Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Early Clouds threaten but don't obstruct the full View of the Harbor

Written by Richard Dresser. Directed by Ron May. Actors Theatre, Stage West, Herberger Theater Center, Phoenix, Arizona. October 24-November 9, 2008.

A sluggish start filled with unfocused and uncharismatic ensemble work and direction nearly robs the Actors Theatre’s production of Richard Dresser’s trilogy finale, A View of the Harbor. Fortunately, soon after the intermission, the seasoned and talented cast clears away their earlier foggy faults and complimented by a fluent fellowship between the scenic and lighting designs, Dresser’s examination on happiness in America blooms with efflorescence on the Actors Theatre’s stage.
After hearing news that his father survived a stroke, the enigmatic Nick (Christian Miller), pressured by his girlfriend of three months, the peppery Paige (Melody Butiu), reluctantly revisits his childhood home in New England to help his sensitized sister, Kathryn (Cathy Dresbach), with their ailing furtive father, Daniel (Ben Tyler). Nick decides to invite Paige to come with him but soon after their arrival to the weed-ridden cliff-side home, she quickly learns the seeds of Nick’s escapist personality and the family secrets that stemmed his runaway from his roots.
Although many of the principal problems that injure the first act branch from Dresser’s choppy dialogue and jarring scene transitions, Director Ron May’s awkward staging and arrhythmic tempo does little to solidify the show’s beginnings. Too often the few intimate and truthful character moments are overshadowed by the overall disconnected character work by the ensemble. However, the focused collaborative work in the show’s second act showcases the powerful potential of this gifted ensemble. Miller’s Nick devours the emotional versatility his character craves, Butiu’s Paige shocks with her crafty character arc, Dresbach’s kaleidoscope Kathryn and Tyler’s tyrant Daniel concretize audience catharsis.
With the unbalanced work of the actors and the director, the production does find fluidity in its pertinent production design. Kimb Williamson’s purposely skewed scenic design coupled with Paul Black’s lustrous lighting dawns the wretched and twisted world of Dresser’s vision. At times, the collaborative between the actors and the design elements illuminated Dresser’s hidden homage to Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night.
After having successfully produced the entire Dresser trilogy with Augusta, The Pursuit of Happiness and now A View of the Harbor, Actors Theatre concludes its poignant examination of Dresser’s worlds with a worthy production. Even with a few weeds in this current production’s theatrical garden, Actors Theatre blooms with its thorough, progressive and thoughtful artistic mission.

Pasha Yamotahari, The Shaw Theatre Report

Monday, September 8, 2008

Blackbeard, "a new musical", floats but barely sets sail at its "Pre-Broadway Event"

Book, Music and Lyrics by Rob Gardner. Directed by Cambrian James. Spire Music production, Herberger Theater Center, Phoenix, Arizona. September 5-27, 2008


Although Spire Music’s, Blackbeard, a new musical, at the Herberger Theater Center carries an arsenal of catchy pirate-themed music, a talented supporting cast boasting vocal canons and a mesmerizing production design, it’s lack of a decipherable directorial vision, a truthful performance by its leading character and clarity in its structure and goal, leave some audiences abandoning ship.

When Blackbeard (Tyler Maxson) leaves on a final voyage against his true love Mary’s (Linsey Maxson) wishes and against his first mate’s, Mr. Hands (Mark Hackmann), warnings of bad luck (bringing a slew of women on board), his crew falls ill, forcing the captain to hijack a boat full of wealthy travelers—among them Anne (Kaitlynn Kleinman) the fiancée of Lt. Robert Maynard (Jordan Bluth). Blackbeard then blockades Charleston Harbor, demanding from Charleston’s Governor, (Mark Kleinman) a chest full of medicine as ransom for his prisoners. With the governor refusing to pay and Maynard turning vigilante, Blackbeard’s handle of his crew, the prisoners and of his Mary, slowly declines, driving him to re-examine his future as a sea tyrant.

Rob Gardner’s music and lyrics fuel the potential of the story and coupled with a few actors’ operatic prowess, the melodic mélange of the comedic and tragic elements, at times, effortlessly echoes with Gardner’s orchestration. However, especially in the hour and twenty-minute-long first act, melodrama creeps into the redundant musical numbers dropping the anchor on the storytelling’s pace. Too often, Gardner’s gorgeous songs between Blackbeard (Tyler Maxson) and Mary (Linsey Maxson) do little in pushing the story forward rather regurgitating already established conflicts—the same predicament is found in Anne (Kaitlynn Kleinman) and Lt. Robert Maynard’s (Jordan Bluth) relationship. With songs like “Bad Boys”, “The Ballad of Stede Bonnet” and “Do you want to be a Pirate?”, Gardner succeeds in writing magical music that propels the action forward but only when he mirrors this success in determining which slower, empathic songs are necessary to the plot, will Gardner have an affluent armada of music, lyrics and book.

Dane Burk’s seismic scenic design and Jeff Davis’ colorful lighting design couple together to create a chameleon playground for Cambrian James’ direction. Davis’ eclectic color palettes morph Burk’s rustic piratical palace. Regrettably the collaborative design suffers with James’ presentational blocking, lack of meaningful choreography and absence of significant character tableaux. Seemingly, Blackbeard falls in the opera genre (most of the dialogue is sung and often directed strictly to the audience), nevertheless certain key moments may have been fruitful should the emotional connection and conflict of the character been kept on stage.

With marvelous majestic voices and a commitment to detailed character work, Jere Van Patten’s Major Stede Bonnet and Alaina Beauloye’s Georgette rescue Tyler Maxson’s damaged Blackbeard that too often relies on a jarring raspy grunt to channel emotional confliction. Jordan Bluth’s (Lt. Robert Maynard) booming voice fills the house with Gardner’s score but only his vocal domination seizes audience appreciation.

With aspirations to find a home in New York City, Spire Music is slating their run at the Herberger as a “pre-Broadway event”. The fundamentals that would help this ship set sail are certainly finding their sea-legs with some Phoenix audiences but until Blackbeard corrects some of its current theatrical malaises, it may want to wait for its maiden voyage to the Broadway harbor.

Pasha Yamotahari
The Shaw Theatre Report

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Nearly Naked nearly misses with its Rocky Horror Show

Written by Richard O’Brien. Directed by Tim Shawver. Choreography by Darcy Rould-Welch. Nearly Naked Theatre, Phoenix, Arizona.

Nearly Naked Theatre kicked off its 2008-09 season with a new production of Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show at The Little Theatre at Phoenix Theatre. This remount of their successful 2004 production marks an exciting 10th season for the alternative theatre company but this particular production struggles to mirror its prior success. Jarring scene transitions, principal actor’s questionable vocal and character ranges and an enigmatic directorial concept overshadow the full potential of a fruitful vision. Dynamic scenic design, colorful costumes and impromptu props relieve the show’s rocky start helping it find a smooth enough path for willing audience appreciation and participation.
In Rocky Horror, newly engaged Brad Majors (the slinky Kelvin Harper) and Janet Weiss (the beauteous Traci McCormick) rush through a rainstorm to tell news of their engagement to their old science tutor Dr. Everett Scott (The versatile J.C. Carlisle). When a flat tire leaves them stranded outside of a spooky castle, the clueless couple seeks help from the castle’s curious Casanova, Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Nearly Naked Artistic Director Damon Derring). As they wait for help to come, Majors and Weiss’s virgin relationship comes under distress when Dr. Frank-N-Furter and his sinful sexual entourage probe the young lovers’ faithfulness.
With the fourth wall broken down, the engaging and amusing interaction between the audience and the cast is feverish, however, this same connection rarely happens onstage with the principal actors, as they struggle with the music, their objectives and their conflicts. Harper exasperates the nerd stereotype, too often relying on the same vocal and physical hiccups to strike a laugh. Harper and McCormick fail early to solidify a truthful relationship for their characters and struggle with the vocal range required for their particular songs —a common frustration with most of the cast of this production. Terre Steed’s (Riff Raff) thunderous voice, the delightful Brandi Bigley (Columbia) and the energetic ensemble work of the Phantoms rescue the musical and physical energy lost in the first half of the show.
David Weiss’ skillful set design, Terre Steed and Damon Derring’s delicious costumes, Jay Templeton and Eric Chapman’s myriad of playful props and Mark 4man’s masterful music direction make this Rocky Horror a delightful visual and aural feast. Director Tim Shawver’s shaky staging and Darcy Rould-Welch’s redundant choreography present key obstacles for most of the show but halfway through the second act, all the design elements and the musical and acting ensembles come together creating a hypnotic kaleidoscope igniting this production’s potential.
For ten years, Nearly Naked has strived to have no “boundaries of ignorance nor limits of imagination,” in creating their independent art. Last season, their acclaimed productions of “Reefer Madness” and “Metamorphoses” demonstrated their ability to achieve this honest, pure and important philosophy. With Rocky Horror, Nearly Naked needs to have some focus or boundaries, to help the audience identify the vision and concept of this production, rather than relying heavily on the bombarding eye-candy it’s presenting. When this Rocky Horror finds fluidity to its storytelling, its performance and its vision, some audiences will leave with more than personal nostalgia and souvenir glow-sticks, but with a new perspective and a rekindled enthusiasm for Richard O’Brien’s cult classic.

reviewed by
Pasha Yamotahari
The Shaw Report, Sunday August 24, 2008

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Chronicles of O’Neill; The lion, the sorcerer and the wordsmith

Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, August, 2008


There’s been a long line of promising theatre artists that have strolled the green fields, napped in the hammocks and sat in the historic houses at the O’Neill Theatre Center. For over 40 years, this artistic haven for upcoming and settled playwrights, directors, designers, actors and critics have been a central part in developing talent.
At their nationals, the Kennedy Centre American College Theatre Festival (KC/ACTF) rewards a few promising student directors, designers and critics with the opportunity to be engaged in the world of the O’Neill and to perhaps, with a little luck, a little perseverance and the right open doors, one day shine as the future stars of American Theatre. Of this group, a young ferocious director, a witty playwright and critic and a magical sound designer, make-up the potential landscape of American theatre.

The Lion Director

Sitting on the sea porch at the Hammond house, cigarette pack and coffee within his grasp, 28-year old Devon Scalisi stares out at the four fawns in the O’Neill field. A smirk on his face, Scalisi sighs, lights a cigarette and finishes his rant.
“As a director, I need to be riding everyone else, having more energy than everyone else…it’s my fucking craft, my visceral nature, you got to invest yourself,”
Scalisi recently directed “Glengarry Glen Ross” at the Piano Factory Theatre in Boston. His theatre company, CounterProductions, was recently notified that they are considered for an Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) award.
Scalisi hasn’t always known what he’d like to tackle in life. At 19, he moved from Portland to New York to venture into the rapidly growing field of graphic design, a talent stemming from his childhood love of comics and children’s books. Sitting in a cubicle, four years later, the steely-eyed Scalisi felt an unnerving sensation in his heart—a sadness that he may be settling in the wrong profession.
“I couldn’t stand doing fucking graphic design for the man anymore, I fell into the machine,”
He quit his job and enrolled at Salem State University in Massachusetts, uncertain of the next challenge in his life. With the advice of a school counselor and his secret desire for theatre, Scalisi registered in a first-year acting class. He auditioned for every school play (landing principal parts in Julius Cesar, Zoo Story and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) but his curiosity unleashed his primal passion for directing.
His directorial debut, Twelve Angry Men (where he cast 6 men and 6 women), sent him to the ACTF regionals where Scalisi beat out graduate students from top theatre programs in New England and New York. Scalisi then represented his region at the nationals in Washington D.C. where after an interview with Wendy C. Goldberg, Artistic Director of the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, he was invited to work as Assistant Director in playwright Rachel Axler’s work in progress, Smudge.
Scalisi’s directing style borders on the cinematic. Every tableau he stages is an engaging image and once finely edited together generates a breathless rhythm. As he puts it, his style is “a medley of organized theatrical chaos,” devouring his audience. He obtains this level of urgency and commitment from his actors in rehearsal, where the young director has a “no holds barred” philosophy fueled by his love of all words in the English lexicon.
“My father was a pastor, we were at church three days a week growing up, I didn’t even say the word fuck until I was 18, but I use it now with my actors, my collaborators, I got to be real with them, and yeah, they’re taken aback at times but eventually, they get that my fucks are commas, periods in my speech, I love swearing, it’s part of language, part of my communication,”
Whether or not Scalisi’s manner of speech is suitable to all theatre artists is questionable but there’s no doubt that his message and style will clearly telegraph to his present and future audiences.

The Sorcerer of Sounds

The 23-year old Teruhisa “Terry” Uchiyama came to the O’Neill in a similar manner to Scalisi. His original score and sound design for a production of Oedipus at Sam Houston University in Texas landed him at nationals in Washington, culminating in a summer fellowship at the O’Neill as assistant sound designer. Although Uchiyama does not play any musical instrument, he has always been surrounded by the magic of music.
At five years old, Uchiyama remembers the evenings he spent at smoky Japanese Jazz clubs, sitting on stools listening to his jazz composer/musician father play to the crowds. Growing up with sounds around him, he developed a keen ear for the synthetic structure of music and the organic beauty of natural noise. At nineteen, with the support of his family, Uchiyama left Japan to study biology aspiring to become a geneticist. Three semesters later, as part of his degree requirements, Uchiyama registered for an acting class to fill his fine arts elective. Uchiyama was immediately bewitched by the theatre arts.
“My father was very upset, and still is, he doesn’t believe it’s possible to make a life in the arts, but I’m willing to risk it, to take the challenge,” Uchiyama reflects, smiles and confidently nods, his long brown hair slapping at his cheeks.
His optimism is sincere but well founded, as he has mastered his own instrument for creation; an Apple computer filled with sound wizardry. His designs encompass mélanges of the natural and the artificial. Multiple layers of noise converge into a unifying tone always mirroring the rhythms on stage. Uchiyama understands the aesthetics of theatre believing in sound design as a supporting vehicle for audience catharsis. By attending the early process of a production, he finds the muse to his music.
“Sound is a language to me, it arouses my creativity. Rehearsals give me the emotion, [the] feelings I need, sounds come into my head and I try to recreate the emotions physically in my computer,”
With the current body of work Uchiyama possesses, his spellbinding design will capture the imagination of the productions he collaborates with.

The Witty Wordsmith

Swinging in the shade in the celebrated O’Neill hammock, the 23-year old Scott McCarrey bursts into drumming laughter, his spiky brown hair intact.
“I feel like a hippie, I just want people to like what I do,”
The humble McCarrey, a National Critics Institute Fellow and 2006 winner of the Richard A. Weaver award for best play (KC/ACTF), has little to worry about his likeability. Behind his Woody Allen-esque glasses, McCarrey stores his library of language, of characters and plots; key ingredients of his acceptance to the graduate school at NYU’s dramatic writing program. However, three years ago, a case of mistaken identity kept the young playwright from following a much different career path.
With aspirations to go to University of Texas-San Antonio to study film, McCarrey’s high school counselor sent the wrong S.A.T scores forcing McCarrey to register at Sam Houston University. Although a High School drama teacher told McCarrey that he would never grasp theatre, McCarrey declared himself a theatre major, the “genre seemed to fit” him.
In school, McCarrey excelled as actor and playwright quickly becoming a darling of his program. His plays “Robot Songs” and “Grand Canyon” captured the imagination of his faculty, other students and his community. His play, Grand Canyon, chronicles an unlikely carpool where Abraham Lincoln, Joseph Stalin and Jack Kerouac head to the famous landmark. His genre ranges from absurdist to realism, both mixed with focused comedic and tragic elements leaving readers with thought-provoking endings. There’s a charm to the sophisticated ideas he channels through his characters’ crispy and catchy dialogues.
“I try to consider every aspect, it’s never just black and white but my nature always falls towards laughter,”
Within McCarrey’s nature lies a fiery ambition, evident in his passionate speeches about theatre and about the world. With his plays capturing the essence of his personality, his values and beliefs, he journeys towards a warm destination in contemporary theatre.

For over forty summers, The Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center has acted as an establishing force in the creation of a collaborative network of theatre artists where promising newcomers work with established professionals to energize the future of theatre. Years later, these newcomers, now professionals of their own, complete the cycle by returning to teach future generations. These three aspiring theatre artists prove the effectiveness of the O’Neill philosophy and hopefully in the 40 years to come, they will return, like their predecessors, and share the fruits of their artistic labors.

Pasha Yamotahari
The Shaw Theatre Report