage Company.   Though the curtain is only hovering at this point, if you have not seen a show at this venue, it will be worth the effort to head to the NewPlace to enjoy this production.

LADYHOUSE BLUES 

Opened February 16, 2013

Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm

Saturday and Sunday afternoons  at  2pm through March 24, 2013.

NewPlace Studio Theatre

10950 Peach Grove St.

For reservations: Ovationtix (866) 811-4111 or www.Andak.org.

Tickets $25,

Discounted $20 tickets for industry professionals, seniors, and students. 

Group discounts (10 or more) available by calling  (818-506-8462).