12
Mar
Last Saturday night I met a friend at the Carmel Community Playhouse in the Clay Terrace shopping center to see Actors Theatre of Indiana’s professional production of “Nunsense: A Musical Comedy.”
This particular friend is very particular about her theatre, so I only invite her to shows that I am pretty sure are going to be well done.
And guess what? At the end of this show, my friend said, “Very well done, especially the comic timing.”
(Yay!)
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11
Mar
Last Thursday night I attended the preview night of Dance Kaleidoscope’s “Love Is…” program at the Indiana Repertory Theatre in downtown Indianapolis. It was a wonderfully cathartic evening, artistically admirable in and of itself, but also coincidentally a perfect fit for my euphoric, spring-time mood and my emotional and aesthetic needs at the time. I left feeling washed and ready.
The next day I still felt physically and emotionally uplifted by the experience. I think this was because the program had incorporated not only strong, graceful dancing and other visuals but also spoken words, sung words, and explicit, well-communicated storytelling in the movements of the dancers (as opposed to abstract emotions.) Most of it was easy for me to relate to, and yet there was also content that stretched and inspired me.
The program included four pieces, all of which were new to me.
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08
Mar
On Sunday, February 14, 2010, I drove to Massachusetts Avenue in downtown Indianapolis to see an anthology show from a group called the Indiana Playmakers. The collection of eight short plays by eight different Indiana playwrights was called “Spring Cleaning.” It was presented by (and at) Theatre on the Square in association with the Rachel McGeever Fund. It was produced by James Trofatter.
Rachel McGeever Fund director Ron Spencer, plus Bernard Wurger and Dorothy Webb, are acknowledged in the program as being the judges, so I assume that these eight plays were selected as the best out of a larger collection of plays submitted by members of Indiana Playmakers.
The effectiveness of the plays was uneven, but I enjoyed getting to see such a good variety of themes, topics, and styles all in one evening.
Here are the names of the plays in the order they were presented, along with the names of the playwrights, the directors, and the casts:
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06
Mar
My friend Adrienne and I attended the Media Night performance during the opening weekend of “Footloose” at the Beef and Boards Dinner Theatre on the northwest side of Indianapolis. I enjoyed it, but then I had a run of home computer problems, so I am only getting around to writing about the show now.
Being without a computer (or other writing and sharing tools) is like being forbidden to dance: you don’t realize how important writing and dancing are to your emotional and mental well-being until you can’t do them.
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03
Mar
On Friday, February 12, 2010, I drove to the Carmel Community Playhouse in Clay Terrace shopping center to see the Carmel Community Players’ production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” by Tennessee Williams.
I had never seen or even read this 1955 Pulitzer Prize winner, nor seen the movie. I love that CCP’s whole first season in their new space is prize winners because it means I am getting to further my self-directed live theatre education in the best way possible: by seeing noteworthy plays brought to life on stage.
This difficult piece was brilliantly directed by R. Brian Noffke. He and the cast were all volunteers but their work was extraordinary. I don’t mean “good for community theatre,” either. I mean I forgot that I was watching actors at all. I got caught up in the complex family drama, empathized with the characters’ yearnings for love, acceptance, and security, and left the theatre in mourning for the characters’ losses.
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01
Mar
On Thursday, February 11, 2010, I drove to the Phoenix Theatre in downtown Indianapolis to see the Midwest premiere of “Call Me Boricua!” a one-man show written and performed by Ricardo Melendez. It was presented by the Phoenix Theatre and The Workshop Theatre Group. Bryan Fonseca directed it.
The show was in Indy for only two weekends. I am sad that I can not urge you again to go see it, but now that I have my home computer back, I would still like to record a few more thoughts about this intoxicating show.
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27
Feb
On Tuesday, February 9, I drove to the Indy Fringe Theatre Building in downtown Indianapolis for the second monthly “Jabberwocky” event of 2010. The first one had been a lot of fun, so I looked forward to the second one as well. The “Jabberwocky” series of “rendezvous of Jabbers who share their life stories” is produced by Storytelling Arts of Indiana and the Indy Fringe Festival, and supported by IndyGo (Indy’s bus system.) It is held on the second Tuesday of every month.
The theme for the February evening of stories was “Once Upon a Time.” Philanthropist and arts supporter Frank Basile was the MC. The featured tellers were Phoenix Theatre actress Gayle Steigerwald, Theatre on the Square director/actor Ron Spencer, and school media specialist/storyteller Celestine Bloomfield.
I enjoyed listening to all of them!
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27
Feb
The rest of Indianapolis has moved on from the Colts’ attempt to win another Super Bowl on Sunday, February 6, 2010. However, I had an artistic gestalt that night and now that I think I may have my home computer working again, I would like to record a few more thoughts about my “discovery” of the performance art of Bob Lamey and other sports storytellers.
Most of the world does not call them that, of course. They call them sports announcers or radio hosts or commentators or something like that.
Whatever you call them, you can not deny that the good ones bring unique skills and impressive knowledge to create an exciting, in-the-moment spoken interpretation of what is happening on the field.
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14
Feb
I was sick the opening weekend of “Bus Stop” at the Indianapolis Civic Theatre so I reluctantly cancelled my media passes and stayed home. However, a friend had turned me on to William Inge’s work a couple years ago so I very much wanted to see a live production of this William Inge play. I got over my bug eventually and was able to buy a last-minute ticket to one of the final performances in the run. (I attended Thursday, February 4, 2010.)
I want to thank Civic for producing this 1956 Tony-nominated play about a group of people that get stranded at a small town bus stop in Kansas during a blizzard. It is thought-provoking in new ways, I imagine, now that it is an historical rather than contemporary piece. And, except for the lighting design (or perhaps just its execution), which sometimes mystified me, all of the design elements – set, costumes, etc. – in this particular production were excellent. The acting was excellent, too. All of the characters engaged me with their life stories and their interactions with each other. The last line knocked me over in a way that it wouldn’t have, I’m sure, if I had simply read the script.
I am not going to take time to write a full review of this show because a) I have been having home computer problems and therefore b) I am now several posts behind, but I do want to record who did what. I’ll do that at the end of this post.
I would also like to use this mini-review of Civic’s “Bus Stop” to explore a comment that contemporary playwright Eric Pfeffinger made on a thread on IndianaAuditions.com recently.
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12
Feb
On Thursday, January 28, 2010, I drove to downtown Indianapolis to see the Indiana Repertory Theatre’s special production of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” It was directed by Tim Ocel, assisted by Jonathan Courtemanche.
I cried and cried, starting early in the first act – not just because I knew what was coming but because I was experiencing this classic story in a completely new way and it was breaking me open.
As with any piece of art – especially performance art – “your mileage may vary,” but for me, this was a powerful evening at the theatre.
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