Photo: Circle Mirror
Transformation poster, courtesy Olympia Little Theatre
Published in the Weekly Volcano, Dec. 31, 2015
Watch
out, Olympia, Circle Mirror
Transformation is coming to Olympia Little Theatre, and it’s just liable to
knock you out. This play by Annie Baker is an Obie Award winner for Best New
American Play and was nominated for the Drama Desk Award. It opens at OLT Feb.
5.
In
a little town in Vermont, an acting teacher named Marty (played by Meghan
Goodman) runs a class for adult would-be actors and puts her class through
acting exercises such as pretending to be trees, beds and baseball gloves. They
act out scenes using only nonsensical words, and they are asked to write deep
personal secrets on scraps of paper and watch and listen as the other actors
act out their stories. Not unexpectedly, some deep emotional scars come to the
surface.
The
people in the class are Schultz (Scott Douglas), a
recently divorced carpenter; Lauren (Jesse Morrow),a
high school student; Teresa (Chelsea Williams), a
former actress, and Marty's husband, James (Tim Shute).
Director
Hannah Eklund says: “They all have different reasons for
enrolling in the course, but they find common ground in that they're all at a
point of transition. I think it's a deeply human story about seeing yourself
through someone else's eyes, and recognizing your inner potential to create
positive change in your life. I've got a stellar cast, and I think we all feel
really fortunate to be able to bring this beautiful script to life here in
Olympia.”
New
York Times reviewer Anita Gates called it “absorbing, unblinking and sharply
funny.”
This play will be Eklund’s directorial debut, but she is
no stranger to the stage. I praised her work in my 2009 review of Moonlight and Magnolias at OLT, and I wrote that she was
“disgusting as Gooper’s uptight and manipulative wife, Mae” in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. It’s not easy
playing disgusting.
Goodman was last seen on OLT's stage this October in Unwrap Your Candy. She is also on the
board of Olympia Family Theatre. Shute was previously seen at OLT in A Few Good Men and Murder on the Nile. He also directed Almost, Maine in 2012. Morrow is a recent Michigan transplant. Her
first Olympia theater appearance was as Snoopy in OFT's A Charlie Brown Christmas. Williams is making her Olympia community
theater debut after several years away from the stage. She previously worked
with an improv troupe in Seattle. Douglas was Owl in OFT's Winnie the Pooh, and has been in several of Animal Fire's summer
Shakespeare productions.
“It's a special kind of alchemy,”
Eklund says. “This play is so dependent on the depth and sincerity of the
characters. And there are certain aspects of the characters that were most
important to me that the actors embody. So first I looked at whose ideas about
these characters most aligned with mine. It's rare that someone walks in and
just IS the character (though that did happen here in one case!). But I was
also looking for actors who wanted to make the character their own. All of
these actors have a great balance of consistency and the ability to surprise. A
few of them I have had the privilege of sharing the stage with, so I'm familiar
with their processes. And of course, there's looking for chemistry between
actors. This cast has been so enthusiastic and receptive, and really committed
to bringing some fantastic, complex characters to life.”
Shute says: “I was very excited to learn that Hannah
Eklund would be directing her first show at OLT. Hannah and I played the male
and female leads in OLT's production of Murder
on The Nile. That show still holds as one of my favorite theater
experiences, and so I jumped at the opportunity to work with her again.In (Circle Mirror Transformation) we see three
strangers and a married couple come together to learn about themselves and each
other through various traditional actors’ exercises. It is a wonderful example
of what being an actor on stage is all about. Stepping out onto on a stage with
the lights and the audience glaring back at you can be a scary thing, and the
process of preparation helps build trust and support between the actors and the
director, and in spite of what we learn it is that closeness that musters the
courage needed to leave everything you have out on the stage. The cast Hannah has
selected is one of the best I have had the opportunity to work with. I trust
that will translate into a warm, humorous, touching, and poignant production
that will have the audience contemplating their own lives and relationships,
even in the midst of their laughter and enjoyment.”
Olympia
Little Theatre, 1925 Miller Ave., NE, Olympia, Feb. 5-21, $10-$14, available at
Yenney Music, 2703 Capital Mall Dr., Olympia, 360).786.9484, http://olympialittletheater.org/
No comments:
Post a Comment