Hat Tip

It might have been Tolstoy, or perhaps P.G. Wodehouse's brainy Jeeves, who remarked to the effect that possessions are oppressive. I've lately had a moment to contemplate that concept as I look to clear out more than three decades' worth of possessions.

Most young ladies shed their prom gowns moments after the big party. Sometimes during. Mine has moved around in multiple closets up to the present and has resided with me in this apartment multiple dress sizes and fashion trends ago. A decade younger than the prom gown was a black strapless formal, worn once (or perhaps twice; it might have been taken out for a New Year's Eve waltz at the Kennedy Center).

And then there are the hats. The velvet Renaissance Faire cap my brother wore when he was a "Rennie." A British driving cap I bought on my very first trip to London. A black and white striped Chicago gangster-style fedora. And a red beret, that infamous "French hat" that made my niece's kindergarten classmates all laugh.

Other than a brief fling at the office Halloween costume party (I went as "employee who wears many hats") they never saw any action outside the mirror in my closet.

Oh, and a pair of jazz-style tap shoes, last worn at my notorious "feets of fury" recital, as one approaching-middle-age woman with a group of middle-school classmates. (I can still do a time step and shuffle off to Buffalo, but not in an apartment with hardwood floors.)

What to do, what to do. These are not things one donates to Salvation Army. Nor does one donate them to landfills, which are not exactly needy. I thought of local theaters, but they do not, as a rule, warehouse items, even of arguably theatrical value as vintage pieces.

At some point, this analytical creature needed to stop analyzing and act. I Googled and found this wonderful nonprofit, TDF Costume Collection, packed up my duds, and off they went. I hope they find the creative futures I could not.

A tip of the hats to you all.

Love, hosaa
checked hats and all

A Tale of Two Plays

Slightly behind in my recapping enables me to bring two current productions together: A Tale of Two Cities performed at Synetic Theater and NSFW performed at Round House Theatre.

Coincidentally, the term NSFW was just added to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, which defines it as "not safe for work" (meaning, if you're e-mailed a link or attachment so labeled, don't open it at the office).

In the RHT production, the term is expanded to "not safe for women," meaning workplaces such as playwright Lucy Kirkwood's two fictional commercial magazine offices, Doghouse and Electra, that sexualize, objectify, exploit, and manipulate images of women. While I could relate a bit to the young woman working at Doghouse (she needs the work), there are compromises and comeuppances in this story that I just don't get. (Thank goodness for noncommercial journalism, right?)

In a way, exploitation and objectification of female imagery is also what the drag queen Jerry (Alex Mills) does at Synetic's Tale, in an adaptation originated by Everett Quinton. Jerry entertains an irrationally inserted baby in his apartment (Vato Tsikurishvili as Dorian the baby) as he prepares to perform his act.

Alex Mills (Jerry) and Vato Tsikurishvili (Dorian), A Tale of Two Cities. Synetic Theater

The parallels between Jerry's primping for his act and Electra editor Miranda's (Deborah Hazlett) primping for a night out were astonishing. (No production photos for NSFW up yet, but if you see both shows, you'll see what I mean.)

Alex Mills, A Tale of Two Cities, Synetic Theater

Alex Mills, A Tale of Two Cities, Synetic Theater

The lesson is clear to me: 'Tis a far, far better self-actualization when you take control over your own life, work, image, sexuality, and self-expression.

Love, hosaa
safe for work

A Tale of Two Cities
Synetic Theater (1800 South Bell Street, Crystal City, VA 22202)
May 13 through June 21, 2015

NSFW
Round House Theatre (4545 East-West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814)
May 27 through June 21, 2015

Much Ado about No Shakespeare

Back from yesterday's matinee performance of Much Ado About Nothing at Synetic Theater in Crystal City. This was the 11th of Synetic's renowned wordless (not silent) Shakespeare productions, an oxymoron that produces varied reactions (not unlike those when revealing that one is a Clay Aiken fan), ranging from bemused condescension to moral outrage.

Ben Cunis as Benedick and Irina Tsikurishvili as Beatrice. Program art for Much Ado About Nothing, Synetic Theater.

Shakespeare, of course, offered the world more than poetry, and the gift of the Synetic approach is that it winkles out the subtleties of character development and the nuances of situation comedy--and tragedy--that is also all Shakespeare. A wordless theatrical production of Shakespeare is every bit as legitimate as the Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet or the Mendelssohn Midsummer Night's Dream, and music and dance are among my favorite tools in the artistic toy box.

It's interesting that a lot of the updates of spoken Ado are set in the black-white-silvery worlds of Art Deco, leaving all color to the language, whereas the text-free Synetic production is all color and movement and music. Set in Fifties-era Las Vegas, with showgirls and motorcycle gangs (wearing "Syneticon" gang leather jackets), this Ado drives a harsher wedge between light and dark, farce and ferocity, through sheer physical power--not just the athleticism of the dance and pantomime, but also the attention given to details in props, costumes, lights, and music. All senses are on alert and fully, energetically engaged.

There is, appropriately, a parental advisory on this production, which goes a bit beyond the bard's usual bawdy humor: "This production is recommended for ages 14+ for some drug use and stylized sexual content." It's not for those squeamish about hypodermic needles, either.

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
Synetic Theater (1800 South Bell Street, Crystal City, Virginia 22202), through March 22, 2015
Directed by Paata Tsikurishvili, choreographed by Irina Tsikurishvili

Writers Get Schooled

Would-be writers have a lot to learn about the realities of writing and publishing and getting read, and a lot of those lessons are up for interpretation, as documented in the Round House Theatre's production of Theresa Rebeck's Seminar.

This is the kind of play that should either be right up my alley or too in-your-face close to home and off-putting. While I certainly could relate to the writing and editing and hoping to be published aspects of the story, I personally lack the ambition that put the would-be writers into the room with their well-paid but dismissive and abusive tutor. At my point in my career, I could relate best to the tutor (hopefully I'm not that dismissive and abusive!), whose promising writing career had been thwarted and redirected to editing and tutoring.

Anyway, it was relatively easy for me to create the distance I needed from my parallelling life and enjoy the language, the actors' interactions, the rhythms, and all that make productions worth producing. It's an adult comedy, hitting many of the same notes as RHT's This earlier this season.

What I was looking forward to most was seeing three of my favorite local actors playing together: The adorably goofy Tom Story (as Douglas), of course, plus Marty Lodge (Leonard), who first captured my attention in the old RHT's round space as the ghetto hotel manager in Problem Child, and the breathtakingly versatile Katie deBuys (Kate), whose previous Shakespearean work (Henry V at Folger and Measure for Measure at STC) I have noted as chameleon-like. It was great to see more of her in a contemporary role.

Marty Lodge and Katie deBuys. Photo by Danisha Crosby for Round House Theatre 

(L-R): Laura C. Harris, Tom Story, Katie deBuys, Alexander Strain. Round House Theatre via Facebook

A play about writing that doesn't show much of the writing under review--just the characters' reactions to the writing and to each other's reactions--is naturally going to be (as my companion noted, without irony) talky. In the care of such good actors, though, the talk has its own musicality. As the cynical, misogynistic tutor, Marty Lodge tears down the student work in monologues that are positively Homerian.

I've also seen Alexander Strain (Martin) and Laura C. Harris (Izzy) in other productions--Strain was RHT's Asher Lev, for instance, and one of the highlights of Glengarry Glen Ross, and Harris was a delightfully feisty Marian in RHT's Young Robin Hood--so it was nice to see them shine in this tight ensemble.

Speaking of careers evolving from writing to something less glamorous (but no less honorable), I see Lloyd Rose, a former drama critic for the Washington Post, served as dramaturg for this production. She's apparently been doing this sort of thing for a while. I still don't know what dramaturgs do, but I think, like editors, they make other writers' writing better. Well done.

Seminar

Written by Theresa Rebeck

Directed by Jerry Whiddon

Round House Theatre, Bethesda, MD ~ February 5 – March 2, 2014

Cast

Leonard: Marty Lodge

Kate: Katie deBuys

Martin: Alexander Strain

Douglas: Tom Story

Izzy: Laura C. Harris

scenic designer: James Kronzer 

costume designer: Ivania Stack

lighting designer: Daniel MacLean Wagner 

original score/arrangements/sound design: Eric Shimelonis

Funny Forum

What better remedy for the dreary November in one's soul than a farcical trip to the Roman Forum?

Catching up now with my excursion to the invited dress for Shakespeare Theatre Company's new production of the classical classic A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. In the Zero Mostel/Nathan Lane role of Pseudolus, we have Bruce Dow deftly maneuvering his girth and mirth with Jackie Gleasonesque ease.

Clearly Dow is the star to be promoted, but you know my eye is always going to seek out Tom Story in any production I attend locally (he'll be in a Round House production early next year). I should have paid more attention when the show was being put together and wormed my way into the meet-the-artists reception.

Tom Story with guest at Meet the Artists reception, Shakespeare Theatre Co. (via Facebook)

And of course Tom's performance as the high-strung ("I'm Calm") head-slave Hysterium (played by Jack Gilford in the Zero Mostel film) hit all the right points of giddy, goofy, poignant, overwrought wackiness. I just love him!

The revelation for me in this show was Lora Lee Gayer as the delightfully dim virgin Philia. She performed this role earlier this season at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, NY, alongside (coincidentally) Tom Deckman as Hysterium. (Playing my six degrees of Clay Aiken game: Tom Deckman played the Historian and Prince Herbert in Clay's Spamalot run, 2008-2009.)

Lora Lee Gayer as Philia, Bay Street Theatre (via LoraLeeGayer.com)

Lora Lee Gayer (via LoraLeeGayer.com)

Rehearsal at Shakespeare Theatre Company: Lora Lee Gayer (Philia), with Steve Vinovich (Senex). Via Facebook

I wish I had a picture showing Lora Lee's "I'm Lovely" pose--elbows out and the backs of her hands delicately cradling her cheek, with that perfectly deadpanned look of innocence. With a show that's otherwise overflowing with over-the-top performances, this oasis of utter simplicity (in every sense of the term) was probably the funniest part of the night. Stare and pose. I was roaring.

Lora Lee tweeted during the Sag Harbor run:

Lora Lee Gayer ‏@LLcoooolG
Nathan Lane came to see our production of "Funny Thing Happened.." It's like having Thomas Edison watch you screw in a light bulb.

I would guess Mr. Lane thought the performance well "screwed." *g*

A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum

Shakespeare Theatre Company, Sidney Harman Hall, Washington, D.C.

Book: Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart

Music and lyrics: Stephen Sondheim

Director: Alan Paul

Cast:

Pseudolus, slave to Hero: Bruce Dow

Senex: Steve Vinovich

Domina, wife of Senex: Julie Johnson

Hysterium, slave to Senex and Domina: Tom Story

Hero, son of Senex, in love with Philia: Nick Verina

Philia, a virgin: Lora Lee Gayer

Marcus Lycus, buyer and seller of courtesans: Danny Tutigliano

Miles Gloriousus, a warrior: Edward Watts

Erronius, an old man in search of his kidnapped children: Harry Winter

Proteans: Matthew Bauman, Nick Flatto, Blakely Slaybaugh

Courtesans: Ashley Marinelli (Tintinabula), Chelsey Arce (Panacea), Ashley Blair Fitzgerald and Sarah Meahl (The Geminae), Lisa Karlin (Vibrata), Jennifer Frankel (Gymnasia)

Performed November 21, 2013 - January 5, 2014

eta 12-14-13: Thanks to STC's e-mail blast, we have a pic of Lora Lee as Philia, in her "I'm Lovely" pose:

hosaa starts practicing this in the mirror...

Art of Devastation

I loaded up a little too much on experiences today and probably won't say all I want to. Rather than delay (i.e., procrastinate long enough to forget), here goes.

First discovery this weekend was the photography of Brad Pogatetz, on display with a ton of other artists of various media at the annual Bethesda Art Festival just down the street from me. Brad's booth was the only one that really caught my eye as I wandered through yesterday.

Brad Pogatetz. Credit: C. G. Wagner

I don't want to disparage the various sculptors, fiber manipulators, glass blowers, jewelry makers, wood workers, painters, and what not, but I just wasn't captivated as I was with Brad's reflections on abandoned and decaying artifacts of civilization.

The subject matter may not be unique or new; what drew me to Brad's booth was that his work reminded me of the piece I recently saw in the Huffington Post on the photographs of Detroit's abandoned theaters. Unlike the more documentary approach of Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, Brad seeks patterns and light, color and humor, in his subjects. And he finds hope. He doesn't document our despair only to abandon us again. He rescues our humanity from what we have left behind, what we have let happen to us.

My next stop today was the Portrait Gallery to see the "Dancing the Dream" exhibit, detouring through "Democracy of Images" photography exhibit at Smithsonian's American Art Museum. More on these later. My real destination for the day was Ford's Theater's production of The Laramie Project.

The Laramie Project, cast. Photo by Carol Rosegg (via Facebook)

I've already covered Ford's "Not Alone" exhibition of the letters that came in response to Matthew Shepard's brutal murder 15 years ago. I was prepared to be just as moved, but the play was more powerful than I expected, even knowing what it was about.

Like the photographs by Brad Pogatetz, the artists composing The Laramie Project began with the beauty of the Wyoming landscape, journeyed through horrific inhumanity, to eventually end again in beauty and hope, with Dennis Shepard's epiphany that Matthew did not die alone. He died with his friends: the stars, the sun, and God.

As for the production: The dramatization of interviews gave Laramie the same kind of staging as shows I've previously discussed, like ReEntry, wherein the actors do very little acting with each other. That staging normally drives me bats, but it worked for this production because, as one of the interviewees kept reminding the troupe of actors who came to tell their story, "You have to tell it correct." The goal was to convey the townspeople's stories in their own words, and that was how it was staged.

Holly Twyford, Kimberly Schraf in The Laramie Project. Photo by Carol Rosegg

One other great thing (for me) was to see Kimberly Gilbert in another role so soon after The Beauty Queen of Lenane over at Round House. It wasn't her fault I hated the play. I just hated the play.

Kimberly Gilbert in The Laramie project. Photo by Carol Rosegg

Kimberly was just one of a very strong cast that slid fluidly among multiple roles--townspeople, media invaders, and the members of the Tectonic Theater Project (led by Moisés Kaufman). We are all the observer and the observed. Tell the truth, correctly, and our humanity will prevail.

The Laramie Project, Ford's Theater, Washington, D.C.
Written by Moisés Kaufman and the Members of Tectonic Theater Project
Directed by Matthew Gardiner

Cast
Kimberly Gilbert 
Mitchell Hébert
Paul Scanlan 
Kimberly Schraf
Chris Stezin 
Katherine Renee Turner
Holly Twyford
Craig Wallace

Scenic Design: Beowulf Boritt
Costume Design: Helen Huang
Lighting Design: Rui Rita
Original Music and Sound Design: John Gromada
Projection Design: Clint Allen

"From Orchids to Octopi"

Okay, a play commissioned by NIH and performed before an auditorium of scientists doesn't set one's aesthetic expectations very high, but "From Orchids to Octopi: An Evolutionary Love Story" was inspired.

Performed at my beloved, beleaguered Art Deco landmark, The Bethesda Theatre (whose official Web site is apparently down right now), the play is in the late stages of early development (evolution!) before moving on to Boston. I didn't stay for the post-play discussion, though I probably could have benefited from it. I got most of the science content of the play, but not all. (But hey, I noticed I was the only one who laughed at the one line from "The Wizard of Oz" during one of the dream sequences - "People come and go so quickly here....")

Since the play was commissioned to celebrate the bicentennial (last year) of the birth of Charles Darwin, it's logical to include Darwin as a character in the play. What we see are two couples - Charles and Emma Darwin - and their modern parallel, the twenty-first-century Emma and Charlie, illustrating the evolution of relationships and love into a society of career conflicts and the demands and fears of bringing a new baby into the world.

21C Emma (played by Kortney Adams) is a painter commissioned to paint a mural honoring Darwin, so she throws herself into researching Darwinian theory and Darwin's life. Her impulse is first to find a design principle, but she is frustrated and confused by her dreams of the carnival freak-show that shows life and change as a game of chance.

Domestic scenes with the nineteenth-century Darwins (Wesley Savick and Debra Wise) entertwine and echo with those of 21C Charlie (Tom O'Keefe), an entrepreneurial chef, and wife Emma. There are equal parts tension and tenderness, and a surprisingly sweet treatment of the question, Is love an evolutionary imperative for survival because of the helplessness of the human infant?

The dialogue is smart not just in the science content, but in its playfulness. Stand-out for me was O'Keefe's depiction of the nasty, beligerent tuberculosis, an ever-evolving supermicrobe who demanded to be included in the mural tribute to evolution. (It is the vile TB bug who takes the life of 19C Darwins' young daughter Annie, played fetchingly by Kira McElhiney.)

The ideas bound across disciplines - not just the sciences, but also language and the arts, incorporating even what I will generously call "dance," though it is more accurately stage movement (the lithe and lovely Adams emulating the first species to grow a neck and stretch itself out to a form that is adaptable to new environments).

The set pieces comprised seven tall, multi-paneled columns that the actors switched around to create parlors, doctors' offices, freak-show attractions, scientific displays, and - evolving throughout the play - the beautiful mural of which Darwin himself becomes the centerpiece, integrated into the Tree of Life.

In the end, it is neither design nor chance that defines us, but inspiration.

Other Credits
Playwright: Melinda Lopez
Director: Diego Arciniegas
Set/Puppet Designer: David Fichter (Puppets? Didn't I mention the giraffe?!)

For more information about "From Orchids to Octopi: An Evolutionary Love Story," visit http://www.undergroundrailwaytheater.org/ or Central Square Theater.

Edward Duke

June 17, 1953 - January 8, 1994

Happy Birthday to Edward Duke, who would have been 56.

Loved. Still.

love, hosaa
looking for the silver lining

Theaters' History Lessons

The subtitle of this blog is "Subjugation Fails."

My three most-recent outings to the theater were:

1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at Round House (closes April 26)
2. The Civil War at Ford's (through May 24)
3. Ragtime at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater (through May 17)

Of these, obviously Civil War and Ragtime have more in common thematically, and also structurally, but Cuckoo's Nest illustrates the historical point very clearly: subjugation of one group (in this case the mentally ill) because it does not fit in with what is deemed normal (so deemed by those in power) is immoral and destined to fail.

Civil War, more concert than play (I would call it a concert with stagecraft and some acting, but no plot--more of a live montage), presents the human impacts of the war from a variety of points of view, including the words of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. It ends with a montage projected on the backdrop bringing the history of civil rights up to the present. Obviously a rushed and abridged edition; the imagery used is iconic but conveys the most meaning to those who already know their history.

My favorite part of that production was the fact that it took place in Ford's Theatre (hee! Not a good seat in the house, though the chairs themselves have been improved). The famous box where Lincoln sat (with a portrait of Washington hanging in front) was lit up whenever Lincoln's words were read aloud, and the singers/characters turned to "watch" him. I could almost imagine Lincoln standing and nodding in acknowledgement of the performers.



Ragtime got to have my expectations lowered thanks to the Washington Post story ("Reduced Ragtime") about how the production values have been diminished since its 1998 Broadway and heavily Tony-nominated production. That was the age of overproduction, so truthfully it wasn't that big a deal to me. The touring set is impressive enough, with multiple tiers of metal railroad-station platforms surrounding three-fourths of the stage.

This also gave the feeling of America always being on the go. Like with Civil War, the show seemed more pageantry than history, as though these important events could only be reduced to an outline--or a skeleton, whose meat is provided by the strength of the performers and their connection to the audience.

The story of struggle against subjugation and for the liberation of creativity is a compelling one, and all three of these shows grabbed me by the heart.

And for those of you who count such things, all three shows got standing ovations for the performances I attended: A Thursday night preview, a Sunday matinee, and a Sunday night, respectively.

love, hosaa
waiting for the next curtain to rise

P.S. Update on the Box issue. I may go back to Box after all. The non-box version of Comcast no longer carries Show Tunes on the Music Choice channels. Crap.