Preceded by an unrelated
show at Theatre 502, an independent group in downtown Louisville, the ATCA main
annual conference took in seven performances, along with a ÒPerspectives in
CriticismÓ lecture by Lauren Gunderson. In a presentation of the prestigious
Steinberg Award for playwriting, Ms. Gunderson took first place for a work
entitled ÒI and You.Ó It was not staged at the Festival but was given the award
by the Executive Chair and head of the New Play Committee of ATCA. It judges
and determines awards to the three finalists in the Steinberg contest. The
performances I saw were:
brownsville song (b-side for tray)
by Kimber Lee
Directed by Meredith McDonough
Starting with a barely audible monologue by
Cherene Snow as Lena, grandmother of Tray, a black teen gang-killed with little
motivation, the play brings him to dramatic life through her memories. Tray
(expressive John Clarence Stewart) stood out in his area of Brooklyn as a
student athlete who planned to go on to college. He part-timed at Starbucks,
but when Lena (whose emotions were played with strength by Snow) worked at two
jobs, Tray took care of his sister Devine. His interactions with the ten year
old (Sally Diallo, well keyed into Devine's feelings) tell a lot about their
capacity to love and hope despite the challenges they face from family and
neighborhood situations. Devine tries to escape these harsh realities by
dreaming.
Scenic designer Dane Laffrey appropriately
surrounded much activity in concrete blocks and formed a vital relationship
with Ben Stanton's fine lighting that changes with the seasons. Well chosen
music, from mod mixing to ÒSwan LakeÓ excerpt, figured into Jake Rodriguez's sound
design. Connie Furr Soloman supplied urban costumes. Stage manager was Stephen
Horton for the no intermission, 100 minute performance.
PARTNERS
by Dorothy Fortenberry
Directed by Lila Neugebauer
Nearly ecstatic about her marriage to struggling
writer Paul, Òfood stylistÓ Clare wants her best friend and prospective food
truck business partner Ezra to wed his boyfriend Brady. She gets heavily
involved in gay marriage issues while Ezra wants to use Paul's credit card to
get (illegally) start-up money so he doesn't have to ask his rich parents.
Brady is wishy-washy about marrying because he can't bring himself to promise
to be monogamous at all times and forever. So at the start of the play the end
is pretty much telegraphed. Then, in the next scene, Clare gets a financial
windfall that she tries to keep secret from Paul. Maybe good-at-wisecracking
Kasey Mahaffy as Ezra too. The play becomes about how money and the use of it
affects relationships.
Essentially a few chapters of a sitcom with
sometimes snappy dialogue, ÒPartnersÓ has a too-fussy set (there's a never used
big bathtub, for instance), okay lighting, and original music that's pretty
much innocuous. The director seems to stretch out activities to make the play
more than one-act with a few scenes. Even the food served at the start doesn't
indicate Clare has much chance of realizing her hopes. Neither, it would seem,
does the playwright at this point.
THE GROWN-UP
by Jordan Harrison
Directed by Ken Rus Schmoll
A time-travel via fantasy, ÒThe Grown UpÓ
transforms Kai, age 10, into his older self at two different ages. Fond of
listening to his grandfather's stories that concern a magic doorknob, Kai
(versatile Matthew Stadelmann) uses one to enter an alternate reality. He
leaves sister Annabel (nice Brooke Bloom) behind but she pursues him into his
young adult world of TV production, run by a villainous exec (Paul Niebanck,
razor-sharp). He has a druggie assistant Rosie (riveting Tiffany Villarin) who
ably delivers one of the many monologues that slow the pacing but give time to
figure out what's happening or be upset that everything is taking too long. Kai
does move on to middle age and a male who's presumably his bed partner. But
eventually he gets back in an interesting structured way that combines fantasy,
mystery, and whimsy in a happy marriage.
There's fitting original music by Lindsay Jones
which, if it had lyrics that told the story, might sing out: How you gonna keep
a youth nice and innocent after he's journeyed to adulthood with the characters
there? The writer implies that Rosie, who kind of combined the two, parallels
Kai. At any rate, she's important and Director Ken Rus Schmoll underscores
that. David Ryan Smith impresses as an old pirate who's now a seaman at a post
on land. Paul Toben's lighting is especially important to the almost bare
stage. Janice Pytel's costumes are atmospheric. The play would benefit from
some cutting.
Note: Matthew Stadelmann's name is listed in the
cast without the name of the title role he plays here. In the bio notes, he is
acknowledged as Kyle in ÒShemÓ only. I kept hearing him called what I interpret
as Kai in the longer play without my learning of an authoritative alternate
spelling.
STEEL HAMMER
Text by Kia Corthron, Will Power, Carl Hancock
Rux, & Regina Taylor
Performance Developed and Performed by the SITI
Company
Music and Lyrics by Julia Wolfe
Directed by Anne Bogart
Starring Eric Berryman as John Henry
It's apparent that Ann Bogart's plays are being
more and more wed to dance. Movement and mime in a dramatic context inventively
begin ÒSteel Hammer.Ó From there on, except for a narrative monologue rather
late in the play, tediousness takes over. So does a devotion to extended
running in a circle or spinning out of it, mostly to music. That's by groups
called Bang on a Can All-Stars and Trio Mediaeval [sic], which should give a warning of its quality.
All the actors are helped by the flexibility of costumes
designed by James Schuette.
I counted 14 anti-climaxes to the complete story. ÒSteel
HammerÓ needs a lot more development, preferably without dance that isn't
really dance.
THE CHRISTIANS
by Lucas Hnath
Directed by Les Waters
At a service in a megachurch whose debt has newly
been paid off, Pastor (dynamic Andrew Garman), his Wife (pretty, sociable Linda
Powell), his Assistant (serious, sincere Larry Powell) and Elder (Richard
Henzel, benevolent) sit in a semi-circle facing the congregation. A robed choir
enters and backs them up with song as uplifting as the colorful scenes of
nature's beauties projected on each side. Everyone seems joyful as Pastor
announces the building is solvent. Then he says he's going to lead in a different
direction that still maintains Jesus exists but denies hell as a place of
punishment. There's a new game to be played in this God Bowl!
Pastor's Wife is started and dismayed at the
announcement. Even more so, Associate Pastor takes up the invitation to leave
if in disagreement, taking followers with him. Elder isn't sure of anything but
his own felt need to depart. Subsequently more and more parishioners leave,
many to join the former Associate as head of a new church organization. From
Pastor's choir then comes a Member who questions Pastor's new belief in
relation to her personal spirituality. Along with Wife, she and most of the
congregation begin to back a schism. Although there's no answer to the central
religious question, the conflict over it has a devastating result.
ÒThe ChristiansÓ intellectually approaches a
dilemma that provokes thought and discussion while being entertaining. Defying
contemporary fashion, it presents dignified believers who think. It gets one to
wondering about Pastor: How trustworthy is his stance? Why did he reach his
need for change at this particular time in his church's history? What motivates
those who question and, more importantly, oppose him?
The story, substance, characterization, and
staging (with all its technical elements as well as direct address, especially
monologue) come together via bold direction in a fad-avoiding, fascinating
drama that isn't merely New.
Ten Minute Plays
April 5 and 6
by Rachel Bonds
Directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh
Behind a bakery in a little desolate town near
Scranton, PA, opposites get together. Julia Bynum as Mary and Jason Huff as
Jamie get personally in sync in a short time that has lasting implications. It
does, though, take a bit longer than ten minutes.
Some Prepared Remarks (A History in Speech)
by Jason Gray Platt
Directed by Les Waters
Bruce McKenzie is the Parkinson's victim who goes
through an increasingly painful reading of his life story. He has a long list,
yes list, of memories that mainly involve his grandfather, wife, and daughter. He's
a bit like Beckett's Krapp although writer Jason Gray Platt never manages to
put past and present on stage at the same time. Everything is recall in the
present and involves his daughter's fate as much as the one that awaits him. Quite
long, but not boring, as realistic actor McKenzie has been well directed. Essentially
a monologue.
Poor Shem
by Gregory Hischak
Directed by Meredith McDonough
In an office, three co-workers find the corpse of
another, Shem, jammed inside their copy machine. How funny is that? Actually,
hilarious. They can identify him by his necktie. Whom should they call? Whose
cell phone gets involved? Andrew Garman as bossy Kendal, Jackie Chung as a
woman of conviction, and Matthew Stadelmann as a rather timid young guy bring
the fictional corpse to vibrant life under Meredith McDonough's well blocked
direction.
I was unable to see ÒRemix 38Ó because of a change
in my flight time back to Sarasota. It was a series of nine short plays or
sketches by various writers directed by Ian Frank and performed by members of
the Actors Theatre 2013-14 Acting Apprentice Company. Reports were that the
plays were uneven in quality, though developed from traces of hit plays
introduced throughout the Humana Festival's 38 year history. One particularly
was described by a few of my fellow critics as ÒdirtyÓ--probably because of
explicit, deviant presentation of deviant sex.