Following SIRENS to St. Louis

Last April, I decided that Deborah Zoe Laufer's "Sirens" was my favorite from the 2010 Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville.

I liked the play''s imagination, spirit of fun and sense of mischief, as well as its link of new (like Facebook) to then (like Greek mythology.) So I made the trek down to St. Louis yesterday to see how "Sirens" would translate to a smaller space like the New Jewish Theatre's beautiful little Wool Studio Theatre.

Director Tom Martin stages the show in the round, with a simple, bright blue playing space and pieces of scenery and props that move on and off quickly and effectively, plus he uses Matthew Callahan's musical compositions, the ones created for the Humana production, and that's a smart choice, too. Still, I wish he'd used more of the music to accompany scene changes, since listening for the next one was such a treat in Louisville.

With Martin at the helm, the humor in this comedy about a long-married couple named Sam and Rose, trying to revive their youth with an anniversary cruise of the Greek isles, works nicely. Laufer's script is just zany enough to keep the laughs coming, and it's nice to see that communicates just as well in St. Louis as it did in Louisville.

Martin's cast, with Kari Ely as Rose, Bobby Miller as Sam, Leah Berry as the Siren and John Kinney as Richard Miller, a man from Rose's past, makes the characters look very different from the original production, and I'm not sure that's a good thing. It always strikes me as somewhat unhelpful to make that kind of comparison -- actors can't really try to be like other people, after all -- but in this case, it's hard not to notice that Ely's Rose is awfully strident and not very warm, Miller's Sam is too much of a sad sack, Berry's Siren tips over into fierce, wild warrior goddess territory when she should be seductive and lovely, and Kinney's Richard Miller, while funny, comes off a little too slimy. They're also dialing their performances to 11, when that seems much too big in such a small space. My guess is that Martin has directed them to go big to get the laughs, and that's certainly his prerogative, even if I think it makes the play feel less special, less magical.

SIRENS
by Deborah Zoe Laufer

The New Jewish Theatre
Marvin & Harlene Wool Studio Theatre

Director: Tom Martin
Production Manager: Dave Hahn
Technical Director: Jerry Russo
Stage Manager: Emily Clinger
Scenic Designer: Courtney Sanazaro
Lighting Designer: Maureen Hanratty
Costume Designer: Teresa Doggett
Properties Designer: Wendy Renee Greenwood
Sound Designer: Robin Weatherall
Original Music by Matthew Callahan

Cast: Leah Berry, Kari Ely, John Kinney and Bobby Miller.

Running time: 1:30, played without intermission

Remaining performances March 2 and 3 at 7:30 pm, March 5 at 8 pm, and March 6 at 2 pm.

For tickets or more information, click here.

Auditions for "Lincoln's Last Murder Case," a New Play

This just in... Jared Brown, former chair of the Department of Theatre at Illinois Wesleyan, is auditioning actors tomorrow (Saturday) from 1-4 pm at the McLean County Museum of History for a play he is directing called "The Affray; Lincoln's Last Murder Case." The play was written by Brown and Robert Bray, R. Forest Colwell Professor of American Literature at IWU who has written extensively on Lincoln.

Bray's last work for the stage was "Lincoln's in Town!" which was written with Nancy Steele Brokaw. "Lincoln's in Town!" was produced in 2009 at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts as part of the celebration of the bicentenary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth.

Brown's last work for the stage was a trio of short plays performed under the title "Three for the Show," produced at Heartland Theatre last October. He also directed.

"The Affray; Lincoln's Last Murder Case" has roles for 10 men of various ages and 1 young woman.

The McLean County Museum of History is located in downtown Bloomington at 200 N. Main Street.

If you have any questions, please call Jared Brown at 309-664-0708.

"Bhopal" Is Dangerous and Beautiful at ISU's Westhoff Theatre

Since the beginning of drama, playwrights have attempted to illuminate and argue political and social issues. Still, it's a tall order. How do you personify and dramatize war, poverty, costly decisions by the powerful and the devastating fallout on the powerless, especially when the devastation is a world away?

Playwright Rahul Varna, born in India but now based in Canada, attempts to bring to life that "world away," taking us to India in 1984, when a dangerously unsafe Union Carbide plant in Bhopal leaked more than 25 tons of toxic chemicals, creating the worst industrial disaster in world history, with thousands of lives lost and countless others (even generations later) gasping for breath.

Varma's script for "Bhopal" focuses on all the rungs on the ladder, from the lowest (a mother and her sick child living in dire poverty) to the highest (a corporate bigwig from the US who flies in to deflect responsibility), showing how much blame there is to pass around, how pretty much everybody involved obfuscated, compromised and lied, bartering long-term well-being for short-term profit. The local leader who tells himself that bowing down to Union Carbide will mean houses and clean water for his people, the mother who plays one side against the other to try to get care for her daughter and a little extra money, the Indian-American boss who toes the company line and turns a blind eye to keep his job safe, the CEO who says he is balancing profit and progress with keeping his shareholders happy – they all have reasons for their ethical lapses. And they're all part of the problem.

Only a Canadian doctor trying to research and quantify why so many mothers and children are sick and dying near the plant long before the disaster has pure motives, and her intractability and bluntness don't get a whole lot of traction with those around her. The message here is that you have to play the game to be heard, and yet if you play the game, you may very well lose your soul. Lose, lose.

Varma doesn't offer answers, but he does pose a lot of stark, unpleasant questions. In ISU's production, performed in the round at Westhoff Theatre, director Mark Baer clearly wants to keep the Indian influence front and center. Uma Kallakuri's choreography and performance as a dancer are striking and beautiful, telling the story around and among the other performers as well as adding a real feel of India.

Baer's cast performs almost completely as an ensemble, but Kallakuri stands out, as does Melisa Pereyra, doing a 180 from her last performance as an Irish barmaid in "The Playboy of the Western World." This time Pereyra takes on an Indian accent and the burden of terrible poverty as Izzat Bai, a woman who has lost everything and yet keeps on losing.

Others of note in the cast include Henry Woronicz, former artistic director at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival who is now the head of the graduate acting program at ISU, polished and scary as Warren Anderson, the big bad from Union Carbide; Kim Pereira as Devraj Sarthi, the top Union Carbide man in Bhopal who pays a steep price for his perfidy; Jessie Dean, lovely and fierce as Madiha, an Indian woman who makes all the wrong choices; Owais Ahmed as a puffed-up Bhopal potentate; and Abby Vombrack, uncompromising and tough as Dr. Labonté, the truth-teller in this sea of lies.

Alex K's scenic design offers a round playing space that shapes and forms the action, while Jason Tucholke's media design and Justine Clewer's lighting design create intriguing and moving images on K's circle.

This production of "Bhopal" is part of a larger Crossroads Project series of events that involve playwright Rahul Varma, including a reception at Kemp Recital Hall after the 2 pm performance on February 27, a symposium on "Corporate Environmental Responsibility: The Legacy of Bhopal," on Monday, February 28 at the CPA, a School of Theatre colloquium called "Beyond Color-Blind and Non-Traditional Casting" at 2 pm on March 1 at Westhoff Theatre, a staged reading of Varma's new Iraq War play, "Truth and Treason," directed by Christopher Marino, to be performed at 7:30 pm in Kemp Recital Hall on March 2, and an International Studies Seminar called "Staging Peace in Times of War: The Current State of Political Theatre in Canada" at noon on March 3rd in the 1st floor west lounge of the Bone Student Center.

Since the cast of "Bhopal" is drawn from a variety of ethnicities, that colloquium on color-blind casting may be particularly interesting.

For more information about "Bhopal," Varma and the Crossroads Project, click here or here.

Bhopal
By Rahul Varma

ISU Westhoff Theatre

Director: Mark Baer
Master Choreographer: Guru Uma Kallakuri
Scenic Designer: Alex K
Costume Designer: Judith Rivera Ramirez
Lighting Designer: Justine Clewer
Sound Designer: Alex Schmaus
Media Designer: Jason Tucholke
Hair and Make-up Designer: Tori Allen
Movement Coach: Kate Cook
Dramaturg: Casey Peek
Stage Manager: Ben Layman

Cast: Owais Ahmed, Anna Anderson, Sowjanya Avatapalli, Jessie Dean, Ashlyn Hughes, Ruben Ivy, Uma Kallakura, Lauren Partch, Kim Pereira, Melisa Pereyra, Anjana Rayavarap, Archana Shekara, Hisako Sugeta, Jessie Swiech, Abby Vromback, Kisha Wilson, Henry Woronicz, Arif Yampolsky.

Original music performed by Sameer Bildikar, Uma Kallakuri, Manny Bedi, Gurinder Megi and Wlliam Koehler.

Running time: 1:45, performed without intermission

Remaining performances: February 24, 25 and 26 at 7:30 pm; February 26 and 27 at 2 pm

Tickets

Director Cyndee Brown on PROOF, Trust and a Life in the Theater

The cast and crew of PROOF, with director Cyndee Brown at left.

As David Auburn's PROOF heads into its second week or performances at Bloomington-Normal's Heartland Theatre, I posed a few questions to director Cyndee Brown to get the inside scoop. Here's what Brown had to say:

First, let's talk a little bit about your experiences with Heartland Theatre to sort of set the stage. How did you first come to Heartland?

My first experience with Heartland was in the fall of 2000 when John and Peg Kirk were doing GIN GAME under the direction of Sandi Zielinski – she invited me to a rehearsal, and of course I then had to go back and see the show! The following fall, my neighbor Ann White, current chair of Heartland Theatre, invited my husband Dean and I over to her house to have dinner with artistic director Mike Dobbins and his wife Gail. Since then I have acted in a couple 10 minute plays, directed several plays, and become an avid supporter of Heartland. It really is one of the best places to direct in our community!

I know you've directed and acted in some very different shows over the years. Any roles or directing assignments that stand out in your mind?

Each of my directing stints at Heartland have been really special. I directed I LOVE YOU YOUR’E PERFECT NOW CHANGE, the first (and I believe only to date!) collaboration between Heartland and Prairie Fire Theatre. It was performed in the large meeting room of the Senior Center and presented challenges and rewards for all associated with it. It was a great experience.

RABBIT HOLE was done while I was on sabbatical from the university, and was the first time I had directed a play in quite a while. (I had done BIG RIVER and SECRET GARDEN at ISU prior to that.) It was a wonderful experience to just focus on the directing experience – being on sabbatical, the show had almost my complete attention during the weeks of rehearsal – heaven!!

Tell us something about your background. Did you start your theater career as an actress, director or teacher?

The acting bug bit hard in high school and I went on to major in theatre in college. I had some great opportunities in college - LION IN WINTER, CARNIVAL, STOP THE WORLD I WANT TO GET OFF, GEORGE M!, YOU’RE A GOOD MAN CHARLIE BROWN, MAME and others. My interest and experience in directing really began as I started my career as a high school theatre teacher after graduation from college. I continued to act in community theatre (MY FAIR LADY, FINIAN’S RAINBOW, SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM, THE INNOCENTS) but directing began to move center stage.

I feel that I kind of came into my own as a director after I completed my PhD. Grad school makes you stand up and think for yourself, helps you realize that your voice is as good as anyone else’s, and that no one knows everything. I think some of my best work was done after I realized that risk taking is ok, that high school students will go with you wherever you want to take them, and that good theatre is possible anywhere there is good, responsible leadership, creativity and eager students. The last thing I did with high school students was to take a group to the Fringe Festival in Scotland the summer 2000. Best experience of my life with students.

I'm sure your work as an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre at Illinois State University, teaching Theatre Education, keeps you on your toes. What do you enjoy most about that?

I love the students at ISU – all of them! Directing, teaching and sharing ideas with these university students is inspiring and challenging. Students are always the best part of teaching!!

What can you tell us about PROOF and this production of the play at Heartland? On its face, PROOF is about math, but I'm not so sure that's what's really at the heart of the play. What do you think? Math, madness, family, romance, or all of the above?

At its heart, I think PROOF is about trust – trusting yourself, trusting those around you, trusting that you will get through the difficult times. These folks trust their minds to get them where they think they need to be. What could be more tragic and ironic for such characters than to discover those faculties are limited at best, and, at worst, disappearing altogether? This play is honest, doesn’t pull its punches and pulls the theme of trust through so many universal relationships – fathers and daughters, sisters, significant others, to name a few.

John Bowen and Gwen de Veer in Heartland Theatre's PROOF

PROOF really took Broadway by storm, piling up awards and honors. What about the play do you think struck such a chord with audiences and critics? Has anything unexpected emerged as you've worked on the play with your actors and crew?

I think we expected to find things in this well-written play – I think what surprised us is how deep those discoveries went, and how they keep revealing themselves to us night after night. This cast is a remarkable ensemble in the true sense of the word. They support each other even as they challenge each other to get better, go deeper, and discover more about the play and themselves as actors. Our crew and design team are part of that ensemble feeling too. Everything about this process was so positive – everyone has been so generous.

Your husband, Dean Brown, plays the mathematical genius father in PROOF. Is it harder or easier directing an actor in the family?

I have directed Dean before, as well as both of our children. It has been a long time and both of us have grown a great deal as artists since those experiences. I worked hard to treat him the same way I treated the other actors – with respect for his process and his creativity. And I think he worked hard to respond to my direction as any actor would. I found it to be a wonderful experience. I wanted him to see what I was like as a director – and maybe after the show closes we can have a discussion about that!! We have shared our love of theatre for over 40 years – our relationship began in the theatre. The theatre has been very good to us – personally, artistically and professionally.

What should audiences expect to see when the curtain (figuratively) rises on this PROOF?

I hope what our audiences will experience is a thought provoking and enjoyable evening of theatre. We want them to think with us, laugh with us and maybe cry with us too. It has been wonderful to sit in the audience and watch and hear the audience response to the performances this weekend. Our audiences have been generous with their engagement and energy – what more can a production ask for??

Thanks, Cindy!

PROOF has proven to be a hit with audiences so far, so you would be well-advised to nab tickets now for performances running through March 6th. For more information or to reserve tickets, visit the Heartland website here.

Auditions Next Week for "The End of the Tour" at Heartland

Heartland Theatre Company has announced auditions for THE END OF THE TOUR, a play by Chicago playwright Joel Drake Johnson, to be directed by Sandi Zelinski. The photo at right shows the cover of the play, published by Broadway Play Publishing, Inc. To purchase a copy of the play, click here.

In THE END OF THE TOUR, Joel Drake Johnson offers a darkly funny play about the deeply flawed, deeply disconnected members of the Pierce family in Dixon, Illinois. While Mae hangs onto the memory of having once sung for Dixon’s favorite son, Ronald Reagan, her daughter wonders if she can bear one more minute with her mother and her estranged son struggles with even the briefest reunion. Who owes what to whom? Who belongs to whom? What does it mean to be related to people and a place you really don’t like very much? THE END OF THE TOUR was nominated for a 2003 Jeff Award for best new play after its Victory Gardens premiere.

Albert William, in "The Reader," said this about THE END OF THE TOUR: "Joel Drake Johnson’s new play is a sensitively written portrait of a fragmented family…. Johnson balances gallows humor with acute insight and compassion. He creates characters so real you wonder what will happen to them after the final blackout — and hope that the healing effects of time will allow parent and children to reconcile and thus reclaim life’s most fundamental and precious relationship."

Roles to be filled include Mae, 68-70; Jan, her daughter, 48-50; Mae’s son and Jan’s brother Andrew, 37-40; Jan’s husband, Chuck, 50; David, Andrew’s boyfriend, 35-38; Tommy, a friend of Chuck’s, 48-50; Brenda, a voice over the PA, and Norma, an elderly patient. The ages given for all these characters are only approximate.

Audition dates are set for Monday, February 21 and Tuesday, February 22, from 7 to 9:30 pm at Heartland Theatre. If you choose to audition, you will be asked to read from the script with other actors. You should plan to be present for the entire audition session on the night you select. THE END OF THE TOUR will be performed April 14-17, 21-23, 28-30 and May 1, 2011.

For more information about the auditions or THE END OF THE TOUR, you may call 309-452-8709 and leave a message for Mike Dobbins, Heartland Theatre Company Managing Artistic Director, or write to him at boxoffice@heartlandtheatre.org.

The audition notice appears here on Heartland’s website, with directions to the theater here.

Head + Heart = "Proof" at Heartland Theatre

It's always fascinating how many different meanings one word can have. "Proof," the title of the David Auburn play opening tonight at Heartland Theatre, is one of those words. Aside from being the title of a Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning play, "Proof" can also refer to evidence in court, how strong liquor is, the rising of dough, coins struck for collectors, pages used in the editing phases of printed material, a step-by-step way to demonstrate the truth of a mathematical theory or just how one person convinces another person that they are telling the truth.

Those last two are the big proofs in the play called "Proof." Auburn's central character, a 25-year-old woman named Catherine, has been involved in math her entire life as the daughter of a brilliant mathematician. But her father had serious mental problems that began to surface at just about the age of 25. Catherine is pretty sure she has inherited some of her father's astonishing proficiency with math. But what about his mental illness?


As Auburn tells his story, Catherine struggles with how to prove that she knows her way around a proof at the same time she needs the people around her – her older, more practical sister; a new man in her life who was a student of her father's; and even the ghost of her father himself – to prove that their motives are pure, that they believe her, that she isn't losing her mind.

I'm not enough of a mathematician to know if any of the math background works (but I see in the program that Heartland will be providing a math expert, ISU Professor Emeritus Stephen Friedberg, as part of the panel discussion after the matinee performance on February 27th, so you may want to show up for that if the math in the play either intrigues or annoys you.) I don't think that matters. It's clear Auburn has set up a dramatic dilemma that works for audiences. After all, it's pretty darn normal for people to want validation, trust, respect and belief in their lives. And that's really all Catherine is asking for.

Cyndee Brown directs for Heartland Theatre Company with an eye on the emotional truth in the relationships. At the heart of the play, Gwen de Veer does lovely work as Catherine, the woman whose depression is masking the vital person underneath. De Veer has excellent chemistry with all three of her scene partners, so that Catherine and her dad (played by Dean Brown) seem to have the real affection of family members, Catherine and her sister Claire (played by Christine Cummings) show the familiarity and old wounds that sisters often do, and Catherine and Hal, the guy she's interested in, (played by John Bowen) have the right spark of flirtation and possibility.

One of the strengths in Auburn's script and in these performances is that none of the characters are completely wrong or right. Brown's take on Robert, the dad, shows how sweet he can be, as well as how scary, when his character's mental health goes off the rails, while Cummings isn't afraid to make Claire unpleasant. But when we see in flashbacks the special relationship Catherine and her father share, it's clear how much of an outsider Claire has always been and just why she would be as prickly as she is.

I especially liked John Bowen's work as Hal, the grad student who catches Catherine's eye. Bowen's Hal is believable as someone who is smart, a little awkward, and yet confident in his own nerdy appeal. He makes us root for these two crazy kids, even after they both make missteps.

Michael Pullin's warm brick-and-mortar set, with just a few scattered leaves to clue us in to the September timeframe, hits the target nicely, and Gail Dobbins' costumes look spot-on for these people in this place.

I've seen "Proof" on Broadway as well as in a more intimate setting before this, and I have to say, this is a play that works best when scaled down a bit. It's as if the truth, the proof, of the human heart plays best when you can see it close up.

Proof
By David Auburn

Heartland Theatre Company

Director: Cyndee Brown
Scenic Designer: Michael Pullin
Costume Designer: Gail Dobbins
Lighting Designer: Tommy Nolan
Sound Designer: Ariel Mozes
Stage Manager: Casey Peek

Cast: Gwen de Veer, Dean Brown, Christine Cummings, John Bowen

Performances: February 17*-19, 24-26 and March 3-5 at 7:30 pm; February 20 and 27 and March 6 at 2:30 pm

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

Box office: Email boxoffice@heartlandtheatre.org or call 309-452-8709. For more information, click here.

*February 17 is "Pay What You Can" Night

Lamentation and Sorrow in IWU's "Trojan Women"

It's easy to understand why Euripides' "Trojan Woman" keeps being revived and retooled, some 2400 years after it first hit the stage in Athens. Over the centuries, there have always been wars. And in those wars, women and children -- AKA "collateral damage" -- have always been among the hardest hit.

Euripides didn't give his "Trojan Women" much of a plot. Instead, he let his female characters voice their lamentations and suffering from beginning to end. No down time here. All fury, grief and pain. He focused on three specific women and their stories -- Cassandra, the prophetess no one believes, crazed and undone; Andromache, wife of slain Trojan hero Hector; and Helen, the beautiful cypher at the center of the conflict -- with Hecuba, the Queen of Troy, and a chorus of women watching as their city burns and they are divvied up and given away as spoils of war.

Thomas Quinn directs "Trojan Women" for Illinois Wesleyan's McPherson Theatre, serving up a vivid, theatrical production with striking stage pictures. Hallie Zieselman's scenic design opens up a stark playing space that looks like bare stone and ash with a little hanging moss for atmosphere, and her aggressive lighting design splashes color and shadow across the stage, adding dramatic ebb and flow. Bridget Galvin's costumes, all ruddy browns and grays for the mourning women, with Helen glowing in white and gold, create the right mood, while Antonio Gracias's portentous sound design adds yet another layer of drama.

Among the players, Allyson Moravec and her maternal Hecuba stand out, with good commitment from Britta Whittenberg, Marlee Turim and Brooke Trantor as Andromache, Kassandra and Helen, respectively. Second-grader Dalton Spalding is sweet and heart-breaking as Hecuba's grandson, Andromache's son, the smallest victim of all the violence of the Trojan War.

This isn't a pleasant play, and it may require a bit of background reading on the Trojan War and its characters to really understand who's saying what about whom. But even if you don't really know your Achaeans from your Dardanoi, the basic idea that these women have suffered terribly will come across loud and clear.

Trojan Women
By Euripides. Translated by Diskin Clay.

IWU McPherson Theatre

Director: Thomas Quinn
Scenic & Lighting Designer: Hallie Zieselman
Costume Designer: Bridget Galvin
Sound Designer: Antonio Gracias

Cast: Josh Conrad, Michael Holding, Angela Jos, Lily Lowell, Zach Mahler, Allyson Moravec, Christine Polich, Roz Prickel, Amily Smith, Dalton Spalding, Amy Stockhaus, Andrew Temkin, Ally Torres, Brooke Trantor, Marlee Turim, Britta Whittenberg, Laura Williams, Parker Wood.

Running time: 1:50, performed without intermission

Remaining performances: February 16-19 at 8 pm and February 20 at 2 pm.

Box office: 309-556-3232