The end

Hello all


Thanks for stopping in.  If you're looking for the review blog, I'm sorry to say that I have retired as a reviewer in the public sense.


The reason?  I'm now the founder of a theatrical production company, Prufrock Productions, Inc., and the Artistic Director for industrial strength theatre. To learn what that all means, please click on this link

Thanks for being a great audience of this blog.

Announcement

On December 9, 2011, file # 6823-587-1 (Articles of Incorporation for a Not For Profit Corporation) was approved by the State of Illinois, listing Prufrock Productions, Inc as a corporation of good standing.  You can see the certificate here.  In addition, a federal EIN was issued (Fed tax ID # 45-3980940), and the paperwork necessary for receiving IRS status as a 501(c)(3) was started and should be filed by 1/15/12.


The bored members (as they wish to be called) met on 12/19/11 and elected the following corporate officers whose duties are delineated in the bylaws:


President - William J Barry Jr
Vice President - Dennis Brown
Treasurer - Lisa Savegnago
Secretary - Jennifer Skidgel


Bylaws were discussed, amended and approved, business was discussed, minutes were taken and wine flowed.  The Prufrock people know how to party.


Finally, the bored created Industrial Strength Theatre, a not for profit, non-Equity, professional theatre group in DuPage County, whose main purpose is promoting education and exposure to the theatre arts by performing in the suburbs what is commonly called “Chicago storefront theatre”,  producing the edgier works that are rarely given voice in those communities.  The founding members are Bill Barry Jr (artistic director), Dennis Brown, Lisa Savegnago and Jennifer Skidgel.


Just like many of the small theatre companies in Chicago, Industrial Strength Theatre is currently transient, looking for suburban venues that fit the type of shows they will be performing.  An intimate black box space would be ideal, holding 60 - 75 seats, allowing the audience to be immersed in the production.  If anyone has suggestions for a home for the company, please let them know.  Any current theatre spaces that are looking for shows to help generate revenue during downtime should let them know of their opportunities.  The theatre company can be reached at prufrock.productions@gmail.com.  A website is in the works, with a launch date of 1/15/12.


And, as if that wasn’t enough, Prufrock Productions, Inc is proud to announce that they have secured the performance rights of their first production: Killer Joe by Tracy Letts, to be performed in late April/early May. Information about auditions, ensemble membership and other essentials will be forthcoming after the holidays.  If you'd care to submit a head-shot and resume for their files, please do so, and receive an "industry night" discount for their inaugural show.


As to how all this will impact the review blog, it's safe to say that it will go on indefinite hiatus. Thanks for reading.  If you want to be on the mailing list for Prufrock Productions, Inc., send a little missive to prufrock.productions@gmail.com

Happy Holidays

Thanks for reading.  Time for a break.


I'll let you know when I'm back in 2012.


Happy Holidays!

Review: "SubUrbia" Elgin Community College, Elgin Il

Full Disclosure:  I received a complimentary ticket to review the play.

Let me start with the fact that I think this show is outdated.  Yes, this production either added their own modern reverences, or used the updated script from a recent New York revival, but being updated has nothing to do with being outdated.  Changing VCR to DVD, and mentioning American Idol and TMZ does not make it germane to today.  SubUrbia, by Eric Bogosian, had relevance and excitement in 1994 when it was first produced, but in 2011, it feels like a well worn path to the land of Angst.  Or maybe I just don’t want to sit and listen to a bunch of twenty-somethings drone wearily on and on about how miserable the lives they have chosen for themselves are.  It’s a difficult script, to say the least.  If you don’t know the storyline, click here.

Were it in the hands of actors with more training and stage maturity and a director who paid better attention to detail, this could have been a good show.  Instead, I saw people working hard at acting rather than being actors with actualized characters.  Granted, some are on the verge and just need to be tipped in.  Others need to start over, rethink their approach and just let go of themselves.  And a few have learned how to give an honest performance.

(Sitting L to R)Yesenia Esparza, Katrina Syrris
(Standing L to R)  Vinny Prisco, JP Quirk, Michael Sherry 

Of particular note for me was Michael Sherry’s portrayal of Buff.  He had energy, his movement was fluid, his tone was real and he was Buff, a denizen of the parking lot who revels in his right to choose a life as a slacker by living excess to its fullest.  Watching him on stage was exciting.  Also deserving kudos is JP Quirk as Tim, the alcoholic member of the group that escaped suburbia for the Air Force, only to cut off his pinkie to get sent home so he can spend the rest of his drunken life in the parking lot. I thought Quirk was fully immersed in the character.  I was not fond of his character choices because I think the character should be explosively unpredictable and I wanted something more sinister and dangerous as a contrast to the rest of the group that was stuck in a quagmire of laziness and despair.  I did admire his skills and his commitment to a character.

Katrina Syrris and Yesenia Esparza played Sooze and Bee-Bee, the females of the pack.  Sooze has dreams of doing performance art.  Really?  That’s so 90s.  Maybe Bogosian should have changed it to “viral video/reality TV” star for the New York remount.  It doesn't matter because Syrris lacked the needed honesty, prohibiting her from realizing her character.  So she wasn't able to sell the dream to the audience.  The makings of a good performance were there; she just needed to focus more on the goal and be directed.  Esparza's Bee-Bee was pretty good with what she had to work with, infusing life into a character that is under-written.  And without giving away the details, I will just say that I felt cheated by the ending.

The convenience store that is the back drop of the parking lot is owned by Norman Chaudry (Julien Moore, whose accent slid into Yiddish by play’s end), a Pakistani who has little tolerance for this group of loiterers.  And who could blame him?  I was annoyed by them.  He has much to say about the stereotypes people believe about Middle Easterners and what he faced when coming to America.  But after 18 years from when this show was written, it's all familiar ground that we have seen done elsewhere to better effect.  Kiren Ali and Shannon Bakhsh are listed in the program as playing the store clerk Pakeeza.  I’m not sure who I saw that night.  I do know that I could not hear her, whomever she was.

Unfortunately, the rest of the characters became a blur since there was little the actors were doing to hold the audience’s attention.  Pseudo-intellectual slacker Jeff was played by Vinny Prisco.  I think this character has the most compelling and dramatic arc of all, but Prisco didn't display the chops needed to let his intellectualizing turn into a slow-burning anger as he feels the reality of his lot in life.  Instead, he jumps from one to the other without any nuance.  I also found a lack of chemistry between Sooze and Jeff, who are boyfriend and girlfriend at the beginning of the show, so as we watch the downward spiral of their relationship, it’s really difficult to care or have any empathy.  And, a big no-no in my book:  he made eye-to-eye contact with the audience.  It happened to be me, and then his eyes flicked lower and saw my notebook, then he snapped back to the scene.  So, he dropped character and lost his train of thought looking out to see who was watching.  He really only needs to be concerned with who he is communicating with on-stage.  Knowing I’m there (and he doesn’t know me) will not improve, enhance or realize his performance.  All it says is, “My mind is distracted.”


The character that is supposed to be the catalyst that drives the arc of the story is Pony (Chris Lanham), who managed to escape suburbia after high school and became a minor rock star.  He has returned to his old haunting grounds while on tour and meets the parking lot crowd.  Sadly, Lanham looked bored on stage.  He gave nothing to his performance.  When he tells everyone he’s glad to have stopped to see them all, I found it hard to believe.  In fact, I didn't believe the actor was happy to be there on stage.  The confrontation between Pony and Tim near the end of the show lacked spark and tension because Lanham wasn't giving Quirk anything with which to work. I was hoping someone would pull into the parking lot and hit them both and put me out of my misery.  And what’s with Pony carrying a guitar on his back when he first enters the scene after getting out of his limo (kudos to Angelo O’Dierno for his clever lighting design to represent the limo)?  When he agrees to play a song, I thought I had the explanation.  But when he only strummed two awkward chords and then sang the song a capella, I had to suppress an ill-timed laugh.  Kill that prop.

Travelling with him is his publicist, Erica (Alisa Goldberg), whose only purpose in life seems to be chasing money and getting her needs satisfied.  As for the performance, here are the notes I made: “Stay in the scene” “She walks with no confidence”  “Walks with no purpose” and “Why walk with no reason”  She meandered.  Slowly.  I hate meandering. I hate slow meandering even more.  And when she was still, most of what she did was one-dimensional, so the character wasn't fleshed out.

As I’ve said in other reviews, many of these types of problems could have been fixed.  I was not there watching previews.  They are now entering week 2 of a 3-week run.  I saw it the second night of opening weekend.  It should have been crisp and sharp.  The director, Professor Stephen Gray, should have seen how silly the guitar prop was.  Or how people were meandering around the gorgeous set (Bryan Cory deserves applause).  Or how you couldn’t hear the store clerk.  Or the apathetic performance of the rock star.  Or how the pre-set garbage on that beautiful set was too neat.  Honestly, it was all in a row and had no sense of randomness one associates with garbage and debris. The director should have seen these things in rehearsal and fixed them BEFORE people had to pay to see the show.  OK, maybe the rules are different in an educational setting, but still, they are presenting a product.  Why not make the effort to give audiences a quality product?  Think of what they are ultimately teaching the cast and crew by not doing so?  Well, that’s just my opinion, I guess.

Is it worth the price of admission?  As I said in my tweet, it was a valiant effort with a couple of good performances.  As I’ve thought more about it, it could have been so much better had someone taken the time to notice the problems.  So, I don’t recommend it.

For ticket info and the like, go here.

Review: "autobahn", Village Theatre Guild, Glen Ellyn

Full disclosure:  I received a complimentary ticket for this production.


A few years ago, there was some buzz about Chicago establishing car pool lanes on local highways.  For those who don’t know, car pool lanes are usually on the left, move faster than normal rush-hour traffic and are only to be used by cars having more than one person.  In fact, you can get a ticket for driving in the lane if you don’t have a passenger.  The thinking is that it will lessen gridlock because three people in a car equals two less cars in traffic.  I saw them in Los Angeles.  Didn’t seem to help.

I’m not sure why car pool lanes never appeared in Chicago; although, if you’ve seen how badly the bike-lane laws are observed and enforced, you can guess why.  And, after seeing autobahn at Village Theatre Guild in Glen Ellyn, I was left thinking that if carpool lanes become a reality, I will buy a blow-up doll, put it in the passenger seat and be on my merry way.  Why?  Because dolls are silent and there would be no chance of me having to listen to the tedious droning I experienced with this production.

To be fair, while I like the writings and films of Neil LaBute (In The Company Of Men is one of my favorite films), this is my least favorite of his plays.  I find it self-indulgent.  I think he fell in love with his author’s voice, and forced it on his characters to share with the world.  The seven short plays of this cycle are vanity pieces.  Still, the flaw can be overcome by good direction and dynamic acting.  Unfortunately, the lackluster performance I witnessed exacerbated the play's failings.

If you don’t know the show, it’s a cycle of 7 short plays, each of which take place in an automobile.  They are typical LaBute and each piece is similarly structured in the "peel away the layers of an onion" format to get to a revelation, which means that after the first few pieces, the rhythms become predictable.  The pieces are not related to each other, except that each has a moment when concerns about language, syntax, meanings or grammar are part of the text.  There are four monologues and three duets, but this show chose to do only three of each.


The first piece of this production was called funny, a monologue from a girl (Nora Laidman) returning from rehab speaking to the driver: her mother (Candace Snapp).  Sadly, Laidman just didn't seem to connect with the material.  Her approach was stiff and she lacked a sense of naturalness on stage.  There were no levels to her characterization which was steeped in sameness.  And about 2/3 of the way through, she started running out of gas.  The underbelly of bitterness needed to sell this piece was missing, as was the layer of caustic sarcasm. When she hisses to her mother, "Who's gonna believe you?", we need to see the venom dripping from her character.  That would at least enhance the arc.  As it was, monologue became synonymous with monotone and monotonous.  I don't think she's a bad actor.  She just needed some direction and coaching.


Next is bench seat, which enters mid-conversation and features Lisa Donics as girl and Greg Dvorak as boy.  It concerns a couple who have stopped at some location that is either where you go to make-out or break-up.  There were a few funny moments, but they needed to mine the nuggets of humor.  When Dolnics starts in about her lips being too thin, all she does is look in the rear-view mirror.  How about doing something with the lips, changing up from puckering to smiling to frowning just to add a bit of physical humor?  She just needed to add a level of involvement and commitment to make her character more believable.  I had the feeling that they just didn't really get what they were saying.  The director should have explained it.  As for the guy, it's best summed up by my only note on his character:  "He's boring."  This is more a function of the writing.


The next scene, merge, also starts mid-conversation.  It was the best of the scenes.  Husband (Vince Scalone) has just picked-up his wife (Candance Snapp) at the airport and play question and answer concerning her behavior during her business trip.  I won't reveal more because that's the fun of the scene.  Snapp was delightful in the way she avoided his questions, using her face to speak volumes of what wasn't being said, and Scalone did a wonderful job displaying the right amount of confusion, hesitance and disbelief in what he was actually hearing from her.


Scalone also appears in the next scene as the passenger in long division.  The driver is played by Robert Richardson.  The scene felt like a bad SNL segment.  It concerns a trip to recover a Nintendo 64 system from the ex-girlfriend of the passenger.  It's the driver's monologue.  Both characters are drunk.  I think playing drunk is one of the harder acting exercises, because it always seems phony.  Richardson appeared to have been given a list of stereotypical "raging drunk stuff" to incorporate into his performance.  Slurred speech?  Check.  Loss of visual focus?  Check. Wild gestures?  Check.  Got them all.  Still seemed phony.  Where was the director?


Laidman returns in road trip opposite Jason Taylor.  Again, there is a revelation in this scene that I won't discuss, except that it should be creepy and icky.  It played as "eh, who cares."  She needed to play-up the bright-eyed innocence, and he had to build to a predatory creepiness.  When he gets angry, he needed to really get angry - Taylor needed to let go.  In fact, that was the basic problem with the show.  People just needed to let go and not hide behind the facade of acting.


The last scene is the titular autobahn.  It has to do with a wife (Tracy Powers) talking to her husband (Paul Mapes) about having to return a child to Social Services because they failed in foster care.  How they failed is the reveal.  It's the wife's monologue.  In this case, it was a disappointing effort by Powers. She lacked energy, levels, and honesty.  I was seeing the work, not the result of the work.  If felt stiff and forced, and suffered also from monotony in rhythm and voice.  A director would have fixed it.


Much of this, as you may have gathered, is the result of a lack of effort from the director, Bill Burghardt.  He had to have seen what was lacking in the scenes.  And if he didn't, he needs to rethink his approach to directing.


Is it worth the price of admission:  Sadly, no.  It would be a hefty toll to pay for this road trip.


For more information, like tickets and all, visit the VTG web site.

Extreme mini-reviews

I'm keeping this brief.  Those who follow me on Twitter already know how I felt about these shows.  But my heart is not in it to write reviews of two shows that I didn't care for and one that I enjoyed.  I did, however, get press tickets to all three, so I have to do something.  Right now, I'm thinking I'll just send them money in the mail.


The shows are, in order of seeing them, Bonhoeffer's Cost presented by Provision Theater (click here for info), Incorruptible at Wheaton Drama Inc (clickety-click)., and How The Other Half Loves, produced by Independent Players in Elgin.


Bonhoeffer's Cost is based on the true story of a minister who was involved in two assassination plots against Hitler.  It is told through a series of flashbacks after his imprisonment and it's another interesting human story about WWII.  Bonhoeffer must balance out his Christianity with his participation in acts that would end a human life.  He struggles.  And struggles.  And struggles some more, until the show becomes an endless series of scenes about his struggling until he is put to death.  And that is not a spoiler I just threw at you, because his death is discussed in the director's notes in the program.  Oh sure, there were a few comic moments with the prison guard who is played so callow and shallow that he kept reminding me of Sgt. Schultz from Hogan's Heroes and a Nazi interrogator that lacked any menace because he was played with stereotypical lip-snarling menace.  He actually utters the line, "Nobody kills themselves on my watch."  Those Nazis certainly had a way with modern lingo.  Sadly, the show needs to decide what it's going to be, because they threw everything into this 165 minute presentation.


It comes down to this:  the show is too damn long and could easily be cut down to 2 hours with intermission.  It's the world premier of the play, co-written by director Timothy Gregory and screen writer Mary Ruth Clarke.  It needs some serious cutting.  Had this been a film, it would be all over the editing room floor, and many scenes would be in montage.  They have the makings of something here, but they are going to have to search through the extraneous to get to the core.


Incorruptible also suffers from a case of not knowing what it wants to be.  Is it a comedy or a morality parable?  It tried to be both and they play against themselves.  I will say upfront that I am not a fan of the script.   Not because of the subject matter, which is based on a real feud between a couple of French monasteries and the scandalous practice making "relics" out of nothing.  It has to do with how the script goes about it.  I didn't find it all that amusing.  I thought it tried too hard to be funny, while at the same time making sure it was covering its backside with heavy layers of piety and moral sermonizing.  Much of this can be overcome.  The cast had adequate acting chops to pull it off, but I thought director Tom Walker didn't strike the necessary balance between silly and serious.  The comedy must support the message rather then the message being tacked onto the comedy.  Those who still wander about aimlessly looking to relive the glory days of 70s collegiate speech competitions will recognize the concept of "serious point" in comedy.  Point is not locus;  it is focus.  And they say Latin is dead.


How The Other Half Loves is playing at Elgin Arts Showcase.  It was directed by Larry Boller and is the single ray of light that made being an audience member an enjoyable experience.  It held my interest, made me laugh and entertained.  I never checked the clock in anticipation of the end.  Yes, it could tighten up the cues and pick-up the pace a few times.  Still, it's engaging.  The staging is creative as it intertwines the story of two couples, who are intertwined personally.  It has all the trappings of British farce beautifully executed.  It's not Ray Cooney.  These are all good things.  So is the cast.  The best part was the performance of Doug Orlyk, who is totally immersed in his character.  He has all the right nuance and skill to bring this character to life.  See it for that alone.


OK, the slate is clear for now. Looking over it, I was too nice to the first two shows, and I have short changed the last one.  It deserves more.  It's a good show.

Review: "Cyrano" The House Theatre of Chicago @ Chopin Theater, Ends 10/16

Full disclosure:  I did not receive a press ticket for this show.
This ain’t your mama’s Cyrano.  Purists will most certainly dislike it, though I’m not sure why.  Perhaps they won’t find it up to par with the real Cyrano himself: Hercule-Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac (1619 - 1655), noted dramatist and duelist.  Or the plethora of writings based loosely on his life, among them being Edmond Rostand’s epic lyrical French verse.  Perhaps they are being purists about the many English translations, the most notable being the humorless Brian Hooker version, in which the word “panache” is never used and often slides into free verse, or the Anthony Burgess version which has gone through a series of rewrites.  But this Matt Hawkins-adaptation is also an English translation, so what are they being purists about?  And who’s to say that a century from now, people won’t be getting all defensive for Hawkins adaptation, complaining about the new “sock-puppets with those colorful miniature sabers you find lancing fruit in a tropical drink” version.  I call copyright dibs on that concept.  By the way, I put the word “purist” in my on-line thesaurus, and it suggested the word “fussbudget.”  Hmmm.  So tempting.  Just saying.

Shawn Pfautsch as Cyrano and company

What Hawkins has done is re-imagined the Cyrano legend, reducing it down to its core story of a romantic triangle that is tainted with unrequited love, and bolstered by fantastic swordsmen and women in feats of daring-do.  It is a very familiar theme, and a very comfortable one.  It is a story that will always find its way onto the stage and screen in many formats, and in this particular case, into the hearts of the audience.  Well, me at least.  I was moved by the ending, and I know the show.  But this ending captured the unique sadness of this lovers genre in a few moments of theatrical pleasure.  Hawkins is clever in his nods to the different adaptations that came before his.  For example, Cyrano’s long and elegant take about falling from the moon in Rostand’s play is turned into a short little musical piece that just meanders from the mind of his Cyrano (played with just the right - dare I?? - panache by Shawn Pfautsch, who also wrote the song lyrics with Hawkins for Kevin O'Donnell's original music).  I found it amusing, because both the old text and new song seemed to get us to the same point.  Same journey, different vehicle.   And did you know that the real Cyrano was known for his science fiction writing?  From Wikipedia: Cyrano de Bergerac's works L'Autre Monde: où les États et Empires de la Lune (The Other World: The States and Empires of the Moon) (published posthumously, 1657) and Les États et Empires du Soleil (The States and Empires of the Sun) (1662) are classics of early modern science fiction. In the former, Cyrano travels to the moon using rockets powered by firecrackers and meets the inhabitants. The moon-men have four legs, musical voices, and firearms that shoot game and cook it. See?  In the end, it all fits.


No doubt there will be some who will wax nostalgic for the meeting at the bakery, or the berating of the actor Montfleury in the first scene of the traditional presentation.  And who doesn't love to berate an actor?  Some have made careers out of that.  But Hawkins has cut an hour from the usual 3-hour length of most traditional productions with surgical precision, and then allows his other blades to take the stage.  Not only is this his adaptation, but he is the director and fight choreographer.  And what a grand spectacle it is to witness the swordplay as it engulfs the cleverly-designed, rotunda-inspired play-space, including a balcony.  There was a Globe aura to Collette Pollard's gorgeous set that I found very appealing.

Shawn Pfautsch

As for the actors, they hit all the right notes of bravado, compassion, loyalty and love demanded of them in this story.  Again, Pfautsch's Cyrano was a grand mixture of melancholy, wit, romance and correctness.  He opens the show by sitting at a piano that is center stage, and does a witty lounge-singer routine about his favorite word.  Very adroit and humorous.


The apple of his eye is Roxanne, played with sagacity and adeptness by Stacy Stoltz.  She is constantly in motion as she flits lightly around the stage, presenting an aura of surety and appeal, while in quieter moments is reflective of her feelings for the apple of her eye, Christian.  Played by the handsome and talented Glenn Stanton, this Christian is a delightful assimilation of warrior in battle and ignorance in love.  The famous balcony scene between Cyrano, Christian and Roxanne was touching and heartfelt.


I must mention Shane Brady's precise portrayal of Le Bret as well as the comic finesse of Mike Smith as Ligniere.  And, certainly kudos go to the ladies and gentlemen who wielded swords with seeming abandon; both for their skills and for them not slicing anyone in the first row.  I sat in the balcony, coward that I am.


I could go on about the costumes, sound, lighting, and etc.  All were top notch.  For those who are looking for an evening of exciting theatre, romance, comedy, music and Über-swordplay, go see this show, presented by The House Theatre of Chicago at Chopin Theatre at 1543 W. Division St. They have $10 student and Industry rush tickets available at all performances.  You can't beat it.  For more information, go here.

 Worth the price of admission?  You bet your panache it was.