CHESS: Opening Moves Tonight at the Station Theatre

There was a day when chess champions from the United States and Russia vied not just for bragging rights across the board, but in international headlines, as well. As Cold War tensions remained high, the battle between American Bobby Fischer and Russian Boris Spassky for the World Championship in chess took on greater significance. A prize of $250,000 raised the stakes. When the two superstars, so different in approach and temperament, one shaped by the traditional, dominant Soviet system, the other an American loner known as much for his tics as his brilliance, met for 21 games played over two months in Iceland, the world watched to see who would ultimately checkmate whom.

The musical Chess, which opens tonight at the Station Theatre in Urbana, does not specifically deal with Fischer and Spassky, although there are certain similarities. There's an American and a Russian, and their match is played for higher stakes than just a few pawns, with political and diplomatic implications at every turn. But there's also romance, which was, as far as we know, not part of the famous 1972 World Championship, subplots involving defection, blackmail and selling out, action set in Thailand (to fit the show's most famous single "One Night in Bangkok"), and the inclusion of music written by the male half of ABBA, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, with lyrics by frequent Andrew Lloyd Webber collaborator Tim Rice. Singing chess playes is quite a departure from the real deal! And that means that Chess may have been inspired by Fischer and the infamous match in Reykjavik, but the musical is its own, distinctive creation on stage. In the end, it isn't so much about the game of chess as it is about loyalty, responsibility, family and honor. Note that there have been several different versions of Richard Nelson's book over the show's lifetime to reflect changes in the political landscape of Eastern Europe as the Soviet Union fell.

Chess opens tonight at 8 pm at the Station, directed by Mikel L. Matthews, Jr. This production features Warren Garver as American bad boy chess champ Freddie Trumper and David Barkley as Soviet challenger Anatoly Sergievsky. Malia Andrus plays Florence, caught between the two men professionally and personally, while Kevin Paul Wickart takes on Molokov, the Russian handler and manipulater behind Anatoly; Dawn McDaniel plays Svetlana, Anatoly's wife; Jessica Miller is the Arbiter, the president of the International Chess Federation overseeing the matches; and Wen Bu, Lola McQueen, Michael Murphy, Kenna Reiss, Craig Smith and Rachel Warren comprise the ensemble.

The Station's version of Chess continues in performance through December 21. All the details are here on the show's Facebook page. The Station Theatre is located at 223 North Broadway in Urbana, and you may call 217-384-4000 for reservations.

Who's at the Discovery Walk, Part II: Kirk, Smith, Sutliffe andWickart

It's been a week and a bit since we looked at four of the actors in this year's Discovery Walk at Evergreen Cemetery. I have been remiss in filling in the blanks, but there's still time to fill you in on the remaining four actors before the Walk starts up again on Saturday for four more rounds of performances.

The Discovery Walk is, of course, the annual celebration of Bloomington's past put together by Illinois Voices Theatre, the McLean County Museum of History, and Evergreen Cemetery. Judy Brown, who directs the actors who present real people who lived and worked and made an impact in our town, has chosen some veterans, like Rhys Lovell and Gwen de Veer, and some newcomers, like
Leola Bellamy and John Bowen, as we discussed last time.

The last four actors are that same mix, with two returnees in Kathleen Kirk and Kevin Wickart, and two actors trying out the Discovery Walk experience for the first time in Marcus Smith and Cathy Sutliff.

Kirk has, of course, performed as part of this event many times. She's a well-known local actress and poet with plenty of appearances on local stages. This year, she's portraying Georgina Trotter, a tireless advocate for education and the public library in Bloomington. In the Museum's biographical material linked under Trotter's name, they note that "The Pantagraph called her 'one of the most remarkable women Bloomington has ever claimed as a citizen.'" Kirk will also be playing Georgina Trotter in the dinner-and-drama salute to educators called "Spirit of Educators Past" coming later in October.

Marcus Smith and Cathy Sutliff co-starred in Heartland Theatre's Superior Donuts last spring, and they're both making their Discovery Walk acting debuts this year. Smith is playing Ike Sanders, a local entrepreneur who started the Workingman's Club, a popular restaurant that served miners and railroad workers in downtown Bloomington. Sanders was the first African-American to own and operate a restaurant (he actually had three of them over the years) in town.

Sutliff is the current president of the Area Arts Roundtable and former president of the board at Community Players. A 25-year resident of Bloomington-Normal, she is also an experienced costumer, and has acted as costumer for the Discovery Walk before. Her role is Charlotte Ann Perry Scott, the wife of Judge John M. Scott, a character whose script I wrote for the Discovery Walk in 2002.

Rounding out the cast is Kevin Wickart, who's been seen recently at Heartland in Mauritius, at Eastlight in Les Miz, and in Prairie Fire's Damn Yankees. Last year, he played John Roeder, the wild-eyed soldier who served with the Union Army hunting down "bushwhackers" in Missouri, and this year, he's taking a very different turn with Benjamin "Trott" Funk, the seventh of ten children born to Isaac and Cassandra Funk, founders of Funks Grove. Trott was a respected politician who served five terms as mayor of Bloomington, making welcome improvements to city sewers and streets and the water supply.

Tours begin at 11 am and 2 pm on Saturday and Sunday, and tickets are available at the McLean County Museum of History, the Garlic Press, Casey's Garden Shop and Evergreen Cemetery. For more information on the characters in Discovery Walk 2012, click here. For ticket information and general details, click here.

Tense "Mauritius" Packs a Punch at Heartland Theatre

Tension and intensity are the keys to Theresa Rebeck's "Mauritius" as it uncoils on stage at Heartland Theatre. There's tension among all the actors and the characters they play, as they circle hungrily, not unlike a pack of wolves, around a potentially valuable stamp collection. Director Sandra Zielinski adds intensity to the mix with her staging, ramping up into physical violence as her characters shove each other aside on their way to the prize.

Two half-sisters, Mary and Jackie, have been left behind after the recent death of their mother. Mom also left behind a stamp collection, which both half-sisters profess to own. Mary, the older daughter, argues that the stamps were the prized possession of her grandfather (a grandfather she did not share with Jackie) and that they are therefore of sentimental value to her and her alone. But Jackie was the one who stayed at home with her mother through what sounds like years of financial distress and emotional abuse, and she is desperate to sell the stamp collection to provide the funds for a new life far away from her mother's house of pain.

Neither consults a lawyer. That's understandable, since most of Rebeck's conflict would fly out the window if they did. Probably better to just call that poetic license and move on. Oh well.

Instead, Jackie takes the stamp collection to a less-than-posh stamp shop, owned by the cranky, uncooperative Phillip, to try to figure out what it's worth. Phillip isn't in the mood to rouse himself to look over her stamps or offer an opinion on their value, but Dennis, a cagey younger guy always looking out for just this kind of score, is willing to jump in. He notices immediately that there are some very rare, very valuable stamps in the album she's toting.

And that's when things start to get good. Are the stamps real? If they are, who owns them? What will Jackie and Mary do to each other in order two keep their hands on them? And who among the trio of pursuers -- slick, charming Dennis, worn-out Phillip or greedy, menacing collector Sterling -- will bend the others to his will?

Rebeck's script is all about cross and doublecross, smackdown and backhand, with clever dialogue that comes out in naturalistic bits and pieces, as well as a fair share of swearing, shouting and swagger. In the intimate confines of Heartland Theatre, the violence -- both verbal and physical -- is in-your-face and scary, with edge-of-your-seat suspense. The actors work quite well together, which is absolutely necessary when they're choreographing this much action in such a small space.

Sarah Stone Innerst leads the cast as Jackie, who comes off stubborn, hard and just unhinged enough to do some serious damage as she faces off against the world. As her sparring partner, older sis Mary, Kate McDermott-Swanson is flinty and snooty, a real piece of work, the one who had all the advantages but still doesn't feel like she needs to share.

The three men are different enough, and yet each threatening in his own way. Kevin Paul Wickart is world-weary and hang-dog as Phil the Philatelist, brooding in the background and nursing his hurts like a perennially sore tooth, while Michael Pullin's Sterling is really, really scary. Pullin's physical presence is menacing from the first moment he appears in a long, plush coat, swirling it like his super-villain cape, casting a dark shadow over everybody else.

Andrew Head finishes out the trio, playing Dennis as a smooth wheeler dealer who thinks if he throws out words fast enough, nobody will noticed they're being conned. Head's Dennis is less the self-assured seducer of the off-Broadway production and more a boyish overachiever, an Artful Dodger, a whiz kid. It works just fine, as Dennis becomes the irresistible force opposite Jackie's immoveable object, and Head and Innerst strike up a nice chemistry.

Scenic Designer Michael Pullin, who also plays Sterling, contributes a snazzy set, which I am told offers a gray-green back wall with inset squares to reference the color of money and the shape of stamps. Nicely done. 

"Mauritius" continues with performances through March 4, with a panel discussion after the matinee this Sunday, February 26th.

MAURITIUS
By Theresa Rebeck

Heartland Theatre

Director: Sandra Zielinski
Scenic Designer: Michael Pullin
Lighting Designer: Grace Maberg
Costume Designer: Judith Rivera Ramirez
Sound Designer: James Wagoner
Fight Director: Paul Dennhardt
Stage Manager: Melissa Jean Mullen

Cast: Andrew Head, Sarah Stone Innerst, Kate McDermott-Swanson, Michael Pullin and Kevin Paul Wickart

Remaining performances: February 23-25 and March 1-3 at 7:30 pm; February 26 and March 4 at 2 pm

Running time: 2:10, including one 10-minute intermission

Opening Tonight: "Mauritius" at Heartland

If you've been hearing Theresa Rebeck's name in the news recently, it's probably because of "Smash," the new hit show on NBC about putting together a Broadway musical. Rebeck is the creator of "Smash," as well as the head writer on the show, and she has deep writing and producing credits for TV ("Law and Order: Criminal Intent," "NYPD Blue") as well as for the stage ("Seminar," currently on Broadway, "The Understudy," "The Scene.") Rebeck was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 as the co-writer of "Omnium Gatherum" with Alexandra Gersten.

"Mauritius," which opens tonight at Heartland Theatre, is prime Rebeck, featuring smart, flawed people with mixed motives behaving badly in pursuit of some irresistible object. In this case, what they all want is a possibly valuable stamp collection, one which may contain the so-called Mauritius Post Office stamps. These stamps, issued by the British Colony of Mauritius in 1847, were printed with the words "Post Office" instead of "Post Paid." There were only about five hundred printed of each of them -- one orange and worth a penny, the other blue and worth two cents -- and the printing mistake is what makes them so sought after in the world of stamp collecting.

That theme, of what we're worth, mistakes and all, recurs throughout the play. Or, as one of the characters in "Mauritius" puts it, "If only people were more valuable because of their mistakes."

Rebeck is very good at creating snappy, dynamic dialogue and the edgy characters to go with it. "Mauritius" features a set of five of those characters, from Mary and Jackie, the half-sisters who each think they should have dominion over the stamp album in questions, to Dennis, the smooth operator always on the lookout for a score, Phillip, owner of a sleepy stamp shop who can be roused to action if the right circumstances present themselves, and Sterling, the mysterious collector with a briefcase full of cash and a "gimme gimme" attitude to go along with it. 

Sandra Zielinski, Professor in ISU's School of Theatre, directs this Heartland Theatre production, with a cast that includes Sarah Stone Innerst as Jackie; ISU MFA candidate Kate McDermott as Mary; Kevin Paul Wickart as shop-owner Phillip; Andrew Head, a graduate of Bradley University's Department of Theatre Arts, as slippery Dennis; and Michael Pullin, a Heartland favorite who is also the resident Scenic Designer, as Sterling, the avaricious money man.

From L: Michael Pullin, Andrew Head and Sarah Stone Innerst

Photo credit: Jesse Folks

Performances of "Mauritius" open tonight with a special Pay-What-You-Can preview, followed by 7:30 performances on February 17-18, 23-25, and March 1-3, with 2 pm matinees on February 19 and 26 and March 4. A discussion about the play will follow the February 26th afternoon performance, with Alaine Winters, an expert in language from Heartland Community College's Communications Department; Loree Adams, from IWU's Department of Psychology; and director Sandra Zielinski appearing to discuss the issues presented by the play and take questions. This panel discussion is open to the public and free of charge.

For more information about Heartland's production of "Mauritius" or to make reservations, click here.

Up Close and Personal with Kevin Paul Wickart on "Mauritius"

Heartland Theatre's production of Theresa Rebeck's "Mauritius" opens two weeks from tonight. To get an inside look at the show, I put actor Kevin Paul Wickart (shown below), who plays Philip, the owner of a scruffy stamp shop, under the microscope.

Hi, Kevin! Thanks for chatting with me. Congratulations on being cast in Theresa Rebeck’s “Mauritius” for Heartland Theatre. Had you heard of the play before the audition notice went up?

Thank you, Julie. No, I hadn't heard of the play before. I had done some research on the show that Heartland had originally been looking at, and later noticed the change in the schedule. I kept in touch with (i.e. "hounded") Mike and Gail Dobbins to see about getting a review copy of the script, so I was familiar with the play before auditions were announced.

You’ve described “Mauritius” this way: “The discovery of a possibly-valuable stamp collection brings out the absolute worst in five people.” What can you add to that? What is “Mauritius” really about? And what does the title refer to?

That was my "one breath" synopsis for Facebook. The slightly longer version is: "Mauritius" is about two half-sisters whose mother has passed away after an extended illness. In going through her belongings, they find an old stamp collection that may contain the Holy Grail of stamp collecting--two incredibly rare stamps from the island country of Mauritius. When one of the sisters attempts to have the collection appraised, three men begin plotting to get hold of it.

Rebeck has taken some flak for supposedly writing “Mamet Lite” with this play, with some comparisons to “American Buffalo.” What do you think about that?

I think that some of the comparisons to Mamet are inevitable, given the use of profanity in the show. Like Mamet, Rebeck uses profanity to give her characters a measure of contemporary verity, rather than for shock value. I'm not sure what comparisons to Mamet's "American Buffalo" can be--or are being--made, other than use of the device of collecting and a bunch of people behaving badly. In plays of this type, there is always a "McGuffin," the thing that is sought by the characters, and the seeking of which invariably reveals their true natures. Whether that McGuffin is a stamp collection, coin collection, or the Hand of the Maiden Fair, the core plot is that of The Quest. What remains is the question of what each character is willing to do to get it. So...yeah, there are similarites.

How does your character, Philip, fit into things? How can you describe him?

Philip is a stamp dealer and expert, in whose store much of the play takes place. He has a history with the character of Sterling; though their views regarding stamps are quite similar, there is an "unpleasantness" between them.

As you go through rehearsals, what are you enjoying most about the play?

There are so many things! As an actor, I'm really enjoying the process of finding my character's motivations and voice, and seeing how he plays out against the other characters. And, of course, I love being part of a show that includes new and old friends.

I’m going to guess that the fight rehearsals are your least favorite part, given your description of being “slammed, punched and pummeled repeatedly about the head and body.” Or maybe you enjoyed that? Who knows?

Actually, I am loving fight rehearsals! I can only imagine what it'll all look like from the audience, but from my perspective it's completely awesome!

What is it like working with director Sandi Zielinski and the rest of the cast? Have you worked with Andrew Head, Sarah Stone Innerst, Michael Pullin or Nancy Sultan before? I would imagine a lot of snap and crackle with those scene partners.

Working with Sandi is amazing. She continually challenges us to look deeper into our characters, to keep us from getting complacent.

Also keeping me on my toes is the fact that I'm working with a group of talented and experienced actors. I worked--and sang and danced--with Sarah in "The Pajama Game" at Community Players, and I worked with Michael as an actor in last October's Discovery Walk at Evergreen Cemetery. Nancy and Andy were new to me, but we're all blending quite nicely. And yes, there is a lot of "crackle" in some of the scenes.

Although I have known you for a while, I realized I don’t actually know much about your past theater career or non-theater career, for that matter. So when did you first step on the stage and who or what were you playing?

Hmm...easier asked than answered, I think. Assuming you mean local stages, my first foray was as Mr. Meeker in Heartland's production of "Inherit the Wind" at the Historical Museum in 1990 or thereabouts.

I actually did mean your first role ever, and now that I know that’s hard to answer, I’m even more intrigued. Was it traumatic, like you were a Goose A-Laying in a Christmas pageant? Or a ham, like Scout in “To Kill a Mockingbird”? Or is it just that you’ve done so much theater that you really can’t remember? Maybe you were Cousin Oliver on “The Brady Bunch” and you don’t want to reveal your secret identity?

Ah. Well, then...my first role that I can recall was that of Baby Bear in my second grade production of "Alice in Christmasland."

How long have you been in Bloomington-Normal?

I came downstate to attend ISU in 1977, and pretty much forgot to go back home.

What did you study at ISU?

I studied a little Physics, a little Computer Science, and some Psychology.

All good things for keeping your acting honest and your singing on the beat! And what do you do when you’re not on stage?

I've been known to put some time in as a Bank Technician at State Farm Bank. In my copious free time I relax at home with my family, hang out with friends (most of whom are theatre folk), or build model rockets.

I know you have performed locally in both musicals (“Titanic” at Community Players and “HMS Pinafore” for Prairie Fire) and straight plays (“Don’t Forget to Play My Numbers” at Heartland last summer), plus you directed a Neil Sedaka revue for Prairie Fire Theatre. Do you have a favorite role you’ve played thus far? How about a role you’d love to play if you were running the world?

My favorite role so far was my debut with Community Players, playing seven characters in their production of "The Woman in Black" in 2008. As far as a role I'd love to play (if I were running the world), I think I'd have to go with something from Shakespeare--Hamlet or Puck, perhaps. I love the language, the poetry, and the intensity of his characters.

Wow. Hamlet and Puck are not usually in the same actor's repertoire. Interesting. (Note to casting directors out there: You have a potential Hamlet or Puck who can also handle the physics in "Copenhagen" and "Arcadia." Just sayin'.)

Back to "Mauritius" as we close out here. How is “Mauritius” different from what you’ve done before?

Mainly, it's my first use of violence and profanity on stage. Considering the number of shows I've done over the years, I find this rather amazing.

And, finally, what (aside from the violence and profanity) makes “Mauritius” a do-not miss for audiences?

We have a top-notch cast and crew, the characters are complex and being fine-tuned every day, and the script is excellent and fast-paced, having been crafted by an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. All the elements are there for a top-level show, under the guidance of an amazing director. All we need now is an equally fine audience.

Thanks, Kevin!

It's been my pleasure!


"Mauritius" opens at Heartland Theatre on February 16th, with performances running through March 4. For reservation information, click here.