Convergence Continuum’s DOG ACT is full of "whys?"!

Liz Duffy Adams is an American playwright who is noted for her liberal use of “flavored” language, expanded wit, and characters who possess animated personas.  Rather than writing in a sequential mode, she tends to write on a random style which often follows no logical cause-effect.    
Her play, DOG ACT, which is now on stage at convergence-continuum, follows the apocalyptic adventures of Zetta Stone, a traveling performer, and her companion Dog, as they wander through the former northeastern United States on their way to perform in China.  
 
The script is a combination of narration, simple songs, and some preposterous interludes. 
 
On the surface, the play’s description sounds easy to understand.  It is not!  There is a theatrical doomsday overlay, accompanied by lewd and poetic language, riddled with Shakespearean resonance, Biblical and Peter Pan-like references. 
 
This is not a script which one can analyze and figure out what the underlying purpose of the play is about and what the author is trying to teach/tell us.  In fact, the only way to wend yourself through this two-act experience is to sit back and let it happen and not dig much deeper.
 
A review of DOG ACT stated, “The dialogue doesn't provoke the listener to struggle to make sense of the various argots and the strangeness of the words by which we communicate – or don’t.” 
 
With that in mind, a question might be, “Why did con-con’s powers that be choose this script?” 
 
Yes, theatre’s mission is to “produce theatre that expands human imagination and extends the conventional boundaries of language, structure, space and performance,” but does producing an abstract script, that has no apparent relevance or message accomplish that goal?  Why chose a script which is loaded with unnecessary use of profanity, with no purpose other than using profanity for the sake of the use of profanity?
 
The issue with the production is not the direction.  David L. Munnell, seems to have a clear process that he used, including assaulting the audience as they were coming in by having Coke and Bud, using “f**k” over and over, desensitizing the viewer to the excessive use of that word in the script, to making the entire process so obscure that the lack of idea clarity is expected, therefore accepted.
 
The performances, though sometimes uneven, are generally acceptable.  
 
Mike Frye (Dog) has a charming and accessible quality as Dog, who as a young boy, while confined to a fortress, knowing the guard at the gate was not always alert, wandered into the outlying areas, leaving the gate opened, allowing marauders to enter and kill most of the population.  As a result, Dog has been self-transformed into a non-human.   
 
Denise Astorino (Vera), who started the evening yelling, rather than stressing ideas, seemed to settle into the role and create Zetta, the leader of the troupe, into a character obsessed in getting to China to perform.  As with many of the issues in the play, we are unaware of the cause of her oriental obsession.
 
Andrea Belser, who we find out near the end of the script, is on a vengeful hunt to destroy Dog, as she was one of the few people to survive the attack on the community destroyed by the youth’s leaving the gate open, is inconsistent in her line interpretation and character development.  At times she was realistic, at other instances, she acted the role.
 
Wesley Allen (Coke) and Emileo Fernandez (Bud) evilly swore themselves through their roles. Why they were forced into meaningless language, only the author knows.  Their costumes, made out of coke and Budweiser cans were clever, but why was Bud wearing a Young Judea stocking cap?
 
Kate Smith, as Jo-Jo, a storyteller, had some humorous moments with her monotone triple-talking of meaningless tales.
 
The technical aspects of the show were well done.
 
Capsule judgment:  As Bud and Coke, two characters in DOG ACT might ask, “Why in F**ckity, F**ck, did con-con choose to do this convoluted script?” 
 
DOG ACT runs March 25 -April 16, 2022, Thu-Sat at 8 p.m. at convergence continuum’s Liminis Theater, 2438 Scranton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113 in the historic Tremont neighborhood. Fri. and Sat. tickets are $23 general admission, $18 for seniors and $18 for students. Tickets and information are available at www.convergence-continuum.org and 216- 687-0074.

MILLWOOD OUTPOST is a raw look at white men in a changing society at Playwrights Local

 

Playwrights Local says of itself, we are “dedicated to supporting the dramatists of Northeast Ohio.  As a playwrights’ development and production center we foster diverse talents and present locally written works.”  They have done this with excellent results as evidenced by the number of Cleveland Critics Circle and Broadwayworld-Cleveland award recognitions.

After several years of hiatus, caused by the Covid pandemic, the company is back, staging Tom Hayes’ MILLWOOD OUTPOST.

The tale tells that “Confined on a stormy day, six highway workers are forced to share one room in an abandoned Department of Transportation outpost. Over the course of several hours, the men must confront their own fears, prejudices, and beliefs, and those of each other, while elemental forces outside threaten them all.”

Director Rachel Zake, says of the script: “I love how Tom combined realism and mysticism. Particularly, the idea of the storm bearing down and creating a haunting background for the mounting tensions between the characters stood out to me.”

She continues, “The emotions are striking and the conflict is relatable, even for those who aren’t ODOT workers. The struggle between old and new, tradition and progress is one that is familiar. But, we don’t usually see it up close, in a pressure cooker situation, provoked by a mysterious fog. As the audience has the privilege of sitting up close to the action, I think they will feel immediately drawn in by the characters and their journeys.”
 
I wish I could agree with the director, unfortunately, I can not.
 
While the last ten minutes of the play are compelling, the other 70 minutes are slow moving, rambling, seemingly going nowhere.  Then, bang, the real issues are thrown out, tension results, and the playwright’s purpose is exposed, but not fully developed.
 
Where does the problem lie?  
 
Maybe the writer needs to find a way to more quickly get the issues of white male fear of losing their traditional roles in society, concern over women entering the workplace, strongly felt homophobia and anti-Semitism, the differences in the beliefs of the young and educated versus their less schooled elders.  Interestingly, these are the same issues which have stimulated the allegiance to Donald Trump and his fellow hate-spewers.  Maybe this is the hook needed to develop the play’s message.
 
Maybe the director and some of the cast members needed to realize that there are ways of expressing angst without screaming.  Once an actor has screamed, he has used up the emotion and has no place to go to express his frustrations, fears and hatred.  Underplay rather than overplay has its place if the playwright has given the actor the words to express those feelings.
 
Questions abound in the script and production:  What was the real purpose of the bra stuffed into the chair?  Why was the accused homosexual young man stripped of his shirt?  How does a person get drunk on three or four small drinks of wine and why is this even included?  Why was a bright light shining through the window outside if there was a raging storm and all-encompassing fog?  Why were there no sounds of rain pounding the windows?  Why were people coming in from a storm wearing dry clothing and showing no effects of the rain?  Why were the physical confrontations so unrealistic?  Why the mention of Manischewitz kosher wine when the bottle of liquid being used is not that brand?  Why were mentions made of issues, but the issues, themselves not developed?
 
The ending leaves many issues hanging and was so sudden that the audience wasn’t aware that the play was over until the lights came up with the cast lined up for the curtain call.
 
As to the acting, congrats to Zach Palumbo (Nick) and August Scarpelli (Moon) for developing real and accessible characters.

 
Capsule Judgment:  MILLWOOD OUTPOST is a new script getting its first staged production. It obviously needs work, from the writing, to the staging. The author and director would be wise to use this experience and make changes which would help the important message of the play come out more effectively. 
 
MILLWOOD OUTPOST will be performed Fridays and Saturdays @ 7:30pm and Sundays @ 2:30pm through March 18- April 2, 2022 at the Creative Space at Waterloo Arts.  Get tickets here.
 
Next up for Playwrights Local:  HEY SIRI, written by Mary E. Weems, July 20-24, 2022, BorderlLight Festival.

Meaningful ANTIGONE gets inconsistent production at Cleveland Play Hous

Cleveland Play House’s Artistic Director, Laura Kepley, in her comments in the playbill for ANTIGONE states, “We originally programed ANTIGONE to be produced during the 2019-2020 season.  The play was in its second week of rehearsals when we had to make the heartbreaking announcement that the production was cancelled.”  The rampant COVID epidemic had struck the theatre world! The pause is over and the script is now being staged in CPH’s black box Outcalt Theatre. It is ironic that the play, like the last several years, deals with not only the struggles and angst of how to live life, but how we deal with death.   As Kepley explains, “Our mourning rituals have been altered. ANTIGONE taps into our collective loss and trauma.  It asks questions many of us have been grappling with:  How do we honor those we have lost without losing ourselves along the way?  How do we move forward?”    As Sophocles’ play, ANTIGONE, begins, “the invading army of Argos has been driven from Thebes, but in the course of the battle, two sons of Oedipus (Eteocles and Polynices) have died fighting for opposing sides. Their uncle, Creon is now king of Thebes. He decrees that the body of Polynices, who fought against his native city, will not be given burial rites but will be left to rot, as a warning to traitors. Creon further decrees that anyone who does try to bury Polynices will be punished with death.” Antigone and Ismene are grieving for the loss of their brothers.  Both are upset, but Antigone is also defiant. She vows to give Polynices the proper burial rites. Ismene begs Antigone to not defy the laws of the city and add to their family's tragedy. Antigone will not yield. The play explores such themes as the right of the individual to reject society’s infringement on personal freedoms, the differences between theological law and personal beliefs, civil disobedience, citizenship and the honor of family versus duties to the state. Playwright Emily Mann has taken the script, which normally runs close to three hours in production and reimagined it.  It now runs around ninety minutes and encourages color blind and gender-neutral casting.  In the CPH production Creon (Vanessa Morosco) is a female.  She is married to Eurydice (Laura Starnik), also a female.  Both are white.  Their son, Haemon, is black.  Their nieces, Antigone (Mariah Burks) and Ismene Bridget Kim) are black and Asian. Though these gender, racial and sexual differences have nothing to do with the plot-line and story development, the change from the norm puts the spotlight on the changing attitudes of our culture, as it reflects the concept that the arts, theatre in this case, represents the era from which it comes.  While this play was written many centuries ago, this staging represents alterations that have taken place as the attitudes and beliefs of cultures change. The stances of Creon and Antigone are philosophically at odds with each other.  Questions arise.  Shall tradition rule or should they adapt to personal belief?  Will the laws of the gods be followed, or shall adaptations be made to accommodate the needs and individual beliefs of the living? Those issues are not only at the center of ANTIGONE, but the center of many of the conflicts of today.   Legal issues abound concerning the influence by religious leaders and their followers versus the views of secularists as they affect gay rights, gender equality and abortion. What should be the procedures for teaching about slavery, the role of white supremacy, the intentions of our founding fathers (there were no founding mothers), and the “war of Northern aggression/Civil War?” The Play House production, under the direction of Lauren Keating is often successful, at other times pretentious and unnatural.   Mariah Burks’s Antigone was real, developing ideas and using a presentational style that was accessible, making her thoughts and feelings clear. The same was true for Fabio Palanco (Aide) and  Laura Starnik (Eurydice).    Others used acting styles that harked back to the days of stylization over substance, while one member of the cast used a pronunciation and verbal style that was more appropriate for an August Wilson script.  Whether those choices were intentionally made by the director or cast members, or were accidental, they distracted from the effect of the production. Courtney O’Neill created a thrust stage set that was a perfect space for the staging.  Nathan Motta’s music was properly haunting, foreshadowing the play’s start with ominous overtones. and accenting changes in tension and moods during the show.  Karin Olson’s lighting design helped create the right illusions.  The costuming was as confusing as some of the acting styles. Capsule judgment:  ANTIGONE, as adapted by Emily Mann, carries as important a message of the rejection or blind acceptance of the authority of civic and religious customs and leaders today as it did when the Greek Sophocles wrote the script in the fifth-century BC.  The CPH production was often successful, at other times inconsistent.    For tickets to ANTIGONE call 216-241-6000 or go to:  www.clevelandplayhouse.com Next up at CPH:  THE THREE MUSKETEERS from April 30-May 22, 2020 in the Allen Theatre.

PRETTY WOMAN prettier than New York reviewers let on

Roy Berko
(Member:  Cleveland Critics Circle, American Theater Critics Association)

The film PRETTY WOMAN, based on the Roy Orbison song, which was originally planned to be a tale about class and prostitution, but was reconceived into a romantic comedy, opened to both critical and audience delight.  It still gets a considerable audience when it is shown on television.

Unfortunately, PRETTY WOMAN: THE MUSICAL, a version of which is now on stage at the Connor Palace as part of the Key Bank Broadway Series, opened to universally negative reviews.

Based on the film’s success, before it’s official opening, the 2018 Broadway previews broke the then Nederlander Theatre box office record for an eight-performance week.

After the reviews came out, generally calling the Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance score as “pleasant but bland,” and “the plot needing updating” and the “gender dynamics of the movie’s plot having aged poorly,” the show limped along, running 27 previews and 420 regular performances.

The book by Garry Marshall and J. F. Lawton tells the tale of “Vivian Ward a free-spirited Hollywood prostitute who lives with her sarcastic wisecracking best friend and roommate, Kit De Luca.  Vivian is hired by Edward Lewis, a handsome wealthy businessman, to be his escort for several business and social functions.”  The question, of course, is whether this is going to be a Cinderella story where the unlikely duo becomes a real-life “happily ever after” tale.  
 
The touring company pulled off a surprise coupe in its opening night.  
 
Playing with a handful of substitutes, due to medical problems, the audience, which gave tepid applause to “Welcome to Hollywood,” a less than dynamic curtain-raiser, warmed up when charming Olivia Valli, playing the Julia Roberts’s role of Vivian, sang, “Any Where but Here,” the show’s “I want song,” whose purpose is to clarify the desires of the leading character and set the plot on track.  Olivia doesn’t want to be a prostitute, but seems to have no options.  It’s similar in plot development to “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” from MY FAIR LADY, where Eliza tells us of her desire to own a flower shop and no longer sell flowers on the street.
 
Eliza is taken in by Henry Higgins and Vivian hooks up with Edward Lewis and the plot and the woman’s wishes are accomplished.
 
The audience-production “hey, this is better than I expected” love-fest continued as comic characters, including Kit De Luca (a delightful Jessica Crouch), Nico DeJuses (a fill in for the role of Guilio, a hotel bellman, almost stole the show with his dancing and comic timing), and Happy Man/Hotel Manager (the dynamic Kyle Taylor Parker, who appeared on Broadway as the co-lead in KINKY BOOTS) came on stage.  
 
DeLuca gave us the image of sex-worker having fun, DeJuses is a munchkin-sized charmer, and Parker delighted with “On a Night Like Tonight,” “Don’t Forget to Dance,” and “Never Give Up on a Dream.”
 
When handsome, gym-toned Chris Manuel, filling in for Adam Pascal, of RENT fame in the role of Edward, sang the plaintive “Something About Her,” and then belted out “Freedom” the applause was prolonged and the audience was on their way to experiencing an evening of satisfying musical theatre.
 
Don’t leave before the curtain call or you’ll miss the joint cast and audience singing, dancing, swaying and clapping version of “Pretty Woman,” the movie’s theme song, which is not part of the musical’s score.
 
Capsule Judgment:  PRETTY WOMAN is not a great musical.  It is definitely not CHORUS LINE, or MY FAIR LADY or WEST SIDE STORY, but this production, even with the obvious story line and mediocre score, is worth a sit-through.  The audience, after rendering the required “we are nice Clevelanders and give almost every production a standing ovation,” left with high positive chatter!
 
PRETTY WOMAN THE MUSICAL runs at the Connor Palace through March 27^th.  For tickets go to 216-640-8800 or go on line to https://www.playhousesquare.org/events/detail/pretty-woman

Please note:  Though you no longer have to show proof of Covid vaccine, this production requires that those sitting in the first two rows of the lower level (Dress Circle A & B, rows D & E) wear a mask during each performance.

Coming up CLE events:

CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE  
216-241-6000 or go to http://www.playhousesquare.org
7:30 Wednesday-Saturday, 2:30 Saturday and Sunday

ANTIGONE (March 5-27) -- This Sophocles tragedy is reimagined in a dystopian, war-torn world. The show was originally prepared for 2020, but was canceled due to the pandemic.

convergence continuum
convergence-continuum.org or 216-687-0074
Thursday-Saturday @ 8

DOG ACT (March 25-April 16)—Follow the adventures of Zetta Stone, a traveling performer, and her companion Dog (a young man undergoing a voluntary species demotion) as they wander through northeastern United States.

GREAT LAKES THEATER
  http://www.greatlakestheater.org or 216-241-6000
Wednesday-Saturday @ 7:30, Saturdays @ 1:30, Sundays @ 3

 

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (March 5-April 10) --Beatrice and Benedick would rather exchange scorching insults than sweet nothings. However, the pugnacious pair is forced to forge a partnership in order to defend house and honor.

DANCE CLEVELAND DANCECleveland | DANCECleveland | Modern and Contemporary Dance in Cleveland, OH

PAM GANOWITZ DANCE AND SIMONE DUBBERSTEIN, NEW WORK FOR GOLDBERG VARIATIONS (March 19, 7:30-- The Company will perform one of their most highly regarded works, NEW WORK FOR GOLDBERG VARIATIONS. Premiered in 2017 to rave reviews, the movement explores Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variation's musical architecture in a delightful interplay of rhythm, style and idiosyncrasy. The New York Times called the piece a “rare achievement.”

Meticulously staged KILL MOVE PARADISE is a must see at Dobama

When evaluating a performance at Dobama the mantra to be used is, “Would Donald approve?”  Donald, in this case is Donald Bianchi, who, in 1959, with a small and enthusiastic group of thespians, founded what we now know as Dobama, Cleveland’s off-Broadway theatre.

 
Donald was a quirky, creative, perfectionist.  He set the theatre’s mission as “to premiere important new plays by established and emerging playwrights in professional productions of the highest quality.”  He was undoubtedly the best director I have ever worked with. He demanded high quality!  
 
Would Donald have looked favorably on KILL MOVE PARADISE?  Yes, absolutely YES!  The play script is creatively written.  The production is high quality from the cast, to the set, to the lights, to the sound, to the electronic media.  The essence of Donald is shining on this meaningful staging.  
 
“Mr. Ijames, who has said his play is inspired by the shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by a Cleveland police officer… shows his characters trying to find the logic in the senselessness. It is a torturous and fruitless process.”  In this production, it creates a hypnotic theatrical energy of fear, rage, disgust, and helplessness.
 
KILL MOVE PARADISE is a tone poem of a play.  Using vocabulary that is expressive, emotional and often figurative, the tale of African American males who are wrenched out of their young lives, before they have fully lived those lives, simply because they are black and subject to stereotypes and societal fears and prejudices.  They learn the lesson early to keep both hands raised, never looking “the man” in the eye, and being careful of what and how they communicate. 
 
“KILL MOVE PARADISE tells the story of Isa, Daz, Grif and Tiny, four black men who find themselves stuck in a cosmic purgatory in the afterlife. While balancing the reality of their past and the uncertainty of their future, their souls try to find peace from senseless action and hope in the life they left behind.”
 
The play is a clear statement that black lives matter, that these young men do not deserve the fate that has been handed to them, that enough is enough, and that there is a major problem in America that needs to be fixed! 
 
Using a fascinating theatrical device, the actors spend much of their time looking at and talking directly to audience members.  They provoke reaction by directly asking, “Why are you sitting there staring at me?” “Do you see me.”  “Do I scare you?”  
The Dobama production, performed in a set that resembles a skateboard park, is brilliantly staged by Nathan Henry.  He wrenches all the emotion that is present in this bleak, often humorous, beautiful drama.

The cast, Mell Bowens, Jr., Ananias J. Dixon, Aamar-Malik Culbreth and Daris Stubbs work as a well-oiled unit. They play off each other, create clear individual characters, yet mold into a symbol of a common message.  They are each remarkable.
 
Because, we Clevelanders, are so attuned to the heinous murder of Tamir Rice, as youthful Culbreth, known as Tiny, slides over one of the walls of the skateboard park, holding a toy gun, we know he represents Tamir.  The BWU freshman develops the youth with clarity and purpose.  The other characters are not as person-specific, but as the list of those who have been murdered by police is read, individuals come to mind.  This effect is made vivid by the electronic media.
 
Laura Calrson Tarantowski’s set, Marcus Dana’s lighting design, Derek Graham’s sound design, all enhance the show.
 
Capsule judgement:  The Dobama production is brilliantly staged by Nathan Henry. The cast, Mell Bowens, Jr., Ananias J. Dixon, Aamar-Malik Culbreth and Daris Stubbs work as a well-oiled unit to create a vivid depiction of the misguided mistreatment of young black men in America! This is an absolute must see production!  As Donald Bianchi said, “Take the risk with us.  We are all in this together.  We all own it.”
 
KILL MOVE PARADISE runs through March 27.  For tickets call 216-932-3396 or go to https://www.dobama.org/tickets-index