Month: November 2019

Towards Zero At Theatre in the Round Players in Minneapolis

Theatre in the Round traditionally produces an Agatha Christie play around the holidays. The holidays of course being Thanksgiving, my Mother’s birthday and Christmas. I’ve been taking my Mother for her birthday present since 2015’s production of Black Coffee, which was also my first time to Theatre in the Rounds arena. The theatre is well suited for Christie’s mysteries which are generally speaking set in one location. A mystery played out in 360 degrees means that the audience sees everything and the director must play the game fairly. The theater is small and intimate, and these are the types of light breezy entertainments that they do well. Even from the back row, which I was seated in due to a box office snafu, one should be able to hear and see everything.

This years production is Towards Zero and it has something of an interesting backstory. Agatha Christie is the best selling fiction author of all time. Alongside her many novels and short stories she wrote 33 plays, many of them are adaptations of her novels or stories. Towards Zero was a novel first, it was adapted by Christie and Gerald Verner into a play in 1956 and that script has been produced many times over the years. But it turns out it was not the first adaptation. In 2015, discovered in the Christie archives was an earlier adaptation which Christie wrote herself, this is the script used for this production. As a Christie fan I usually find that I am familiar with the story of the plays being produced and therefore know the solution. With Towards Zero I couldn’t remember the solution and so from a script standpoint this had the added benefit of being a whodunnit that contained an actual whodunnit.

The play takes place at Gull’s Nest, the home of Lady Tressilian located on a cliff overlooking the sea. The household consists of a Butler O’Donnell, his nemesis lady Tressilians’ nurse MacGregor, and her companion Collie. Into the mix are added her ward Neville Strange, his new wife Kay and ex-wife Audrey, as well as Audrey’s childhood friend Thomas, and Kay’s boyfriend Peter De Costa. Adding a dark horse to the company is Angus McWhirter a man who a year previously tried to commit suicide by jumping from the cliff only to be foiled by an outcropping. When the murder of lady Tressilian takes place between Act 1 and Act 2 there are plenty of suspects to keep the audience guessing. Enter Inspector Leach, Sergeant Harvey, and Dr. Wilson to gather the clues and try and solve the crime.

Christie’s script is unusually long with each act running close to one and a quarter hours. It didn’t feel drawn out to me, but several of my party did feel it was too long. I felt the time was used to develop the characters and give us plenty of information with which to lead us to suspect everyone. It isn’t much of a whodunnit if there are only a couple of viable suspects. The mystery involved in Towards Zero is full of twists and red herrings enough to keep the audience second guessing up until the final reveal. Everything is up in the air including in a way who the victim and detective are. The play is directed by Wendy Resch Novak who does a good job of staging the action on the floor as well as the cliffside up at the top of one of the risers. It’s effective and creative use of the space, giving us an expanded geography that serves the play well. The set designer Laurie Swigart Does a nice job of suggesting the clifftop and the terrace of Gull’s Nest. One issue with the set though were the doors to the house they never closed all the way, not sure if this should have been a stronger direction to the actors or if it was a design flaw.

Excellent script and set design, well staged, it is in the casting and characterizations where the production stumbles slightly. Kristen C. Mathisen performance as Lady Tressilian was so good that you spend the rest of the play after her murder wishing the victim had been someone else. Mathisen brings this character to life with such humor and intelligence, she is nearly the most well rounded character in the piece despite being off stage much of the time and being killed off before Act 2 begins. Chief among the candidates to take her place as victim would be Neville Strange played by Ben Habel. Habel is not up to the task, this is a small theater and everyone I spoke with afterward had trouble hearing about half of his dialogue. This is not a large theater, if Habel isn’t able to project so that his lines can be heard, perhaps he should have been mic’d. Thankfully, that was not an issue with any of the other performers. There’s nothing like a whodunnit where you miss half the clues because you cannot hear them. Dwight Gunderson and Stacey Poirier as O’Donnell and MacGregor have a playful humor similar to Mathisen’s Tressilian, and make their warring servants a welcome bit of comedic relief whenever they are onstage together. James Degner as Dr. Wilson makes little impression, the character is woefully underwritten, he’s needed to provide some of the clues, but isn’t given much else to do, there are a few moments where you get the sense there was supposed to be a joke or witticism, but it’s lost.

The rest of the actors are well cast and do fine work but there are two roles that I want to take a closer look at. Mark L. Mattison as Angus McWhirter and Piper Quinn as Audrey. Mattison Has turned in several memorable performances at Theatre in the Round over the last few years. Here again he has found the comic timing and performance style to make his character a stand out. He mines the part for humor that may not have been intended by Christie but is certainly entertaining. He delivers his lines in a near shout throughout but is also a bit philosophical. Quinn plays her role as a woman on edge and frightened, someone in need of help. The two characters have a few scenes together which as scripted are somewhat asides to the plot. They are meant to develop a connection between the two characters, the first scene works more or less but based on where their relationship needs to go, it probably needed to cement the connection more. The second scene doesn’t build on the connection enough. That combined with Mattison’s characterization, make the last moments of the play feel forced. McWhirter is such an eccentric that it is hard to fathom the dynamic that the plot tells us has developed. There are lines in the play that lead us to that moment, but the actors don’t play it that way, creating a disconnect rather than a connection. It’s too bad, because it ends the play awkwardly and it makes you question one of the more enjoyable performances and whether that was the right direction in spite of how entertaining it was.

Towards Zero is good mystery play with some nice humor and lots of clues to keep you guessing. There are some performance issues which made the play seem long for some and one of the key relationships rang false for this reviewer. It plays through December 15th for for information and tickets go to http://www.theatreintheround.org/new-homepage/on-stage/zero/

Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea Sets Sail at North Hennepin Community College, and it’s a Voyage Worth Taking.

Sophie Frigerio and Silas Martin Photo by Mike Ricci

Today is one of those days that reminds me why I started doing this. I was invited to come and review a show at North Hennepin Community College (NHCC). This is an opportunity to see young people trying on the role of an actor, exploring theater, creating. I see a lot of very professional theater, it’s nice to come and see people who are just starting out and learning how to do this thing we call theater. This is not the slick production and tour-de-force acting you expect from the Guthrie, and as great as those things are, seeing a less resourced and experienced group put on a show was refreshing. Seeing the potential can be as stimulating as seeing something fully developed. If this seems like a faint praise, stay with me for a minute because I think NHCC has a vital role to play. Remember this is taking place at a Community College, and probably one that is lucky not to have it’s theater cut for budget reasons. I don’t think many of the people who got involved in this show necessarily have their hearts set of treading the boards as a career. That probably isn’t the function of this theater department. What this theater department does is expose students to theater at higher level than they experienced in high school. And you never know, this may be where the acting bug bites them. Looking over the cast bios there are a few more experienced performers but for some it’s one of, if not the first stage experience they’ve ever had. There are elements in place here as well to support these new actors. The design aspects and the script are top notch and the show has been well directed and staged. More on all of these elements later.

Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea was written by Nathan Alan Davis and directed by Mike Ricci, this is the Minnesota premiere for this work. The play is about a young black man’s search for his ancestral past. It is about finding out who we are and choosing our own course, knowing where we are going to begins with knowing where we started. The play opens with drums, dancing and a dream. Dontrell awakens from the dream which he interprets as more of a vision. He goes on a quest for the rest of the play to find the ancestor who visited him in his dream, an ancestor who was lost at sea generations ago. As with all heroic quests he must face trials and tribulations on his journey, including his Mother and Father, who do not want him going near the ocean. Dontrell cannot swim but is determined to head out into the Atlantic ocean searching for the answers. He gets help from a Cousin who provides him with scuba gear. He meets and falls in love with Erika a lifeguard who saves him from drowning and then agrees to teach him to swim. Erika understands his quest, she has also had her life changed by the truth from her past. She believes in him and will be there with him until the end.

As I mentioned before these are new actors and yes you can tell. But no one is bad, they’re just green. There are three performers that really stood out for me, the first was Sophie Frigerio who plays Erika. This is not surprising as her bio indicates she probably has the most experience acting. Reginald Dupree as Dontrell’s Dad had the best comic timing, this isn’t a comedy but like all good drama’s it has some humor. Reggie did a great job of bringing it out when the text and the mood supported it. The other stand out was Dylan Salber as Robby, Dontrell’s best friend. Dylan had the best stage presence and confidence, he seemed at home in the part and was very natural. Because they are learning I’ll offer a few tips as opposed to critiques. A couple of the actors Silas Martin (Dontrell) and Michaela Hobin (Dontrell’s sister Danielle) need to work on their enunciation. They spoke very naturalistically, but this isn’t film this is stage work, you sometimes have to compromise realism to be understood by your audience. They both like, Dylan Salber, had very good stage presence and they moved beautifully in the dance portions. No one was horrible about this, but if they decide to do more acting, it would be something to work on. I think they all did a good job and I would encourage all of them to continue if they are finding it fulfilling, they all have potential.

The writing, the design, and the direction are the strengths of this production. They provide the quality framework for the actors to learn and perform in. The Play itself is fantastic, I sure hope a young filmmaker picks this up and adapts it into a film. I saw how it could be done so vividly and it’s because the script is so good. The set is very minimalistic but perfect for this setting. The use of projection on a screen at the back of the stage is used perfectly. Something like that can easily be overdone, the usage here was to add to the mood or location. It wasn’t used to try and do the work of the set, it enhanced what was there. A bright sunny day at the beach is brought to life, a moonlight sail (see photo above) and a dive into the ocean are beautifully accented by the projection. The Director, Mike Ricci, clearly knows what his theater does best and stages the action to its advantage. He has also taken a young cast and gotten them to move with precision and removed the self conscious mannerism that I still see in community theaters from time to time. Those moments of awkwardness are removed when you have helped your actors find their purpose in each beat of their performance. Finally a shout out to Babatunde Lea and Umar Williams whose drum work was precise and opened the show powerfully.

Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea is at times, like it’s title, Poetic. At other times it’s sweet, funny, thought provoking and inspirational. What’s really inspirational is NHCC has done in mounting this unique and original play and that they continue to pass the art of theater and storytelling onto new generations. Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea is playing through Saturday the 23rd, for more information and tickets visit https://nhcc.edu/theatre

Steel Magnolias at the Guthrie Theater Laughs Guaranteed, Kleenex Recommended.

Amy Van Nostrand, Adelin Phelps, Melissa Maxwell, Austene Van and Nicole King. Photo by Dan Norman

Imagine you are an actor and the curtain is about to rise on a performance as you realize you don’t have your lines memorized. Add to that, you are performing at the Guthrie Theater in it’s 700 seat McGuire Proscenium Stage. Well, that is probably something like what Laura Leffler the Assistant Director of Steel Magnolias felt at the Saturday November 9th’s Matinee performance. Sally Wingert stepped out onstage before the beginning of the show and informed the audience that a member of the cast was very ill, and that the Assistant Director Laura Leffler, who had been there through all the rehearsals, had agreed to step in. We were told that she would be reading from a script. The MVP for that days production was without a doubt Laura Leffler. In true “the show must go on” tradition, Ms Leffler stepped up and ensured that a theater full of people who had set aside time to see the show were able to do so. The show was a success and Ms. Leffler got the largest cheers and applause at the curtain. I had intended to write a review of that performance, but when the Guthrie graciously offered to let me attend another performance, I decided that would be for the best. I realized while it gave me an interesting hook into the review, it wouldn’t be a review of the show that my readers would be seeing. So I attended the show again last night with the full cast in place and that is the performance I will be reviewing. I wanted to acknowledge though the wonderful job that Laura Leffler did stepping in for Adelin Phelps, it was brave and she did a great job.

Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling was first performed in 1987 and was followed by a popular film which Harling adapted for the screen himself. It is set at Truvy’s Beauty Salon in a fictional parish in Louisiana called Chinquapin. It opens with Truvy, played by Austene Van, trying out Annelle’s hairstyling talents on herself and then offering her a job in her salon. Normally Saturdays Truvy reserves just for the ladies from the neighborhood which are Clairee, Ouiser and M’Lynn. Clairee played by Amy Van Nostrand, is recently widowed, her husband was the former mayor of the city. She is well off and at loose ends with how to spend her time and money now that her husband has passed. Ouiser played by local legend Sally Wingert, has the opposite temperament of Clairee who is always upbeat. Ouiser is always grumpy and sarcastic and seems to have a lifelong feud going with her neighbor M’Lynn’s husband Drum. M’Lynn is played by Melissa Maxwell, her daughter Shelby, played by Nicole King, is getting married that day so Truvy is going to do a special hairstyle for Shelby. We learn over the first scene about the characters and their relationships to each other. We learn that Shelby suffers from Type 1 Diabetes and we learn of Annelle’s husband who is in trouble with the law and has run off leaving her stranded without money or a job. The play jumps forward three times from there covering about 3 years in the lives of these six women. The main plot line follows Shelby from her wedding day to her pregnancy announcement and through her health complications. But each of the women have their own stories, which while not the central focus, do run throughout so they all become three dimensional characters.

Played by Adelin Phelps, Annelle is a down on her luck naive girl with a past who needs a helping hand and a support system, which is what she finds at Truvy’s. For the six women in this play the salon is their support system. We follow them as they come together to celebrate and to console each other. The Salon is like a prism through which we see all the different shades of these woman’s friendship. We see them tease one another, build each other up, advise and comfort each other. All of it done with humor and wit that is derived less from one liners and jokes but from character. Each of the actresses brings their characters fully to life. We learn bits and pieces about all of these woman as the play progresses. Each scene gives us new information to add to what we already know, nothing is an offhand remark, every scrap of dialogues informs our understanding of each character. It really is a remarkable script, there doesn’t seem to be a line in the play that doesn’t either further the plot or develop our understanding of the characters. You couldn’t have a play this good without a fabulous script which Steel Magnolias certainly has. The other critical element is the cast, and every single member of this cast is equal to the script. The oldest characters Clairee and Ouiser are the most comical and Van Nostrand and Wingert play the humor to the hilt, but they never allow it to overpower their characters. They have a peice of business in the last scene that has the audience in tears of laughter just as we were tearing up out of sadness.

The set is a full scale mock up of the hair salon which Truvy’s husband converted from a carport in the last romantic gesture she can remember from him. The set rotates 360 degrees as the scene changes, the backdrop of a large tree and its branches also changes to reflect the season. The turning of the set and change of the leaf colors on the background nicely convey they passage of time, the leaves charting the change in season and the set turning like the hands of a clock. In an odd choice, we see stage hands decorating the set as it rotates. This has the effect of taking the audience out of the play momentarily. I can’t help but think a better solution would have been to leave the set turned 180 degrees while the set changes took place and then completing the other 180 degrees of the turn to present us the stage with changes made. Otherwise the set is impressive and well designed. I enjoyed the costumes as well, they had an 80’s vibe, but not in a overpoweringly obvious way, more what people wore day to day in the 80’s than the way you’d dress going to an 80’s costume party. Finally a word should be said about the hair. I was rather impressed to see Van and Phelps actually doing the other four woman’s hair on stage. The wigs were excellent and the actresses looked like they had been styling their whole lives.

Steel magnolias is a funny and warm look at the relationships of six woman in a small town and the support system they have created for each other in Truvy’s Salon. Filled with great character motivated humor it also plumbs the depths of despair, the full spectrum of the human condition is on display. This is a show where it’s fair to say you’ll laugh and you’ll cry, I recommend everyone taking at least 4 or 5 kleenex in with you, there will be tears. The show runs through December 15th at the Guthrie Theater in the Mcguire Proscenium Stage. for more information and for tickets go to their website at https://www.guthrietheater.org/shows-and-tickets/2019-2020-season/steel-magnolias/

Edge of Glory at the Minnsky Theatre in NE Minneapolis Dazzles and Sparkles in true Gaga fashion.

Melody Mendis

This was my second visit to the Minnsky Theatre in NE Minneapolis and I know I’m not there yet, but I’m zeroing in on what they typically do. Last nights show was another atypical production like the Cole Porter revue I saw in early October. Tonight was Edge of Glory: The Ultimate Lady Gaga Tribute Show. The show features Melody Mendis as Lady Gaga performing around a dozen of Gaga’s songs. She is accompanied by the Clayhead Moo Band and assisted visually by Elite Entertainment – Cirque and Dance Group. There are laser beams and smoke machines at work which all add to the fun. But the star of the show is Mendis’ voice, and the footwork of the dancers.

Mendis is not only singing Gaga songs she is playing Gaga. In between songs she talks about the inspirations for the songs and what she was feeling and going through when she wrote them. This is the one aspect of the show I wasn’t sure of. I don’t know if Mendis was parodying Gaga or being sincere. Some of the comments were so vapid and such pseudo philosophical mumbo jumbo that I was certain she was sending up Gaga. Then she would say something that seemed not to have a hint of humor or parody in it and I wasn’t certain. I’d say they need to either go further if they are going for humor in that part or remove the unintentional humor in a few passages if they are not. I don’t think it needs the humor as it seems to poke fun at the person they are celebrating. Aside from that aspect this seems to be based on genuine affection for the artist and her work. Mendis definitely has the Gaga voice down, there were times when you could close your eyes and believe it was Gaga. I’m a Gaga fan I saw her concert last time she was in town and this evening was a fun way to experience these songs again live. If you are a Gaga fan, you will not be disappointed in her vocal performance. I knew we were in good hands when she performed “La Vie En Rose”, you can’t hide behind dance or vocal tricks with that one, and it sounds as perfect as “Bad Romance” did. All your favorites are performed “Poker Face”, “Million Reasons”, “Shallow”, “Paparazzi” and “Born This Way” along with others. We also get three costumes all of them very Gaga if a bit restrained, another reason I question if there was intended humor in the spoken bridges between songs. It seems if you were going for parody costumes would be one area that you could really have fun with. I don’t think it needs an element of parody though, to paraphrase cousin Eddie, it does just fine by itself.

This is more or less a black box theatre with some specialty equipment. In terms of set design and lighting they have fun with what they have. There are lasers and the stage lights up in different colors but you are not going to mistake it for a vegas floor show. That is sort of the charm of the Minnsky though. They do so much with such simple tools. The dancers use simple chairs, just like the ones we are sitting on in the audience, in several of their numbers. They do some amazing moves on these everyday chairs, balancing themselves perfectly. They use simple props and make it look simple but I guarantee it is not simple or easy. They also incorporated some unique and specialized equipment. One piece was a giant hoop that hung from the ceiling that a dancer wrapped herself around creating an illusion of slowing gliding through the air at times and other moments it seemed almost as if the hoop was representing the surface of the water and she was swimming. This was particularly graceful almost balletic. There was also a pole that one of the dancers climbed, hung from, spun around on and basically defied gravity with. The only thing more frightening than see her hang upside down with just her legs wrapped around a vertical pole 15 feet in the air over a concrete floor was watching them dancing in 10 inch heels. There were a couple of stumbles due to those heels, but nothing the game dancers couldn’t shrug off. Along with a couple of slips there were also a couple of short lived technical issues, again handled like professionals who know the show must go on.

There is an energy that comes through in these small theaters that I truly love. I’ve spent much of my theater going life in large (Orpheum, Ordway) to medium (Guthrie, Old Log, Lyric Arts) theaters, in the last two months I’ve been in more black box theaters than ever before. There is something about these smaller theaters, they don’t have the elaborate sets that many of those theaters have but they have an immediacy and a creativity that can be lost in those bigger venues. The Minnsky Theatre also has this aura of inclusiveness to it, there are so many people on the stage all pulling together to perform something unique. Whether they are the beautiful and talented dancers or the the keyboardist with a mask over their face, they all bring something of value to the table. Again I feel blessed to live in a city with so much variety of live theater, we don’t have to choose which type of theater we are going to attend, we just have to decide which type we are going to attend tonight! As for tonight go to the Minnsky theater website at https://www.minnsky.com/shows-.html and buy your tickets for Edge of Glory. This show is only playing one more night, Saturday November 16th. If you like Gaga, you’ll enjoy this show and the time spent with Melody Mendis and the Elite Entertainment Dancers.

Church & State At Phoenix Theater in Uptown is Must See Theater!

photo by Scott Pakudaitis

The Phoenix Theater in Uptown is another of these small local theaters that make up the diverse artistic landscape of the Twin Cities. As with most it serves the usual beverages and nibbles. The lobby is more like a rundown community college lounge/cafe than you usually find, but that feels like the old uptown I first knew in the 90’s and I kinda dug it. The program says the shows runs 90 minutes without an intermission, I clock it as closer to 75 minutes. You are out around 8:45, plenty early for a late bite to eat, perhaps some pretzel bites with nacho cheese, the thought of them may become planted in your head during the show. Good news is you are in Uptown, there is no shortage of places to grab a tasty treat and a coffee or other drink afterward. You may find yourself wanting to discuss what you just saw. The show itself was anything but community college.

Church & State written by Jason Odell Williams premiered in LA in 2016 and is very topical, perhaps even more so today then when it first ran. It opens in the green room of the Stewart theater on the campus of North Carolina State University where Republican Senator Charles Whitmore is about to go out and give a speech for his reelection campaign. Before going out he has to tell his wife and his campaign manager about an interview he gave that morning to an independent journalist (blogger) when caught off guard at a funeral. His response is likely to cause waves in his campaign and his personal life. He is a Senator who’s slogan is “Jesus is my running mate” and he basically said he didn’t see the point in turning to prayer when faced with the tragedy that resulted in the funeral he is attending. That tragedy was a shooting at the school his own sons attend, the funeral was to bury two boys who were friends of his sons. This has shaken him to his very core which is his faith. The dilemma he is discussing with the women who run his life is whether he should follow his heart and speak what he feels or go out and give his usual safe speech. To continue with a synopsis would steal some of the fun that awaits. Suffice to say this is a play that tackles some very difficult topics such as gun control, politics, and religion.

From the above you are probably imagining a talkie play about ideas and moral questions and left politics. Something full of long speeches and the inevitable winning over of doubters, perhaps something a bit predictable. Well it isn’t that straight forward and there will be some twists. There is also a surprising amount of humor. This is a play about big questions that we all have to grapple with in today’s world, but it puts a very human face on these questions. The Senator is played by Andrew S. Troth and he broke my heart into little pieces as he came near to tears several times during the performance as he spoke of how he felt the day of the shooting and of his own sons and their relationships with those who were killed. His wife was played by Mame Pelletier and she’s a smasher! She has moments of emotion as well but she is the play’s trump card. This is a performance overflowing with humor and humanity. She takes what could easily have been a caricature of the God fearing wife of a southern Senator, which she is, and creates a person we can understand and even in an odd way identify with. The four person cast is rounded out by Ariel Leaf who plays the Senators Campaign manager who has her work cut out for her even getting the Senator and his wife to stop adding “the” in front of Twitter and facebook. Finally there is Matt Saxe who plays three different roles, sadly without enough time to really make much of an impression with any of them, a bit of a thankless role, but he has a few moments as Tom, the largest of the three parts.

The production is directed by Scott Gilbert who finds interesting ways to transition in time and space, including the use of video projection. One very interesting idea is the tallying of a Senate vote while we watch a speech being given in flashback. Another inspired bit of staging was to have the Senator tell his story of the interview that is the inciting incident of the play. As he says what he said he turns away from his wife and manager and towards the reporter, as if we are seeing him in flashback to that morning as it happened, this is actually very effectively done and humorous. The real genius of the show though is the script. Williams takes an idea that could easily be preachy and instead presents it in a way that grounds it. His choice of making the Senator a Republican from the South seems like an easy target, but what he does is instead of making these characters targets he makes them human. He doesn’t portray them as you might expect, they don’t convert to democrats but the tragedies they endure help them to look at certain issues in a different way. The Senator is like any politician concerned about reelection but he is also shown to be a good man, a man that even his New York Democratic Jewish Campaign manager comes to believe in. His wife Sara at first seems like a loud joke of a woman, and there is much humorous in the character, but there are more layers to her than we see at the start. This is a play about gun control. At the beginning I mentioned that I think it may be even more relevant now than it was in 2016 when it was first performed. That isn’t because there have since been more instances of gun violence in America, of course there have been. But I say this because our political system seems more partisan than ever. This play cuts through that by casting the voice of reason as a Republican and doing so in such a way that the change is believable and organic. There is more to say on this but I will leave the politics there and let you pick it up and discuss with whomever you see the show with.

Church & State is a powerful play, smart, genuinely funny, warm, shocking, moving, and thought provoking. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Church & State Runs November 8th thru the 24th At Phoenix Theater for more information and to buy tickets visit https://www.phoenixtheatermpls.org/project/church-state/ And trust me you want to buy tickets. When we talk about art and its ability to promote social change, this is what we are talking about. The fact that it does so with so much warmth and humor is a rare thing indeed.

ACTION MOVIE the Play at Strike Theater in North Minneapolis.

Photo by Bob Alberti Design by Jacob Gulliver

Strike Theater is a small space and it lends itself very well to the work shopping of new works. They also appear to do a lot of improve and classes. Basically a black box with folding chairs on risers for the audience. The stage is black with black curtains around and an assemblage of black crates that can take the place of whatever a scene might call for. There is also lighting and sound facilities and when a new play is being work shopped, that’s really all you need. The lobby sells the usual nice selection of beers, soft drinks, and an abundant of snacks. It’s another of those theaters that seem to exist just off of some neighborhood and it’s these theaters where you see the first breathe of life in many original works around the Twin Cities. These little theaters are a vital component of the theater scene, and tonight’s show Action Movie the Play is a perfect illustration of that.

Action Movie the Play directed by Garrick Dietze, written by Kyle B. Dekker, as a possible entry in the Minnesota Fringe Festival. While he didn’t get it on there, he is able to stage it through Fearless Comedy Productions for a three week run at Strike Theater. The show could have wound up in the bottom of Dekker’s desk drawer gathering dust, instead because there are spaces all over town like Strike Theater he is able to see it performed and from there hopefully take that experience and further hone the production. Is Action Movie the Play ready for 6 weeks at one of the major stages in town? No, it isn’t. I don’t think it’s meant to be at this point. Is it something that could end up there? Yes, it could. Sometimes you need to see a piece staged and performed in front of an audience to know what works and what doesn’t. This is an invaluable part of the process that theaters like Strike and many others around the Twin Cities provide to artist like Dekker and companies like Fearless Comedy Productions.

Action Movie the Play is about a young screenwriter played by Adrienne Lee who is suffering from writers block as a deadline looms for her first draft of a new big budget action movie. She has a partner who encourages her to keep going. An agent who applies the pressure. An assistant who delivers the idiotic studio notes on a script she hasn’t even written yet. A studio executive who applies more pressure and replaces one idiotic note with another. And Finally a wacky neighbor who provides her with the drug that will take her on a journey in her mind to rediscover what she already knows about writing an action movie. The journey consists of being visited by 5 muses, each played by one of the actors who played the above characters in her life, ala The Wizard of Oz. Each of these muses touch on a different aspect of the Action Movie template. We have Quipps: The Muse of Dialogue, Dazzle: The Muse of Stunts and Effects, Fray: The Muse of Conflict and Plot, Cool One: The Muse of Protagonists and Heel: The Muse of Antagonists.

It’s about an hour long which speaks to it’s creation as a Fringe entry, too short for a full length comedic play. I believe they have something worth developing further. The structure of the story is sound and there are a lot of very creative ideas and characters. The show opened with the 20th Century Fox fanfare which started things off on just the right note. The idea of introducing us to the writer, establishing her blockage and the crazy parameters she’s been given by the studio, then having her immediately beset by one character after another, is the perfect setup for mounting comedic exasperation. Unfortunately, it is not paced to take full advantage of that possibility. There are some really clever lines of dialogue with most of the characters but there are also moments that seem awkward or like the characters are treading water waiting for the next event to take place. Much of this seems to be pacing issues. There isn’t a superfluous character in the show, but it does seem like many are underdeveloped. I suspect this comes from being too short to have time to spend establishing each character more fully. This is something that could be fleshed out if they choose to expand the show. The Writer character could benefit from an overhaul. She comes off more as a college student who can’t get started on a paper than a professional who would be trusted to write a big budget action movie. I’d suggest her character, having lost sight of how to write the film in light of the ever mounting ridiculous changes and edicts from the studio. Have the need for the Muse’s interventions coming not from a seeming inability to write the first draft but from her loss of confidence in herself and her abilities faced by needing to make such radical changes for a new draft due the next day. Questioning herself rather than the studio losing faith temporarily in her talent. Then all these pressures and changes that build in the first part seem to drive her further and further into hopelessness and frustration.

There are many references to action movies and when the show focuses on those is when it is most alive. Favorite scenes where the visitation with Dazzle played by Emma Brashear in which The Muse and the writer have a prolonged battle including a bullet time Matrix inspired moment. As well as the passage with Quipps played by Calvin Lee Adams, who speaks compulsively in movie quotes. This is probably the most fully realized section of the play where they actually seem to have fully gotten where they wanted to with the idea, it’s also an area in which even more would be welcome. The other muse that worked well was Cool One who is played by Dave Rand-McKay who also plays the writers partner. My favorite line in the show is his comment on that must be how plot holes happen. Rand-McKay is easily the standout in the cast, his interations with the writer both as her domestic partner and the Muse are the most natural.

This leads me to another benefit of spaces like Strike Theater, not only is there a space for shows like this to be tried out, but it also gives newer actors a chance to work and learn their craft. Rand-McKay was the one performer that never really had an awkward moment, he knows how to just be on stage. I hope his fellow actors are taking advantage of his experience and learning from him that all important skill of just being. Many of them still had traces of those insecure mannerisms that every actor experiences in the beginning. This is not just a show but a chance to learn. It’s an opportunity for the actors to hone their skills and gain experience. Its also a chance for the writer to see what works and what areas need improvement. In the case of Action Movie the Play, I think the structure works, there are some muses that really work, and a couple that we understand the purpose of, but the secret to finding the essence and the humor is still not there. There is I think an opportunity to build humor and almost a farce like quality in the the opening segments that could then be reversed in the second half when the Muses are incorporated into the story. I find evenings like this quite invigorating, this is not the most fun I’ve had at the theater in the last week, but it’s probably given me the most to think about. I love seeing these projects that are evolving, I relish having the opportunity to see something and then hopefully see it again down the road and wonder at the changes and the shifts. Action Movie the Play is a show that I hope they continue to develop as I think the idea and structure in place are very interesting and there is already a lot of fun dialogue to build on.

Action Movie the Play runs Nov. 7-9 and Nov. 14-16 at 7:30 PM tickets are $10 for preorder or $15 at the door. For more information and to purchase tickets go to http://fearlesscomedyproductions.com/productions/feature/action-movie-the-play/