Love, Fame, Pride, Impossible Things... Coming This Month

The Humana Festival of New American Plays is ongoing at Actors Theatre of Louisville, and I will be there myself this weekend, eagerly awaiting new plays by Sarah Ruhl and Steven Dietz, among others, but meanwhile, back here in Illinois...

Suzan-Lori Park's contemporary Scarlet Letter, In the Blood, continues at U of I's Krannert Center for the Performing Arts this week. Look for In the Blood tonight through Sunday.

This Thursday, Heartland Theatre and director Ron Emmons open A.R. Gurney's Love Letters, a sweet, funny play about a lifelong friendship and lifelong love, with the distance and tenderness of shared letters as the way Gurney spins his story. Emmons directs three different casts over three weekends, with Lori Adams and Jonathan Green in the roles April 7, 8, 9 and 10; Devon and Rhys Lovell April 14, 15, 16 and 17; and Cyndee and Dean Brown April 21, 22, 23 and 24. For details on performance dates and times, click here. For ticket information, click here.

Fame: the Musical, is up next at Illinois Wesleyan University, with performances beginning April 12 and continuing through the 17th. Jean MacFarland Kerr is directing this updated take on the hit movie and TV show from the 80s, all about kids at a high school for the performing arts who hope to "light up the sky like a flame!" Except for the title song (with the bit of lyric I just quoted), the score and characters are new, developed and conceived by David De Silva. Kerr's cast of 20 is led by Evan Dolan, Conor Finnerty-Esmonde, Timothy Foszcz,  Holden Ginn, Emily Hardesty, Jenia Head, Jeffrey Keller, Chris Long, Haley Miller, Juna Shai, Steven Shur, Jessica Smith, LeeAnna Studt and Erica Werner.

The Eva Le Gallienne and Florida Friebus version of Alice in Wonderland falls down the rabbit hole and takes a look at the other side of the looking glass in the Center for the Performing Arts at Illinois State University beginning April 15. Jessika Malone directs the mad, mad world of the White Rabbit (Sam Rosenfeld), Red Queen (Caitlin Graham), March Hare (RJ Secotte), Dormouse (Olivia Candocia) and, of course, Alice herself, (played for the ISU production by Shakeyla Thomas, seen above). There are individual posters and video pieces with the cast, who will be playing a whole array of characters, on the show's Facebook page. Alice in Wonderland opens April 15, followed by performances April 16 to 17 and 19 to 23. Click here for ticket info.

Over in Urbana, opening April 21, the Station Theatre offers The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord, Scott Carter's meeting of the minds (or perhaps souls) of three very different thinkers trapped in an afterlife they can't escape. As Bob Verini said when he reviewed the play for Variety, "Carter couldn’t contrive a trio of distinguished historical personages more certain to piss each other off for all eternity." Lindsay Gates-Markel, who has played a whole lot of different roles on-stage at the Station, including Hamlet, directs Gary Ambler, David Barkley and Steven M. Keen as the three great men in question.

Also opening on the 21st is the Lyric Theatre @Illinois production of Kiss Me Kate in the Tryon Festival Theatre inside Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois. Cole Porter wrote the score, while Bella and Samuel Spewak wrote the book for this Taming of the Shrew set on Broadway, where leading man and leading lady Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi, who used to be married, are battling just as much as Petruchio and Kate in the musical they're supposed to be putting on. Add in some gangsters, a whole lot of dancing, and some pretty infectious songs, and you have Kiss Me Kate. Try this page for all the info. And, by the way, if you're wondering what Lyric Theatre @Illinois connotes, you can read all about it here.

New Route Theatre presents its brand-new "Voices of Pride" festival of new plays by LGBTQ playwrights April 22 to 24 at the First Christian Church, 401 West Jefferson Street in Bloomington. The plays selected include Garbage Can Blues by Paula Ressler, ReConnect by DC Cathro, Thingification by Durial Harris, and Bedfellows by Daniel Kipp. Duane Boutté curated the selections, and he will direct these staged readings of Ressler's and Harris's plays, while New Route artistic director Don Shandrow is at the helm of Cathro's and Kipp's pieces. Each play will be presented twice; to see the complete schedule, check out New Route's Facebook page. Tickets are available at the door for a suggested donation of $10.

"Promenade" Sprints Through IWU

If you attended anything theatrical in the 70s, whether high school, college or professional, you were likely to run across something absurd, something avant-garde, something existentialist or open or experimental or guerilla. My junior high dipped into Eugène Ionesco. My high school regularly put on Jean-Claude van Itallie. There was Beckett and Pirandello and Pinter at every turn.

María Irene Fornés, the Cuban-American playwright behind "Fefu and her Friends" as well as the book and lyrics of "Promenade," the musical currently on stage at IWU's McPherson Theatre, is part of that same tradition, although "tradition" is probably the wrong word to use for a kind of theater whose primary focus was upending it. Fornés is associated with the Off-Off-Broadway movement, with an exploration and deconstruction of society and culture and what we used to call "the Establishment." I've seen varying numbers of Obie Awards associated with Fornés, although nine seems to be the most popular choice, but it's still clear that she has had her finger on the pulse of the theatrical world Off- and Off-Off Broadway for quite some time.

"Promenade," which was created in 1965, is part of the brighter, lighter, earlier part of the Fornés ouevre, and the Al Carmines score reflects that. His music is peppy and lively, even when the Fornés lyrics attached are about getting kicked in the head.

And there's a reason there are lyrics about getting kicked in the head. The two main characters in "Promenade" are sort of everymen, schlubs, Regular Old Guys, who happen to have numbers instead of names because they begin the play in a prison cell. Numbers 105 and 106, played and sung very nicely by Will Henke and Isaac Sherman for Illinois Wesleyan, tunnel their way out of jail, initially landing themselves in the midst of a posh society party. At the party, we see a coterie of rich fatheads playing an endless game of Change Partners, a lady pop out of a cake, a saucy maid who has an eye for jewelry, and an interruption from the jailer (Peter J. Studlo as a combination Inspector Clouseau/Station Inspector from "Hugo") who is on the trail of the escaped prisoners. There's a detour into a battlefield, a celebration of Spring, and another party with an Alice in Wonderland flourish. And that's what constitutes a "Promenade."

There isn't any particular rhyme or reason to where they go or what happens to be happening, but it's all performed with good humor and commitment from the ensemble here. IWU Associate Professor Jean MacFarland Kerr directs "Promenade" at McPherson, so it stands to reason that the choreography and staging would stand out. And they do. The dance moves are sharp and smart, and they create a sense of movement that helps the play stay entertaining and fun, instead of just inexplicable. I especially liked the prison break, the exchange of jackets, and the Maypole sequences, in terms of staging, and the general pace and tone of the piece.

Also on the production side, Bernadette Brennan's scenic design is handsome and effective, sort of industrial chic, with layers and levels and a nifty plastic kiddie slide, and Marcia K. McDonald's costume design is fun and bouncy, with lots of entertaining details in terms of boots and wigs and furbelows.

The ensemble as a whole is quite strong and quite tuneful, thanks to Musical Director Saundra DeAthos-Meers, who also conducts a lively orchestra. The Alphabet People (Misses I, O and U and Misters R, S and T, played by Jenna Haimes, Laura Martino, Abigail Root, Joseph Chu, Josh Levinson and Ben Mulgrew) play it big and as absurd as they can be, functioning nicely as a reminder that the rich are stupid and silly, plus they sound good when they sing and look good in their formal wear and déshabillé. I also enjoyed Caitlin Borek, very snappy and sardonic as the maid; Roz Prickel as Miss Cake, who adds good energy as the girl who jumps out of the cake; Rachel C. Grimes, another excellent singer who plays Mother, running around looking for her missing children; Marek Zurkowski and Zach Mahler as various characters, but best as a pair of soldiers who aren't sure why they're at war; and Michael Holding as a buffoon of a politician who keeps threatening to send people to jail.

I'm not sure what it all amounts to, to be honest, since Fornés seems quite content to let it unfold every which way and not mean anything at all. Kudos to Jean MacFarland Kerr for keeping the show's sense of humor at the forefront, and to her cast for jumping in and performing the heck out of Fornés' words and Carmines' music.

PROMENADE
Book and lyrics by María Irene Fornés and music by Al Carmines.

McPherson Theatre
Illinois Wesleyan University School of Theatre Arts

Director: Jean MacFarland Kerr
Set Designer: Bernadette Brennan
Lighting Designer: Stephen Sakowski
Sound Designer: Ian Scarlato
Costume Designer: Marcia K. McDonald
Associate Costume Designer: Zach Wagner
Music Director/Conductor: Saundra DeAthos-Meers
Assistant Conductor: Blake Brauer
Choreographer: Jean MacFarland Kerr

Cast: Will Henke, Isaac Sherman, Caitlin Borek, Peter J. Studlo, Rachel C. Grimes, Michael Holding, Roz Prickel, Jenna Haimes, Laura Martino, Abigail Root, Joseph Chu, Josh Levinson, Ben Mulgrew, Marek Zurkowski, Zach Mailer.

Remaining Performances: April 4, 5 and 6 at 8 pm and April 7 at 2 pm.

Running Time: 2 hours, including one 10-minute intermission

For ticket information, contact the box office at 309-556-3232 or visit www.iwu.edu/theatre.