Finding Justice in a Powerful EXONERATED at ISU

Audiences react in different ways to different pieces of theater. But there are some shows that elicit almost the same reaction from everyone who sees them. A gasp of recognition or understanding. Wide eyes. People asking each other "What can we do to change this?" How I Learned to Drive, The Normal Heart, Bhopal... These plays ask you not just to pay attention, but to learn more, push on, help out. And The Exonerated goes at the top of that list.

The Exonerated, which was written by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen based on interviews, transcripts, letters and court documents, is an eye-opening piece about the American criminal justice system and the huge cracks that pervade that system. The play centers on six "exonerees," people sent to Death Row for crimes they did not commit who were ultimately freed. Some were exonerated by DNA evidence, others were granted new trials or new deals because of the flaws in the first one, and some are still trying to clear their names years after new evidence surfaced. Cleared or not, exonerated or set free, these people found their lives changed forever.

Each of the six exonerees in the play gets a chance to step forward and tell his or her story, providing a broader picture of police and prosecutorial misconduct, stupidity and myopia, abuse of power and abuse of the powerless. The system we see in the play is one that lumbers toward an inevitable conclusion and punishment no matter what came before it.

As social commentary, The Exonerated provides broad questions about justice, the death penalty, race and fairness. As theater, it presents six terrible, terrifying stories of very real people stuck in a nightmare they can never completely escape. For Illinois State University, director Cyndee Brown focuses on them as people, on who they are as individuals and why they are different from each other, on where they manage to find tiny sparks of hope, on how they manage to go on. She elicits terrific performances from her entire ensembles cast, with Tim Jefferson leading the way as Delbert Tibbs, a theology student and poet who found himself convicted of murder although he did not fit the description of the killer and the only evidence against him was the testimony of a witness who kept changing her story. Tibbs is the heart of the story as constructed by Blank and Jensen, and Jefferson does a beautiful job revealing that heart.

The script provides heartfelt moments for each of Brown's players, from Sydney Moody's hapless Sunny, a hippy who associated with the wrong people, undone by her ignorance about the legal system; to Joe Faifer's sweet, uncomprehending Gary, an Illinois farmer accused of murdering his parents and held without a lawyer for some 20 hours while police coerced a "vision statement" in lieu of a confession; Nathaniel Aikens Jr.'s feisty Robert, a black racetrack worker convicted on the basis of bad DNA evidence; Gregory D. Hicks' David, a kid when he went to Death Row but not when he came out; and Levi Ellis' Kerry, a victim of police and prosecutorial misconduct that continues to this day. Each of them talks straight to the audience, showcasing not just the pain and anger, but the humanity that make the characters come alive.

Mary DeWitt, Anastasia S. Ferguson, Thomas Howie and Dave Krostal fill out the ensemble, playing multiple roles as the spouses, lawyers, cops and witnesses who surround, support and come into conflict with the exonerees. That means their roles are not always as showy as the wrongfully accused, but they provide a crucial context and frame for the drama.

The Exonerated is staged simply to fit inside the intimate space in Centennial West 207, although Jen Kazmierczak's plain platforms, backdrops and chairs create the right mood, Hilary Winkworth's costumes are effective throughout, lighting designer Will Wermerskirchen does great things with stark lights and shadow, and sound designer/composer Chris Cummings ramps up the tension and sends home a definite message when we hear the hard slam of doors and a rough buzz of electricit.

This weekend, the show sold out its Friday and Saturday performances so be sure to get reservations ahead of time if you're planning to go for next week. The Exonerated continues through April 5 in CW 207 on the ISU campus. Tickets are available through the Center for the Performing Arts box office.

If you would like to learn more about the process that helped free the people in the play, or you left the play wondering "What can we do?," you can visit the Exoneration Registry, the Innocence Project, the Innocence Network, the Center on Wrongful Convictions, the Exoneration Project or the Death Penalty Information Center's Innocence List. Each of those projects comes from a law school or other entity devoted to defining the issues and the scope of the problem as well as helping individual prisoners overturn wrongful convictions and return to the world.

THE EXONERATED
by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen

Centennial West 207
Illinois State University School of Theatre and Dance

Director: Cyndee Brown
Scenic Designer: Jen Kazmierczak
Costume Designer: Hilary Winkworth
Lighting Designer: Will Wermerskirchen
Sound Designer and Composer: Chris Cummings
Stage Manager: Connor Herbeck

Cast: Nathaniel Aikens Jr., Mary DeWitt, Levi Ellis, Joe Faifer, Anastasia S. Ferguson, Gregory D. Hicks, Thomas Howie, Tim Jefferson, Dave Krostal and Cydney Moody.

Running time: 1:45, played with intermission.

Disclaimer: I came in to talk to Cyndee Brown's cast about legal issues on two occasions and I am not remotely unbiased on this play or this production.

April Showers Us with Theatre and Dance

It's finally starting to feel like Spring. That means you can go out for an evening's entertainment while it's still light, without having to shovel or scrape your car! So let's celebrate the warmer weather with intriguing theatrical offerings.

Still playing... Illinois State University's production of Constance Congdon's Tales of the Lost Formicans continues through April 6 in the tiny theater space inside Centennial West 207. Click here for ticket information, or click under the title in the previous sentence to see what I thought of the play and ISU's production.

Community Players celebrates its 90th anniversary season with a special show called Broadway in Bloomington that focuses on some of the songs performed at Players throughout the years. The cast of Broadway in Bloomington includes Reena Artman, Cris Embree, Chad Kirvan, John Lieder, Bob McLaughlin, Joe Penrod, Chrissie Strong, Cathy Sutliff, Christie Vellella and Kevin Wickart, with Sherise Kirvan featured as a dancer. Sally Parry directs performances from April 4 to 7.

The University of Illinois Department of Theatre opened Larry Kramer's AIDS drama The Normal Heart in the Studio Theatre at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Urbana last week, with performances scheduled through April 7. Kramer's ACT UP manifesto enjoyed a successful Broadway revival in 2011, earning a trio of Tony Awards and clearly bringing The Normal Heart back to the public consciousness. Henson Keys is directing U of I's production, which features Equity actors Robert G. Anderson, Neal Moeller and Thom Miller in its cast.  

Also continuing is Or, a play by Liz Duffy Adams at the Station Theatre under the direction of Kay Bohannon Holley. This one is a historical (but fictional) romp about Aphra Behn, a spy-turned-playwright during England's Restoration period. King Charles II shows up, as does famed actress Nell Gwynne, as Behn tries desperately to finish a script while distracted by the amorous attentions of both the king and the actress. Lindsey Gates-Markel stars as Aphra Behn in performances running through April 13.

Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine, a classic of American Expressionism about the dire effects of the Machine Age on the human psyche, begins at ISU's Center for the Performing Arts on April 5, with performances through the 13th. David Fisch stars as Mr. Zero, whose job is taken over by a machine (an adding machine, naturally) in director Jeremy Garrett's production for Illinois State University.

The controversial musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, billed as a "comedic Wild West rock musical" takes the stage at Eureka College Theatre from April 9 to 14, in a production directed by Marty Lynch. Note that this show is rated R and that "very little (if any) of the play is based on historical fact -- something which will be discussed in length before and after the show."

Another option for April 9-14 is the Faculty Choreographed Dance Concert at Illinois Wesleyan University, directed by Sheri Marley, part of the IWU dance faculty. The concert is choreographed by Associate Professor Jean MacFarland Kerr, Instructor Sheri Marley, Instructor Dmitri Peskov, and Guest Choreographer/Instructor Jessica Riss-Waltrip.

ISU is also offering A Midsummer Night's Dream this month, with Vanessa Stalling at the helm of this Westhoff Theatre production. Stallings' cast includes Devon Nimerfroh and Abby Vombrack doubling as the fairy king and queen Oberon and Titania and the Duke of Athens and his bride, Hippolyta, with Alex Strzelecki as Bottom, the weaver and would-be actor trying to put on a play. Performances begin April 11 and finish up April 20.

Will Eno's Middletown, a look at life and death, love and connection in a small "Everytown" is the last show of Heartland Theatre's 2012-13 season. Director John Kirk's cast includes Lynna Briggs, Dean Brown, Aric Diamani, George Freeman, Karen Hazen, Megan Huff, Richard Jensen, Kathleen Kirk, Devon Lovell, Rhys Lovell, John Poling and Ann White, all of whom stand in as various denizens of this sweet, scary, familiar and strange little Middletown. It opens April 18 with a special "Pay what you can" preview night, followed by performances through May 5.

The Station Theatre likewise finishes up its season with its second April production, the searing Broadway musical Next to Normal, about a mother sinking under the weight of bipolar disorder. Station Theatre Artistic Director Rick Orr will direct this rock musical, which features music by Tom Kitt and book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey. Next to Normal opens April 25 and closes May 11.

ISU's Poignant LOST FORMICANS Keeps You Thinking

I was just reading about a video purporting to show that there are shapeshifting alien reptile guards looking out for the President. That "evidence" is being used to bolster the theory that President Obama is part of an intergalactic conspiracy between an earthly elite and alien overlords eager to use earthlings like puppets. Or maybe to eat them. (Is the shapeshifting alien reptile guardian force carrying copies of "To Serve Man"?)

The video showing this alleged alien sounds like something just right for the conspiracy theorist character in Constance Congdon's Tales of the Lost Formicans, a 1989 play about life on earth, here, now (or at least in the 80s), with all its earth-bound complications and limitations, framed by a pack of alien archeologists from the future trying to make sense of us.

In Deb Alley's production of Tales of the Lost Formicans for Illinois State University, performed in the small theater space called Centennial West 207, the limitations of life on earth are front and center. We see again and again how ephemeral and impermanent our world is, how each of the things we cling to to give life meaning -- lovers, parents, children, possessions, careers, passion, memory, the place we call home -- will crumble, tumble or go up in smoke. 

Congdon's script is a little funny, a little strange, quite thought-provoking, and in this ISU version, sad, too. There's bittersweet humor in the travails of Cathy, the woman who comes back home to Colorado, her foul-mouthed son in tow, when her marriage breaks up, only to find her old suburban neighborhood is falling apart, Dad is losing his mind, and Mom can't quite deal with any of it.

The story of Cathy's father, Jim, once a man who could fix anything but now just a shell, wandering around wondering where he is and where his mixed-up memories are leading him, is especially poignant, aided by a lovely performance from Joe Faifer, who can nail a comic backwards scene one moment and break your heart talking about sheet rock the next.

Hananiah Wiggins is also touching as the conspiracy nut who has all the wrong moves when it comes to human interaction, while Michele Stine keeps the center of the play steady and strong as Cathy, our Everywoman guide. Jaqueline Dellamano and Carlos Kmet are on target as Cathy's mom and son, and Jenna Liddle adds abundant energy and edge as Cathy's old friend, a divorced mom who is well over the line into a nervous breakdown. Keith Jackewicz rounds out the cast in multiple roles, most notably as the main alien observer who runs the show.

Andrew Sierszyn's off-balance set and its bits and pieces of late 20th century Americana give the production the right sense of unease, especially that upside-down door, while Deanna Durbin's orange and brown and argyle costumes show a period of our fashion past that should probably stay buried.

Tales of the Lost Formicans is not an easy show to wrap your head around -- you'll want to discuss and maybe argue about it with your friends after the show -- but it's certainly worth your while to do so. There are a lot of ways to interpret Congdon's cosmic little script. Mulling it over, I decided it was about mortality, about insignificance, about how we try to make sense of things that just can't be explained. Or, you know, life.

TALES OF THE LOST FORMICANS
by Contance Congdon

The School of Theatre and Dance at Illinois State University
Centennial West 207

Director: Deb Alley
Scenic Designer: Andrew Sierszyn
Costume/Hair and Makeup Designer: Deanna Durbin
Lighting Designer: Meredith Francis
Sound Designer: Eduardo Curly-Carillo
Stage Manager: Kayleigh Walter

Cast: Hananiah Wiggins, Michele Stine, Joe Faifer, Jenna Liddle, Carlos Kmet, Jacqueline Dellamano, Keith Jackewicz and Timothy Jefferson.

Remaining Performances: March 30 and April 2-6 at 7:30 pm, April 6 at 2 pm.

Running Time: 2:20, including one 15-minute intermission

For ticket information, click here.

ISU's KCACTF Entry MOTHER COURAGE Cleans Up in National Honors

As you may recall, Illinois State University's production of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children, directed by Sandra Zielinski, was selected to be performed at the regional level of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. That regional festival was held in January in Michigan.

Mother Courage was a very successful production, one that earned its cast and production staff all kinds of accolades when it first played Westhoff Theatre last October, and again when Mother Courage dragged her cart to Michigan. During the Michigan performance, a national panel of adjudicators watched and evaluated Mother Courage, as they did all the regional selections at all eight regional college theatre festivals. After viewing all of those college productions from all over the country, the national panel selected which shows they wanted to single out for praise and awards, with Mother Courage singled out for some very special honors.

Here's are the awards handed to ISU's Mother Courage by the national Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival judges:

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A MODERN CLASSIC

DISTINGUISHED DIRECTOR OF A PLAY: Sandra Zielinski

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS: Abby Vombrack

DISTINGUISHED COSTUME DESIGN: Brittany Powers

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMPOSITION: Zack Powell

Vombrack portrayed Mother Courage herself, while Powell created new music for this production of the play. Congratulatons to Zielinski, Vombrack, Powers and Powell, along with everyone else who contributed to this fierce and ferocious production of Mother Courage and Her Children. The cast (with Vombrack pictured inside Mother Courage's iconic cart) is pictured below.

To see the complete list of KCACTF national honors, click here.

Keeping Up with Casting: MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM at ISU

To catch up... We've already talked about the casts for four of Illinois State University's upcoming shows, from Archibald MacLeish's J.B, opening February 21 in Westhoff Theatre, to Rodgers' and Hammerstein's Oklahoma, in the Center for the Performing Arts from February 22, Tales of the Lost Formicans, a play by Constance Congdon, starting March 28 in Centennial West 207, and The Adding Machine, a classic from Elmer Rice, with performances beginning April 5 in the CPA. If you want to see which actors are playing which roles in those plays, click on the link under the show titles just above.

So what does that leave? Shakespeare, of course! A Midsummer Night's Dream is the last show of ISU's theatre season, taking the stage in Westhoff Theatre from April 11 to 20. Vanessa Stalling, the MFA directing candidate who worked on Jean Genet's The Maids last season, will direct this Midsummer for ISU.

Stallings has cast Devon Nimerfroh, memorable as Howard the salesman in Picnic and one of the onstage musicians in Mother Courage, as Theseus and Oberon, with Abby Vombrack, Mother Courage herself, opposite him as both Hippolyta and Titania.

Duke Theseus and his tempestuous Amazon bride-to-be, Hippolyta, form the framing device for the play. Their wedding offers an opportunity for aristocrats like the young Athenian lovers to gather as guests. It also gets the troupe of "mechanicals," regular working folk, together to attempt to put on a play in honor of the nuptials. The third plot thread in Midsummer involves a band of fairies and their king and queen, Oberon and Titania, who are up to some mischievous magical tricks in the same forest as the lovers and the mechanicals.

Nimerfroh and Vombrack will have more to do as Oberon and Titania, since their romantic battles create all sorts of havoc, what with misguided love potions mixing up the four lovers and Titania falling in love with Bottom, one of the actors in the amateur troupe, after he's been turned into a donkey by Puck, Oberon's right-hand fairy minion.

Michelle Pfeiffer and Kevin Kline as Titania and Bottom

For ISU, Cydney Moody will step in as Puck, while Thomas Howie (who happens to be the son of Mike Howie, my very first editor at the Champaign New-Gazette when I started as a theater critic) will play Bottom, the amateur actor who falls afoul of Oberon, with Garrett Douglas, Andrew Piechota and Brandon Miller as his fellow mechnicals.

Elizabeth Dillard and Fiona Stephens, who were together in Stallings' production of The Maids, will play Hermia and Helena, the Athenian girls who play mix-and-match with their romantic partners. The objects of their affections, Athenian youths Demetrius and Lysander, will be played by Dan Machalinski and Austin Peed.

Omar Shammaa, who was so good as Pascal in Anon(ymous) last fall, takes on Hermia's dad, Egeus, the one whose refusal to allow his daughter to chose her own boyfriend sends everybody on the lam, as well as other roles, which I hope include Robin Starveling, since otherwise we're missing a mechanical. Others in the cast include Kate Klemchuck and Mary DeWitt as fairies Peaseblossom and Mustardseed, along with Angela Geiss, Caitlin Graham and David Link in the ensemble.

Note that both images accompanying this post are from the 1999 film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream directed by Michael Hoffman and starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Everett as Titania and Oberon, Kevin Kline as Bottom, Anna Friel, Calista Flockhart, Christian Bale and Dominic West as the four lovers, and Stanley Tucci as Puck.

There were a lot of things to like about that movie version, including my favorite group of mechanicals ever, with Kline as the leading man and Roger Rees, Bill Irwin, Gregory Jbara, Sam Rockwell and Max Wright rounding out the group. They came across as a band of brothers with sincere loyalty and affection for each other, giving Midsummer a different feel and making Bottom feel achingly real and his dream achingly lovely. (I never will like Rockwell's over-the-top Thisbe in the play-within-the-play, but I can always avert my eyes during that part.)

In any event, a good Midsummer is something to look forward to in any season. Bring it on, ISU!

Say Hello to HELLO OUT THERE

If you know any of William Saroyan's work, it's probably The Time of Your Life, his 1939 play about the patrons of a low-rent San Francisco bar. Hello Out There, a one act Saroyan wrote in 1941, features the same kind of down-on-their-luck folks, with an unlucky gambler and the small-town girl who tries to help him at the center of the story.

Neither of them is given a name in Saroyan's play, but they're both outsiders, loners, in search of something or someone. The Young Man, the gambler, has been arrested for rape on a trumped-up charge in some Nowheresville town. He begins the play by calling out from his jail cell, hoping to reach someone who will listen. The Young Girl answers -- she's working as a cook at the jail -- and when they talk, she discovers she has something in common with the guy in the cell. But as they forge a connection, forces from outside the jail interrupt, shattering any hope the Young Man and Young Girl have of escaping this dead-end end.

David Ian Lee, who is directing Hello Out There in Centennial West 202 for Illinois State University's School of Theatre and Dance, describes the play as "a love story, but not of the romantic sort; it's a story about two lonely people who learn that we -- all of us -- belong to one another."

He continues, "This play exists in a world that can be cruel and unfair, and some inhabiting this world contribute -- by cowardice, by malice, by short-sightedness -- to the darkness. Others see the world as fixed and oppressive, and that it is their role to suffer. This play is about two people who together discover that the world is changeable, but kindness and hope demand active participation: That's how we shape our world."

And that sounds like pure Saroyan, that our hope of moving into a brighter future depends on kindness and positive action.

Lee directs a cast that includes Arif Yampolsky and Audra Ferguson as the two lonely people, the Young Man and Young Girl, along with Antonio Zhurinskias, Chris Bryant, Janice Kulka and David Zallis.

The production staff includes assistant director Claire Ford, stage manager Rachel Hettrick, fight choreographer Paul Dennhardt, lighting designer Joshua Christ, and sound designer Eli Van Sickel.

This one-act play last approximately 35 minutes and is presented at Centennial West 202 free of charge, with performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 2 pm. It's a chance to see up-and-coming performers and artists and a little-known, powerful script from a Pulitzer Prize winner. Lee is a first-year MFA directing candidate at ISU and this will be the first chance for local audiences to see what he can do.

And I'll leave you with a link to some mood music, with the wonderful John Prine singing "Hello In There." Yes, it's in, not out, and its characters are old, not young, but it, too, is about loneliness and connections. Plus I love slide guitar, so, you know, any excuse...

Check Out Mickey O'Sullivan in "Ritual" Trailer

You may've seen actor Mickey O'Sullivan during his career in Bloomington-Normal -- he played everything from C. K. Dexter Haven in ISU's "Philadelphia Story" to Captain John McNulta, making visitors to the Discovery Walk at Evergreen Cemetery drop and give him twenty, to a (fictional) hard-boiled detective taking a fall in Jessica Wisniewski's "It's All in My Head" at Heartland Theatre.

When he left ISU and went to New York, Mickey showed up in (and got great reviews for) a show called "Wake" at Aisling Arts, and then he came back to the Midwest for awhile, including a stint in Wisconsin this summer, where he's currently in "Man of LaMancha." I'm not sure when Mickey did "The Crucible" (photo at left) but clearly that's on his resume, as well.

Now Mr. O'Sullivan has shown up -- looking quite different, mind you! -- in the trailer (or the "teaser trailer," which I'm guessing is shorter than a regular trailer) for a new movie called "Ritual." You can check out that trailer, as well as Mickey in platinum hair, at martinrevelationfilms.com or here on youtube.

Kevin Michael Martin directed the film, which features cinematography by Jack Martin. According to the website, "Ritual" involves a group of college freshman on the night they are initiated (and presumably hazed) at a fraternity. It's set for a Spring 2013 release. Looking kinda scary there, Mickey.

Now Playing: The ISU/Mary-Arrchie "Electra"

The big Illinois State University/Mary-Arrchie Theatre collaboration on "Electra" opened last night, with excellent reviews for the production itself and ISU actresses Emily Nichelson and Caitlin Boho as Electra and her vengeful mom, Clytemnestra.

Writing for ChicagoNow, Katy Walsh notes that family dysfunction like that on display in "Electra" never goes out of style. "Adapter and director Sonja Moser ambitiously attacks this ancient subject matter," writes Walsh. "Moser comes at it from several different angles. It’s part mythology lesson, part rock concert, part school pageant, part mud fight."

Walsh goes on to call "the dynamic harmonizing chorus (Gwen de Veer, Lauren Pfeiffer, Paula Nowak)" brilliant, and single out Boho and Nicholson. "Caitlin Boho (Clytemnestra) [is] outstanding as the statuesque mother," Walsh offers. "Her oration is delivered with commanding majesty. And then as Emily Nichelson (Electra) rants at her, Boho’s emotionless face has two tears run down it. WOW! Nichelson is her own little powerhouse of emotion. She spirals out of control at exhausting speed. And then she sings with divalicious ferocity. ELECTRA is a musical. And the finale is a melodious gift to the gods."

Boho and Nichelson are both reprising roles they played when this "Electra" first appeared at ISU, and they've both been seen on-stage in other roles locally.

Boho was Mary II in Sarah Ruhl's sweeping "Passion Play" last year, and she played Miss Jones in the Frank Loesser musical "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," where she brought down the house nightly with the big "Brotherhood of Man" anthem near the end of the show.

Nichelson appeared as naive Cecile in "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" at the Center for the Performing Arts, and in "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" and "Blackbird" at Centennial West.

"Electra" continues at Mary-Arrchie in Chicago through July 29, with performances on Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 pm and Saturday and Sunday afternoons at 3 pm. Ticket prices range from $15 to $20, and you can order them here.

The Whole Scoop on Saturday's ISU College of Fine Arts Celebration

We've talked about some of the bits and pieces of the Big, Huge, Totally LARGE Illinois State University College of Fine Arts Celebration happening tomorrow, like the workshops and performances from the School of Theatre, a host of FreeStage productions, and the PostCard Art exhibit and auction. That's from noon to after midnight on Saturday, April 28, in and around Centennial East and West and the CPA.

So where can you find the whole schedule in one place?

Yeah, I know it's too small here to really read. You can click on that image and see a larger version. Or you can see a bigger version of this nice, crisp, graphically lovely schedule on the School of Theatre's Facebook page. Or scan the not-so-nice, kinda-ugly list version I have prepared for you below.

12 noon to 7 pm: Airport Lounge open for food and beverage (Airport Lounge)
12 noon to 4 pm: 2012 Student Annual Exhibition (University Galleries)
12:30 to 1 pm: Acafellaz performance (outside Westhoff Theatre)
1 to 2 pm: Creative Drama workshop (Centennial West 301)
1 to 2 pm: "Macbeth" presented by Illinois Shakespeare Festival Outreach (Westhoff Theatre)
1 to 4 pm: Open Mic hosted by the Music Business Organization (Airport Lounge)
1 to 4 pm: Screenprinting demo (Westhoff lobby)
2 to 3 pm: FreeStage Outreach presents "The Student Cause Collaboration Project" (Westhoff Theatre)
2:30 to 5 pm: Illinois State Dance Theatre open technical rehearsal (CPA Theatre)
3 to 3:30 pm: Lighting Design demo with JM Montecalvo (Westhoff Theatre)
3:30 to 4:15 pm: Early Music Ensemble performance (Westhoff Theatre)
4 to 5:15 pm: FreeStage presents "An Evening with Tori Allen" (Centennial West 202)
4:30 to 6 pm: Improv workshop with Octavarius (Westhoff Theatre)
5 to 5:30 pm: Q and A with members of the Illinois State Dance Theatre (CPA)
5:30 to 6:45 pm: FreeStage presents "Boom" (Centennial West 202)
6 to 10 pm: Friends of the Arts presents PostCard Art [purchased ticket required] (University Galleries)
7 to 8:15 pm: FreeStage presents "Dinner" (Centennial West 202)
8:30 to 9:30 pm: FreeStage presents "Freeze Tag" (Centennial West 202)
9 to 10 pm: FreeStage presents "Miss Julie" (between Kemp Hall and CPA)
9:30 to 10:15 pm: "A in W" performance (Centennial East 08)
9:30 to 10:30 pm: Improv Mafia performance (Westhoff Theatre)
10 to 11 pm: FreeStage presents "On Stars Not Falling" (Garden area behind University Galleries)
10:30 to 11:45 pm: Octavarius performance (Westhoff Theatre)
Midnight: Theatre of Ted (Westhoff Theatre)

And there you have it -- enough entertainment for any twelve Saturdays! For more information, you can click on any of the links in this post, or go here for the School of Theatre at Illinois State Facebook page.

Get Your Hands on a Piece of PostCard Art (2012 Edition)

Illinois State University's Friends of the Arts will holds its fifth annual PostCard Art Exhibit tomorrow, April 28th, alongside the ISU College of Fine Arts Celebration taking place all day.

You'll need to buy a $60 ticket to be admitted to the PostCard Art exhibit, which comes with an open bar, live performances by students from ISU's Schools of Music and Theatre and a $50 voucher for one piece of artwork. Once inside, you will have a chance to look at all the submitted pieces and put a sticker next to the one you'd like to take home. And then the auction will begin, and you'll see what you win!

This all takes place from 6 to 9 pm Saturday in the University Galleries in Normal. Details and ticket information are available here and here.

For the full schedule for the College of Fine Arts Celebration, click here.

One Act Bonanza at ISU This Weekend

The School of Theatre at Illinois State University is offering a slew of one acts this weekend. A slew of FREE one acts! With nine different plays on the schedule, you have a choice of two programs, each performed once on Saturday and once on Sunday. These plays are being presented by ISU's Directing Workshop and Advanced Lighting classes in Centennial West 202 under the acronym FT1A, which seems to stand for Freshmen/Transfer One Acts. This leads me to believe that the actors will be ISU freshmen and transfer students. But I'm just assuming that based on the FT1A thing. I may have to attend to figure that out unless someone from ISU wants to pop in and give us the scoop.

What they are calling "Block 1" contains the following plays:  

Reasons to be Pretty 

By Neil LaBute

Director: Paige Hutchinson

Designer: Sarah Pindak

 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 

By Richard Abbott

Director: Joey Maman

Designer: Mark Caspary  

Tape

 By Jose Rivera

Director: Jesus Estela

Designer: Scott Friedrich  

Looking for Normal 

 By Jane Anderson

Director: Joey Maman

Designer: Steve Lopez

Debate 

By Ethan Coen

Director: Owais Ahmed

Designer: Kris Kirkwood

And "Block 2" includes:

Chamber Music 

By Arthur Kopit

Director: Tammy Wilson

Designer: Andrew Blevins

First Sorrow 

By Franz Kafka

Director: JD Cannady

Designer: Meredith Francsis

Defying Gravity 

By Jane Anderson

Director: Casey Peek

Designer: Nic Vazquez

Wasp 

By Steve Martin

Director: Jesus Estela

Designer: Dan Alore

On Saturday, April 14, Block 1 will be performed at 2 pm, with Block 2 at 7 pm. And then on Sunday, April 15, they'll flip, with Block 2 at 2 pm and Block 1 at 7 pm. 

ISU's Intimate "Picnic" Unfolds in Centennial West

William Inge used the wide open spaces of Kansas to fuel a sort of claustrophobia in his "Picnic," the 1953 Pulitzer Prize winner about youth and passion, expectations and dreams, all stifled by life in a small town. In the Illinois State University production directed by Lori Adams for the tiny studio theater inside Centennial West 207, the wide open spaces (see poster above) and the claustrophobia (tiny studio theater inside CW 207) are both on display.

"Wide open" is represented by landscape paintings of wheat hung at the back of the stage and around the sides of the audience, while "closed in" is reflected both in the confined size of the playing space, with two back porches tucked inside it, and because scenic designer Eric J.J. Moslow has added a frame -- much like a large picture frame -- around what would be the proscenium if this were a full-size theater. The porches show how everybody is living in each other's pockets and getting into each other's business, while the frame hems everybody in, as well as offering a snapshot of Small Town America circa 1953, right out of a family album.

Thematically, the frame adds a nice touch. Practically, however, it blocks the view of the people sitting in line with it. I saw more than one craned neck as people tried to see who was doing what on the Owens family porch blocked by the frame.

The other limitation to the size of the Centennial West 207 space is that there is only room for one floor of the Owens home, even though the script refers to sister Madge, the pretty one, primping and getting ready in a window up on the second floor, where everybody can see her from down in the back yard. Instead of Madge up there in the window, you'll see the lights hung from the ceiling of CW 207.

Still, Inge's play's themes come across loud and clear in this production, as we see young people looking for passion or excitement or any kind of escape from the restrictions they face in this prairie town. Eliza Morris' Madge is every bit as pretty and restless as she needs to be, so that the entrance of bad boy Hal (Russell Krantz) turns her world upside-down. Morris gives Madge layers of vulnerability and self-awareness that make her a root-for character all the way through.

Krantz is boyish and brash as Hal, maybe a little too boyish to establish that Hal is a Man with a capital M. I'd also like to see a crack in Hal's bravado, showing he has been worn down by the mistakes he's made and the hard row he's been hoeing of late. Still, Krantz makes Hal energetic and athletic and fun to watch. He seems dangerous indeed, bouncing off the walls in this small space.

Betsy Diller is very good as Madge's little sis Millie, both a smarty pants and a tomboy in Diller's performance, and she creates good chemistry with Mitch Conti, striking the perfect note as Alan, Madge's country club boyfriend and Hal's old fraternity brother.

Devon Nimerfroh also stands out as Howard, a congenial salesman from a nearby town. Nimerfroh has the "Hail fellow well met" tone of that era and that kind of guy down just right.

"Picnic" has two more performances at CW 207tonight and tomorrow night at 7:30 pm.

PICNIC
By William Inge

Centennial West 207
Illinois State University School of Theatre

Director: Lori Adams
Scenic Designer: Eric J.J. Moslow
Costume, Hair and Makeup Designer: Emily Nichelson
Lighting Designer: Grace Maberg
Sound Designer and Composer: James Wagoner
Fight Director: Tony Pellegrino
Dance Choreographer: Shelby Brand
Stage Manager: Danielle Wiseman

Cast: Lauren Sheffrey, Russell Krantz, Betsy Diller, Antonio Zhiurinskas, Eliza Morris, Melanie Camire, Elizabeth Keach, Mitch Conti, Tammy Wilson, Brittany Temper and Devon Nimerfroh, with offstage voices provided by Tammy Wilson, Antonio Zhiurinskas, Levi Ellis and Mitch Sachdev.

Running time: 2:20, including two 10-minute intermissions.

La Vie "Bohème" Begins Tomorrow at ISU Center for the Performing Arts

Yes, "La Vie Bohème"is a song in the musical "Rent," and no, "Rent" is not being performed at ISU tomorrow night or any other night as far as I know. But "Rent" is based on "La Bohème," updating Puccini's opera about young, Bohemian artistic types --  a poet, a painter, a singer -- living in Paris in the mid-19th century. Where Puccini dealt with consumption, drugs and sex in "La Bohème," Jonathan Larson commented on AIDS, drugs and sex in "Rent."

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, oui?

Or, as ISU's facebook page for the event puts it: "This 1896 opera in four acts explores the Bohemian milieu of Paris in the 1840s, the love between the sickly seamstress Mimi and the poet Rodolfo, and the timeless question faced by artists everywhere -- should we party or pay the rent?"

Connie de Veer, who did such good work at the helm of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" last year, takes up directing duties on this "La Bohème." Performances begin tomorrow at the Center for the Performing Arts and run through April 7th.

De Veer's cast includes Andy Hudson and John Ramseyer alternating in the role of Rodolfo, Hyejin Park and Caroline Pircorn alternating as Mimi, Sarah Fallon and Laura Pfeiffer as Musetta, and Robbie Holden as Marcello. Those roles correspond to Roger, Mimi, Maureen and Mark, if you have a thing for "Rent."

And if you do have a thing for "Rent," as so many theater fans did in the late 90s (almost exactly a hundred years after Puccini wrote his opera), you would be well advised to see the original and judge for yourself how the themes of love and loss, illness and deprivation among the underclass, trying to lead a life of art and beauty without selling out, played in 1896.

"La Bohème" is, according to some sources, the fourth-most performed opera in the world. It has survived this long because of the quality of the music, the depth of its characters, and the timeless themes. I have no doubt that Connie de Veer will waltz her "Bohème" in the right direction. The poster alone tells me they will be focusing on the heightened love affairs and romantic complications in the piece, which is, after all, what made everybody swoony over "Rent."

For performance and ticket information, click here. You'll find their Facebook page linked in several places in this post.

Temperatures Rising: "Picnic" at ISU May Heat Up Your Spring

ISU's Department of Theatre has four shows opening in the next two weeks, with the first, William Inge's "Picnic," as directed by Lori Adams, taking the stage at Centennial West 207 on Thursday night.

As you may recall, "Picnic" just won the Illinois High School Drama competition for Oak Lawn Community High School last weekend. The play was a major hit in 1953, winning a Tony for director Joshua Logan and earning a Pulitzer Prize for Inge. It also introduced Paul Newman to Broadway (but not in the lead, although he eventually did replace Ralph Meeker in that role) with his future wife Joanne Woodward attached  to the play as an understudy. The script was also turned into a fine movie in 1955, again directed by Joshua Logan, starring William Holden as sexy bad boy Hal, the guy who blows into town and turns everyone's world upside-down, with Kim Novak playing sweet and vulnerable as his romantic partner, Madge. The film version won two Oscars and was nominated for four more. (Because I can't resist an image of William Holden without his shirt on, I am giving you a look at the movie poster here.)

And in case you're keeping track, there was a Broadway revival in 1994 with Kyle Chandler of "Friday Night Lights" fame and Ashley Judd in the lead roles.

Although it isn't revived all that often, "Picnic" is a definite classic, all about two sisters, the aforementioned Madge and her tomboy sis, Millie, who live in a small town in Kansas. They squabble a bit with each other, and they are strictly controlled by their single mother, but both are yearning to breathe free and make their own decisions. And then Hal shows up next door, sweaty, hot, the kind of boy no girl can resist... Also in the mix are Rosemary, the schoolteacher who boards in their home, who pretends to be the very model of respectability even as she's desperate to snag a man; Mrs. Potts, their neighbor, who hires Hal to do some work around her house; Alan, Hal's friend from school; and Rosemary's beau, Howard, who goes along to get along most of the time.

For ISU, Eliza Morris, who starred in "Drowning Ophelia," will play Madge, with Russell Krantz, who last appeared in "Electra," opposite her as Hal. Betsy Diller has been cast as little sister Millie, Melanie Camire as the girls' mother, Flo, and Elizabeth Keach as Rosemary, the major pot-stirrer. Mitch Conti will appear as Alan and Devon Nimerfroh takes on Howard.

Director Lori Adams recently won an award from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for her directing efforts on the play "Falling," so she comes into "Picnic" on a roll. It will be very interesting to see what Adams does with the play in the intimate confines of the Centennial West Studio Theater.

"Picnic" opens with a 7:30 pm performance on Thursday the 29th, followed by shows March 30-April 1 and April 3-7. For ticket information, visit the production's Facebook page here, read this press release, or click here for their productions page. Because the venue is quite small, you would be wise to get your tickets ahead of time.

A Mix of Old and (Sort of) New in ISU's 2012-13 Season

Illinois State University's School of Theatre has announced the line-up for its 2012-13 season, with lots of classics, a few newer pieces, and a mix of styles and moods. Dates and details (like who's directing what) will be filled in later, but for now, this is what ISU actors and audiences have to look forward to in the next school year.

Naomi Iizuka

This fall, they'll start with the newest play, Naomi Iizuka's "Anon(ymous)" from 2006, in the Center for the Performing Arts. "Anon(ymous)" is a poetic, surreal exploration of Homer's "Odyssey" played across the scarred landscape of immigration in America. Iizuka's version of Odysseus is a rootless wanderer, a boy named Anon, who comes from somewhere "far away from here," searching for his mother, the Penelope of the story, who toils at a sweatshop somewhere in the US, fending off the advances of her creepy boss. Along his journey, Anon runs into characters who roughly correspond to the ones in the Odyssey, so, instead of a Cyclops, he has to fight to escape from a one-eyed psychopathic butcher wielding a big cleaver, and the nymph Calysto is now a snotty rich girl who tries to entice him with Skittles and Kit Kats. So far away from where he started, our immigrant Anon dreams of finding his mother and finally ending up someplace that feels like home.

After that, it's Rebecca Gilman's 1998 play, "The Glory of Living," which deals with the dark underbelly and the damaged, criminal children of America's Deep South. In the play, Lisa, the teenage daughter of a "drunk whore," is picked up and pulled along into a life of abuse and murder by Clint, her rapist boyfriend. She finally has a twinge of conscience -- maybe -- and leaves tips for the police about all what she and Clint have done, with the play then moving to how the criminal court system deals with each of them. The issues here are crime, punishment, morality, emotional instability, and what happens to unformed, abandoned children who never grow up, with plenty of blame to chew on. "The Glory of Living," set to play in Centennial West 207, received the ATCA Osborn Award for the Best New Play of 1998, and was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Then it will be Bertold Brecht's "Mother Courage and Her Children," widely considered to be among the best anti-war plays ever written, in Westhoff Theatre. Brecht wrote the play in Germany in 1939, as Hitler and the Nazi movement were creating a climate of violence and privation not unlike the wartime setting in the play. Mother Courage is a tough "canteen woman," a kind of peddlar who pulls a cart, trading and selling goods to soldiers. She continually tries and continually fails to balance turning a profit with keeping her children safe amidst the strife of war.

"The Cherry Orchard," Chekhov's bittersweet look at the fading fortunes of the aristocracy and the rise of a middle class composed of former serfs in turn-of-the-20th-century Russia, will follow in CW 207. As the play opens, Madame Ranevskaya returns to the country estate she can no longer afford, not understanding that her home, her orchards, and the entire way of life she's used to, must make way in changing times. Chekhov supposedly thought "The Cherry Orchard" was a comedy, but there is a lot of loss and sadness to deal with in this quiet, pensive play about the futility of standing still when the world keeps moving.

Michael Frayn's "Noises Off" is a completely different sort of piece, a backstage (and front-stage) farce about a hapless road company of washed-up or never-were players just trying to get the doors slammed and the sardines brought on and off at the right moments. "Noise Off" happens to be absolutely hilarious in the right hands (I've seen it sublime and I've seen it wretched, depending on the production) and it also give its scenic designer the chance to do a full, two-story house (or "posset mill") set that spins around at intermission. ISU has slated this one for the CPA, which is a step in the right direction.

Elmer Rice

In spring, ISU's sights will turn to "The Adding Machine." There is a recent musical version, but I'm assuming they'll be doing the 1923 play by Elmer Rice of "Street Scene" fame. Both versions deal with the same basic idea, about a man named Zero who is just a cog in a big company, an accountant, until he is replaced by an adding machine. This drama, headed for the CPA, is about man vs. machine, the worker vs. the nameless, faceless corporation, and the loss of humanity in an industrial vacuum.

That will be followed by "J.B.," the 1958 Archibald MacLeish drama that tells the story of Job, the man in the Bible visited upon by so many troubles. MacLeish put his play in free verse and set it in a circus tent, with a balloon seller and a popcorn guy standing in for God and Satan. And it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1959. "J.B." will pitch its tent inside Westhoff Theatre.

"Tales of the Lost Formicans," another surreal piece, comes next, with performances set for CW 207. Oddly enough, it was last performed at ISU in their 1994-95 season, along with "Noises Off" and one year after "The Adding Machine." Some plays never go out of style, I guess. In any event, Constance Congdon's "Tales of the Lost Formicans" was a 1989 Humana Festival play, with a clever, fresh and decidedly odd take on how aliens might try to fit together the pieces of 20th century life by looking at one "normal" family dealing with Alzheimers, a messy marital break, and a foul-mouthed, unhappy teenager. Congdon's voice is unlike anybody else's, and it's good to see one of her plays back in rotation.

That leaves just Rodgers' and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!" and Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" to round out the year for ISU Theatre. "Oklahoma!" will go up in the CPA, naturally, with "Midsummer" in Westhoff, finishing up in time for ISU personnel to concentrate on the 2013 Illinois Shakespeare Festival.

ISU School of Theatre has listed its new season here, with promises of more details to come later. So far, it's looking like a pretty cool and quite eclectic season.

"Pullman, WA" and "9 Parts of Desire" Open Tomorrow at ISU

As we finish out February and head into March, we have a lot of theater happening in Central Illinois.

Yes, quirky and compelling "Cloud 9," the Caryl Churchill gender-bender, picks up again tomorrow and continues through Saturday, March 3.

Yes, the fast and furious "Mauritius," by Theresa Rebeck of "Smash" fame, has one more weekend at Heartland Theatre, with performances Thursday, March 1, through Sunday, March 4.

And, yes, there will be two new shows opening tomorrow, with the classic Noel Coward comedy "Blithe Spirit" taking the stage at Community Players and a more modern piece of relationship comedy, Gina Gionfriddo's "Becky Shaw" opening at Urbana's Station Theatre.

ISU also has two smaller shows sneaking up on us with invited dress rehearsals tonight and the first of just four performances starting tomorrow. They're both free, I think, and both take place in smaller venues, with Young Jean Lee's "Pullman, WA" in room 149 at ISU's Center for the Visual Arts, and Heather Raffo's "9 Parts of Desire" at Centennial East 115.

One interesting note: In the continuing discussion over why female playwrights get so many fewer productions than male playwrights, I am happy to tell you that five of the six playwrights attached to the plays I've listed here are, indeed, female. Thank you, area theaters, for doing your part to even the score.

Young Jean Lee was born in South Korea, but she grew up in Pullman, Washington, which provides the title for her play "Pullman, WA." In The New Yorker, Hilton Als described Lee as "a facetious provocateur; that is, she does whatever she can to get under our skin -- with laughs and with raw, brutal talk that at times feels gratuitous, and is meant to."

"Pullman, WA" is directed by grad student Vanessa Stalling for ISU's first-year MFA 2X2 program. The show's Facebook page says it is "the story of 3 self help gurus trying to preach their way of life and their cure for self hatred on the audience while discovering and working through their own personal demons along the way." Stalling's cast includes Drew Mills, Dustin Rothbart and Tyler Yonke.

The other half of the 2X2 is "9 Parts of Desire," Heather Raffo's examination of  "the extraordinary (and ordinary) lives of a whole cross-section of Iraqi women: a sexy painter, a radical Communist, doctors, exiles, wives and lovers. This work delves into the many conflicting aspects of what it means to be a woman in the age-old war zone that is Iraq." 

Raffo is an Iraqi-American, and she performed "9 Parts of Desire" herself as a one-woman show. She received a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show for that work. For ISU, Matt Campbell directs a cast of five -- Claire Ford, Jenna Liddle, Becky Miller, Alison Sokolowski and Carla Westlund -- to tell Raffo's story. 

For more information on "Pullman WA," including performance dates and times, click here. For "9 Parts of Desire," click here.

ISU Black Actors Guild Presents "Willie Lynch" for Black History Month

Is the Willie Lynch letter real? Did somebody make it up in the 1970s as a cautionary tale or a call to arms? Does it really matter?

Gregory Hicks, who works with the New Route Theatre and has been bringing programming to ISU under the auspices of the ISU Black Actors Guild, directs an examination of those questions in "The Mystical Willie Lynch: A Musical, Poetic and Mental Exploration." The cast of "Mystical," which includes Trace Gamache, Charlene Ifenso-Okpala, Ariele Jones, Jennifer Rusk, Don Shandrow, and Hicks himself, performed the show once last week, with another performance this Wednesday, February 29, at 7 pm in the AirPort Lounge (APL) in ISU's Centennial West building, and a third scheduled in March for New Route.

In addition to the poems and songs performed by the ensemble, poems will be handed to the audience to read.

So what is the Willie Lynch letter? When this letter first showed up, it told a very grim story, about one William Lynch, supposedly a prosperous plantation owner (and slave owner) from the West Indies who had been asked to speak to American slave owners in Virginia in 1712 to share his secrets for controlling slaves not just in the present, but for "at least 300 hundred years." Those secrets are unspeakable and horrifying, advising slave owners to divide and conquer, torture and brainwash, isolate and terrorize, in order to manage one's slaves for maximum financial gain. Like I said, horrifying.

The authenticity of the letter has been much debated on the internet, with several scholars casting serious doubts on the letter and the 1712 speech the letter supposedly reported. If I'm reading descriptions of this new program, "The Mystical Willie Lynch," correctly, Hicks and his cast are treating the "real" Willie Lynch letter as a "what if" proposition, not suggesting that the letter is real, but instead looking into the issues and concerns it raises even if it didn't exist in fact.

"Using a bit of theatricality," Hicks' press materials say, "a talented group of actors, and singers will present a poetry show. Through this performance, we begin to explore the teaching of The Mystical Willie Lynch. The works of artists such as Nikki Giovanni, Amiri Baraka (a.k.a. LeRoi Jones), Langston Hughes, Billie Holiday, Gregory D. Hicks, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Nicki Minaj, Saul Williams, Pat’s Justice, will help us explore this letter."

All of this, Hicks suggests, is to get at the question, "If knowledge truly is power, what will you do with it?"

Lori Adams Honored with Rives Award for Teaching Excellence

The 2011-2012 Stan and Sandy Rives Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Education has been awarded to Illinois State University Theatre Professor Lori Adams, who acts as head of the Undergraduate Acting Program in ISU's School of Theatre. The Rives award will be presented to Adams at the Founders Day Convocation on Thursday, February 16th, at 2 pm.

According to ISU's press release, the Stan and Sandy Rives Award was created to recognize "outstanding teaching or any significant contribution to the undergraduate experience, with special attention given to the first-year experience." That makes it a perfect match for Adams, whose position puts her in charge of more than 150 undergraduate acting majors,. She personally auditions and interviews each incoming acting undergrad, and makes it her mission to stay in touch and guide them through that crucial first year at ISU.

It is also part of Adams' responsibility to coach and prepare the student actors who will represent ISU in the Irene Ryan Award competition at the annual American College Theatre Festival. Adams' actors have done very well in the ACTF competition, with ISU's Clayton Joyner named one of two national Irene Ryan champions in 2011, and Owais Ahmed and Abby Vombrack winning at the regional level in Urbana last month, earning the right to advance to the ACTF finals at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.


Aside from her ISU responsibilities, Lori Adams is a very well-regarded director, recently earning "Best Director" honors from St. Louis Post-Dispatch critic Judith Newmark for her work on "Falling" at St. Louis's Mustard Seed Theatre, and a prominent actress, with notable credits in Alan Ayckbourn's "Woman in Mind" and Martin McDonagh's "The Beauty Queen of Lenane" at Heartland Theatre and in "Macbeth" and "Henry VIII" at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. As you can see from the poster above, Adams also starred in "Shame the Devil: An Audience with Fanny Kemble," a one-woman show written by Anne Ludlam that toured extensively around the US and Canada.