Number 37: New Playfest Special Edition, 2003

by Carl F. Gauze

Orlando is showing a surprising skill at generating festivals celebrating the visual arts. We all know about Fringe and The Florida Film Fest. We also get a Cabaret Fest, a Fool Fest, and Now the Orlando UCF crew is taking a shot at a New Play Festival. The premise is that there are tons of new playwrights and productions floating around, and all they need is a friendly read in front of a not-too-hostile audience. Admission is cheap, and it runs from November 1st to the 9th at Loch Haven Park. You’ve heard “Everyone is a Critic”. Now, you can join this elite and highly paid profession. <p>

My Fair Lady

Book and Lyric By Alan Lerner

Music by Fredrick Loewe

Directed by Alan Bruun

Starring Heather Lee Charles, Rick Stanley, Ron Schneider

Mad Cow Theatre, Orlando, Fla.</b><P>

There’s nothing as constrictive as Middle class Morality, unless you consider upper class accents. That’s sort of the summary squib that motivates this classic tale of reform, rejection, and regionalism. Fellow language experts Professor Henry Higgins (Stanley) and Col. Pickering (Schneider) stumble across each other in Covent Garden where their mutual love of vowel sounds and class distinction draw them together. On a boastful brag, Higgins agrees to take cockney Eliza Doolittle and make her into something, just by manipulating her soft palate control. It’s a long row to hoe (LONG “O!” ROOOOOWD! And get that “H” in there! HA – HA – HOOOOOW! That’s better. Now do it again!) Success come eventually, as it always does in the musical theater, and Liza is the talk of the town, stealing the heart of every one at the ball, and even ends up with a suitor just as useless as the one she could have had in Covent, the unemployable Freddy (Trevin Cooper.)

Most productions of this stunning musical emphasize the romance between Higgins and Doolittle. Here, the emphasis is on Higgins’s self-centeredness. Stanley plays the role with a sharp animosity toward Liza that only begins to break in the very last scene, where he sort of asks her to come back, on his terms, to a relationship destined to fail before the sequel. The real chemistry on stage appears between Higgins and Pickering, with the two seeming to enjoy each other’s company more than that of Liza. Charles’s Liza IS a bit flat, and the main characters divide the work up into a Battle Of The Sexes skirmish more than a Battle To Get Sex. As one would expect, the singing is superb, from Stanley’s “Hymn to a Him “ Alfie Doolittle’s (Paul Andrews) “Get Me To The Church On Time” and “With A Little Bit Of Luck”. As in so many productions, the role of Freddy is assigned to another great voice, and I sincerely wish he had another number besides the excellent “On The Street Where You Live” to show off his talents.

This is the first show for Mad Cow in their 7th space in 7 years. The Stage Right space is a bit awkward, with the audience split into two evenly spaced chunks set at right angles, making front row center the corner of two walls. Despite this, the cast was able to pull off the dance numbers in the few square feet allocated, even though it greatly reduced the spectacle of the ballroom scenes. Mad Cow’s MFL is an intimate show with an atypical focus, and since they seem to have a lock on the really good voices in town, it’s worth the trip half a block south of their old place.<p>

For more information on Mad Cow, please visit www.madcowtheatre.com

Assassins
Music and Lyrics By Steven Sondheim

Book by John Weidman

Directed by Neil Olson

Rusty Dog Productions

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

All the ideas for light romantic musicals seem beaten to death or tied up in litigation. It seems only the dark and morbid make it to stage with a song. Tonight we plumb the depths of political assassination, and meet all the people who have taken pot shots at Presidents, or at least gave it the old college try. Leading the charge is the suave John Wilkes Booth (Ryan Cimino), who blamed Lincoln for the Civil War and felt he was doing the country a great benefit by removing him from office early. While others disagreed, he does lead the old school of assassins – rational, political, and seeing a positive out come for the world, if not themselves. He’s joined by Charles Guiteau (Matthew MacDermid) who hung for shooting Garfield, and Leon Czolgosz (Doug Messinger) who fried for McKinley. As time goes by, the motivation of your average assassin shifts, first slowly like Guiseppie Zangara who winged FDR because he had a stomach pain, and eventually you get the real losers, like John Hinckley (David Almeida) who fired on Reagan to win the heart of Jodie Foster. It used to be politics, and now it just all about sex. I tell you; these modern day assassins are a real bunch of losers.

This is a very dark play with a technical complexity that stretches the production company to its limit, and a bit beyond. While the staging was consistent with the bare bones Temenos space, the songs often exceeded the cast’s skill. The opening number “Kill a President” was particularly weak, as a tentative Randy Jacobs seemed to be singing it for the first time. Things improved when Cimino’s Booth took the stage, and things bounced between good and evil from then on. There were a few noteworthy performances, particularly the portrayal of Samuel Byck by Stephen J Miller. Byck attempted to hijack a 747 and fly it into the White House to kill Nixon, but only got as far as killing the pilot on the ground before he was shot. No singing for this gunman, but a rabid Miller in an ill-fitting Santa suit seemed to perfectly capture the anger and insanity of this obscure American. MacDermid’s Guiteau also came across strongly, as his physical presence combined with decent vocal skills made his failed bravado all to real.

“Assassins” is not a plot driven story, but a collection of character studies. There is plenty of gun play on stage, and as the show reaches it’s climax, all of them are pointed at the audience, a very disconcerting feeling. I think the question posed by Sondheim is relevant – what makes someone murder a leader? The assassin sees it as a way to change the world, quickly, and that does happen. However, it seems that any long-term change quickly fades, as the system replaces its leadership and the press loses interest. Both Booth and Oswald have spawned minor industries in our times, but the rest of these killers will fade away from memory, much like this oddly drawn musical.<p>

For more information on Rusty Dog Productions, please visit www.RustyDogProductions.com <p>

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

The Underpants

By Carl Sternheim

Adapted By Steve Martin

Staring Doug Trueslen, Lauren Cooper, Anne Hering

Orlando Theater Project at Seminole Community College</b><p>

Theatrical gossip says “Every second act needs work,” and Underpants is no exception. In Franz Joseph’s Germany, young beautiful Louise (Cooper) visits the park to see the King ride by, and accidentally loses her bloomers in public. Teutonic yet unimaginative husband Theo (Trueslen) is horrified, fearing the gossip and for his government clerk’s job. Well, you don’t drop your drawers in public without some repercussions and soon foppish Versati (Robert Dutton) approaches Louise about renting the spare room and seducing her. Twelve thalers a month is not too great a price for the privilege, nor is it too much for sickly Cohen (Blake Braswell) in a separate deal negotiated by Theo. Both move in competing for her attentions. Cash and seduction are in the air, as nosey upstairska Gertrude (Hering) swoops down, and pledges to help Louise have some romance, anyway she can. She even whips up a special pair of EZ-Drop undies for Louise, sensing they are both onto something big.<p>

The first act literally bristles with wit and humor and the sort of door slamming farce the French invented. At the center of the mêlée is Theo, a combination of Oliver Hardie and Adolph Hitler. He even makes a pass at Gertrude, but after thirty seconds she concludes Louise sleeping with Versati will help her sex life more than any time spent with Theo. After intermission, events mysteriously hit the freeze frame button – no one is getting any tonight, and that doesn’t seem all that funny. It’s hard to put a finger on the exact problem, but non-the-less, there it lies – the first act is Steve Martin, the second is Martin Van Buren.<p>

Still, there are good performances – Truelsen’s gassy piggishness reminds me of actually gassy, piggish Germans I grew up with, and Hering’s Gertrude is nosy yet never malicious, and clearly the devil in a blue dress in the frustrated world of Louise’s sexuality. These old Germans never seemed very interested in sex, but they did populate some large armies, so Kirche, Küche and Kind did leave some time for Kavorten. Just get there early for the good part, and go easy on the Kraut with dinner, seats are close and you don’t want to start and international incident.<p>

For more information on Orlando Theatre Project. , please visit > http://www.otp.cc/ <p>

Compromise

By Israel Horowitz

Directed By Eric Hissom

Starring Chris Jorie, Olgia Cambell, Wiley Oscar

A reading at New Playfest 2003

Orlando UCF Shakespeare Festive</b><P>

Medicine is hard work, and pushing the boundaries requires smart, dedicated, obsessive people who can trade their person lives for the pursuit of knowledge. That’s Dr. Aaron’s (Jorie) tack, but his assistant Thomas (Oscar) has a slightly different motivation – he’s down with saving mankind, but wants to harvest a few bucks to support his clothes buying habits. They work well together, and stand on the verge proving out a cure for brain cancer’s side effects All good work, but even more ties them together – Thomas is a the son of Aaron’s long time house keeper Alice (Cambell), plus he’s flirting electronically with Aaron’s daughter Becca (Heather Leonardi). Action moves forward both by regular speaking parts, and by the innovation of Instant Messages projected on a large screen upstage – sort of an electronic “Glass Menagerie.” For most of the show, everyone gets along with one another to an unnatural degree – Aaron and Thomas work closely and efficiently, Alice and Aaron achieve a friendship far beyond a usual working relation, and Thomas courts the invisible Becca as they plan to move in together. Then in one sudden turn, everyone gets annoyed with everyone else – over work, money and everything but sex. Are they all compromising their ideals, or refusing reasonable compromise to the point of silliness? Eventually, everyone does something a bit beyond their initial positions, but not so far as to say they really shifted their center.

The electronic additions are probably due to the stage sets of the 21st century, but there still are some technical problems with the audience reading small print a long range. One endearing quality of the IM paradigm is the use of shorthand the misspellings that no one bothers to fix in real life. Some may like the effect, others may object, but it is how we talk to the people in our lives that we only deal with electronically. An interesting question comes up early – If I’ve never met you face to face, but only via email or IM, do you really exist? Well, if you pass the Turing Test, most of us will accept you, but always a small thread of doubt will lurk, at least until a Christmas card arrives by snail mail. <p>

An interesting question came up in the talk back section of the reading. Someone asked how a white Jewish writer could accurately captured the essence a back female character such as Alice. His response was a sort of non-committal shrug and the bland statement “I just watch people.” The subtle challenge in the question was the implication the American Black experience was so subtle and sublime no non-black could ever capture it, and clearly we have a counterexample. That’s what a good writer does – capture the essence of whatever experience or event they chose. Horovitz accurately grasped the frustration, dedication, and euphoria of the scientific experience, and he clearly has no formal training in biochemistry. This, to, is an extension of the Turing test – if you can converse with an unseen computer entirely by Teletype, and after extensive communication, not discerns if it’s human or mechanical, then Artificial Intelligence is achieved. Likewise, if you can hear the words of an unknown writer and never see them, and be unable to tell their race or ethnic biases, then at least that particular writer has grasped the subtlety of a different group. Not everyone can do it, but here Horowitz succeeds. Certainly, it can be done.<p>

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

Oedipus At The Crossroads

By Mark Coren

Directed by Paula Rossman

A Reading at New Playfest 2003

Orlando UCF Shakespeare festival, Orlando, Fla</b>

Oedipus, the man reviled for an honest mistake! Fated by the Gods to kill his father and marry his mother, mutilated and abandoned because of the words of The Oracle, and iconized by Freud, he stands as the ideal tragic man of Greek Letters. Writer Coren has modified the story, and reunites Oedipus (Jordan Reeves) and his real parents in a struggle to avoid the Laplacian gears of universal fate. Raised by the king of Corinth, he hears rumors about his parentage, and visits Delphi to hear the awful truth. Not all of it, though, Mr. Big Time Prophesier conveniently leaves off the critical detail of who his real folks are. This is why I say away from the soothsaying set, whether by tarot or CNBC. Passing a crossroad, he meets his true parents, Laius (J.W. Shafer) and Jocasta (Robin Olson). They immediately recognize each other, and he falls for mom. They spend two years avoiding one another, until his dad kills him in a knife fight. Apollo (Denis McLernon) is NOT happy, and drops in to revive Oedipus, and they discuss fate at some length. THEN, Apollo points out none of this is the way things are supposed to fall, and reset the whole story.

If you thought Dallas wimped out when J.R.’s death was all a dream sequence, you’ll love this exercise in God from the Machine. It’s a bit lengthy, which is a nit, but after all the work that the audience invests in following this revision and making sense of it, the ending is a cheat, and one I didn’t appreciate. If you want to re-write a well know story, that’s fair game, but the result needs to stand on its own and come to some internally consistent conclusion. You can’t just pop a clown out who waves “Just Kidding!”

Despite the writing flaws, the reading was very well performed, particularly by Robin Olson who could instantly switch between a screaming, screaming shrew and a zonked out basket case. Reeve’s Oedipus was taller and blonder than I imaging our hero, but still put great believability in to the role, and provided a great foil to Apollo’s superciliousness. All fine work, but not enough to prevent me from questioning the entire purpose of the play as I walked out to my car. <p>

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

Time
By Paul Kiernan

Directed By Jerry Klein

A Reading at New Playfest 2003</b><P>

When you time is up, it’s up – but you’re not necessarily dead, not in Paul Kiernan’s world. Perhaps the world’s least motivated man, Bob Martin (Steven Pugh) sits in his chair, drinking beer and ordering takeout and not much more, productivity-wise. In the Grand Scheme O’ Things, he’s wasting time, and a socialist system of celestial beings exists to redistribute this wealth of nanoseconds. Representing Time (no, not the magazine) is Tim Keebler (David Vetch), ready to collect his due. After a long series of time related puns, we determine that Bob is not going to the heaven or hell, but instead to a sort of eternal waiting room, where all the other people who have nothing to do end up. Where I work we call that New Product Development. But, due to a paperwork error, Bob weasels two more weeks on the condition he gets someone to fall in love with him. Candidates are few, but a lucky call by Abby from accounting (Megan James) gives him a glimmer of hope, and he might just win the bet.

Metaphysic aside, the concept is clever even if the story a bit split-minded. Act One spends most of its time setting up the details as Tim browbeats Bob and carefully draws the distinction between running out of time and actual, formal death. Act Two is a more romantic story, even as Bob hones his Dilbert-like skills on Abby, who perseveres even though Bob seems more interested in his long dead dog than a live, available woman. There are some rather long pauses with little action in both acts, and while that may be a directorial decision, they should be edited down. As in the other Kiernan play I’m familiar with, “Noodling Inspiration”, a main character (Death, played by Troy Ogun) is saved for the last few minutes of the play, representing a sort of soft-core Deus Ex Machina. A surprise ending drives Bob back to channels surfing and beer guzzling, but Tim’s early prediction has come true – Bob now exists in a timeless, useless space. It’s just not in the Celestial Sphere; it’s in a cheap apartment with a dog’s photo taped to the wall and no social life.<p>

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

Trapezium

By Henry Rathvon

Directed by Russell Treyz

Presented in Workshop at New Playfest, 2003

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

Three story variants, a 4-way love triangle, and 5 actors? Perhaps there’s a Fibonacci series buried here somewhere. Anyway, this hilarious play revamps the Tristan and Iseult story into 3 takes, each driven by a different main character. Grotty old Mark( Kristian Trueslen), King of Cornwall, sends his debonair nephew Tristan (David Hardie) to Ireland to collect a young bride. On the voyage home, both he and fetching Iseult (Mindy Andrews) get sea sick to the point of death, and Iseult’s personal herbalist Bridget (Heather Leonardi) mistakenly whips up a love potion instead of poison. Well, the two would have gotten in trouble anyway, being young, beautiful, and embedded in one of those Joseph Campbell stories fraught with symbolism. Place snitch Mullet (Jason Flores) does his best to report the conjugal philandering to the world a large, but can’t make the sort of impression one hopes for on the cover of the Enquirer. His heart is in the right place, but he’ll never make it in marketing.<p>

One of the obscure selling points of this story is its use of Iambic pentameter. Don’t hold that against it, you’ll never even notice it among the sword play, word play, and love play of this light hearted bounce down English Lit Lane. As each variation of the story rolls out, you learn a little more about the people and relations in King Marks’ household, an administration only slightly less randy than Clinton’s. It’s true the love potion was probably intentional. It’s true that the marriage is for politics, not sex. But it’s also true that everyone except Mullet is getting some, and his sour grape are making little headway. That’s romance, medieval style!<p>

Trapezium is a show that is ready for the big time, and you could do a lot worse than the demo cast we used tonight. Trueslen looks the part of the randy old king passing out dating advice to his nephew while wearing a crown made of home remodel detritus. Hardie and Anders have enough youthful good looks to convince even those in the cheap seats they belong to one another, and Flores carefully avoided poking out anyone’s eyes with his rapier-like rapier. Even as a workshop show, you get your money’s worth even if you’re NOT the sort of person who counts syllables and looks for feminine meters. Really, that’s way to mathematical for a love story. Or is it?<p>

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

Hammy Does Denmark

By John Goring

Directed by Joseph Pinckney

A Reading at New Playfest 2003

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

“Hamlet” is the ultimate ambiguous play, replete with mysterious motivation, a semi-psychotic lead, and enough dead bodies at the end to build a fort. Its iconic character makes it a fair and useful target for satire. Author John Goring has been dabbling with this treatment for a few years, and took it as far as a staged reading last year. The premise is a burned-out road company is in the umpteenth week of doing the show, and most of them can do the lines blind, except for King Cloddy (Lou Hillarie) who frequently misses cues and reads from the script. His wife Queen Gerdie (Elizabeth Judith) obsesses on getting the laundry done, and the rest of the cast modifies their lines on the fly, giving the Play within a play an improv quality.<p>

While this show is notionally a musical, this reading didn’t have any musical backing, and the only indication the cast was supposed to be singing came from the rhyming lines and multiple people reading the same line. The “lyrics” did seem to flow effortlessly among the “spoken” dialog, and each character had a well-defined place in the show. There are some very funny lines and situations, as well as a few that don’t work as well. Key Howard plays the Spook, and delivers his lines in a variety of well-known vaudeville shtick voices – Groucho, Lon Chaney, Peter Lorrie all stick in my mind. While each line was funny and to the point, it’s not clear why the Ghost of Comics Past haunts the Spook, and some of the transitions jar.<p>

Another issue with the play is the lack of explanation on stage as to why this cast is butchering the original source material. It’s fully explainable, and was discussed in the talk back section of the evening, but needs a bit more onstage exposition, as does King Cloddy’s unfamiliarity with the material. There’s some funny stuff here, and the changes needed to fix the problems seem to me straightforward. It seems the next big step is to hear the show with music, which will ultimately make or break it as a musical.<p>

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

God’s Favorite

By Neil Simon

Directed by Al Krulick

Starring Tom Greenman, Mark Shami

JCC Center Players, Maitland, Fla</b><p>

You should be so lucky. Joe Benjamin’s (Shami) got it all – 19 rooms of plastic-covered furniture, live-in help, and a stranglehold on Long Island’s high quality corrugated box. His family is wonderful, with ditzy wife Rose (Sue Cohen) and a pair of suspiciously old children (Bret Dault and Loraine O’Connell). The only problem in his life is alcoholic oldest son Davis (Karl Anderson), who refuses to do anything except chug vodka. Oh, and there’s one other thing – God loves Joe so much, that He’s made a bet with Satan that no matter what happened, Joe will never renounce his faith. The test comes in the form of messenger Sidney Lipton (Greenman), who haunts and taunts Joe as his factory, house and health all crash and burn. Things go from bad to worse as credit is cut off, friends abandon him, and his family retreats, leaving him alone except for faith.<p>

Despite the heavy religious and moral message, God’s Favorite is essential a farce, replete with New York Jewish inside jokes and physical comedy. There’s a wonderful chemistry between Shami and Greenman, and they both seem perfect for the roles – Shami, the soft round mensch, and Greenman the tall thin nudge browbeating him to the edge of submission. Cohen’s Rose is the archetypical JAP wife, obsessed with jewelry and status, born to the role. The children were a bit jarring, with Dault and O’Connell obviously not pre-teens in a physical sense, although they did a good job at poking and bouncing and running amok for people of their ages. Anderson’s David was the tough role, carrying two conflicting requirements – continual drunkenness, and providing the witty foil to his father’s niceness. It’s a tough job, and he flitted between acting drunk and acting smart with some awkward transitions.<p>

“God’s Favorite” was an enjoyable experience, and a good start for The JCC’s new artistic director Al Krulick. More challenging material is expected in the coming season, and while this show carried a deep religious message, the message was so well wrapped into the dialog and action it never overwhelmed the stage. <P>

For more information on the Jewish Community Center of Orlando, please visit www.orlandojcc.org/ <p>

Holmes!
Book and Lyric by Brett Nicholson

Music by Hans Vollrath

Directed by Gene Bastarache

Presented in Workshop at the New Play Festival 2003

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

“Holmes!” has all the fine points of a big time Broadway musical, yet some how lacks the soul needed to put it in lights. Sherlock Holmes (Kevin Vaughn) builds his reputation by observing and interpreting the minutia of the world in pursuit of Truth, Justice, and The Victorian Way. A mysterious disappearance near the Thames intrigues young police inspector Gregson (Dan Black), even though this stuffy boss Inspector Lestrade (Steven Jones) dismisses it as insignificant debt collection. When Holmes’ old flame Elizabeth (Amy Jordan) suddenly appears, loose end tie together and propel the conflict into Moriarty’s (Gary R Life) nefarious plot to take over the world. <p>

All good clean fun, and as much or more plot than the typical musical carries into the world. There’s the awkward love interest for Holmes crossing with Elizabeth’s feminine conviction that she will, some day, somehow change Homes from an obsessive analytical into a caring romantic. Watson senses the futility of this, and sniffs around her edges on the theory that Holmes will never change, and sidekicks deserve some action occasionally. Moriarty is suitable evil, although he starts the show as a local criminal running the usual shakedowns out of the sleazy Boar’s Crown Pub, but ends up trying to take over the world with his crew of cockney rowdies.<p>

There are a number of significant issues that have kept this show in development for the past 6 years, most notably that lack of anything resembling a hit in the repertoire. It’s not that the music is weak or poorly done; I rate the production values in this workshop as superb. It’s jus that most of the music had a certain Celine Dion sound – nice, melodic, and completely forgettable. It’s not easy to write a hit, but the closest thing to a memorable song is Moriarty’s “Life Is Hard”, which does little to make a very long first act fly by. Another nit is the lack of jealousy between the acerbic Holmes and the stuffy inspector Lestrade. Lestrade despises Holmes and his new fangled methods, but he pretty much keeps out of Holmes way at the expense of an easy and important tension this show sorely needs. Other small issues lurk in the shadows – does Holmes pay the Baker Street Irregulars, or are they loyal to him out of the goodness of their starving lower class hearts? How do Moriarty’s injections lead to amnesia in minor charters, but death in major ones? How does a crime scene remain undisturbed except for inspector Lestrade’s boots for 3 days in the slums? Still, these pale in comparison to the death of Elizabeth, a scene shocking not only for its random violence, but the unexpected admission there is no happy ending for THIS set of songs. <p>

The bones of something significant lie here, but after 6 years and the adoption of a cast dedicated to workshopping the play, some sort of major shift is needed on some level. The cast we saw tonight could pretty much step onto a complete set and run with this show, which to me means they are rehearsing where they should be rewriting. The voices, acting and blocking are very well done, but more clues need sifting to solve this crime.<p>

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

Stay!

Created By James Newport

Laughing Dragon Theater, Winter Park, Fla</b><p>

I’m just not a pet person, and this show does nothing but reinforce my prejudices. Sure, they’re cute and furry, like Seth’s (Lawrence Collins) bunny, which got snagged by an eagle while out for a walk. And who wouldn’t love Buster Kitty, Abby’s (Krisha Bohannon) bestest friend ever, even after it gets flattened by an errant Vespa? Don’t forget Poochino, who keeps Nate (Mike Sapp) on the dating circuit until eaten by a lake full of alligators. Now, we all know that pet death is a part of life, and even though there’s loss, some people see it a chance to get a new set of Doc Martins or Chuck Tailors on the way to the sacred burial ground. Oh, wait! There’s a barrel of radioactive green glop! I hope it doesn’t turn these recent additions to the pet cemetery into blood thirsty zombies, determined to kill not only their faithful owners, but anyone else dumb enough to make out among the teeny tiny tombstones! Hey, kids, it’s blood spurting halloween-fest-o-rama time, and anyone unlucky enough to sit in the first two rows of the three available will soon be covered with Karo syrup and red dye #4. <p>

This is not a show for just anyone, and certainly not for anyone in their good light colored clothes. You’ll experience not only viciously funny lines in this semi scripted improv show, but a splatter zone extending over most of this Blood Box theater in the heart of Winter Park’s industrial district. Two segments stand out – Seth’s vivid description of fighting an eagle on the far end of Mr. Bunny’s leash, and Newport’s impromptu description of the special effects set that he wasn’t able to afford in time for this evening’s performance. Both are worth the risk of splatter, and wearing your painting or oil change clothes to the show will reduce any cleanliness anxiety you might experience otherwise. This is not you 8-year-old Halloween show. It’s way stickier. <p>

For more information on Laughing Dragon, please call 407-628-3746.<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 Britney 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 flashback, 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 increasingly 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></b></b>