PlayFest 2011Version 2.0 (Day 3)
PlayFest 2011Version 2.0 (Day 3)
Orlando Shakespeare Theater
Orlando FL</strong>
Half way through this festival, and there are some real positives to its compressed schedule. With only one presentation of each show, the house is nearly full every time and there’s no excuse for missing a show. The whole event feels snappier, and there’s still time to eat and go to the John. Here’s what’s happening artistically, and bear in mind these are all script-in-hand readings and the author is nowhere near done with the script.
Samsara by Lauren Yee
Directed by Beth Marshall.
The stork won’t be visiting Craig (Jason Nettle) and Katie (Julie Woods-Robinson) anytime soon. She’s had some bad plumbing, and he’s not exactly heartbroken. But Katie keeps up the pressure, and soon $20k and some genetic material head over to the Subcontinent. I knew about call centers, but this is getting extreme. Suraiya (Melina Countryman) trades nine months of gestation for a crack at medical school and Craig spend some quality time with her to bond with the baby. And Katie? She’s afraid to fly until it’s too late.
While their story is realistic and the outsourcing of pregnancy is real, the script floats in and out of surrealism – Suraiya’s fetus (Rudy Rushdie) talks with her and us and is the most engaging character on stage. Katie has a fantasy affair with Maurice Chevalier in the form of a generic Frenchman (Jesse Lenoir). He’s sooth and suave and tres continental and when Craig discovers him, he’s heartbroken as is the fetus who hits the road and ditches this whole weird scene.
Positives: The Fetus and the Frenchman are outstanding, and I really thought Suraiya was sweet.
Negatives: Craig and Katie both felt superficial, the act of acquiring a baby felt like they were shopping for a sports car, and while Suraiya’s job was one step above prostitution (Yee’s words, not mine) it seemed to have little or no effect on her.
Technical nits: The script seems to have some very challenging effects and the feels more like a movie than a stage play. And what does the title mean?
Smoke by Gloria Bond Clunie
Directed By John R. Briggs
In the mid sixties a union organizer Wallace Johnson (Quinton Cockerell) visits a small North Carolina town to help the tobacco workers. He meets up with penny pinching Ora Rakestraw (Fredena J. Williams) and after a long first act of jawboning, they fall in love. Redneck Sheriff Hayes (Don Seay) rattles his sword and Wise Woman “Mama” Liz (Avis Marie Barnes) works mojo and makes a mean corn bread. Everyone has an angle on illusion, and everyone had a missing part of their life that the author fixes for them.
Positives: Ora Rakestraw: the best PlayFest name ever! And once you’re into the second act, the romance and intrigue flows like honey.
Negatives: The first act is endlessly talky, and the Sherriff feels underused.
Technical nits: Scenes always seem to open with radio updates about President Kennedy’s vacation status as breaking news, and the stage direction calls for “1963 hits” and “1965 hits” to set time frame. The first it too blatant, the second too subtle.
Keynote Address by Jeffery Hatcher
Carmina Burana. Proper theatre smoke. A multicolored set for one of the multiple “Miss Nelson is Missing” floating around. And into this walks a balding author with a working knowledge of every backstage from Broadway to the flesh pots of Los Angeles. Mr. Hatcher is so successful he supports himself with writing for the stage, and he spends the better part of an hour discussing the tortuous relation between authors and audiences and all those minor characters like actors and producers who mediate the process. His comments on critics and the power they wield in the rarefied atmosphere of New York are frightening, his policies on avoiding elevators and marquees are more than superstition, and his sense of drama pervades everything he does. I wonder if Pat Flick told him he could have risen from that tunnel center stage, that’s the only way he could have topped tonight talk.
Strongman’s Ghost by Jeffery Hatcher
All dictators preside over some version of Kafka’s world with opaque rules and arbitrary decisions. Intellectuals are at a special disadvantage – besides seeing though the bull, they are likely to publish about it in mocking ways the powerful don’t quite understand. Eric Pinder is pulled out of his bed and dragged to El Presidente For Life’s (Ron Schneider) palace, and assigned the task of finishing El Pres’s 18th best seller. Vicious guard Stephan Jones offers editorial advice, treacherous Colonel (Michael Briggs) offers an implausible but unpopular alternate ending, and El Pres himself offers to polish his own image, but doesn’t grok the Monomyth. Everybody on stage wants to be writer, but only Pinder can type and separate fantasy from reality. As you might expect, this is not a wise career move.
Positives: gripping narrative, deep, hard to pin down sense of unease, uber clever double-reverse-over-and-under ending.
Negatives: A few loose plot points, and the sort of show where one guy will get all the in jokes and confuse the general audience members.
Technical nits: One of the least tech intensive shows in the festival. What’s the scenic designer supposed to do?
More information about PlayFest may be found at http://orlandoshakes.org/plays-events/playfest/index.html
