As posted on Nashville Theatre Lost and Found website by visiting reviewer Trudy S. Gordon. Thank you, Trudy! NEW PERSPECTIVE FESTIVAL San Diego, California Guest Review JUNE 2009 While
I was sitting in Shakespeare Pub last weekend, enjoying a pint with a
number of now-too-rarely seen ex-pat friends in San Diego, California
(headquarters, if you do not know, to the British American Society and
home of many ex-pats) one of my companions mentioned a local theatre
festival in which I might be interested. The owner and producer, I was
told, was a relatively recent transplant from Nashville, whom I might
have seen on stage there. I was intrigued. A night of theatre with
good friends and a Nashville connection? You bet your sweet bippy. After
a bit of conversation with festival owner Kelly Lapczynski, my
west-coast theatre friend begged a favour: would I write a review of
the evening’s entertainment? As I was more than a few miles from my
regular readership, I wondered what use my words might be until my
friend explained the purpose of his request. You see, the festival is
comprised of three programs of eight short plays each – for a total of
24 scripts written, performed, and directed by San Diego Theatre
Artists in a format meant to market their talents to the local
community of folks who might eventually hire them – Artistic Directors
and Casting Agents – and to promote them through the media (for more on
the mission of the festival, visit its website at
perspectivefest.com). As it happened, I would be seeing the only
program (Program Two) which none of the local critics were available to
attend due to other openings around town, and which (we were told)
featured some worthy talent who would not otherwise be recognized. * * * Program
Two began with Craig Abernethy’s SWELL, which would seem (given the
dialogue) to be a simple piece about two under-educated and
over-confident long-term employees of Corporate America relishing their
territorial superiority over the better-educated and abler new hire.
Director Mark Stephan, however, added a layer of odd irony to the piece
with a play on the word “swell,” having his new hire become pregnant,
progress through 9 months of gestation, and give birth on stage all
during the self-important droning of her co-workers. The stunning
Laura Kaplan hit the comedy notes and struck some attractive poses,
while Mary Deaton gamely produced progeny without pulling focus.
Kristina Bender also appeared. Next
was Michael Clark’s AMUSE BOUCHE, which I am told is appropriately
named for its serving as the author’s selection as a taste of his
longer work, L’ATELIER ROUGE. As the concerned waiter in Thomas
Keller’s Matisse “bouchon,” Brendon Slater is a true talent,
underplaying the role nicely and creating a character with whom we want
to spend much more time. As restaurant patrons, Tom Andrew gives a
good but predictable performance as the unlikable husband and Leticia
Martinez delivers her lines as his wife in a monotone which does not
serve the piece. Martinez is new to the craft, though, and shows
promise. Following
AMUSE BOUCHE, we find Brendon Slater has slipped backstage to direct
Jacqueline Goldfinger’s excellent HIS LAST FIGHT, well cast with
Terence J. Burke in the role of the once-great fighter Palooka and Sara
Moneymaker in the role of the young, female boxer he tries to convince
to “go home.” Reed Willard is seen momentarily, and in fine form, at
the end of the play, but heard offstage through much of it as the
announcer who gives us the unfortunate play-by-play when “The Kid”
shakes off Palooka’s advice for an ill-fated fight. My only complaint
with this piece was that Burke chose to exude his power through his
voice, allowing his volume and accent too often to overpower his words
and make him difficult to understand. Rounding
out the first act was David Wiener’s FEEDING TIME AT THE HUMAN HOUSE,
one of the more creative bits of short writing I’ve seen in a long time
– an opinion borne out by the fact that while this script was in
rehearsal for the San Diego festival it was winning accolades in New
York, where it won Best Play in the 15th Annual NYC 15-Minute Play
Festival. Dawn Williams and Director Jonathan Sturch slip easily into
the roles of zoo-kept baboons whose very human midlife concerns about
the ravages of age and the future of their relationship are hilariously
turned on end in light of the female’s 15th birthday (“my rear end
doesn’t swell like it used to”). Add to that the male’s conspiracy
theory about “what the dolphins are up to” and you’ve got a complete
winner. This show in itself was worth the price of admission. Act
two began with Jack Dyville’s THE AVERAGE JOE, which had some very
clever ideas, which director David Sein didn’t fully realize on the
stage. In it, God has decided on an encore performance of the Great
Flood and asks “average Joe” Noah Nathanielson to take on the task of
building the modern Ark and rounding up two of every creature in a
year’s time. In this day and age, however, Noah is not able to get the
proper building permits, the necessary allotment of wood, and can’t get
anywhere near a spotted owl. Charles Peters, in the role of Noah,
makes a noble effort with the piece, but direction which has his wife
(played by M. Susan Peck) miming invisible props which could be better
indicated and God (played by Betsy Bruce Osmun) lifting invisible
windows which imply a fourth wall we shouldn’t be seeing through make
the piece a difficult sell. Next
came Kevin Six’s LOVE UNREQUITED: AFTERNOON (ASIAN GALLERY). This
piece was the second of three of Six’s gallery pieces spread out over
the festival, one per program. While I’ve heard that the other two
galleries – MORNING (AMERICAN MASTERS) and EVENING (EUROPEAN GALLERY) –
are contenders for Best of Fest honours when the votes are tallied at
the close of the festival, this one was unfortunately not well served
by a set of four actors with utterly different acting styles ranging
from the understated and breathy, through the monotone, and into the
over-emoted. From
the Asian Gallery, we were lead onto a golf course for Kathleen
McLaughlin’s TEED OFF, a somewhat familiar treatment of the difference
between two generations of soldiers (those in the Great War and those
in Viet Nam), the treatment of them on their return, and their
frustration that the peace they fought for – and which others fight for
still – will never come. The “surprise” ending isn’t much of a
surprise but is excellently played by Jonathan Dunn-Rankin and Michael
Niederman. Ending
the evening was Steve Koppman’s CELL SHOCK, a riot of a script about
the end of quiet enjoyment everywhere through the rampant public usage
of cell phones by the loud and inconsiderate – people who believe that
they are entitled to hash out the minute details of their lives in
public places with the expectation of privacy at the expense of those
around them. You might guess that I felt a particular affinity for
this piece, though its message will no doubt be lost on those most
needing to learn it. Instead, we laugh as we suffer along with the
poor schmo Marty (Charles Peters’ second appearance in a more rewarding
role) who can’t get his work done through the long monologue of the
“very blunt” woman talking about the end of her relationship next to
him, excellently-played by Samantha Ginn. I
wish I had known about the festival in time to have seen the other two
programs, in all featuring the talents of more than 100 San Diego
Theatre Artists. TRUDY’S TRUTH IN THEATRE: |