Hello...?

Been getting a few inquiries as to whether APAR is still operational. Good question. Ever since the MX theatre blog went live, they seemed to take such the brunt of both reviews and comments that this blog seemed less useful. I got out of the habit of regular updates.
So... is anyone missing it? I'm happy to keep it going, and/or to work on restructuring it to be a better resource for everyone.
What do you, dear readers, want? Let's make it happen.
Thanks.
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Man of La Mancha

From the Citizen-Times
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Check out ‘Man of La Mancha'
Flat Rock actors present classic with great zest
TIM REID • PUBLISHED JUNE 12, 2009 12:15 AM

“Magnificent” is the word brought to mind by Flat Rock Playhouse's “Man of La Mancha,” the timeless story of the 17th- century “mad knight” who jousts with windmills and pursues the impossible dream.

A play within a play, “La Mancha” tells the story of Spanish tax collector Miguel de Cervantes, who with his assistant Sancho is thrown into prison to await the judgment of the Inquisition for daring to tax a monastery.

To escape harsh treatment from fellow prisoners, Cervantes seeks to amuse them by acting out a story he has written. It tells the tale of a delusional old man who proclaims himself Don Quixote, a knight-errant who seeks to right all wrongs.

David Lutken gives an unforgettable performance as Don Quixote, whose grandiose self-deception has no limits. Not only does he imagine himself a knight 300 years after the age of knights, but he declares the lowly harlot Aldonza to be instead the high-born lady Dulcinea, the epitome of innocence and grace.

Ariela Morgenstern is delightful as saucy wench Aldonza. She jeers at Don Quixote's doting attention to her as the fair Dulcinea but slowly begins to believe she can have a better life.

Patric John Morgan gives a touching performance as Sancho, who follows Don Quixote's madcap fantasies wherever they lead, proclaiming, “I really like him.” The delusion reaches manic proportions when Don Quixote declares the brass shaving basin carried by the barber (Scott Treadway) is really the “golden helmet of Mandrino.”

Of course, noble ambitions inevitably draw opposition. Don Quixote is obsessed with an archenemy he calls “the Enchanter,” but his greatest nemesis is scheming Dr. Carrasco (Damian Duke Domingue), who seeks to shatter his grand illusions with the searing truth of reality.

“Man of La Mancha” focuses on the age-old dichotomy between man's sometimes soaring aspirations (“The Impossible Dream”) and his much baser achievement, whether it is better to reach for the unattainable or settle for what is easy and obvious.

With book by Dale Wasserman, music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion, it tells of Don Quixote's quest in some of the best-loved music of the American theater. To deliver the full sound required for this production, Flat Rock has assembled the largest music contingent in the theater's history, including some outstanding Hendersonville High School band members.

Director Paige Posey and a strong cast of veteran Flat Rock actors and some talented newcomers deliver a show that is among the best in recent memory. If you plan to see only one show at the Rock this summer, make this the one.

Tim Reid reviews theater for Take5. Contact him at timreid4@charter.net.

Funny Girl

From the C-T
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“Funny Girl,” opening the season at Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre, is a most representative, if formulaic, example of 20th century American musical theater. It's full of New York showbiz elements: show girls, show tunes, aspects of vaudeville, a bit of Yiddish, sequins, glamour, star power, impresarios, glitz and lots of dazzling dancing. And it was well chosen for launching a rousing, upbeat, attention-getting summer of theater in the venerable Owen Theatre on the Mars Hill College campus.

Liz Aiello may have been born for the role of Fanny Brice in this slice of pseudo-history from the early life of the famed mid-century comedienne and stage maven. Barbra Streisand is forever associated with both stage and film forms of this story, and with major tunes from the score by Jule Styne. Think “People, people who love people — are the luckiest people in the world...,” and “Don't Rain on my Parade.”

Aiello competes favorably with the Streisand versions of both hits, and interprets all the subtle inflections with panache.

The show calls for a large cast and the stage is often filled with near a score of able actors, all capably coached by show director and company artistic director Bill Gregg. No way to name and comment on all the stellar talent, but some standouts amongst the cast are male lead Christopher Lynn of Asheville, who plays Brice's love interest Nick Arnstein, Peter Tamm as comic foil Eddie Ryan (and the boy can dance), and Chris Caggiano as the Ziegfeld tenor, whose soaring high register is most impressive. Tony Medlin is a mean Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr.

Choreographer Heidi Kulas has coached the dozen dancers into an ensemble of note. Amy Thrift, Amber Watson, Mary Ellen Jones, Erin McFarland, Rachel Shipley and Brittany Hazeldine are among a bevy of beauties who kick and wiggle with the best of them. Of the guy dancers Mitchel Hillburn and Mackenzie Knapp are notable magnetic movers and shakers. Some of the dance moves are quite daring and well accomplished.

Leigh Margaret Manning must have had much fun pulling together the garb with which to clothe these more-than-a-score actors.

Hats and shoes, topcoats and bags are all evocative of the roaring '20s, and add much to the visual appeal of the show. Richard Seagle gives us a deep, three-tiered set. Owen Theatre is lacking enough lighting power to fully illuminate the side areas of the broad stage, but light designer Robert Berls does the best with what he has to work with. Nice shadow effects, but brighter spots would be a positive addition.

A spirited, unseen house band is led by Paul Schierhorn, with Virginia McKnight on piano, Ben Clymer on trombone and Tim Morgan playing a mean trumpet for the “Cornet Man” tune. Bruce Lang, James Mathis and Justin Maybry round out the backstage band.

Never before have those crystal chandeliers hanging above the audience in Owen Theatre looked more appropriate than when Nick Arnstein woos Fanny Brice in various upscale locales. Those sparkling fixtures once hung in the lobby of downtown Asheville's Battery Park Hotel. A touch of Ziegfeld, way off-Broadway.

Jim Cavener reviews theater for take5.

Like Mother

This is from the C-T. It is a review of two shows, but there is already a posting for I Wrote This Play..., so there you are.
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Theater review: NC Stage does two comedies in repertory
Original post.

Jim Cavener I take5 Correspondent • published June 5, 2009 12:15 am

N.C. Stage Company is trying something different with its current repertory production of the comedy “Like Mother” and “I Wrote this Play to Make You Love Me.” The company has long considered a repertory session, with two or more plays and some of the same cast in production at the same time. For the early summer, comedies seemed to be in order.

“Mother” and “Wrote” are written by women writers/actors known to NCSC's founders from their days of theater in New York City, and both of whom had come to Asheville in recent years to appear in the theater's productions.

The third play in this series, “A Beautiful View,” was also on the company's radar screen, and will join the season on June 17th.

Both current works are somewhat autobiographical and both are billed as comedies, although both have serious, meaningful overtones. “Wrote This Play” is deadly serious much of the time, and is for the most mature audiences. The material and language is rife with candid sexual situations — think “Sex and The City” with no holds barred. This is hard-core candor, tough-talking topics and graphic language.

These two vehicles have much in common: youngish women, writing from their experience in theater in Gotham, starring in their own work. In “Mother” the playwright, Shannon Polly, is the only actor on stage, although voice-overs by Willie Repoley are quite vivid, yet the father-figure they bring is heard, not seen. “Mother” is seen from the perspective of the daughter of the proverbial stage-mother-from-hell. It's intensified by her daughter's marriage, and the mother's being “mother-of-the-bride” — with all the rights and privileges appertaining thereto.

In “Wrote” Anne Thibault interprets Lysette, with local stage presence Hans Meyer playing the male figures, notably Lysette's brother Zach.

But the major work is done by the author. It is the life story of a young actress, as told from the perspective of the too oft passed-over Lysette getting the role of her dreams, that of Nora in Ibsen's “The Doll's House.” The central events of her life are all of loss rather than gain, as in being abandoned by a mother, the loss of a brother, the distance and decline of a father, and the frustration and futility of having lots of sex, but little intimacy or affection.

Polly, of “Mother,” is charming, delightful and appealing as herself and her mother. This is a ribald spoof of dominating moms, but with some tender and authentic moments of genuine emotion, which keeps the fun from being saccharine and syrupy.

Thibault's “Wrote” is much more serious, and there is much poignancy and pathos. Thibault's character study of Lysette is wise and deep beyond her years, the writing is painfully beautiful, and her performing is well done. Both writers know how to construct drama and write contemporary dialogue that rings true.

A distinguishing aspect between these two effective plays is that “Mother” incorporates six splendid songs that advance the plot, with Polly able to belt the Broadway ballad with the best of them. Although the songs are not well known, they borrow from show tune genres, and even incorporate a few bars of familiar theater tunes, to good effect.

“Wrote” has to get all its mileage simply from the power of words, and there is a lot to be gotten from this script.

Jim Cavener writes on theater for take5

I wrote this play to make you love me.

This is a post from the blog Art Seen Asheville(Art Seen Asheville: I wrote this play to make you love me.)
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With a title like "I wrote this play to make you love me" how could you not go see this show which is currently running at NC Stage Company in downtown Asheville. I realized the other day that 95% of the plays I've really enjoyed or had the most interest in attending played at NC Stage Company. As far as seeing good theater in Asheville - this venue seems the most reliable.
Written by and starring Anne Thibault, IWTPTMYLM is a terrific piece of theater which literally made me laugh and cry. Thibault carries the play with her powerful presence and her timing between vignettes is dead on. Using minimal props and no scene changes, the strength of the piece lies in Thibault's uncompromising script about a struggling actress - Lysette - who is dealing with the emotional woes of her married boyfriend. Along the way, we learn about past love affairs, her emotionally torn childhood, and her Catholic upbringing via really hilarious conversations with her brother.
When I read on the website that "only adults will be admitted" of course I rolled my eyes a little. I was thinking, okay, what does "adult content" exactly refer to - how risque is this really gonna get? In retrospect I can see why you wouldn't want to bring your kids to see this but I think teenagers could appreciate most of the content - especially girls. I know I could have handled it as a teen (Just not while sitting next to my mother. OMFG.)
They say we laugh to keep from crying, and the humor of this play is born out of some intense life experiences. I'm still giggling over that scene where she's comparing the guys tongue to a minnow. I have to admit, I shed a tear (well, many tears) the second act and was holding them back in the first one.
While you're at it, check out the two other plays that are running at NC Stage this season. Bitch from Bitch and Animal was sitting next to me in the audience and she filled me in on the fact that she and Thibault will be performing in a piece together beginning June 17. Sounds like a intriguing combination to me.
www.ncstage.org for more information and schedule

THE WHO'S TOMMY

If anyone was doubting Rock Eblen's ability to effectively produce, direct, and act in a Broadway style musical using only local talent, they should have seen his latest effort at Diana Wortham Theatre May 14-17. A wise collaboration with The Asheville Arts Center put Eblen at the helm for this ambitious project despite the lean economy and stiff competition with other local theaters. On opening night audience members were practically jumping out of their seats when the cast came out for curtain call.

Last year, Eblen pulled off JC SUPERSTAR in the same venue, although one writer in this blog seemed bent on attacking him for taking on the role of Jesus. The guy likes to act and he's damn good at it...so what if he also produces and directs at the same time? A true artist doesn't heed people who say "You can't do that!" So if one chooses to be so bold, he better know theater, and he better know how to cast good local talent who will do it for no pay. This is community theater we're talking about...yet I overheard tourists in the audience who thought TOMMY was a professional production. That's how good it was.

Of course it wasn't flawless. There were some problems with body mics cutting out, and a few missed light cues. The band sound levels had to be adjusted, but once the musicians got rockin', every head, even the grey heads, started bobbin' to Pete Townshend's classic rock score. Chuck Taft is a gifted musical director, able to handle anything from The Who's wild stuff to Lerner and Loewe. The music was pretty much non-stop with small bits of dialogue to elucidate Tommy's journey. Excellent choreography came from Mary Katherine Smith, and Susan Sertain of The Costume Shoppe put together delightful period costumes ranging from the 40's to the 60's.

Another fascinating aspect of this production was the staging. Eblen had the actors zipping stylish sets in and out while scenes magically blended into each other. He designed two of the set pieces from scratch, one being a flashy pinball machine Tommy could actually ride on, and the other a giant yellow slanted "T" (toppled Tommy) which took on various disguises to become by turn a Union Jack court, a purple pulpit, and even a bright red gypsy chariot.

Talk about gypsys, Margaret Evans was belting like Tina when she took little Tommy and the audience for a ear-bending ride with the Acid Queen.

Young Gabriel Gibson was perfect as the deaf, dumb, and blind kid who made many eyes moist that evening. Payton Turpin was major comic relief with his Uncle Ernie's Holiday Camp song on a giant tricycle. Newcomer Brad Pearsall was hot in black leather as he strutted and crooned the role of bully Cousin Kevin. Nicely polished duets came from Kelli Mullinix (Mrs.Walker) with Rod Leigh (Lover and The Hawker) and a new song added to the show by Townshend which she sang with Eblen as Captain Walker. The all important role of Narrator/Tommy was caked with charisma by Michael Wilson whose voice can melt your bones.

This was a terrific fundraiser for Eblen Charities and proves Bioflyer Productions is here to stay. So if you missed it, you missed it. But I dare you to find anybody WHO did see it WHO didn't love THE WHO'S TOMMY.

--Estella Banks

A Body of Water

Theater review: "A Body of Water" is powerful production

Jim Cavener • published May 8, 2009 10:59 am

The term psychological drama has become a cliche, too often used. Yet, if any single phrase could describe the Immediate Theatre Project's latest show, “A Body of Water,” this might be it. This script by Lee Blessing is a doozey, and is a major mind-bender. But, that's just for starters.

With “Body of Water” we have his consummate conundrum, an enigma shrouded in a quandary. There is a chronological challenge here, but more. The major characters wake each morning with no certainty of who they are and what they have in common.

We have this undefined couple, a possible daughter, and an unseen alleged murder victim. But, could she' be simply an angry child taking it out on befuddled parents? Or not their child at all? Who's playing who for what?

The stark but dazzlingly dramatic stage is set with chic white-on-black contemporary furnishings loaned by Mobilia.

Lighting uses intensity almost as ambient visual punctuation. It's a captivating trick and one which enriches the whole. These technical theater elements are lumped together as “production design” and attributed to Immediate Theatre Project. Clearly, director and company co-founder Hans Meyer (along with other ITP principals Lauren Fortuna and Willie Repoley) are behind this brilliance.

The cast is small but stellar: company veteran and local diva Kay Galvin is the woman, Avis, who may have a husband, and may have a daughter. The man, Moss, who may be husband and/or father is given by long-time N.C. School of the Arts acting professor Marty Rader. These are mature and well-rendered roles, well carrying much weight.

Maybe the most curious of the three roles is the younger woman, not a victim of dementia or amnesia, but more scary. Katie Fuller is aptly cast as Wren or Robin, or some bird-name, and needs only to speak a tad more slowly and loudly to give us all the nuances of this critical role. Is she working on legal defense or is she a sadistic manipulator? Loving daughter or vicious con-artist?

A murder mystery with frank sexual discussions, a high-tension game of power and control, some charming comedic moments amongst the tension, and a psycho-drama of intense dimensions all combined in one two hour experience. Asheville does do theater well.

Jim Cavener writes on theater for the Citizen-Times.

Enchanted April

Please click on the title above to link to the MX review. (Thanks, MX!)
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Urinetown

Maybe the MX is going to keep these reviews coming, Let's hope so.
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Urinetown the Musical at Theatre UNCA
By John Crutchfield on 04/24/2009

I once cautioned a friend of mine who was coming to see me perform in a production of Twelfth Night some years ago at Appalachian State University, to keep in mind that for college theatre productions, the show’s educational value was at least as important as its aesthetic — and certainly its commercial — value. The main purpose of such productions is to provide an educational experience (however defined) for the students; and depending on the program, this is not necessarily the same thing as putting on the strongest show possible in artistic terms.

I assume this is one reason why high school and college theatre departments so often do Broadway musicals. Apart from the variety of specific skills required of the performers, such productions demand a massive coordinated effort among actors, musicians, dancers, set and costume designers, lighting and sound designers, stage hands, etc., to say nothing of the staff of directors. The musical, one might say, is another great symbol of American Democracy. But on second thought, so is The Pequod.

In any event, I have little doubt that the students involved in the current production at UNCA (and there are lots of them), are learning a tremendous amount from this experience. They obviously love doing the show, and through much of it, their enthusiasm is enough to carry the audience along.

The play, Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis’s scrappy hit, Urinetown, arose from the pungent July heat of the New York Fringe Festival in 1999 to become one of the most celebrated new musicals on Broadway in 2001. It ran continuously at the Henry Miller Theatre until June of 2004. Above all, critics praised it for its meta-theatrical wit (c.f. Officer Lockstock: “You’re too young to understand it right now, Little Sally, but nothing can kill a show like too much exposition”), and was seen to present a rather acerbic satire of American capitalism, populism, government bureaucracy and corporate greed.

It’s the satiric element, manifested in the play as irony, that is most interesting, since in its structure (the so-called “non-happy-ending” notwithstanding) the play is entirely conventional. Performing it thus presents certain challenges that go beyond those usually associated with musicals. The performers must not only sing, dance and (yes) act; they must also — and this is absolutely essential — refrain from playing the irony. Unfortunately, self-restraint is not something one expects many college actors (or actors at all, for that matter) to be good at without strong directing. The director has to help the actors see that the plot and dialogue are already doing the work of the satire. Their job, as performers, is to commit to their characters’ intentions in the scene, and play it straight.

This sounds simple enough in theory, but in practice is incredibly difficult — especially in an age (and age-group) where irony is, as it were, the default setting. Director Rob Bowen and his colleagues deserve praise for challenging their students to meet the demands of such a sophisticated play. And the result is, perhaps not surprisingly, mixed.

The play is set in a dystopian world where, in an effort to conserve water, private toilets have been banned, along with public urination, while a single mega-corporation (“Urine Good Company”) owns all public bathrooms—for the use of which a fee is charged. (According to legend, the conceit has its origins in writer Kotis’ experience traveling “on a budget” in France.) As a dramatic premise, this sounds serviceable enough. But Urinetown, despite its title, is in fact a rather antiseptic play. Its self-conscious meta-theatricality is turned up so high that all authentic emotion boils away in an instant. Hence the question of the relative “happiness” of the ending never really arises — or rather, it arises only because one of the characters raises it. Moreover, very little of the actual plot is not directly or indirectly derived (and always with a wink and a nudge) from other well-known musicals: West Side Story comes to mind, as do Les Miserables and several of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s better-known works. Even Brecht’s Threepenny Opera contributes a character or two, and Kurt Weill’s score is audible, if somewhat garbled, in Hollmann’s. One has the impression that the play consists almost entirely of quotations from other musicals; and indeed, the show’s creators make little effort to conceal these larcenies. On the contrary, they assume we recognize them, and this is what gives the play that postmodern je ne sais quoi.

In other words, the play seeks to create — and appeal to (or, to put it bluntly, exploit) — a kind of “insider”-community consciousness among people who know and love the Broadway Musical, with all its conventions, its hackneyed melodrama and endlessly re-animated tropes. Without this meta-theatrical consciousness, the play is as devoid of charm as it is of content. It’s just not that interesting to watch people pretending to have to pee really badly.

Luckily, most of the audience at UNCA’s Belk Theatre seemed to “get” it, and in fact, the night I saw the show, they forgave the under-rehearsed dance numbers, the capricious lighting and the mishandled entrances and exits, and gave the cast a standing ovation. Nevertheless, I couldn’t shake the impression that some of the actors were scarcely aware that they were performing in front of an audience at all. (I noticed several of them slouching in their tableaux, literally resting on their haunches, and one or two even mouthing speeches or songs that belonged to someone else.) For some others, their awareness of the audience seemed so palpable, and the desire to please so desperate, that they were hard to watch.

But then there is Cody Magouirk. A senior theatre major who appeared memorably as “Caliban” in last year’s The Tempest Project, this young man almost succeeds in making it all okay. It would be easy to enumerate his many strengths as a performer — his physical precision and expressiveness would certainly be at the top of such a list –– but I’d like to focus on one quality I find rare indeed in young actors: the guy knows how to stay in the scene. In this, he is not alone in the cast, but he’s by far the most consistent. When Magouirk is on stage, though his performance as “Bobby Strong” (the romantic lead) is far from flawless, we know we’re in good hands: the energy picks up, the scene starts to move, the other actors come alive, things happen, we can hear what’s being said and sung. By the same token, no sooner has he made his exit than the tension starts to sag again. The latter half of Act II suffers in this respect, and it passes that suffering on.

Magouirk’s performance is funny, too, precisely because he refrains from the mugging that wreaks havoc on most of the other performances. He knows, perhaps intuitively, what most of the other performers apparently do not: that even in the hyper-stylized and artificial world of the Broadway Musical, someone trying to be funny is less amusing than someone trying to be serious and failing. Magouirk embodies his absurd, one-dimensional character with complete conviction. He plays it straight, as the play requires, and he responds with a lively spontaneity to what the other actors give him. I also liked Carly Crawford as “Little Sally” (How does such a loud voice come from such a small person?), and Skyler Goff as “Caldwell B. Cladwell” and Bridget Paterson as “Hope Cladwell” both have strong scenes. No one is seriously miscast. The costumes are well-conceived and executed, and on the whole, the singing in the show is quite impressive. The band (under Musical Director Ruth Seiber Johnson), manages admirably, despite the predictable and cliché-riddled score. I found at least something to admire in almost every scene.

I realize of course that I’m holding these students — and their teachers — to what is really a rather high professional standard. Perhaps that’s unfair. After all, a standing ovation has got to mean something, a testimony to the audience having been entertained. Shouldn’t that be enough? Besides, who’s the outsider here? I have no detailed knowledge of the specific training these students are getting, and hence can only speculate as to the pedagogical intentions behind this production. But I do know that this program has been an important part of the theatre community here in Asheville for many years now, as well as the incubator of many of our currently active theatre artists — professional and amateur alike. I would like to imagine that, were I an ambitious theatre student there, the perspective of someone outside my immediate school environment would be salutary, if for no other reason than this: after graduation, there’ll be nothing more between me and the audience but my hard-won skills and self-discipline, my intelligence and the depth of my commitment to the art of theatre. If I haven’t built up the courage necessary to stay in the scene with friends, how will I find it with people I don’t know, and in front of strangers?

Urinetown, The Musical, playing at UNCA’s Belk Theatre, through Sunday, April 26, evenings at 8 p.m., matinee at 2 p.m. Tickets: $10/$12/$15. Music: Mark Hollmann. Lyrics: Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis. Book: Greg Kotis. Director: Rob Bowen. Musical Director: Ruth Seiber Johnson. Choreography: Cherie Holmes.

Art

A review from blueridgenow.com, http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20090423/NEWS/904239958/1151?Title=-Art-is-a-play-you-ll-ponder-on-the-way-home
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'Art' is a play you'll ponder on the way home
By Bill Moss
Times-News Staff Writer

A fun exercise among old friends, having seen Art, the new play at Flat Rock Playhouse, would be to uncork a favorite bottle of wine and ask:

1. Who was right? Was Serge right to follow his heart and spontaneously shell out for a painting the amount most people would spend on a house? Was best friend Marc right to be upset about this? How could Yvan, the natural diplomat who has no opinions of his own, have moderated the war better?

2. Who do you know that’s like Yvan? How about Serge? How about Marc? (Marc, definitely.)

3. Is Art more suitable for 20-somethings, 30-somethings, 40-somethings or beyond?

In other words, Art is the sort of play that we think about on the way home, and the next day.

An internationally acclaimed comedy originally in French, Art is tightly crafted and expertly acted by three Playhouse veterans — Scott Treadway (Serge), Bill Munoz (Marc) and Damian Duke Domingue (Yvan).

Longtime friends in real life, the three portray friends whose relationship is capsized by Serge’s purchase of a modern painting, the value of which only he can see.

The casting is perfect.

Serge, a dermatologist and art aficionado, starts the ruckus by buying the white-on-white painting, with faintly discernible lines signifying ... well, something, at least to him. Treadway is Treadway, rock-solid and reliably comic, marvelously quizzical in his reaction to both of his friends. As always, he is as good reacting to what’s around him as speaking.

Munoz turns in a strong performance of quiet rage, then not so quiet rage at the disintegration of the underpinning of his relationship with Serge, at least in his way of thinking.

As Yvan, Domingue delivers a hilarious story of the most mixed-up pre-wedding crisis you’ve ever heard, made even funnier by the thunderstruck reaction of his two friends.

The conflict starts at the very top, with Serge’s art purchase and Marc’s visceral negative reaction to it. The disagreement unearths an underlying hostility between the two, like pollution bubbling up from leaky barrels.

Marc cannot understand how his friend could “lose every ounce of discernment, for sheer snobbery.” Serge can’t stand Marc’s aggressive refusal to be “modern,” to “live in his time.”

Yvan finds himself in the middle, hapless and helpless. He’s got problems enough dealing with his fiancee, stepmother, mother and other wedding landmines, yet is pulled violently to and fro by Serge and Marc. It’s not enough that they’ve turned on each other; they turn on him, too.

He’s an ineffective umpire, stampeded and obliterated by a bench-clearing brawl of two. Serge and Marc in turn are catty, bull-headed and snarling as they intensify the battle.

There’s either a lot going on here, or not much, depending on your perspective. It’s "Seinfeld" if George, Kramer and Jerry had more money and better educations. And like a Seinfeld episode, it’s hard to see how the conflict can resolve at all, much less amicably.
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This is all funnier than it sounds. It’s often hilarious. These three actors would excel at most anything the Playhouse could stage; the booster rocket of Art is the script, with its fast-paced repartee and truly funny lines. They don’t have to rescue weak material, as with a Norm Foster “comedy.”

Marc has become so unraveled over the art purchase that he takes to swallowing tranquilizers.

“What are you eating?” Serge asks.

“Ignatia,” Marc says.

“You believe in homeopathy now?”

“I don’t believe in anything.”

It’s a funny line but filled with meaning, too. Marc does believe strongly in friendship, and he feels that has been undercut. Eventually, we learn why he thinks Serge’s decision to spend $200,000 on a white-on-white canvas is such an affront.

Dennis Maulden’s set is spare; a script this strong does not require embellishment. Michael Mauren’s lighting is just right, not overbearing.
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Art has gotten publicity for its use of the F word. Those loaded for a big scandal I think will be disappointed.

For the historical record, the word was uttered on the Flat Rock Playhouse stage for the first time at 8:49 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, 2009 AD.

“Yvan manages to be late for everything,” Serge says. “Where in the f--- is he?”

It’s uttered several more times, including a machine-gun repetition among all three characters arguing over who “f---ed up” the evening.

If you don’t want to hear the word, don’t go. It’s not hidden.

But it’s not a major star of the script by any means. Instead of an F-bomb, it’s a series of F-spitballs. It will be jarring to delicate ears, uttered from this well-loved stage, but hardly more offensive than the sex-saturated cheating housewife dramas and double entendre-laced sitcoms that ooze through our TV sets.

Art is much more entertaining than the small-screen stuff, and less offensive than a lot of movies on the big screen.

Volumes have been devoted to the meaning of art and the meaning of friendship. Art, the play, combines that exploration in a most enjoyable and provocative way.

Eve-olution

A rare review from the MX
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Eve-olution at Asheville Commmunity Theatre
By Jamie Shell on 04/16/2009

Look beyond the abominable title. ACT’s 35Below is currently presenting the North Carolina premiere of Hilary Illick and Jennifer Krier’s Eve-Olution. But the writing is better than one might think.

Eve-olution is the story of two working mothers, Alison (Susan Stanley) and Liza (Wendi Loomis). The women tell their stories of balancing career, relationship, and child-rearing via alternating monologues on separate halves of the stage, centered around their respective beds. A lot of the action happens to take place in the bedroom (not like that – okay, sometimes like that). The minimal set (designed by Jillian Summers) works well to facilitate both a basic visual for the backdrop of their vignettes, and a hiding place for the various props that enhance their speaking.

The script is, perhaps, a little chick flick-y, but I appreciated its candor, humor and vulnerability. The writing touches the difficulties of career women starting families, within the frame of Alison’s and Liza’s perceptions of their own mothers, and the influences of their mothers on their own child-rearing. (This latter point resonated with me, despite my lack of children ... well, other than the 75 teenagers whose minds I attempt to mold during the week.)

The arc of the play takes a little while to firmly differentiate between the struggles of the two characters. At first they are both just noticing that their careers and relationships are suffering—it felt a little niche and a little unnecessary to have two separate characters with the same problem. The characters do develop more distinctly, as Alison copes with the idea of abandoning her job altogether, and with the envy of her model-parent-type friends. Liza learns to juggle four small children and a laptop. Liza, with one notable exception, tends to have more cute and funny problems, while Alison’s obstacles move a bit more towards pathos, though in a real rather than melodramatic way.

Both actors deliver strong, convincing performances. Loomis lends the appropriate comic, exuberant, and, at times harried air to make Liza a very likeable though flawed persona. Stanley is exceptional, particularly in bringing out the deep insecurity and sensuality of her character. Direction by Anne Slatton is virtually invisible, in the way good direction should be. The one questionable choice—which may have been scriptural in nature—was bringing the two women together at center stage at the beginning and end of the play. Their characters aren’t written to be friends, and the lines in these scenes are still, essentially, monologues, yet they interact with each other as though they are acquainted. The effect is rather stilted and odd.

Eve-olution is a by turns honest, painful, charming and humorous take on modern motherhood. I expect mothers will particularly relate and enjoy, but offspring are not a prerequisite to being entertained by this play.

A Number

From the C-T
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Review: “A Number” is dynamite drama

The small, downtown North Carolina Stage Company's house is usually configured as a thrust stage, with audience on three sides. When deciding to do Caryl Churchill's quite unusual and riveting script “A Number,” director Ron Bashford chose to reconfigure the conventional stage into theater-in-the-round by adding a row of seats at the back of the customary 'stage.'

This logistical discussion is a conscious and blatant ploy to avoid any revelation of the astonishing plot. It's all about the emergence of a longheld family secret involving a single-parent father and three - or more - sons. And, therein is the secret. Out of consideration for future audiences, we'll avoid a discussion of the startling script, thus revealing the big surprises in store for those who get to see this intriguing show.

The power of this plot is strong enough to rely on fine acting, alone. The set is simply an oval, tiled floor. No backdrop nor decoration. The scenery, as created by Don Baker, is only two stylized chairs and a patio chair-side table. No props needed. Clothing, not costumes, conceived by Deborah Austin, appears so comfortable and unconscious that it could it could be from each actors own closet, although most is not.

Even the lighting by Sarah Elliott is monochromatically off-white, and the sound design by Hans Meyer is tuneless and without melody, but effectively creates or sustains a feeling, a mood and an aural context. It's all very simple, basic, essential to the complexity of this challenging story-line.

Okay, it's the writing and the acting that carry the show – and carry it a long distance, indeed. It's performed all within an intense, condensed, concentrated and distilled hour and ten minutes, without intermission. And the acting is done by two awesome actors. Graham Smith, a mainstay of the Charlotte area stage, portrays Salter, a single father, and NCSC co-founder Charles McIver creates his several sons. The sons are identified in the program by names and ages. But that only complicates the story. Go figure.

British-Canadian playwright Churchill's “A Number” is a dynamite drama. It's not light entertainment, but solid and significant stuff that will send you away thinking about science and identity, ethics and moral inquiry. And thinking far into the night, for sure.

Jim Cavener reviews theater for take5.

Weldon Rising

Another C-T review.
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Billing a tense and graphic theater experience about a gay-bashing hate crime as a comedy has inherent risks.

Scapegoat Theatre Collective's fine “Weldon Rising” is a case in point. The script does call for comedic devices, and there is ample opportunity gales of laughter.

But in the current production at downtown Asheville's BeBe Theatre, the audience is torn between responding to horror before its very eyes and enjoying the stereotypical drag queen who always refers to herself in the third person.

Directed by Taryn Strauss and written by Phyllis Nagy, “Weldon Rising” is theater that makes you work for your reward.

It's not likely many viewers will say they enjoyed the show. But sensitive and aware audience members can easily acknowledge their appreciation of the work and its execution.

Among the surrealistic elements in the show: a heat wave ravishing New York's Central Park that might suggest hell; a central character shredding paper and cloth as he falls to pieces; and a stigmata right out of pre-Enlightenment superstition.

It's set in New York City's Greenwich Village in the 1980s.

A biracial lesbian couple live across from a gay male duo, at least one of whom shares living accommodations with a tortured drag queen, Marcel, who always refers to herself in the third-person.

Stephanie Hickling and Brooke Whitcomb are the lesbian couple duo; Peter Brezny and Scott Fisher are convincing as the young, ill-fated gay males.

Marcel becomes a mantra as the towering diva expresses her displeasure by using her stage name, as in “Marcel does not approve of that.”

Actor Scott Thompson could milk the comedic moments even more, but — given the heavy-duty tragedy played out on stage — finding this balance is a tough challenge.

Jason Williams plays the only sexually undefined role, and his Boy is effective, equal to the fine acting of the others.

“Weldon Rising” asks us to consider our response to the issue of hate, still all too common, around us.

Jim Cavener writes on theater for take5

What's LYLAS Got To Do With It?

Review: LYLAS bring on laughs in new show
JIM CAVENER I TAKE5 CORRESPONDENT • PUBLISHED MARCH 27, 2009 12:15 AM

Asheville's all-women's comedy sketch troupe LYLAS (Love Ya' Like a Sister) does original comedic skits better than most of our other local, slap-happy, high-energy troupes, all seemingly inspired by NBC's venerable “Saturday Night Live.” Like SNL, with LYLAS nothing is sacrosanct or immune from the LYLAS magic touch, or slash.

This high-estrogen bunch has imagination and skills galore. LYLAS' seventh original show in less than four years, “What's LYLAS Got to Do With It?” is laughs all the way.

Seven lively 30-somethings bounce about the stage and tear into all things Asheville. Jenny Bunn provides a cleverly conceived “curtain speech” adjacent to an edgy “Martini Mom” sketch. Hip haiku and fast-paced references to current events keep listeners on their toes.

Probably the most innovative and insightful skit is a tour of downtown Asheville by Segway, with the women getting a guide's narrative that is simply brilliant. Downtown's Urban Trail, BB&T building, former City Councilman Brian Freeborn, the Asiana buffet, metrosexuals, the cobblestones on Market Street and other aspects of our Mountain Metropolis all get the treatment.

Another high-point of the evening was a commentary on Roman Catholicism, Wiccans, Lutherans and Unitarians, related to tattoos, worthy of Garrison Keillor's weekly NPR show, “A Prairie Home Companion.” Some other sketches get downright randy and raunchy, and demand that this reviewer alert potential audiences that this is not a show for the kiddos.

At those points only certain oldsters and grandmas will be entertained more than offended. But, fortunately, Asheville could fill the hall every night with enough grandmas who would, totally “get it” and embrace the whole show. Maybe a few grandpas, too. Maybe....

Additional cast performers include Marissa Williams, Robin Raines, Emily Miller, Delina Hensley, Sarah Carpenter and Kerri Brantley Ostergaard. These six and Bunn are all introduced with superbly produced video snippets of each at the wheel of her respective auto. Very original and very cool. The Segway tour is also enhanced by skilled video projections.

These videos, and sound work of Peter Brezny, are an inspired contribution to the whole, with cinematography, editing and projection of the highest quality. Brezny's work, coupled with filmed cameos of Scott Bunn and David Ostergaard, show that if they are sharp enough, and marry well, there is still room for a limited number of men in the universe.

Jim Cavener reviews theater for take5.

Narnia

CT again
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Review: Strong cast, music make ACT's ‘Narnia' a delight
TIM REID I TAKE 5 CORRESPONDENT • PUBLISHED MARCH 20, 2009 12:15 AM

Asheville Community Theatre presents C.S. Lewis' fantasy world for children in the enchanting musical “Narnia,” based on Lewis' “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”

A large cast and a big sound make this one of the more ambitious undertakings on the ACT stage. They troupe pulls it off with energy and enthusiasm thanks to deft directing by Cindy Baldwin and lavish costumes by Deborah Austin and Susan Dillard.

Bradshaw Call gives a commanding performance as the lion king Aslan, whose blood-curdling roar is tempered by his sacrificing spirit. Christina Johnson is mesmerizing as the White Witch, who torments the people of Narnia in a perpetual winter with no Christmas.

The story centers on four siblings who flee to a relative's huge home during World War II. While exploring a wardrobe, they step into the strange world of Narnia, where ancient prophecy says that four human children will rescue the land from the White Witch.

Edmund (Lincoln Belford) is duped by the witch into her scheme to negate the prophecy by capturing his brother Peter (Dylan Murray) and sisters Susan (Meredith Matsakis) and Lucy (Danielle Germann). Narnia's residents rejoice to see the “children of Adam” as the hoped-for relief from their suffering under the White Witch. Ryan Jevne and Katie Jevne nearly steal the show as Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, who dance and prance in delight over the prospect of an end to the White Witch.

With the children's presence, the snow begins to melt, and Father Christmas (Frank Avery) appears bearing special gifts for the human children. But the White Witch is not done yet and manages to tempt Edmund into betrayal and turns half-man/half-goat Mr. Tummus (Robert Shupe) into stone. Only Aslan can end the enslavement by the White Witch in a plot twist that seems Christ-like and reminiscent of the author's deep religious faith.

Musicians Linda Walker, Gary Mitchell, Jim Anthony, Sabrina Kumar and Kit Powell produce the sound that helps makes the land of Narnia so mysterious and yet so appealing. “Narnia” still charms more than five decades after its creation. This adaptation with book by Jules Tasca and music by Thomas Tierney is sure to please children of all ages.

Tim Reid reviews theater for the Asheville Citizen-Times.

Blog issue

Hi all -- we have heard some rumors a few posts getting deleted from ARAR recently. Editorship has not deleted anything, so if you have recently tried to make a post that never showed, or disappeared, please email berngrier@gmail.com, and we'll try and figure out what the problem is.
Thanks for reading. Thanks for posting.
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Stones at DW

Citizen-Times...
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Theater review: North Carolina Stage strikes gold with "Stones in His Pockets"

Tony Kiss • TKiss@CITIZEN-TIMES.com • published March 12, 2009 10:39 am

ASHEVILLE “Stones in His Pockets” rocks at North Carolina Stage Company. For a second time, this Asheville theatre hits the mother lode with this comedy-drama about a little Irish village, besieged by a crew of Hollywood moviemakers who have turned the place on its ear.

The show, written by Marie Jones, again stars Charles McIver and Scott Treadway, handling a variety of roles, but mostly playing two blokes who are extras on the movie. McIver and Treadway have become Asheville’s acting dynamic duo, with a unique back-and-forth chemistry much needed for this type of show. Director Christopher Burns makes the most from this acting electricity.

“Stones” seems even timelier than its previous production three years ago, with its underlying theme of economic upheaval, and people being “dispossessed” from their homes and land. The Hollywood movie makers are pouring big bucks into this town – for now – but soon they’ll be gone, leaving the locals to again fend for themselves. And with St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, “Stones,” well, that’s just as lucky as a four-leaf clover.

Jake (McIver) and Charlie (Treadway) meet on the set of this movie epic. The men have different stories – Charlie is a bit of a schemer, forever trying to get someone on the movie to look at his screenplay. Jake is more laid back, just back from the states and uncertain of what lies ahead. These two characters would make a fine play themselves – and as the show unfolds, we learn much more about what makes them tick.

But Treadway and McIver have much more work at hand, each transforming into different characters with just a magical spin of their bodies. Treadway has a nice bit of gender-bender performance as Caroline Giovanni, the American movie star, while McIver’s best moments come in a brief turn as cousin Sean, the ne’er-do-well extra, and also as feisty old Mickey, “one of the last surviving extras” from the John Wayne Irish movie “The Quiet Man.”

Among the best moments: the actors play boys dreaming of their lives ahead, and later, do a superb, if silly, dance routine.

The ability of Treadway and McIver to pull this off is worth the price of admission alone; really, any pairing of the two would be worth the money. It is truly a testament to their superb acting abilities. Equally intriguing is the “Stones” script, which might be comedy with powerful moments, or perhaps drama with some laughs. Either way, it works.

“Stones in His Pockets” by North Carolina Stage Company

When: 8 p.m. through Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: Diana Wortham Theatre, Pack Place, Pack Square

How much: $25

Information: 257-4530

Offending the Audience

This weekend, I had the extreme please to go see two excellent plays (well, sort of). Today, I will tell you about the "sort of."

On Thursday, I saw the Corpus Theatre Collective's production of "Offending the Audience." This is best described as an anti-play. There is no plot and no characters. It is simply people talking to (and offending) you, the audience. This is a very good production, as the ensemble is a well chosen group of people who are excellent public speakers (which is really all this "play" needs). The "set" is only a series of stools and barricades to hook some lamps on. The show is the ultimate in meta-theatre. It is so meta, I'm sure some would even argue that it isn't even theatre.

I had some issues with it though. My biggest issue was that the production did not seem to present the spirit of the piece as effectively as it could have. The whole point of the piece (or it least, the presented point of the piece) is to present no artifice, no symbolism, nothing but the text. Now whether or not that is possible is another matter entirely. But there were certain things present in the production that certainly symbolised something. Now, the text also states that the text will contradict itself, but I feel that it would have been more interesting to show even less and present the audience with an even more conflicting question about whether it is possible to present artifice, without tipping the scales in either direction. (Of course, given how confusing this whole play/show/idea is, I freely admit I might be missing something.)

The best part of this play (and the fact that Corpus is presenting it) is just how mind spinning it is. While it is from the 60's and does have a little dust on it, it FORCES you to think about the basic concepts of the threatre, and your view on them. Articfice, shows vs plays, actors, the fourth wall, etc. This play gets you thinking.

As a theatre person, I loved this show. I have heard that many non theatre folk also loved the show. Go see it. It's high quality, cheap, and the best theatre mind f*ck I have ever seen.

Nathan Adams

Titus

C_T...
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Theater review: ‘Titus Adronicus' is wild and well-played
JIM CAVENER I TAKE5 CORRESPONDENT • PUBLISHED MARCH 6, 2009 12:15 AM

There are reasons why Shakespeare's earliest tragedy is rarely performed. “Titus Andronicus” is not a pretty play. Not that the words fail to flow smoothly, nor that the meter and cadence fail to inspire. It's that Montford Park Players' season opener is rife with violence and vengeance, murder and mayhem.

It has too much gore, including at least 14 murders, nine of them before our very eyes. We will spare you the other brutality.

The Montford Park Players has produced much of the Bard's alleged canon over its 36 seasons of outdoor summer theater. To achieve the whole body of work, “Titus” would have to be mounted sometime. This feisty company decided that the appropriate time was now.

Seeing this stylized production is not for the faint of heart. The seventy-some seats around the large thrust stage makes for an intimacy maybe more pleasing for comedic/romantic Shakespeare.

None of this is a criticism of the quality of this worthy production. The cast is large, all members competent, some inspired. Lovely young Peyton Siler Jones as Lavinia is compelling in her presence, and she's a 16 year-old sophomore at Asheville High School. David Hopes gives a powerful Marcus, the Tribune. There is no shortage of gender-bending in this cast, as many of Titus' sons are portrayed by women. One of the most impressive role switches is the ever-impressive Stephanie Hickling as Aaron, “the Moor,” lover of Tamora, queen of the Goths. Rae Cauthen is effective as that deeply detestable royal personage.

Greg Gassler as Saturninus gives a dazzling tour-de-force fling, while versatile director Jason Williams also carries the role of Demetrius. Charlotte Lawrence, recent grad of Warren Wilson College, gives us four roles, but her childlike Lucius the younger is a marvel, playing the future Roman ruler. From small to large is Lucius the elder, played by six foot-eight inch tall Travis Kelley. His is a strong portrayal. But, the scene stealer must be Jim Slautich in the title role.

There is symbolism galore: black fascist attire, color-coded armbands, mixed with contemporary threads making for rich, motley and varied costuming, attributed in the program to Rae Cauthen and Jason Williams.

Jim Cavener reviews theater for take5.

R&G

I'm reprinting this C-T review to give folks another opportunity to respond to the show. Since the original posting has led to a discussion about larger review issues, it seemed reasonable to make it as easy as possible for folks to contribute to one or the other of these threads.
Hope this makes sense.
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Review: ‘Rosencrantz' is complex but entertaining

TONY KISS • TKISS@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM • PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 22, 2009 12:15 AM

There are some shows that require total concentration while watching, and even then, it's difficult to grasp just what's going on. The absurdist comedy “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” is like that, but it's well worth seeing, because of the superb acting in this cast. And as puzzling as it can be, there is a payoff.

Playwright Tom Stoppard has taken Shakespeare's “Hamlet” and given it a very odd twist, pulling two minor characters from the classic, putting them in the spotlight and dropping them into a weird “Twilight Zone” like setting. And there is no Rod Serling to step out from behind the curtain to explain what's going on.

So unless you've seen this one before, or really understand “Hamlet” or Stoppard, don't feel bad sitting there, scratching your head. It's not supposed to be easy.

Director Angie Flynn-McIver has assembled an amazing cast, fronted by two familiar faces: Hans Meyer as Rosencrantz and Willie Repoley as Guildenstern, loyal but mostly unimportant friends of Prince Hamlet (Chris Allison).

The two have been cast into an odd world that they don't understand and have no way of escaping. They while away the hours tossing coins or playing back-and-forth word games, trying to remember who they are and how they came to be there. Rosencrantz is more of a simpleton and Guildenstern poses as the more knowledgeable of the pair, but it's a sort of Laurel and Hardy set-up.

Through the course of the story, they meet a traveling band of actors led by The Player (Michael MacCauley), who comes in and out of their world but offers little help in sorting it out. Our boys sometimes find themselves where they belong — as characters in “Hamlet” — as the King and Queen (Joe Sturgeon and Lauren Fortuna) seek their help in understanding the madness of the Prince.

And so it goes. But there is a point in the show — as in its title — where it become obvious, even to non-Shakespeare readers, and to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern themselves, what lies ahead. They are on a journey to which there is no good end and no escape.

There are two intermissions here, and while they are 10 minutes each, that lengthens this evening to just short of three hours. In the second intermission, the audience must leave the theater, so that a mighty set change can be made. We won't spoil the surprise, but it is worth it, although the second intermission found much of the sold-out crowd jammed into the lobby, hands in pockets, with others puffing their cigarettes outside the theater on Stage Lane, filling the air with an unpleasant smell.

As for the performances, Repoley gives a masterful turn as the smug Guildenstern, proving again why he is among the finest actors in Asheville. There's fine chemistry with Meyer, equally impressive as the more naïve Rosencrantz. It's a rare chance to see Meyer act, as he usually directs.

Coming close to stealing the show is MacCauley as The Player, who gets some great scenes. And it is good see Allison as Hamlet, sinking into madness, although he has less to do than the others.

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern...

Another CT review.
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Review: ‘Rosencrantz' is complex but entertaining

TONY KISS • TKISS@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM • PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 22, 2009 12:15 AM

There are some shows that require total concentration while watching, and even then, it's difficult to grasp just what's going on. The absurdist comedy “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” is like that, but it's well worth seeing, because of the superb acting in this cast. And as puzzling as it can be, there is a payoff.

Playwright Tom Stoppard has taken Shakespeare's “Hamlet” and given it a very odd twist, pulling two minor characters from the classic, putting them in the spotlight and dropping them into a weird “Twilight Zone” like setting. And there is no Rod Serling to step out from behind the curtain to explain what's going on.

So unless you've seen this one before, or really understand “Hamlet” or Stoppard, don't feel bad sitting there, scratching your head. It's not supposed to be easy.

Director Angie Flynn-McIver has assembled an amazing cast, fronted by two familiar faces: Hans Meyer as Rosencrantz and Willie Repoley as Guildenstern, loyal but mostly unimportant friends of Prince Hamlet (Chris Allison).

The two have been cast into an odd world that they don't understand and have no way of escaping. They while away the hours tossing coins or playing back-and-forth word games, trying to remember who they are and how they came to be there. Rosencrantz is more of a simpleton and Guildenstern poses as the more knowledgeable of the pair, but it's a sort of Laurel and Hardy set-up.

Through the course of the story, they meet a traveling band of actors led by The Player (Michael MacCauley), who comes in and out of their world but offers little help in sorting it out. Our boys sometimes find themselves where they belong — as characters in “Hamlet” — as the King and Queen (Joe Sturgeon and Lauren Fortuna) seek their help in understanding the madness of the Prince.

And so it goes. But there is a point in the show — as in its title — where it become obvious, even to non-Shakespeare readers, and to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern themselves, what lies ahead. They are on a journey to which there is no good end and no escape.

There are two intermissions here, and while they are 10 minutes each, that lengthens this evening to just short of three hours. In the second intermission, the audience must leave the theater, so that a mighty set change can be made. We won't spoil the surprise, but it is worth it, although the second intermission found much of the sold-out crowd jammed into the lobby, hands in pockets, with others puffing their cigarettes outside the theater on Stage Lane, filling the air with an unpleasant smell.

As for the performances, Repoley gives a masterful turn as the smug Guildenstern, proving again why he is among the finest actors in Asheville. There's fine chemistry with Meyer, equally impressive as the more naïve Rosencrantz. It's a rare chance to see Meyer act, as he usually directs.

Coming close to stealing the show is MacCauley as The Player, who gets some great scenes. And it is good see Allison as Hamlet, sinking into madness, although he has less to do than the others.

Little Dog Laughed

Another from the C-T
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Review: ‘Little Dog Laughed'' funny, powerful

Jim Cavener take5 Correspondent • published February 20, 2009 12:15 am

“The Little Dog Laughed,” now being presented at Asheville Community Theatre's 35below black-box house, is frequently funny, earnestly edgy and — often — comedic in content.

But wait, there's more: a climax that borders on Frederick Durrenmatt's classic chiller, “The Visit,” where the vicious and vindictive female lead issues a challenge that paralyzes a community and terrifies the audience.

This is high drama, not (at least entirely) to be taken lightly. Come prepared for fun and fantasy as you enter the world of “Hollywierd” — although most of the action takes place in New York. Then expect to fasten your seat belts before the show ends. This is going to be a bumpy ride, for sure.

A shrewd and aggressive talent agent has a chore trying to keep her handsome male protégé in the closet. As this conniving shrew is confronted with obstacles, she concocts a duplicitous dilly to achieve her goals. As the demanding and demeaning Diane, one of Asheville's best, Joan Atwood, turns in a chilling performance that ranks close to her pinnacle as Maria Callas in Terrence McNally's “The Master Class.” Atwood, a classically trained theater maven, is a treasure. It's hard to imagine a more effective rendering of the role.

David Ely is electric as the would-be star, Mitchell. The character is not gay, he says, but has increasingly frequent dalliances with guys. Ely holds his own against the diva, Diane, and his struggle is both touching and troubling. The immediate source of the conflict is that Mitchell is more and more involved with a young hustler, and this increasingly significant relationship provides the threat to Diane's plan for getting Mitchell onto the top rung of stardom.

Mitchell's paramour, the “rent-boy” Alex, is given life by young Waynesville actor, Adam Kampouris, known for his impressive work at Haywood Arts Regional Theatre. Adam gives Alex a winsome and winning persona the playwright would have to love. There's enough in him of the opportunistic and ambitious to make us wary of this lad's intentions.

But, he's the whore-with-the-heart-of-gold when the chips are down. It's a lovely rendering of a dicey role.

The apparent lightweight in the cast is the part of Alex's girlfriend, Ellen, as portrayed by Jamie Shell. Shell takes this pivotal role, without flash or dazzle, and gives it life. It's possibly the hardest-to-interpret role in the script, due to its ambiguity and desperation. It may only appear that little is demanded for this realization. But all that is needed is forthcoming. Nice casting, all around.

The spirited and effective direction is by newcomer to our locally heavy theater scene, Francis Cullinan, former theater professor at University of Missouri in Kansas City. For a newbie at Asheville Community Theatre, Cullinan must have had lots of good advice to locate and score the fine talent, both on- and backstage. Let's hope to see more of his fine work in coming seasons.

Jim Cavener reviews theater for take5.

Letter from the editor

Hi All.

Thanks for keeping up with this blog. I’m hoping that we can have more of an impact in Asheville, and I need your help.

It is my suspicion that right now most of the people reading this blog are local actors and producers. That's wonderful, but I think this blog also has the potential to become a powerful tool for the average audience member, giving them not only a voice, but a way to think more deeply about their experience at the theatre.

Indeed, my hope for this blog was that it would be, first and foremost, a great public recourse: any potential audience member (or even someone who had already seen a particular show) would have a one-stop website where they would be able to see all the latest reviews of any show they might want to see around town. And each show would hopefully have multiple reviews with unique insights and points of view. This would allow people to get a sense of the theatrical lay of the land at a glance, and would encourage their patronage of multiple venues, while giving more thoughtful consideration to the value of their theatrical experience.

I think the “diversion” threads that have cropped up here and there are helpful to local producers, actors, etc, and I think they add depth and insight to the overall discussion, but I don’t think they serve the originally intended audience for the blog all that well. I don’t think we should discourage such spirited and frank conversation as part of this blog, but I’d like your help in also helping to increase awareness of the site among the theatre-going public.

So here is my request: don’t abandon this blog as a place for discussion, but please encourage your friends, patrons, parents, etc, to utilize the blog when they want more opinions about a particular show than any one news source can provide. Encourage them to contribute their own comments about shows they have seen. Continue to post those comments yourself, as well.

But most of all, please help spread the word. I think the potential of APAR is huge. Without losing the things that make it interesting now, I hope that together we can broaden the appeal of the blog to include the --arguably-- most powerful and important members of the theatrical community: the audience.

Thanks all. Keep writing. Keep reading.

Open for comments…

BG--

Oedipus For Kids

Sorry, this is quite late. My bad.
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‘Oedipus for Kids’ a ribald sendup on classic literature

By Jim Cavener / take5 Correspondent



ASHEVILLE - Is “Oedipus for Kids!” really a comedic musical version of Sophocles’ “Oedipus”? For kids?

Comedic, yes. Slapstick, over-the-top melodrama even. Musical, yes. And with some rousing tunes.

But surely not for kids. This is a show about a fictional theater group that attempts to do “Oedipus” for young people. As the show informs us, Little Oeddy (Oedipus) is a “little boy, a lot like you, except you didn’t kill daddy and sleep with mommy.”

Although a lot of humor is adolescent and the treatment sometimes juvenile, this is adult material all the way. Staged by the Zealot theater group, the show is now running at N.C. Stage Company.

This “Oedipus” is yet another of the recently frequent ribald, raucous and riotous sendups of traditional literature, aimed at 20-somethings of all ages. If you like your theater loud, impulsive, unrestrained and undisciplined, you’ll love this show. Debauchery reigns in this totally twisted telling of a Greek myth of yore.

“Oedipus for Kids!” is a show within a show, with the fictional Fuzzy Ducks Theatre Company trying to produce the classics for children and perhaps having chosen the wrong classic this time. How do you make school kids familiar with this ancient myth of an adopted son doing in his daddy, then bedding down his mommy? Not easily. The onstage warring partners who are the Fuzzy Ducks principles didn’t get the message.

The actual audience becomes an audience of schoolchildren, called on to “quack” back and be interactive with the actors onstage. It worked with the opening night crowd.

Asheville’s Zealot actors company is a multitalented crew. Rae Cauthen as Catalina is a marvel of psychosexual energy, with a tour-de-force finale folks will not easily forget. Her ballads are quite effective as well.

Both she and Joseph Barcia (Evan, in the Fuzzy Ducks company, who portrays Oeddy/Oedipus) exhibit fine singing voices. Greg Gassler as Alistair rounds out the three-person cast. They give this material their all - and more.

The piece was created by New York and Florida writers Kimberly Patterson and Gil Varod with additional material by Robert J. Saferstein.

Producing director Meg Hale and artistic director Ryan Madden have assembled a fine offstage company, including Evan Hill as musical director, and Nancy Asch and Kathryn Allen on percussion and keyboard, respectively. Plus Jason Williams, who did the lighting design and controls the board during performances.

What can you do with lines like “Whatever Oedipus touches, Oedipus wrecks,” and “My husband is my lover is my son”?

Jim Cavener reviews theater for take5.

Review review

These comments are technically outside the scope of this blog, but the editor did -arguably- open the door to this post in responding to a comment on the "Leading Ladies" post. So, it stands.
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I can’t resist responding to a posting by Actress34, ostensibly in response to a review of a show at ACT, though the focus of the thread had morphed by then. Consider this, then, a review of a review?
I’ll reprint Actres34’s comments here, for the benefit of those who may have missed them:

“The sad thing is that NC Stage could be turning a profit....the problem is that most of us get sick of seeing the same 5 people on stage all the time. Or is it really wise to put the staff in every production? Isn't it called Show Business? If your show isn't turning some kind of profit than I am afraid you are missing the business part of it. I bet the Catalyst shows turn profits because they are using local people on-stage. I mean wouldn't it be nice to see a show with different people in it every now and again?”

She seems to be trying to make two points. One: NC Stage could –and, by inference at least, should-- be making money by casting “local people” and by not casting the “same 5 people … all the time. Two: Catalyst shows probably do make money because they “use local people.”

Ok, I’m long-winded so here is the condensed retort: Seriously?

If you want the full version, here goes:

First let me just say that I agree that variety in casting is usually good. I too like to see fresh faces.

But, with all due respect, Actress34, are you seriously suggesting that NCSC could be making more money by refusing to hire the people they deem best to fill a role, just because they have worked for the company before or are on staff? Seriously?

(And for now, let’s just leave the idea of “making money”… NCSC is a not-for-profit organization, after all, not to mention a small theatre—which almost by definition means not a money maker.)

Of course no theatre can make perfect casting decisions all the time, and not every audience member will agree with every choice, but every theatre in town (or anywhere else for that matter) casts both from a wide net of sought-out talent and a reliable ensemble of trusted collaborators. Without this cadre, it can be prohibitively difficult to create an environment of trust and creativity in a short rehearsal time, and each theatre in town has developed their own reliable –and necessarily fluid—talent pool (with some crossover between companies). Of course, using all the same people all the time can be tiresome, but I personally think NCSC does a pretty good job of balancing that reliable group with exciting new talent from Asheville and beyond. Personally, I regret that you are “sick of seeing” a certain “5” people at NCSC and I hope I’m not one of them, but I still gotta pay the bills, and this is my job. And I love it. And because I keep getting hired by NCSC and other challenging regional theatres, I am able to keep getting better at it, I hope.

And the second point: Catalyst shows make money? And they do so because they “use local people”? Seriously?

As a sometime Catalyst producer myself, let me say that the NCSC Catalyst model allows producers –if they are careful— to not lose their shirts. But as for “making money,” I’ve never heard of a Catalyst show actually turning a profit. In my companies, at least, any earned income goes to subsidize a meager portion of the time my actors, crew, and creative staff have dedicated to the project. A small amount is reserved as a nest egg for the next production. That’s it.

And Catalyst companies are as guilty, if not more so, as any one else in town of relying on the same people for each show. And really I don’t think there is anything wrong with that (see above).

(Also, as a side note here, I can’t help but notice your use of the word “use”, as in “use local people.” Please keep in mind that NCSC “hires” people, local and out-of-town. Which is a huge difference. Again, no use saying more here—that is a separate discussion.)

Actress34, have you by any chance seen any of NCSC’s season this year? Take their first Mainstage show, Doubt: not one familiar face in the cast of four, and not many on the creative crew, either. Take this year’s incarnation of It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play: one returning cast member from the year before, one actor who had been in a Mainstage show in 2006, and three actors brand new to NCSC. I could expand my thesis to include the rest of the season and beyond, but it’s not hard to come by season brochures or old playbills, so I’ll let you work out the rest on your own.

Sure, I recognize that I’m hardly in a position to suggest that NCSC stop hiring the same actors year after year: my career would be over. But I think your assumptions about how theatre works –certainly at NCSC— are wrong. I’m not suggesting you should agree with every casting decision, or that you aren’t allowed to not like seeing people return to the theatre year after year, but I do think that tossing around uninformed statements like your original post can be damaging to all parties involved. I’d rather be a part of fostering a real discussion that can ultimately help producers and audience members alike get more out of their experiences at the theatre. Maybe this is part of that. Maybe not. But that dialogue won’t be well served by bitter, absurd accusations on this blog or elsewhere.

Here’s to varied opinions, and informed critique.
Willie Repoley

Perfect Ganesh

Apologies for the delay in getting this out.
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‘A Perfect Ganesh' lives up to its name
JIM CAVENER TAKE5 CORRESPONDENT • PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 6, 2009 12:15 AM

New theater companies pop up in Asheville with almost alarming frequency. Somehow, the best of these gravitate to downtown's North Carolina Stage Company where they become part of NCSC's much-lauded Catalyst Series of productions by troupes without a venue of their own. The Carolina Actor's Collective surely ranks among the best of this good crop. Their first production, “A Perfect Ganesh,” is extraordinary theater, by any standard.

It isn't surprising that quality theater ensues when you have a piece by Terrence McNally — who wrote “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “The Ritz,” “Love! Valour! Compassion!,” “Ragtime,” “Corpus Christi,” “The Lisbon Traviata” and “The Master Class.” Once add two of Asheville's most respected actors — Kay Galvin and CJ Breland, two newer talents of high competence, with all this under the splendid direction of Leslie Muchmore, it's good stuff, indeed.

McNally's work is always complex, challenging, and most always features a heavy quotient of gay substance in the script, with one or more dramatic twists that pack an emotional wallop. “A Perfect Ganesh” is no exception. This script starts with a journey into one of the most complex and challenging cultures on our globe: India. A contradiction of opposites, based in assumptions totally foreign to Western thinking, there are so many layers of meaning in this journey of two wealthy Connecticut dowagers, beyond even their secret reasons for undertaking the trip.

Symbolism abounds with multi-level metaphysical meaning, and this is theater that has as many meanings as there are viewers. Although the basic structure of the story is linear, the side-tracks of Ganesh's making continue to keep the audience on its toes through two demanding acts. Ganesh is one of Hindu India's most loved and revered gods. His elephant snout is masterfully conceived by George Martinat and Sydney de Briel, who give all four actors the ideal costume design. The two travelers wear 1993 pants suits, before they segue into sari's and shawls and sub-continent elegance.

Ganesh, as portrayed by Zach Blew is riveting. His visage is exotic, his choreographed presence evokes the most graceful and forceful of Indian ritual dance. His body paint and costumed drama create a masterpiece of movement and meaning. This playful, threatening and nurturing diety is all things to all people and is a theatrical tour-de-force. Blew will be noticed in our theater community.

The fourth actor, Bradshaw Call, portrays “the men,” several comic and farcical caricatures. Mostly he plays English speaking Indians who the women encounter on their pilgrimage. But his ferociously fey Air India gate agent starts off the hysteria with a bang. From there it is all uphill and his various native personages are each quite masterful. With this valuable versatility, Call creates a vast array of lepers and hotel managers, condescending baggage clerks and loony native hosts.

It almost goes without saying — but let it be said — Breland and Galvin are exceptional actors and they convey the despicable desperation and pathos of the pilgrims, Margaret and Katherine, with perfect panache.

Listed staff for technical and backstage support total a daunting score of known and less familiar local theater gurus. From venerable theater mavens and well-knowns such as Frank Avery and Rob Bowen to a slew of designers and techno-nerds, this large crew produces a totally satisfying intellectual, visual, dramatic and emotional experience. The loss of a child, the tragedy of AIDS, reconciliation, renewal and rebirth, legend and myth. It's all here in spades and will prove to rank among the best of the season.

Jim Cavener reviews theater for take5.

Leading Ladies

More from the C-T
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Theater review: “Leading Ladies” steps up with laughs at ACT

Tim Reid • published January 23, 2009 12:15 am

Asheville Community Theatre has a real crowd pleaser with “Leading Ladies,” Ken Ludwig's irrepressible comedy about two struggling actors posing as a wealthy woman's long-lost heirs.

Second-rate thespians Jack (Brad Pearsall) and Leo (Steve Wilde) are down to their last dollar as they travel rural Pennsylvania presenting snippets of Shakespeare at Moose lodges.

Jack reads that a rich old lady in a nearby town yearns to see her long-lost relatives Max and Steve before she dies. He decides to impersonate them in order to share in her multi-million-dollar inheritance.

Leo is a bundle of nerves, but Jack pulls him into the scam anyway. Leo's reservations turn to panic when they find out that Max and Steve are short for Maxine and Stephanie – they must pretend to be women!

Residents of York seem only too trusting when Jack and Leo arrive dressed in drag proclaiming to the long-lost relatives. Shirley Cohen nearly steals the show as irascible old Florence, who takes an instant liking to them.

Florence's real niece Meg (Brooke Whitcomb) is thrilled to welcome “Max” and “Steve” although it means she will share her aunt's inheritance with them. Ditzy blonde Audrey (Zoe Renert) met the actors on the train before they concocted the scheme but believes the scam anyway.

Mike Vaniman is hilarious as Florence's inept physician Doc Myers, who is obsessed with getting his spaced-out son Butch (Drew Collins) to marry a woman with money. The only person who sees through the actors' ruse is Meg's manipulative fiancé Duncan (Chris Martin), who wants her to get all of Florence's inheritance so he can do with it as he will.

Pearsall and Wilde are masterful at keeping up the tension as nervy Jack must constantly prop up erstwhile partner Leo lest he dissolve in fright and spoil the deception.

Director Michael and a talented cast wrest every laugh out of Ken Ludwig's brilliant script. This is the perfect play to puncture the winter doldrums.

Tim Reid reviews theater for the Citizen-Times. He can be contacted at timreid4@charter.net.