The Winter's Tale

CWRU/CPH MFA’s THE WINTER’S TALE disappoints

The graduating class of the Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Play House MFA Acting Program closed out their third year with a production of Shakespeare’s THE WINTER’S TALE. Their training is basically over and what’s next place for these students are tryouts, getting an agent, and going forth into the world of professional theatre.

Previous graduates of the program are now appearing both on and off-Broadway shows, cast in network television shows, and as cast members of Cleveland Play House productions.

Since the troupe has been working with visiting artist Geoff Bullen, the associate director of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, and has been involved in a three-week Shakespeare Text Intensive, it was rather disappointing that some of THE WINTER’S TALE cast had difficulty in developing clear and meaningful characterizations.

THE WINTER’S TALE is a comedy, though it is perceived by some literary experts as one of Shakespeare’s late romances, while others tag it as a problem play because it is filled with conflicts, which result in a conflict solving ending.

The story concerns the jealous King Leontes who believes that his wife is having an affair, and that her soon to be born child was fathered by King Polixenes, his childhood friend. As a result, one is poisoned, another imprisoned, and the newly born baby exiled. Doesn’t sound like a comedy? In the creative hands of Shakespeare anything is possible.

Because of its clear characters, comic twists and turns, and unity of plot, the play is an audience favorite. The script gets many, many professional and amateur productions.

A recent New York staging of the play was described as, “Scalding jealousy, hunger for revenge, young love in rapturous bloom, the soul-corroding sorrow of regret: all are evoked in the saturated colors.” Unfortunately, few of these words can be used to describe much of the CWRU/CPH MFA production.

Director Geoff Bullen’s staging is marked by some fine character development and clever gimmicks, but also by excessive shouting, languid pacing, and much surface level acting. Sly use of the Teddybear’s Picnic Song highlights a fine comic segment. The blocking keys much of the dramatic and comic action. But all is not well in either Sicilia, where the play is set, nor in the Helen Rosenfeld Lewis Bialosky Lab Theatre, where the production is being staged.

Andrew Gorell, who has been excellent in previous productions, continues to be fine in comedic scenes, but loses his believability in dramatic moments. Dan Hendrock seems to believe that acting means yelling with little character texturing. French born Yan Tual is very difficult to understand. If he plans to work in U.S. theatre, he needs to work of American English pronunciation. Michael Herbert has matinee idol good looks, but doesn’t display the acting chops to go with his physical presence.

The females of the company are all strong. Kim Krane, Eva Gil and Kathryn Metzger are excellent, while, Kelli Ruttle is outstanding. Each appears to be ready for their entrance into the professional world.

CAPSULE JUDGMENT: A WINTER’S TALE is a disappointing production. So much more should be expected from a group of actors who have spent three years polishing their craft under excellent guidance.

In Arabia We`'d All Be Kings

IN ARABIA WE’D ALL BE KINGS inaugurates Lab Theatre in Allen Complex

It’s been an amazing year for the Cleveland Play House. On Fall of 2011 they moved into their new Allen Theatre home, a beautiful and functional facility in the Playhousesquare complex. Last month they produced their first-ever theatre in the round production in their new Second Stage performance space. And, now, the Helen Rosenfeld Lewis Bialosky Lab Theatre is open for productions.

The Lab Theatre is a flexible black box. For IN ARABIA WE’D ALL BE KINGS, performed by the Case Western Reserve University Cleveland Play House MFA Acting Program, the space was set in a runway configuration. In this type of staging, the audience sits in parallel sections opposite each other, with the action taking place on a rectangular space between the seated groups of viewers. Think—the traditional high school football stadium—in minature.

The format worked well for the in-your-face writing of Stephen Adly Guirgis. The Irish-American/Egyptian Guirgis, who was nominated for a Tony Award for his THE MOHTERF* *KER WITH THE HAT, is one of America’s new breed of playwrights. IN ARABIA WE’D ALL BE KINGS, like much of Guirgis’s writing, is gritty, free form, and uses the language of the streets. There is no sugar coating, no happy endings, no political correctness, just no-holds-barred realism.

The play is set in a Manhattan bar. It’s the kind of dive that most educated, suburban people, would walk out of as soon as they walked in. The place is sleazy, it’s inhabited by the “sociological sub-strata” which Guirgis seems to know so well. Among others, there is a recently released from jail thug, a prostitute, a junkie, and, a drunk whose entire life is spent sitting on his corner-of-the world bar stool.

The play is about a group of dysfunctional people who have formed their own community with their fellow bar inhabitants. These are people who live by their wits, often perpetuating violence and often are on the receiving end of it. These are the people who used to populate New York’s Hell’s Kitchen until the city cleaned up its act and closed their homes-away-from home. These off-beats who have nothing more to do than dream far-fetched dreams, living in the constant hope that things will work out for the better, and escape from reality through drugs, sex, liquor and talking, were left without their culture and way of life when the bars and flop houses were shuttered.

Guirgis’s dialogue is filled with language that might easily offend…racial and ethnic slurs, swearing, gutter slang. They say what pops into their often-confused minds. These are feeling, not thinking people.

On the surface, theatre-goers, who tend to be the type who have probably never come in direct contact with this urban underclass, might be repulsed by the motley group. Yet, as written about by Guirgis, there is audience understanding, compassion, a feeling of being sorry for and wanting to reach out to these misguided folks.

The playwright is an actor turned writer, and, as such, he gives his thespians the material to work with. He writes complete characters whose motivations are transparent. He sets forth language that is natural and real. The motivations that push the characters forward and the story are clear. He writes isolated scenes rather than the usual flowing script which has transitions from one segment to another. He doesn’t waste words…the viewer can fill in the blanks. Often he motivates stunned silence, at times he forces laughter, often out of embarrassment rather than a joke or a funny instance. This is heady stuff.

Ron Wilson’s direction is spot on. The action whips along, the characterizations are clear, and the staging creative. He is aided by a group of first year MFA students who show potential for making this a very special class.

Everyone in the cast is strong. Especially effective were Stephen Spencer as Skank, a spaced-out druggie, whose ability to live in a fantasy world is clearly etched. Spencer is Skank, Skank is Spencer! Christa Hinckley is appropriately pathetic as the needy, airheaded Christie, who will do anything, including prostituting herself, for drugs. Therese Anderberg (Demaris) has a wonderful touch with exaggerated comedy.

Tiffany Scribner’s scuzzy realistic bar and street corner sets visually take us where we need to be.

CAPSULE JUDGMENT: IN ARABIA WE’D ALL BE KINGS gets an impressive production and is a perfect vehicle to open CPH’s new Lab Theatre. Due to its language and subject matter, it’s not a play for everyone, but those interested in having an up-front emotionally involving theatrical theatre experience, should definitely see this production.

Present Laughter

PRESENT LAUGHTER misses the mark at CWRU/CPH Graduate Ensemble

Noel Coward is the crown prince of mid-twentieth century British farce. The good news is the Case Western Reserve University-Cleveland Play House Graduate Ensemble chose to produce Coward’s wonderful script, PRESENT LAUGHTER. The bad news is that, with the exception of a few performances, the ill-directed production doesn’t live up to the writing.

The script, which was written in 1939, was described by Coward as a “a series of semi-autobiographical pyrotechnics,” starred Coward in its original production, basically playing himself. The underlying double entendres, hints at homosexuality and the intimation of scandal, made the play an instant hit in England, and has been revived and revived on both sides of the pond.

The story centers on the self-absorbed, self-obsessed, self-centered Garry Essendine, a light weight British actor who is about to embark on a theatrical tour of Africa. He finds himself dealing with women who want to seduce him, placating both his long-suffering secretary and his estranged wife, being stalked by a crazed young playwright, and his own obsession with oncoming middle age.

In a good production the play is a total delight. The caveat is that British farce is hard to do. But it can be done. It requires a director who understands that this is not melodrama or broad comedy. It is farce. It requires perfect timing, actors who understand that reality, not overdone gestures and feigning characterizations. That is what makes this type of script work.

Some of the cast do well. Kelli Ruttle as Essendine’s wife, Liz, is delightful. She creates a real person. Kim Krane, as the secretary, shows a flair for sarcasm and uses her face and voice well to convey clear meanings. The talented Andrew Gorell has excellent comic timing and is a hoot as a bizarre writer with an obsession for Essendine. TJ Gainley, as Fred the butler, flits in and out with a nice flair.

On the other hand, shouting and wandering accents summarize the performances of Yan Tual (Morris Dixon) and Michael Herbert (Hugo Lyppiatt) as Essendine’s friends. Erin Bunting, with a fake electric cigarette clinched between her teeth and an accent that was indiscernible, overdid the role of Miss Erickson, the housekeeper. Caroline Santa, as a young ingénue and Eva Gil, as Hugo’s philandering wife, never did seem to find their characterizations.

And then there was Dan Hendrock as Essendine. He feigned facial and vocal expressions and overdid the character to the degree that instead of real, he became surreal.

To add to the problems, set designer Jill Davis so overstocked the tiny Brooks Theatre stage that there was little room for the actors to walk around. Huge furniture, though it was period correct, was everywhere, everywhere, everywhere!

Kristine Davies’ costumes were era correct and fit the mood of the script as did the musical interludes.

CAPSULE JUDGMENT: Case Western Reserve University-Cleveland Play House Graduate Ensemble has done some excellent work. PRESENT LAUGHTER isn’t one of the good ones. This is a graduate acting program, with professional staff. The audience should expect and get high level theatre, not a sub-quality production.

An Orchard

Adaptation of Chekov's CHERRY ORCHARD gets questionable interpretation by CWRU/CPH

Anton Chekov helped take Western theatre to a new level. Before Chekov and the other “modern” playwrights, much of European theatre was basically escapist romantic fluff, entertainment for the sake of entertainment.

Anton Chekov, Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg dove below the surface of culture and examined what people were doing, why they were motivated to take such actions, and the direction that the societies in which they found themselves were taking.

In THE CHERRY ORCHARD, an adaptation of which is being done by the Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Play House Master of Fine Arts students, Chekov cast an eye on the aristocracy of Russia and reflected that they were heading for a fall. He basically stated that their unrealistic life style was valueless, much like the overlooked and unused fruit of the cherry trees. He illustrated that the structure of reverence for societal position and wasteful value of life would soon be bulldozed under. He is credited with laying some of the ferment that eventually led to the Russian revolution. This is serious stuff.

The play concerns an aristocratic Russian woman and her family, owners of a large tract of land that contains a cherry orchard. The family has squandered its money and now is confronted with an unpayable mortgage. While presented with options to save the estate, the family, like the Russian aristocracy, essentially does nothing and the play ends to the sound of the cherry orchard being cut down, much like what will happen to the upper classes when the revolution takes place.

Supposedly, when THE CHERRY ORCHARD was first produced, Chekov expressed strong objection to the way in which Konstantin Stanislavski directed the show. That objection lead Stanislavski to reexamine the staging of plays and to his development of the Method Style of Acting in which the actor becomes the character, not acting like the character, clearly understanding the motivations and underpinnings of the person being portrayed.

THE CHERRY ORCHARD, or An ORCHARD as the CWRU/CPH version is titled, can be classified as a modern dramatic tragedy. Though there are times when humor can be injected, it is mainly a realistic look at the naivety of the Russian upper classes in the late 18th and early 19th century.

The approach of the CWRU/CPH production, under the direction of Mark Alan Gordon, which looks for the laughs, stresses overdone and often unrealistic characterizations, almost casting aside the prophetic nature of what is happening in the society and, specifically, to these misguided people, is questionable.

The females in the cast are quite acceptable. Kelli Ruttle as the mother, Kim Krane, the daughter, and Eva Gil, the adopted daughter, all develop characters who basically fit Chekov's writing. Ruttle is properly obtuse as a woman who cannot confront reality, singing merrily and spending money on a lavish party as her world collapses around her. Krane gives us a young woman who lets love lead her to what is an uncertain future with naivety. Gil clearly gives us a frustrated character who knows what is going on but is unable to change the course of action.

On the other hand, the males in the cast play their roles on the surface, lacking realism in their performances. Andrew Gorell so overdoes his role of the uncle that he is laughable, not allowing any room for empathy for his misguided plight. Yan Tual, as the elderly servant, walks like Charlie Chaplin and plays strictly for laughs, so that at the poignant ending of the play, his abandonment, like the destruction of the society, leaves no room for empathy. Dan Hendrock stomps around stage feigning the eventually victorious merchant who grows from serf to landholder. Michael Herbert is never convincing as the student who is supposed to represent the enlightened younger and educated class who will eventually lead the revolution.

In order to do Chekov well, the cast and production team need to understand the motivations behind the writing and the history of the era which is represented. Much of this educational element seems to have been overlooked in this production.

Jill Davis has converted the Studio One theatre into a forest in which the audience, sitting in unmatched chairs, are distributed among trees and set pieces. The effect is very positive as the actors move freely among the audience, making the viewers part of the action. One may question why, however, the orchard was made of birch rather than cherry trees, thus nullifying some of the symbolic underpinnings of the script.

Jeffrey Van Curtis has done an excellent job of creating era correct costumes.

CAPSULE JUDGMENT: THE CHERRY ORCHARD is one of western theatre's great scripts. It gets a questionable interpretation from the Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Play House Master of Fine Arts program.

Cloud Nine

Caryl Churchill’s thought provoking gender bender ‘CLOUD 9’ well performed by CWRU/CPHMFAAP

That theatre group with the impossible name is at it again. The Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Play House Master of Fine Arts Acting Program is presenting Caryl Churchill’s ‘CLOUD NINE,’ a play about colonial and gender oppression in CPH’s Brooks Theatre. The play itself is a thought provoking, often humorous, often psychological mind twister, as is the company’s moniker. Why, oh why, can’t the program’s powers that be come up with an insignia that isn’t mind and mouth rattling?

‘CLOUD NINE’ is a two-act play which was first performed in 1979. It is as relevant today as it was back then. Yes, colonialism and western world feminine gender suppression are not as clear in the present time. However, inequality for homosexuals, opposition to equal rights for all, verbal and physical aggression by the older white males in the United States who are afraid they are loosing control of “their country,” female “inferiority” in the Muslim world, and resistance to a flat world concept, are still present.

The play uses melodrama and controversial portrayals of sexuality and obscene language to establish a parallel between colonial and sexual oppression. It is filled with incongruity and “shock” language to convey Churchill's political message about accepting people who are different and not dominating them or forcing them into particular roles.

Churchill has stated that during the development of ‘CLOUD NINE,’ she was influenced by Kate Millet’s Sexual Politics and Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks. Millett’s book was the bible for the women’s movement. It awakened many American and European women to the nature of the patriarchal society in which they lived.

Fanon’s book explained the feelings of dependency and inadequacy that Black people experience in a White world. This is well brought out in ‘CLOUD NINE,’ through the character of Joshua, the Black servant, who has chosen to “turn white” rather than disappear. Those who choose the opposite are either flogged or run the risk of being the victims of punitive raids by British soldiers, as their lives are considered of no importance. Joshua’s words, “My skin is black but oh my soul is white” are an allusion to “The Little Black Boy,” a poem by William Blake.

The two acts of the play form a contrapuntal structure. Act 1 is set in British colonial Africa in Victorian times, and Act 2 is set in a London park in 1979. Interestingly, each actor plays one role in Act 1 and a different role in Act 2, often of another gender.
Churchill’s creative approach makes it necessary for the viewer to make a mental switch from seeing a rag doll “child” in the first act being portrayed by a real adult in the second act, and a white male with an accent who in the first act is a Black male servant, playing a female child in the second act. It’s all part of Churchill’s well-honed attempt to make the story present-day relevant and not an illusion of “then” and “them.”

The CWRU/CPHMFAAP’s production, under the creative directorial eye of Ron Wilson, is excellent. From the creative pop modern art set of Jill Davis, to Michael Boll’s insightful lighting, to Tiffany Goff’s music, to the clear development of each character, the entire production works. The intimate Brooks Theatre adds immediate presence to the message…you can’t escape from being involved.

The entire cast is excellent. Special performances include Andrew Gorell’s interpretation of Betty, the mistress of the African plantation. Gorell, does not play the role as a cross dresser, but as a “real” woman. Yan Tual’s use of his natural accent adds an interesting dimension of white man playing Black man in the first act, while his transformation to a female child in the second act is startling considering his over six-foot height. Kelli Ruttle’s transformation from first act nanny to second act recently divorced mother, in search of who she really is, is excellent.

CAPSULE JUDGMENT: ‘CLOUD 9’ is a thought provoking play that gets an excellent production by the ill-named CWRU/CPH acting program.

All's Well That Ends Well

ALL’S WELL doesn’t end well for CWRU MFA program

Last season Case Western Reserve’s MFA Acting Program presented a fine production of ‘AUTOBAHN.’ This season they undertook Shakespeare’s ‘ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.’ Unfortunately, the results were not as positive an experience.

The plot concerns Hellen, a lowborn beauty, who serves in the household of the Countess of Rousillion. Hellen is secretly in love with Bertram, the Countess’s son. Bertram goes off to serve the king, who is terminally ill with a peptic ulcer. Helena’s late father, a physician, has left her his potions. Hellen goes to the King, gives him a drug which cures him and gets, in return, her choice of marrying any male in the King’s court. Of course, she chooses Bertram, who under pressure reluctantly marries her, but before the marriage is consummated he runs off to Italy supposedly to fight in a war. While in Italy, he writes Hellen that, "When thou canst get the ring upon my finger, which never shall come off, and show me a child begotten of thy body that I am father to, then call me husband." That message causes great angst, plot twists result, and eventually everything is resolved as supposedly, all’s well that ends well.

There is no evidence that ‘ALL'S WELL’ was popular in Shakespeare's own lifetime. It has remained one of his lesser-known plays, in part due to its odd mixture of fairy tale logic, supposed realism and its chauvinistic attitude.

Hellen's love for the seemingly unlovable Bertram is difficult to explain. With the right production, however, one in which Bertram, at the start appears to be naïve, and, in the end apologetically comes to his senses, it might be fathomable. That’s exactly what happened in the fine Canadian Shakespeare Festival’s production I saw several seasons ago. But, unfortunately, that is not the tack taken by either director Geoff Bullen nor Tom Picasso, who plays Bertram. The scowling Picasso introduces Bertram as a bully, ends him as a bully, and that is one of the reasons this production stumbles.

It appears, in spite of an impressive resume, that Bullen isn’t sure where the script should go. There is farce, comedy, melodrama inconsistently all mixed into one. Even the music he selected as backup is often off-putting, especially the melodramatic inserts.

As for the cast, Leigh Williams, who was so wonderful in ‘AUTOBAHN,’ seems awash in the role of Hellen. The same for Tom White, who also stood out in last season’s production. His King is right on the surface, showing no depth of characterization. Picasso spends most of the play displaying exaggerated facial expressions and making little sense of his lines. On the other hand, Catherine Albers (a widow who befriends Hellen) and Sarah Nedwek (her daughter) are excellent.

Jeffrey Van Curtis’s costumes and Jill Davis’s set designs are era right and effective.

CAPSULE JUDGMENT: A combination of poor directing, some misguided acting and producing one of Shakespeare’s weakest plays resulted in a CWRU MFA Acting Company production that was less than a satisfying experience.

AUTOBAHN

'AUTOBAHN' an interesting trip at CWRU MFA

Neil LaBute, the author of ‘AUTOBAHN,’ which is now being staged by Case Western Reserve’s MFA Acting Program, is a wordsmith. He once said, "I can sit and watch two people talk forever as long as the talk is good," Talking good, in this case, is talking about what words mean and how people do and do not understand them.

LaBute, a minimalist, tends to use few physical settings in order to concentrate all of the attention on the actors and what they are saying. ‘AUTOBAHN’ is a perfect case in point. The author places the short play cycle, in which the seven segments are unrelated, in the front seat of a car, while each of the scenes centers on the pondering of a word or a few words and their usage.

The format allows us a voyeuristic peek into the intimate lives of those who are under LaBute’s boring drill. He probes deeply, as is his style, to try and discover relationships and life.

"Funny," shows a mother bringing her troubled daughter back from yet another rehab facility. The mother does not speak throughout the scene, but her facial expressions nonverbally give a vivid picture of frustration and defeat. The key word in this piece is “relapse."

“Long Division," is a humorous and pathetic look at a male friend trying to console his buddy after a break-up.

"Merge" finds us eavesdropping on a woman supposedly telling her husband of a “true” but bizarre incident that happened to her while she was out-of-town at a convention and woke up “feeling sore down there.” Did the incident really happened as related?

“All Apologies” delves into relationships by using the humor of “inappropriate” words to show emotions and how the lack of an expansive vocabulary can thwart effective communication.

With all the media attention given to improper relationships between teachers and students, “Road Trip” hits many raw nerves and is the most upsetting of the selections. It is an intense look into the manipulative mind of a psycho driver's education teacher, who entices one of his young female students to go to his family’s cabin in a secluded site.

"Bench Seat," exposes us to a fragile woman who has been “dumped” by her previous boyfriend and finds herself at the same lover’s lane where the rejection took place. Her present relationship seems heading in the same direction, and her paranoia is evident as the duo wavers between making out and serious and potentially dangerous talk.

The final scene is "Autobahn," which shows a couple driving home from returning their foster child to the adoption agency because of the boy's bad behavior. The boy has accused the foster father of sexual abuse. The woman babbles on trying to justify their actions. Her husband speaks not a sound. The key word in this playlet is “Autobahn,” the German road where each person is in his/her own bubble, setting the rules of road, and allowing themselves to be sheltered from life in their own way. As the mother says, people in cars are "too quick to stop, too fast to care."

The production, under the adept directing of Alan Rosenberg, is good theatre. Though some of the pieces are a little too long, especially ‘Bench Seat” and “Autobahn,” the over-all experience is positive.

Highlight performances are put in by Tom White and Leigh Williams. White is the man in “All Apologies” who manically babbles on trying to find a way to apologize with a limited arsenal in his vocabulary. Williams, as the foster mother in ‘AUTOBAHN’ who refuses to face reality, is appropriately paethic. After using excessive words to prove their points, they both go on to prove that silence is a powerful stage tool. Williams as the silent mother in “Funny” and White as the emotionally destroyed foster father in “Autobahn,” display tortured blank faces that are palates of meaning.

CAPSULE JUDGMENT: ‘AUTOBAHN’ is an engrossing evening of theatre, given a fine production by the CWRU MFA Acting Program cast. (Side though: Can’t the institution come up with a more user-friendly name for the program?)