Seldom
do such theaters, which depend upon box office sales for their existence, give
a full staging to untested scripts as part of their regular season.
Dobama,
since it was founded, has been a forerunner, an innovator. Don Bianchi, the founding artistic director, cast plays
without tryouts, staged a closet drama…a script intended to be read, but not
staged, directed a script that required a realistic set in the round with no
set, and occasionally produced new scripts. Yes, Dobama, since its spur-of-the-moment creation, has been
a creative theater.
Dobama
is generally recognized as the first venue in the area to earn the
classification of “Guest Artist
Theatre”—a theatre which has an agreement with Equity, whose productions
normally include one or more Equity members, and/or who pay all or some their
actors in a performance or supply their actors with a stipend.
Some might question why new
Artistic Director Nathan Motto would chose an untested script, by an untested
writer, when the theatre has, of late, stuck to the more tried and true plays
and writers, with good success. Yes,
the present show, MADE IN AMERICA, is a script with no history of table
readings, workshops, or testing before audiences. Part of the reason for its selection may be that it was
written by former Dobama Artistic Director Joel Hammer.
“Made” could mean constructed,
created or fabricated. A slang
definition of the word is “to have your cover blown.” Ironically, in MADE IN AMERICA, both definitions are
applicable.
Topics such as race, sexual
power, gender dynamics, manipulation, and alcohol’s influence on communication and
judgement, evolve as MADE IN AMERICA unfolds. The question emerges,
How often do the situations revealed in the play take place in the real
world?
Barry is a large construction
company’s purchasing agent. (Or,
is he?) Esther is a married mother
with a son, who is a salesperson of materials used in construction. (Or, is she?)
The duo meets in the bar
of the hotel in which Esther is staying, which is located in Barry’s city. He invited her to present her final
proposal before a purchase decision is made. (Did he?) They
have been negotiating for many months about the purchase of materials to be
used in the construction of a government building. The price is important, but so is the requirement that all
materials used in federal construction projects be made in America. The decision is important. This is a million dollar sale, which
would net Esther about $50,000 in sales bonuses.
Who are these
people? Esther is an intelligent, attractive
African American woman. Barry, who
consumes a great deal of alcohol, obviously is power hungry, and has strong
racial and sexist attitudes, which flow forth as he drinks more and more. Both are driven. Both are creatively conniving, willing
to do about anything to get what they want. The exposition of the first act ends with what appears
to be a situation in which Barry has the upper hand. (Or, does he?)
The cat and mouse game
continues in the second act.
Seemingly, the tables have turned and now Esther apparently has the
upper hand. (Or, does she?) Even as the final lights go out, we may
not know the conclusion. (Or, do
we?)
Hammer’s script is not a
polished product. It probably
should have been workshopped before it was given a staged production. There is excessive wordiness in
parts. Some situations take too
long to develop. After a while,
the characters stop growing and become redundant.
The production, under the
direction of Scott Miller, sometimes drags. Some key ideas in the cat and mouse game need keying and
stressing. Without that the
audience is robbed of playing detective, running the “I figured it out factor.”
Both Joel Hammer, as
Barry, and Colleen Longshaw, as Esther, are very competent performers who
display understanding of their roles and develop real people. That is, as real as the writing allows.
The bar setting is
awkwardly configured. It does not
look like a bar. The bedroom
setting is much more functional.
CAPSULE JUDGMENT: Dobama
should be commended for going out on a limb by selecting a new play. Unfortunately, MADE IN AMERICA is not a
polished script and needed to be more completely tested to determine if it was
audience ready. Attendees will be
rewarded by being the first to see the script in production, but should be
aware that they are seeing a piece of theatrical writing in progress, which is
given a competent production.
MADE IN AMERICA runs through, April 6, 2014 at Dobama Theatre. Call 216-932-3396 or http://www.dobama.org for
tickets.
