Number 36: Back To School Issue, 2003

by Carl F. Gauze

I spent last week on an anachronistic form of transportation revived for the tourist trade. While pleasant enough, I was accompanied by a set of passengers old enough to remember using it when it was new. There was plenty of food, unobjectionable entertainment, and most conversations rarely went beyond where you were from and how many times you had done this before.

The entire effect was similar to being trundled off to your nice but elderly aunt for some obscure reason. She made you cookies and let you stay up, but couldn’t understand why your hair was like that, why you listened to loud music, and why you were bored looking at family pictures every night. Later, her friends dropped by to ask you what grade you are in and what your favorite class is.

Ok. I survived. Now, back to reality. <p>

Dracula: The Journal of Jonathan Harker

By Jim Helsinger

Directed By April Dawn Gladu

Starring Christopher Patrick Mullen

Orlando UCF Shakespeare Festival, Orlando, Fla</b><p>

Should the story of Dracula still bring a shiver to the modern audience, or are we so jaded by slasher films that the bloodthirsty count is a mere cultural icon, competing with Brittany and Pokemon? This adaptation takes the approach that while chills MAY exist, it’s the presentation itself that rules, and when reduced to a single man on stage, backed up by some shadows and a trained rat, it’s pure theatrics that rules the belfry tonight. It’s the ever-versatile Christopher Patrick Mullen who takes all the roles, from the creepy count to the over Americanized Quincy to lost little Mina. <p>

The premise revolves around Bram Stoker requesting the journals, letters and source material from Harker’s horrific journey to Transylvania (another iconization, just the word drips with the idea of Trick or Treat). In the form of a flash back, the story unfolds as a real-estate deal with some undiscovered clauses leading to the imprisonment of Mr. Harker to the exciting chase through London and back to the Borgo pass. The pursuit is truly exciting, but a deeper question begins to rise in your mind – Just what IS wrong with the conversion to immortality and eternal youth? Most people I know would pay way more than the random deaths of people they don’t know to achieve that dream of Tithonus.<p>

Mullen’s actions play out on a set that looks like my grandmother’s barn, except we never kept the old armor out there; it would get that mousy smell. He earns his keep, physically and emotionally as he climbs the walls repeatedly as the increasing desperate Harker mimics the count and creeps out the window over the precipice. But Mullen’s best work presents the Count, swathed in red brocade and glowering at the audience, ready to send you to eternal undeadness, if only you make the grade. I think you can achieve a glimmer of fright, if only from the presence of a live non-equity rat on stage. But, failing that the story telling is superb, even if you know the dénouement before you walk in the theater.<p>

For more information on UCF-Shakespeare, visit > http://www.shakespearefest.org/ <p>

Summer Cyclone

By Amy Fox

Directed by John G Peros

Starring Susan Fronsoe, Scott Borish

The Vine Theater, Orlando Fla</b><p>

For a woman losing both breasts and entering an experimental chemo trial, Lucia (Fronsoe) takes things very well. True, she can never get a straight answer from the elusive Dr. Slogan about informed consent, but nice young intern Eugene (Boorish) does what he can. And her ex, Jeremy (Kevin O’Neill), drops by to cheer her up and maybe revive an old flame, but Eugene is more interesting as Jeremy fades from her life. Lucia even has a good relation with the ghost of her mother (Greta Hanley), who died from the same malady, but ran off and hid in France. It’s her relation with Eugene that has everyone a bit riled, since she’s old enough to be his mom, and has access to her status in this large clinical study. I’m glad to report Eugene does the right thing when put to the pinch, but it’s close. <p>

Borish’s sparkle keeps this otherwise flat drama from falling completely off the edge. For some reason, the pain and frustration one expects from Lucia’s character never appears. While she’s not happy with her disease, she never projects the urgency that mutilation and the wrenching pain of experimental chemotherapy might engender. All the other men floating around don’t seem to help, either – Jeremy seems nice enough for an ex, but is it only sympathy that brings him back? I’ve never understood close post divorce relations, and there’s no enlightenment her. Eugene’s dad Milton (Joe Candelora) takes a weak metaphor for medical school, and beats it to death at every opportunity. Lucia’s mother is a nice touch, representing the alternative to Lucia’s active fight – she ran away, and died in a nice place, which may or may not ease the pain. We stress the limits of medical ethics and explore a relation that carries more stress than most, and the main result is we’re glad we don’t have to do all the paper work. <p>

To Kill A Mocking Bird

By Harper Lee

Adapted by Christopher Sergel

Directed by Frank Hilgenberg

Starring David Bass, Wiley Oscar, Lauren Dixon, Randy Molnar

Theatre Downtown, Orlando, Fla</b><p>

If a black man says something, he’s lying. If a white man says it, it’s God’s own truth. That’s the black and white of life in Maycomb, Alabama in 1935. Bob Ewell (Molnar), the filthiest man in the county, accuses Tom Robinson (Oscar) of raping his daughter Mayella (Robyn Scrivener). The difficult job of defense falls to Atticus (Bass), a man liberal and tolerant to a fault. This is not just a job, but a serious burden to him and his children, as the entire town would just as soon hang Tom and get back to Missionary Teas and raising cotton. As the tail unfolds, it’s obvious Tom is set up, but the jury convicts anyway, because that’s just the Way Things Work. <p>

The story is largely told from the view of Atticus’s children, Scout (Dixon) and Jem (Dean Walkuski). They have the jarring habit of address their father by his Christian name, a device that indicates their sophisticated adult viewpoint. While the town little old ladies Miss Stephanie (Barbara Bell) and Mrs. Dubose (Patricia Pope) deny anything bad can ever happen in Maycomb, they innocently believe that the children can’t understand what’s happening. Yet, youth has more insight into the injustice and skeletons in the local closet than anyone else. When not otherwise engaged, the children speculate on their mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley (Derek Ormond,) and how to draw him out of his seclusion. <p>

While the play is rather long, the cast of dozens makes the action zip along quickly, with the highlight the trial scene straddling intermission. As a froth mouthed Bob Ewell steals the show, Atticus tricks him in to reveling he’s left handed, and while we all see through he transparent lies he and his daughter concoct, justice is NOT forthcoming. At the end Sergel attempt to rationalize that even though frightened Tom Robinson’s conviction was a travesty, it might provide a small step in the right direction. Perhaps in the 70 years that have passed, something s have changed, but that’s a small comfort to Tom and his family. <p>

For more information, please visit www.theatredowntown.net <p>

You Can’t Take It With You

By Moss Hart and George Kaufman

Directed by Karen Copp

Starring Paul Luby, George Patages, Bethany Fraher

Seminole Community College Fine Arts Theater</b><p>

I’m completely in tune with this screwball family – I believe it’s more important to be interesting than right. The Sycamore household is a microcosm of the amateur arts community, willing to do anything to follow its muse no matter how fast it tries to run away. Mother Penelope (Lauren Cooper) writes themed plays, daughter Essie (Marylin Berasain) practices ballet, her husband Ed (Ryan Haskins) runs a printing press AND composes for the Xylophone, and so it goes. The drive comes from family patriarch Martin Vanderhoff (Luby), who gave up on business years ago, and now spends his time collecting snakes, attending commencement ceremonies, and avoiding the IRS. This is eerily like my own life, except I’m not making explosives in the cellar. All this activity surrounds beautiful and nearly normal Alice (Fraher) as she courts rich, young Tony Kirby (Patages) with his white suit and Ricky Ricardo looks. It’s time to meet the opposition, and when dates get crossed, the staid Kirby parental units meet the full fury of the Sycamore artistic drive, and a dinner of pickled pigs feet isn’t enough to seal the dowry.<p>

Screwball? You bet. The brilliance of the writing allows a large number of comic actors to each do their thing, without demanding equal skill on the part of their fellows. Some noteworthy perfomance came from Marcus Carrasquillo as Mr. DePina, an Iceman who moved in to help Paul Sycamore (Matt Twilleagar) build experimental fireworks. Little Essie shows here excellent stretching and marginal pirouetting as the frustrated dancer under the bombastic tualge of on Boris Kolenkhov (Chris Oliver). Best of all was Anne Herring as Grand Duchess Olga, a woman now reduced to making blintzes when she’s not waiting tables. <p>

While the script is pleasantly dated (remember the controversial Blaine/Cleveland race? Neither do I.), the deeper message still holds true: relax, and don’t take things so seriously. Kirby’s dad figures it out, and learns that just because his son is marrying into a collection of lunatics, that doesn’t preclude him from leaving Wall Street and joining the fun. Life is a journey, and the one with the biggest collection of stories wins. Sure, they can bury you in your SUV, but just think how bad the cell phone reception will be 6 feet under. Like they say, you can’t take it with you when you leave.<p>

Cyrano de Bergerac

Written by Edmund Rostrand

Directed by Russell Treyz

Starring Jim Helsinger, Mindy Anders, David Hardie

Orlando UCF Shakespeare Festival</b><p>

Love may be blind, but when your proboscis is the size of lower Illinois, dates are hard to get. Not that Cyrano (Helsinger) is ever at a loss for pick up lines, he can toss out the romantic ballads even while besting some varlet at swords. He’s developed a fondness for his glamorous cousin Roxanne (Anders), but he needs to take a number as creepy old Comte de Guiche (Tad Ingram) and brash young Christian (Hardie) are ahead of him in line. Poor Cyrano – always broke, and so honorable that he helps Christian woo even in face of his own lust. When it’s time to go to war in the second act, everyone on stage is starving, yet tossing out epigrams and honorable threats and promising to die for some lame cause or another. Christian gets it first, and suffers an agonizing stage death that takes longer than a Florida recount. Guiche and Cyrano both get winged, and if not for the valiant pastry chef Ragueneau (Ron Schneider), everyone would starve. With the field now wide open for Cyrano, he spends the rest of the play-acting like he and Roxanne are “just friends”, until some oaf conks him on the head. As he takes even longer to die than Christian, he admits that in another life, he might have dated Roxanne.<p>

There’s a cast of thousands in this rather leisurely and bifurcated show with a script in dire need of editing. Helsinger lovingly portrays Cyrano in both the swashbuckling first act and the much darker anti-war second act as a classic intellectual. He’s bright, witty and completely unconcerned with the way the world sees him. In support is the ever earnest Le Bret (Richard Watson), the foppish Jay Becker (multiple roles) and the dynamic duo of Kareem Bandealy and Jason Flores (multiple roles for each) As Cyrano puts in more and more good words for the tongue tied Christian you clearly see that Roxanne is falling for both Christian’s good looks and Cyrano’s strong writing ability. Therein lies the danger of wooing by proxy – it almost never works out in your favor, and if it’s in a drama with feathered hats and velvet breeches, you might as well just go for the serving maid.<p>

Cyrano is a vast puddle of fun, and displays all the strengths of the UCF Shakespeare troupe – skilled acting, stage fighting, mysterious lighting, and a cleverly designed set. Under the direction of Russell Treyez, you really believe that the nose is real, pining for your cousin is OK, and no one dies without a really good last monolog. The only disappointments to note was no actual swinging from the chandeliers, and no one really got the girl, a fact emphasized by the 6 precious oak leaves that sporadically drifted down in the final act from the special effects dispenser in the rafters. Shyness conquers love; honor covers true feelings, and when things are darkest, taunt the Spanish until they attack. That’s the news from Bergerac.<p>

For more information on UCF-Shakespeare, visit > http://www.shakespearefest.org/ <p>

Born: The hard Lives and Fast Times of Adam and Eve

Written and Directed by Christian Kelty

Starring Trenell Mooring, Jonathan Glickman, Jim Brunner

Temenos Ensemble Theater, Orlando, Fla </b><P>

In the beginning, the Wise Father (Brunner) and his wife, the Good Mother (Tammy Kopko) got in a fight. Should they let the kids run free, or test their ability to follow orders and not let them eat from just one little tree? If you’ve ever known 3 year olds, you know this a bad idea. Still, Adam (Glickman) is down with this until Eve (Mooring) passes along some wisdom from the snake-skinned pants of Dhamballa (Christopher Pruitt) and they eat the apple. Pop is really teed off, but mom puts in a good word and the kids escape to run off with the Circus of the Gods. It’s a day job, with Adam cleaning up after Ganesha (Rowan Bousaia), and Eve doing hairstyling for Venus (Michelle Pruitt) and Czurlie (Kari Rucker). When Venus and Atlas (Jason Venire) run off with the equestrian act, Adam and Eve are left to do the trapeze, which they are wildly unqualified to do. After a bout with mean old Mr. Gravity, they end up selling dope and dancing in a strip club. Hey, at least there back together, and God admits he really screwed up this time, and might do better next time, if he gets the chance.<p>

It’s an interesting take on the Fall of Man, with the whole problem reduced to a divine marital spat and poor schooling on the part of man. As in the original story, every thing that anyone does wrong seems so appropriate at the time. Bruner is suitably pompous as the Wise Father, and the staff at Circus of the Gods well chosen, down to the bumbling Buddha comedian (Dave McConnell). Pruitt as the snake god Dhamballa exudes a combination of oiliness and worldliness, reminding you of the kid who smoked in 6th grade and knew when to laugh at condom jokes. Best of all is the astonishing Trenell Mooring, in one of her most lascivious roles yet. She’s great as the innocent young Eve, and even better as the jaded exotic dancer, dressed in vinyl pants and a push up bra. Backing the whole event is a 4-piece band of Joe Bob look alikes, providing a continuous low-level sound track for al the action. <p>

Is working class drudgery just the manifestation of our fall from divinity? And is it better to suffer but discover the world, or to remain pampered and protected, innocent of all that can go wrong? Of course, by now the choice is made for us, and that day job will never get much better, but the question is worth reconsidering. In this version, the creation of man seems a bit ad hoc, with no clear follow-on plan for the divine beings. We’ve all been guilty of not planning parties very well, but it seems one should hold omnipotent beings to a higher standard. As time progresses, the relation between God and mankind devolves from direct conversation and unquestioned obedience to distant fear to where we find things today – God is largely reduced to a conceptual problem, and unless he makes a point to implant himself in your daily grind, you can let the bouncer handle him. It’s not all exactly like catechism class, but there’s enough new material suggested to make the après show argument at Starbucks last a lot longer. <p>

For more information on Temenos, please visit www.joesnycbar.com <p>

10 For The Fringe

Produced by The Orlando Fringe and The Orlando Reparatory Theater

Tupperware Theater, Loch Haven Park</b>

It’s really good to see the old Civic Theater complex come back to life. And in some strange way, opening the show with a 3-foot foam penis wielded by Fiely Matias of the Oops Guys portends an interesting season. There is always hope, or so I’ve heard. Tonight the Fringe Faithful gathered to raise a few bucks and check on people lost since the beginning of summer break. Besides the surprise opening act, 10 more short plays flitted across the stage, written, staged and acted for the most part by the usual set of suspects.<p>

The best story came in the second act courtesy of Robb Badlam and Lauralea Oliver. In “Guys”, Duff (Kathy Barker) and Ty (Samantha Golabuk) hang out at Mickey D’s and ogle the girls. Neither has the cojones to actully go and TALK to one, not even for large amounts of US dollar bills. I know how they feel; I used to be there with them. A close second on my favorite list is “Acorns” By David Graziano and Stephen Middleton. Here we follow the misinterpreted signs of a love affair that almost never gets off the ground. Vincent (Middleton) sees the girl of his dreams, and courts here be tossing acorns and love notes into her undies while they are hanging out to dry. Really, it’s touching. They’re both from Brooklyn, and this counts as romantic.<p>

“Trying To Find Chinatown” (David Henery Hwang and Jay T Becker) provides some insight into the ethnic awareness and self-acclimization of two men seeing their roots. Benjamin (Todd Feren) comes to New York seeking the house his father grew up in. He runs into local street musician Ronnie (Terrence Yip) and the discussion degenerates into who’s more ethic than thou. Both are, of course, but not in the sense we non-ethnics grew up with.<p>

While every show had it’s own charms, other noteworthy included the Samuel Beckett shorty “Catastrophe” (directed by Rocky Hopson) with Chris Gibson smoking and directing near-corpse Jared Sharerr, the frenetic “Pillow Talk” (John Pielmeier and Ricky Avila) as marriage councilors beat themselves and their clients into a pulp, and even the open-ended “So tell Me About this Guy” (Delores Whiskeyman and Eric Pinder) where two women tell a complete romance without ever finishing a sentence. <p>

It was a fun evening despite the astonishing uncomfortable chairs the Civic picked up to fill its Black Box risers. All the shows were certainly in the sprit of past Fringe shows, and most of them could expand to fill their 15 minutes of fame in the Brown Venue. We will have a Brown Venue again this year, right? Or is it still under water?<p>

For more information on The Orlando Fringe Festival, please visit www.orlandofringe.com <p>

Come Back To The Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean</br>

By Ed Graczyk</br>

Directed by Fran Hilgenberg</br>

Starring Monica Travers, Joan Gay, Julianna Mooring, Peni Lotoza</br>

Theater Downtown, Orlando, Fla.</b><p>

When bustling Marfa is a 2-hour bus ride away, you’ve really landed in EBF, Texas. Sure, James Dean dropped in to make a movie during the Eisenhower administration, but that’s not enough to drive a town like McCarthy forward, at least not without water. A few locals were hired for the crowd scenes, like star struck Mona (Travers), but all that led to was an unwanted pregnancy and the cruel beating of the local feminine guy Joe (Wil Williamson). Mona’s boy grew up as the putative son of James Dean, and now has skeedaddled with Joanne’s (Lotoza) car in hope of a better life in a town that at least has a Denny’s. Left to mind the store with Mona is religious Juanita (Gay) and optimistic Sissy (Moring). She married the guy who beat up Joe, but now hopes to try out for the Ice Capades. Yup, that’s about how everyone’s life unravels during the 20th reunion of the “Fans of James Dean Club.”<p>

Past and present intertwine in this story of dashed aspirations, flashbacks, and self-deceit. Nearly everyone has a story to hide, and it’s not like anyone in a small town is NOT going to know the Town Drunk or who is sleeping with whom and in what position. We begin with a slow first act, kept alive mostly by the self-righteous Juanita and the incredibly bouncy Young Sissy (Heather McClendon). Pertinent facts come to light, but without the punch they might have carried. After intermission the appearance of brash Stella May (Diane Wilde) and the astonishingly naive Edna Louise (Tonya Denmark) pick things up enormously. Edna’s a nice girl, but after seven kids you’d think she’d have some idea where they came from. They bring vibrance to the story, and even though they have a a few secrets as well, none of them can one-up Joanne and her method of abandoning a small town past that was leading nowhere fast.<p>

The set captures the ennui of a dying small town, right down to the flies that committed suicide on the flypaper hanging from the ceiling. One senses that this small town is fading, and even now ghosts rule more of the town than the living. Do we even remember James Dean, outside of the iconic posters in gift shops, and a rare late night showing on AMC? He faded faster than most but still left an imprint on those he passed by, and his ghost is now the mayor of this little burg.

For more information, please visit www.theatredowntown.net<p>