‘Suite' actors show off their chops

California Suite 
reviewed by Alec Clayton

Published in The News Tribune, Feb. 10, 2012

Top: Kathi Aleman and Paul Duke in Tacoma Little Theatre’s production “California Suite.”
Bottom: from left, Kathi Aleman, Elliot Weiner, Paul Duke and Dana Galagan 
Photos by Dean Lapin

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/02/10/2020088/cast-generates-controlled-chaos.html#storylink=cpy

The cast of Neil Simon’s “California Suite” at Tacoma Little Theatre is better than the script. Five actors play 11 different characters in four scenes, each scene a different story related only in that each story takes place in rooms 203 and 204 of the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles in 1976.

The actors are Kathi Aleman, Paul Duke, Elliot Weiner, Heidi Walworth-Horn and Dana Galagan.

Walworth-Horn is, to my knowledge, a newcomer to the stage. She is on the TLT board of directors. I’ve never before seen her act and there are no acting credits for her listed in the program, but she does a fine job with a role with no speaking lines. Instead, she is drunk and passed out throughout the entire scene she is in. The other four actors are all seasoned veterans, and their acting chops are on full display as they play a variety of quite different characters.

Most of the jokes are fairly sophisticated and urbane, especially in the scenes with Aleman and Duke, whose characters try too hard to be droll. The various scenes go from witty banter that verges on boring; to slapstick insanity in the second scene; to more urbane wit in the third scene, which devolves into spiteful bickering before ending up in sweetness; and finally a big farce of a final scene with the two couples fighting each other in slapstick mayhem.

In the first scene, Aleman and Duke are a divorced couple arguing over who should have custody of their 17-year-old daughter. Aleman plays the wife as a big phony New Yorker, full of airs and haughtiness. She’s outstanding. Duke plays the husband as a more down-to-earth and honest person who is fed up with his ex’s pretensions.

The second scene opens with Weiner waking up in the hotel room with a hooker passed out in his bed, and his wife on the way up to the room after arriving in Los Angeles. He desperately tries to get the hooker out of bed, but can’t wake her, so he tries to hide her from his wife, carrying her from bed to closet and back like a comatose rag doll. I’ve admired Weiner in quite a few dramatic roles, but never seen him do such physical comedy. It’s like a scene out of a Marx Brothers movie.

The third scene bothered me. The couple from London, Aleman and Duke again, have come to L.A. for the Academy Awards. She’s an actor up for an Oscar. He’s a bisexual antique dealer. It’s never quite clear until the end of the story whether theirs is a marriage of convenience or if they truly love each other. Their sniping at each other is vicious, and I found this scene tedious, although the acting was good and there was some witty dialogue.

The final scene goes back to pure slapstick with the two couples fighting outlandishly. Credit fight coach Mark Peterson and all four actors for a brilliant job of creating controlled chaos.

If you’ve seen Simon’s “Plaza Suite” and liked it, you’ll like this one too. Both Simon plays use almost identical set-ups, and both are entertaining, but not great scripts.


When: 7:30 tonight and 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: Tacoma Little Theatre, 210 N. I St., Tacoma
Tickets: $15-$25
Information: 253-272-2281, tacomalittletheatre.com

A really big show

Gold we have Spun from Straw at Olympia’s Washington Center for the Performing Arts

The Weekly Volcano, February 8, 2012

Pictured, top: "Field Trip"George Kurzman
bottom: "Stage of Life" by Max Wade

There's a really big show at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, and it's not on the stage. It's called Art From Scrap and it stretches throughout the Washington Center lobby, mezzanine and the upper balcony. The place is full of art. Really big art.

Especially big is a piece by Bil Fleming and Christine Malek called "Polyethylene Fiend." It's a giant dragon made of used plastic bags and packing materials, bamboo, packing tape, thread, a bath exhaust fan and annealed wire. The piece is also referred to by Fleming in an email as a "Hydrocarbon Leviathan" or a "Petrochemical Problem."

The dragon is huge (45' x 20' x 4') and colorful. It looks like something that should be carried through the streets by a dozen people in costume at a Chinese New Year's celebration or at Olympia's Procession of the Species. The dragon fills the stairwell. Its tail wraps around the railing on the upper balcony and its face almost touches the floor of the ground-level lobby. It is so big that you cannot see the whole thing from any one point of view.

Making "Polyethylene Fiend" must have been a huge undertaking, and it is fun to look at; but sorry, folks, I just can't call it art.

In addition to the big dragon, this show features selected works from Matter Gallery artists. I'm tempted to say Matter owner Jo Gallaugher has picked the cream of the crop, but it may be more accurate to say she has selected the pure art and left out the craft and utilitarian art. No lamps or coat racks or any such, just paintings and sculptures made from, mostly, recycled materials.

It's too big a show to mention even half the works, so I'll comment on the very few that most excited me.

I'll start with George Kurzman's "Field Trip," is a painting of a boy riding a horse. Behind the horse is a bright green truck. The circular swirls on the horse's back resonate beautifully with similar patterning in the sky and the lower ground. This is a nicely executed painting. It reminds me a lot of paintings by Gaylen Hansen.

Max Wade's "Stage of Life" is a shadow box with cut-out figures from magazines posing on a stage made of what appears to be wood or cardboard. The figures are in black and white and look like they come from the 1950s and earlier. The stage setting is clean and stark. I like the nice asymmetrical balance and the way the figures look at each other. The whole piece is very elegant.

Nancy Thorne-Chambers' "Princess" is a cute and haughty little porcelain woman gold leaf with a crown made of found metal objects that look like some kind of nails and fasteners. It's a delightful piece.

"It's All Mine" by Roxanna Groves looks a lot like a Red Grooms painting. It's an assemblage made of found materials. There's a big, black dog wearing a neckerchief in front of two yellow chairs and a throw rug, with a shelf of found objects in front. The drawing and color are excellent and there is an intriguing play back and forth between illusionary space, flatness, and actual three-dimensionality.

This show is absolutely worth seeing.


Fridays 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and by appointment
Washington Center for the Performing Arts, 512 Washington St. SE
Olympia

Something big

"Hair" at Capital Playhouse

Pictured, clockwise from left: Jeff Barehand, Bruce Haasl, Jacob Hoff and Anjelica Wolf. Photo courtesy Capital Playhouse.

Something big happened in the last years of the 1960s. It wasn’t just sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and it wasn’t just the anti-war movement and civil rights. It was the gestalt of all that and more, an attitude shift that lives on today despite many reactionary set-backs and despite the realization that the dawning of the Age of Aquarius might have been an unattainable pipe dream.

It’s good to be reminded of those days, and nothing does that so effectively and joyfully as the rock musical “Hair,” which was revised on Broadway two years ago. It is now playing in Olympia at Capital Playhouse. “Hair” was groundbreaking in its day, the first ever rock musical and a forerunner to such plays as “The Who’s Tommy,” “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Rent.”

The Capital Playhouse production captures the feel of the era. From the moment you walk into the theater you are drawn back to 1968. Musical Director Troy Arnold Fisher, his hair grown long and wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt sits inside the front door with a couple of musicians playing, drumming, and singing songs from the time. Theater staff and some audience members are there in ’60s garb.

“Hair” is a joyful ode to optimism in the face of war and bigotry, and it does not shy away from some of the harsher aspects of the day such as the macho denigration of women which was still rife at the time and which is exemplified when Berger slaps his girlfriend, Sheila, who takes it in stride because that was what many women did back then.

In traditional theatrical terms the play is weak. The story line is almost non-existent. But it’s not really about the story. It’s about the rebellious and celebratory spirit of the day, band it’s about the music. Oh, and what music it is — beautiful, touching ballads, hand-clapping rock and roll, and lyrics that range from clever and funny to heart-wrenching.

The young cast — none of whom were even alive when “Hair” first burst upon the scene — is excellent. Jacob Hoff is manically intense and energetic as Berger. Bruce Haasl portrays Claude as Christ-like but with a wicked sense of humor and conflicted emotions. Jeff Barehand, an east coast transplant and newcomer to Capital Playhouse, is thoroughly engaging as Woof. Bailey Boyd dances with the energy of a whirling dervish and sings angelically. Anjelica Wolf plays Sheila with sincerity. Her singing on the haunting ballad “Easy to Be Hard” and the beautiful and rousing “Good Morning Starshine” is wonderful. Her voice is clear and mellow. Rochelle Morris sets the tone when she takes the lead on the opening tune, “Aquarius” with a voice like a whole brass section. And Matt Flores is wonderfully funny in drag in a lampoon of Margaret Meade. 

The songs in “Hair” have been called a laundry list, and it is true that they contain many lists. “Sodomy” is a list of sexual acts from cunnilingus and fellatio to pederasty, the latter of which should never be included in a song celebrating sexual acts. “Initials” is a list of initials such as LBJ and LSD. And “I Got Life” is a list of body parts: “I got my hair, I got my head, I got my brains, I got my ears…” 

The Margaret Meade skit is one of two comical interruptions to the main action. It is entertaining, and Flores does a great job of acting and singing. The other comical interruption is a slog. It’s a very regrettable series of comic skits involving famous historical characters and stick ponies and masks that an overdone psychedelic hallucination scene that is clichéd and overdone. This interlude drags on through numerous songs with Claude, all the while, striking dramatic poses in the background. It’s not funny or particularly entertaining, and I wish it could have been drastically cut or even left out completely, but there’s such a thing as copyright law; you have to play the play the way it was written, with the exception of works in the public domain.

On the up side, each of these comic interludes sets up marvelous songs. The Margaret Meade bit ends with her asking Claude why he’s such a hairy guy, which leads into Haasl’s terrific rendition of the title song, and that other strangely psychedelic interlude sets up the brilliantly written anti-war anthems “Three-Five-Zero-Zero” and “What A Piece of Work is Man.” 

Director Heidi Fredericks reminds us in her program essay that many of the lyrics were inspired by great works of literature. The writers and original stars of the show, James Rado and Gerome Ragni, drew from “Hamlet” for “What a Piece of Work is Man,” and “Three-Five-Zero-Zero” is based on an Allen Ginsberg poem. (The number represents the number of North Vietnamese killed each month during the war).

The themes of the show are drugs, sex, love, rebellion against outmoded morality, and perhaps surprisingly, it is very religious and patriotic. All of these themes are handled explicitly and unapologetically. 

Parts of “Hair” may be dated and some of the pop culture and political references may be lost on today’s younger generation, but the spirit is intact, the energy is infectious, and the singing is great.

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through Feb. 18

Where: Capital Playhouse: 612 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia

Tickets: $28-35

More information: 360-943-2744, capitalplayhouse.com

And the award for best drama goes to...

 

Jason Haws as Sharky, Christian Doyle as Nicky and Dennis Rolly as Mr. Lockhart

 Jason Haws, David Wright as Richard, and Daniel Guttenberg as Ivan.

Daniel Guttenberg, Jason Haws and David Wright. 

Photos by Scot Whitney

The Seafarer at Harlequin

“The Seafarer” by Conor McPherson at Harlequin Productions is the best drama I’ve seen so far this year and one of the top two or three I’ve seen since I started reviewing plays nine years ago. If you’re curious, other shows on my top list are August Wilson’s “Radio Golf” at Seattle Rep and Israel Horovitz’s “Sins of the Mother” at Harlequin.

This is top-notch theater. The script is outstanding. McPherson, an Irish playwright, nails the lives of working class Irish drunks, and he reveals through well-scripted dialogue and action the best and the worst in humankind. His characters delve into the depths of remorse and depression and hopelessness but come out rejuvenated and redeemed.

The acting by the ensemble cast of David Wright, Daniel Guttenberg, Jason Haws, Christian Doyle and Dennis Rolly is as good as any troupe of actors anywhere. You’d have to go to Broadway or Hollywood to find comparable actors, and they gel in magical fashion under the direction of Scot Whitney.

The five men in “The Seafarer” are slovenly drunkards, and they can be mean, and they are perhaps not too awfully bright. But in the end most of them are likeable in their own ways.

Richard Harken (Wright) is a crotchety old man who thinks he may not have too long to live. He recently lost his eyesight in a bizarre accident and now he depends on his little brother, Sharky (Haws), to help him out. He treats Sharky more like a slave than like a brother, and Sharky puts up with it. Sharky, who has been away but has come home to take care of Richard, has a troubled past that included time in jail.

The entire play takes place in Richard’s apartment in a community near Dublin. It opens on the morning of Christmas Eve. The place is a mess. There are beer cans everywhere, remnants of the previous evening’s drunkenness. Sharky comes downstairs and starts picking up the beer cans. He startles Richard, who is sleeping on the floor, having been unable to make it upstairs to his bedroom the previous evening. Soon Ivan (Guttenberg) emerges from an upstairs room, groggy and disoriented. He also slept on the floor, and he has lost his glasses and misplaced his car.

It’s not long before the guys start drinking again, and a prodigious amount of beer and whiskey is consumed in the course of the day. But not by Sharky. He has sworn off drinking and has two whole days sober.

Another friend arrives, Nicky (Doyle), who is Richard’s friend but definitely no friend of Sharky’s. And Nicky brings a stranger with him, the very neatly dressed and polite but odd Mr. Lockhart.

There is more than one underlying mystery to this story, and there are supernatural elements that I can’t write about without spoiling the plot. The only other thing I can reveal without spoiling it is that there is a very high stakes poker game. There is mystery and high drama, and a lot of humor. And I can’t praise the acting enough.

Wright is outstanding as Richard. He’s believable as a newly blind man, and his emotional outbursts and sudden changes of mood can be as hilarious as they are painful. We laugh with him and at him. He also provides a lot of physical comedy when he flails about with his walking stick and all the others have to duck out of his way. Doyle in particular does the physical bits with perfect timing. He has taught stage fighting and has choreographed big fight scenes for many area theaters, and he makes it seem easy.

Haws plays Sharky with intense quiet. You can tell that he hates being there, and he hates having to wait on Richard hand and foot, but he doesn’t complain. He holds it all in, and the audience can sense he’s about to explode, which of course he does. Haws’s intensity, bottle-up restraint and range of emotions is evident throughout.

Guttenberg, the only one of the actors who is not a Harlequin veteran, is a natural as the slow-witted, besotted and perpetually confused Ivan. He talks slowly and doesn’t seem to be able to focus, and he does it so naturally that it’s hard to believe he’s really an actor and not some drunken stumblebum they found on the street and told to just be himself.

It’s impossible to describe Rolly’s acting without giving too much away. Suffice it to say he’s been in more plays than most people have ever even watched, and if this is not his best role ever it’s awfully close.

The set by Linda Whitney is marvelous -- wonderfully simple but well designed with two flights of stairs and translucent windows lighted from behind, great textured wall treatments and open-ended ceiling beams. The props are nicely chosen – a light-up Jesus sacred heart, a ratty old couch and easy chair, a woodburning stove, and all those empty bottles and cans. It’s particularly nice that the action never has to be interrupted to change sets and props.

Kudos also to David Nail for excellently subdued lighting design, and to Darren Mills for costumes so perfect they look uncostumed.

The language is earthy and filled with Irish slang. To help the audience along there is a glossary of slang expressions in the printed program. It’s not really needed because everything is clear in context, but it is fun to read. They use a lot of words that would give a movie an R rating. They say fuck a lot – or, considering the brogue, fock. To Richard they’re all focking eejits.

If you only see one play this season this should be the one.

WHEN: Thursdays through Saturdays, 8p.m., Sundays 2 p.m. through Feb. 18

WHERE: State Theater, 202 E. 4^th Ave., Olympia

TICKETS: prices vary, call for details

INFORMATION: 360-786-0151; http://www.harlequinproductions.org/

Random acts of silliness

“What The Butler Saw” at Centerstage
review By Michael Dresdner 

Pictured at top: Alan Bryce, Samie Detzer and Dan Kremer, bottom: Nic Beach, Sally Brady, Alan Bryce.
Photos by Joe Orton

For pure, convoluted lunacy, it’s hard to beat the very funny, and very manic, “What The Butler Saw” at Centerstage. As usual for them, the acting, timing, direction (by Cynthia White), production and choice of property are top notch. But this is a very different sort of play than you might expect.

There’s no real plot, per se, but rather an endless, rapid-fire delivery of genuinely clever and funny set ups and punch lines dressed up with undressing, cross dressing, identity borrowing, misunderstanding, and complete and utter confusion. Think Benny Hill meets Noises Off, but with the snarky, spot-on wit of Oscar Wilde.

First, there’s Dr. Prentice (played by Centerstage artistic director Alan Bryce) who runs the insane asylum where the action is set, though we never see or hear any of the assumed inmates. Though Prentice more or less makes sense, every single thing he says is misunderstood by every single person. Of course, it does not help that his sentences frequently begin with “Take off your clothes…” Oddly enough, they all do, beginning with young Geraldine Barclay (Samie Detzer) who is there to interview as a secretary.

The doctor’s wife (Sally Brady), a nymphomaniac with low morals but high dudgeon, interrupts them when she arrives fresh from a tryst with a photo peddling young bell boy, and she, too, joins the clothes brigade. Naturally, the bell boy (Nic Beach) arrives hot on her heels and manages to strip to jockeys in short order. They’ll eventually be joined by Sgt. Match (Robert Alan Barnett), a classic London Bobby who, strangely, also consents to disrobe. Before long the stage is crisscrossed with folks either in underwear or dressing, and cross dressing, in each others’ outfits.

Meanwhile, this literal and figurative madhouse is being visited by Dr. Rance (Dan Kremer), an investigating government mental health director bent on uncovering… well, something nefarious at least. He manages to see perversity in each logical statement, and a strange logic in all the perverse ones. Hot on the trail of sexual aberration, in part as fodder for his dreamed of book, he’ll find it in every action and every word, often when the real circumstances are rather innocent.

They all manage to create so many layers of misunderstanding that everyone gets tied up in one illogical Gordian knot of confusion. Have no fear, though, you who’d prefer neat and happy endings. It’s all cleared up at the finale with a heavily contrived plot mechanism that leaves all the players, and the audience, with wide smiles.

As for the rest of the production support, lighting is excellent and the set is straightforward and completely utile, though the mix of furniture and clothing styles makes one wonder precisely when the action is taking place. I’d have to guess the sixties or seventies, based largely on clothes, which, at best, are challenging. After all, each dress and uniform gets worn by at least two characters, often of different gender and body types. Still, it all works, in part because they’re mere trappings for the barely controlled idiocy unfolding onstage.

Incidentally, the title, What the Butler Saw, has nothing whatever to do with the play. Why a title that seems to have been chosen randomly? Perhaps that’s what fits.

What The Butler Saw
Feb. 3rd to 26th, 2012
Centerstage

3200 SW Dash Point Road
Federal Way, WA 98003 253-661-1444

Ursula Stocke

Ursula Stocke is an artist who lives and works in Everett, Washington. She was recently diagnosed with stage four colon cancer at the young age of 42. She is showing her artwork at Wisedesignz framing and gallery in Everett this month, where she also works as a framer. All of the proceeds go to her fight with cancer.

There will be an artist's reception Saturday, Feb. 18 during the Everett Art Walk from 4-7 p.m.

WiseDesignz
Custom Framing & Fine Art Gallery
2908 Wetmore Avenue
Everett, WA 98201
425-259-2361
 www.wisedesignz.com
www.everettartwalk.org
www.giveforward.com/ursulastocke  


Thanks to Tacoma artist Juliette Ricci for this information.

"Dawn of 2012" impresses at Fulcrum Gallery

Tacoma's emerging artists hang on Tacoma's Hilltop

The Weekly Volcano, February 1, 2012

Pictured, top: "Venus Garden" by Kelsi Fillo-Finney and, bottom: “I’m as lonesome as you are and feel more empty every day” by Kirsten Marie Pisto


There's quite a range of imagery and styles in the new show at Fulcrum Gallery, Dawn of 2012. The show features emerging artists - a loosely defined and often over-used term that generally means artists who have not yet received the recognition they deserve. Some of us are emerging all of our lives.

But in this case the artists truly are emerging. Some of these artists have never before had gallery shows. They're young, innovative and exciting. Surrealistic and pop imagery abounds, and there is an interesting variety of media, including repurposed materials.

One of the most exciting works is Gabriel Brown's "Floating Islands Estates," a surrealistic city of floating houses suspended from fluffy clouds. This amazing otherworldly creation hangs from the ceiling and occupies most of the air in the front room. It's definitely the first thing you notice upon entering. Hanging beneath cotton-ball clouds from monofilament lines are what look like upside-down cliffs or stalactites made of dirt with flat, grassy tops. Sitting on top of each is a little matchbook-size house made of cardboard. The cardboard is cut from packages with the advertising intact. It's easy to spot the commercial logos or parts of logos from such brand products as Arm & Hammer baking soda and Scotch-Brite.

One of the more intriguing things about this work is that the houses and the stalactite-like pieces of ground they sit on look very much like paintings by Jeremy Mangan - so much so that I wonder if they are an intentional homage.

Other remarkable works in the show include a series of fantasy images in gouache, watercolor and colored pencil by Kelsi Fillo-Finney, all in tones of yellowish brown on white. These include a self-portrait with a cascade of strawberries in her hair, the head of a deer wearing a man's suit, a man with mushrooms growing out of his head, and - best of all in a very macabre way - one called "Venus Garden," that pictures a naked woman on the floor with her back to the viewer, something like veins growing out of her body connected to a giant floating valve or organ, with a huge fly and a hanging man in the sky.

Meghan Mitchell has a group of five graphic drawings in the show that are very sensitively and delicately executed. The finest of these is a silhouetted woman's hand hovering over a softly textured cloud-like shape, described in the wall text as a "night sky or placid nighttime ocean." There's a lovely interplay of positive and negative space in this one.

Also showing are paintings by Branden Urban that remind me of early 20th century political posters and some very large and ambitious surrealistic pop paintings by Julian Pena. And paintings and sculpture by Kirsten Marie Pisto also left an impression, most notably the strange oil painting "I'm as lonesome as you are and feel more empty every day," which ranks with Brown's "Floating Islands Estates," as one of the best thing in the show. Pisto's bizarre painting is like a modern suburban myth in beautifully watery paint.

Not all of these artists are technically sophisticated. I'm sure each has some growing to do in order to find themselves as artists. But there is admirable honesty and inventiveness in all of these works of art.
Dawn of 2012

Through March 10, noon to 6 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and by appointment,
Fulcrum Gallery, 1308 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma
253.250.0520