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.

March Comes Roaring in on Area Stages and Screens

The weather may not be getting any warmer, but our entertainment options continue to heat up.

Time Stands Still continues at Heartland Theatre this weekend, with its last performance on Sunday at 2:30 pm, with J.B. and Oklahoma! also finishing at Illinois State University's Westhoff Theatre and Center for the Performing Arts and As You Like It taking its last bow at Illinois Wesleyan's McPherson Theatre. J.B., Oklahoma! and AYLI all run through March 2.

Paddy Moloney and the Chieftains are coming to the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts for a 3 pm show on Sunday, March 3, in plenty of time to boost your Irish spirits before St. Patrick's Day. This traditional Irish band has won six Grammys in an illustrious 50-year career. Their new album Voice of Ages celebrates that 50-year anniversary with contributions from Bon Iver, the Civil Wars, the Decembrists, Imelda May and Paolo Nutini, among others. You can see a teaser for that album here. For ticket information regarding the March 3 concert at the BCPA, click here.

Heartland Theatre will hold auditions on March 6, 7 and 8 from 7 to 9:30 pm for its April production of Will Eno's Middletown. Director John Kirk will be looking for an ensemble of 9-10 actors to play all 26 roles that make up the small burg called Middletown. Kirk has provided audition information here for prospective actors.

For one night only on March 7, Champaign's Art Theater will offer F.W. Murnau's classic vampire thriller Nosferatu, a silent from 1920. The Andrew Alden Ensemble will provide live musical accompaniment to Nosferatu for this screening, using piano, strings, synthesizers, percussion and electric guitars to bring a spontaneity and immediacy to Murnau's story of the creepy count. This is not the dark, elegant lord of later vampire films, but a strange and hideous pale creature with pointy teeth and ears. He's so much scarier this way!

The Art is also looking for entries into its New Art Film Festival, which takes place in April.They're looking for films by anyone in Illinois, but especially central Illinois, and they'll take features, shorts or "webisodes," preferably made within the last three years. The deadline is March 8, and you'll need to get a DVD to the Art by then. You'll find details here and updates here.

To Kill a Mockingbird is the March show for Community Players, with a preview performance on March 14 and "regular" performances continuing March 15-17 and 21-24. The play, based on the much beloved novel by Harper Lee, tells the story of a Depression-era Southern lawyer named Atticus Finch and his children, Scout and Jem, as the family is caught up in a trial involving a black man falsely accused of a crime. Finch is defending Tom Robinson on rape charges, and the injustice of that trial casts a deep shadow over the entire town, but especially on Scout, who grows up fast as events proceed around her. Marcia Weiss directs for Community Players, with a cast that includes Maggie McHale as Scout, Haani Ansari as Jem, John Bowen as Atticus, Ryan Rembert as Tom Robinson and Bruce Parrish as the mysterious Boo Radley.

Tales of the Lost Formicans, Constance Congdon's exploration of American society seen through the eyes of aliens from the future, opens at Illinois State University on March 28. Deb Alley directs this eccentric comedy for Centennial West 207, with Michelle Stine as a mother forced to move home with her own mom and dad, who will be played by Jacki Dellamano and Joseph Faifer, while her unhappy son, played by Carlos Kmet, acts out. There's also a strange neighbor who happens to be a conspiracy nut, with Hannaniah Wiggins in that role.

March 28 is also opening night for Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, directed by Henson Keys for the University of Illinois's Department of Theatre. This fiery account of the first reaction to the AIDS epidemic from within New York's gay community has the potential to break your heart. It has every time I've seen it. It will play within the cozy confines of the Studio Theatre at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

Click here for information on The Normal Heart and all the other music and dance pieces coming up at Krannert Center.

As always, I will keep you updated with more events as they appear on my radar. Stay tuned!

Casting News: Michelle Stine Heads Up TALES OF THE LOST FORMICANS at ISU

Tony Kushner called Constance Congdon's Tales of the Lost Formicans a look at the "postmodern, collective nervous breakdown American society has been having." I suppose that's as good a description as any.

In Congdon's play, we begin with alien anthropologists studying Earth in the 20th Century as they try to piece together who these "Lost Formicans" were based on the detritus they left behind. That includes kitchen tables and chairs and "numerous wheeled sarcaphogae used to carry spirits to the next world." Or, you know, cars.

Within the alien framing device, Congdon gives us Cathy, mother to a 15-year-old, coming home to live with her parents after a messy divorce. But home isn't exactly a walk in the park. Her dad has Alzheimer's, Mom isn't coping well, son Eric is unhappy beyond belief to be transported to this weird world, and there's a conspiracy nut named Jerry who keeps popping up. Cathy's childhood friend Judy is still in the neighborhood, but she's full of stories about suicide and dead dogs.

It's to Congdon's credit that this portrait of America in the late 80s, seen from an alien point of view, is funny, surreal, incredibly irreverent and sad, all at the same time. The story isn't linear. It isn't rooted in reality. Its characters are crazy. But they sure feel real when it comes right down to it.

ISU Associate Professor Deb Alley will direct the production scheduled to play in the intimate space at Centennial West 207 from March 28 to April 6, 2013. Her cast has also been announced, with Michelle Stine, last seen in an exquisite performance as mute daughter Kattrin in Mother Courage, in the role of Cathy, Jacki Dellamano (The Marriage of Bette and Boo) and Joseph Faifer (Noises Off) as her parents, Carlos Kmet as her son Eric, and Hannaniah Wiggins as Jerry, the sweet conspiracy theorist next door.

That adds up a great cast and a great director working on a great script. All kinds of possibilities for alien anthropologists!