Keith Waits - Page 7

I'll be honest. I was not a huge fan of the musical Oklahoma! In my opinion, it's one of those creaky old chestnuts that gets done to death by every theater company at some point or another, right up there with other overdone 'classics' like The Music Man, My Fair Lady, or Oliver! I appreciate the historic value of these oldies, but I feel like newer and lesser-known fare gets shoved aside.

Boatwright is an original play written by and starring Emmy Nominated Actor Patrick Tovatt about an eccentric man getting up in years living in a humble abode where he spends his days writing and singing little ditties on his guitar and building boats. One day, a young man walks into his establishment and what was once a quiet and simple life is instantly turned on its head. With a set conceived by three-time Emmy award-winning designer David Weller, this play is gorgeous and makes the stage at this theater seem much larger than it is in real life while keeping the good taste to present it in a simple fashion appropriate to the material.

Christmas. A time of family togetherness - that's the tradition anyway. But Paula Vogel knows that the holidays are also a time in which long-simmering conflicts rise to the surface. In The Long Christmas Ride Home, she presents one family's yuletide journey from home after a confrontational visit with one set of grandparents that leaves a very permanent residue.

This two-person show begins in a remote getaway where a reticent but gifted writer, Olivia (Lauren Argo), has sought seclusion to write a novel. In the middle of a blizzard, a brash and youthful Sex-blogger, Ethan (Winston Blake), bursts in, disrupting Olivia's quiet. Appearing to be complete opposites, Olivia more attracted to the older culture of literature, and Ethan wildly success in the world of social media, they find common ground as writers and quickly make one another's acquaintance. Worlds collide as they uncover the complexities of sexuality and romance in the age of the internet, and they show one another the value of the present, hopes for the future, and the dangers of the past.

Documentary-style theater is not a genre I am well-versed in. It very well may be that I have missed out on a preponderance of strong examples, but the only play that springs to mind readily is Moises Kaufman's The Laramie Project. Like that play, Stanton's we, the invisibles employs personal anecdote, newspaper articles, interviews and creative nonfiction devices to educate on and proliferate the significance of important social issues. In the case of invisibles, the anchor is the real-life alleged rape of a maid named Nafissatou Diallo by infamous former International Monetary Fund Leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

There is electricity in the air during this time of the year at Actors Theatre. Humana Festival is in town and with it patrons are introduced to new and exciting works that get their start on Actors' stages. Included among these works, the season's Actors Apprentices get time to shine with You Across from Me.

Sleeplessness is something we can all relate to, and The Patron Saint of Losing Sleep opens with a wonderful comic montage of Ada (Trina Fischer) struggling with insomnia. Up, down, tossing, turning, collapsing to the floor like a cartoon. Trina Fischer's performance as Ada begins with an engaging slapstick grace that barely hints at where this character will take us before the play is over.

Tori Amos' 'Raspberry Swirl' pumps throughout the theater as I enter it, and I cannot help but feel as though I have been transported into some sort of concert. I almost instantly settle into the energy as I recognize several artists I like in the preshow music. A theme arises: These artists are all women. These artists are all women whose careers and specifically selected songs are about female empowerment. I take this knowledge in, and enjoy the music. I think I know what kind of show I'm about to see.

Marginal Loss is a play written by Deborah Stein about an investment firm previously located in the Twin Towers trying to gather the fragments of their business in the wake of the 9/11 tragedy. They find themselves working at a backup facility in New Jersey struggling with limited resources and wondering which of their coworkers made it out alive.

Whether or not Lost in Yonkers is Neil Simon's greatest play may be arguable; there are a lot of plays to compare it to, but it did win the Pulitzer Prize in 1991, beating out plays like Six Degrees of Separation. Although it does have plenty of humor, including several classic Simon one-liners, it is most distinguished by the heartfelt pathos that refuses to be resolved in a tidy fashion.

The 42nd Annual Humana Festival opens with a play about family and loss that connects deeply with its audience. God Said This, by Leah Nanako Winkler, introduces a family fractured by the past and the mother's battle with cancer.

As a prelude to this play, vintage cartoons from the 1930's were projected onstage as the audience entered to take their seats. Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie, which introduced Mickey Mouse, was animated by Ub Iwerks, who (we are informed on titles between the shorts) soon left Disney to make his own cartoons for MGM, including Flip the Frog, an example of which followed hard upon. Before curtain, we were also treated to Betty Boop, and all of the cartoons were in stark black & white. Playwright Eli Keel identifies this period as the 'Golden Age of Animation', a time when the form was almost literally being invented. The end of the decade would bring Snow White, often described, somewhat inaccurately, as the first feature-length animated film. That it was in full color underscores the rapid development of the technology and the storytelling. However much the late 1940's and 1950's are celebrated for the rise of Disney's commercial empire, Keel has chosen the most interesting and fertile period of animation creativity in which to set his story.

A Chorus Line seems like catnip for any local company with a taste for musicals. It is a classic that has achieved iconic status in the years since its Broadway premiere in 1976; moreover, it is not only a show about show business but about the people who live for it: the gypsy dancers who show up in the hundreds for each cattle call audition, hoping to land a job in the chorus line.

On February 19, Arts-Louisville presented the 4thAnnual Arts-Louisville/Broadway World Theatre Awards at the Mellwood Arts & Entertainment Center. An audience of over 150 attended the event.

Ken Ludwig's Moon Over Buffalo is the kind of well-constructed, old-fashion farce that has been a mainstay of community theaters for generations, yet it was written in the early 1990's. Set in 1953, it captures the struggle in desperation of a second-rate repertory company touring mid-range towns with a reliable mix of the classics: Shakespeare and Cyrano de Bergerac, with slightly more modern comedies like Noel Coward.

Derby Mine 4 starts out with a pair of coal miners trapped underground after a methane explosion. Becky (Megan Adair) is a new employee, under the watchful eye of Dan (Casey Moulton), a youthful but prolific member of the industry. Their interaction quickly shows that Dan is a playful and aggressive flirt, who makes unwanted, advances towards Becky, who reacts with distaste and rancor. It is later revealed that Becky is something of a bigot, who makes unsavory remarks about people of color, and Dan is ironically liberal in his views of society. This uncomfortable setting leads to animated discourse, which is both unsettling and humorous.

There is an idea that Ancient Greece was an exemplary society. Even though they did build the foundation of western civilization and democratic ideals, especially when it comes to theatre. Yet the subjects of the plays are often war and it's devastating effects on humanity. This Commonwealth Theatre Center production of Euripides' The Trojan Women makes the point that the cruel, brutality of such conflict has always been, and will always be, a part of the human experience. It seems, tragic but inevitable.

The Honey Harvest is a modest, heartfelt exploration of time and family. Melissa Holt (Megan Kubac) has moved back home to care for her widowed father, John (John Lina) as he suffers the advanced stages of Alzheimer's. One generation coming to grips with the diminished capacity of a parent is not an unusual story, but it will always remain relevant.

There's a lot to like about one of the newest theatre companies in town, Imagine Blind Players. They are a high-energy troupe of performers with varying performance experience, with the majority of them living with some visual impairment or blindness - hence the name of the group.

As you step into The Mex Theater before The Hunchback of Notre Dame, hymns and church songs fill the air. An impressive, monumental set fills the entire space accented by stained glass and bells at every angle. Below this set rests a chamber choir and music pit kept in the shadows, just out of view from the action. Mind's Eye Theater's Hunchback is a thoughtful and moving production that teaches tolerance in the face of cruelty. And let's be honest, this is something we all need right now.