Calendar Girls at Olympia Little Theatre

Published in the Weekly Volcano, Oct. 1, 2015

Erin Quinn Valcho as Celia and Jon Lee as John. Photo by Austin Lang.

Calendar Girls, adapted by Tim Firth from the movie of the same name, is a sweet and frothy comedy with a heartfelt underlying theme of self-acceptance and caring for others.

Chris (Kathy Harris) and her best friend, Annie (Jane Brody) are fed up with the leadership style of the president of the Women’s Institute in North Yorkshire, England, Marie (Kendra Malm), and of the club’s bland slide lectures and uninspired fundraisers. After Annie’s husband, John (Jon Lee) dies of leukemia, the women decide to raise funds for the hospital in his memory.

Calendar Girls doing "aerobics?" Photo by Austin Lang.

Chris seems to be the only one of the women with an original thought in her head or a bit of daring in her soul — except perhaps Celia (Erin Quinn Valcho), the only one who dares to be slightly risqué. Inspired by something John said: "The flowers of Yorkshire are like the women of Yorkshire" and "The last phase of the women of Yorkshire is always the most glorious," Chris proposes that instead of the proposed calendar celebrating local bridges they should make a calendar of themselves — middle age women — posing in the nude with strategically placed props such as flowers and cupcakes or pots and pans in a kitchen setting. Naturally, the other women are horrified yet somewhat titillated by the idea. Eventually they come around.

It’s a silly idea but delightful, designed to be as titillating to audiences as the calendar they produce.

Jon Lee as John and Jane Brody as Annie. Photo by Austin Lang.

According to the actor biographies in the program, one of the actors has no prior experience on stage and a few of the others have very little. The biggest drawback to their lack of acting experience is that some of them fail to project their voices or clearly articulate. This was so much in evidence opening night that I failed to hear possibly as much as a third of the words.

The only actors who came across as fully experienced were Malm, who also directed; Lee, whose character died less than halfway through the first act; and Diana Purvine as Jessie, probably the oldest of the women; and Austin C. Lang in the double role of Lawrence the photographer and Liam (I could not tell exactly what his job was, but I think a producer or stage manager for a TV show the girls were to be on).  Lang was absolutely believable as the nervous photographer who was more embarrassed by the nudity than were any of the women, with the possible exception of Ruth (Jean Kivi Thomas) who had to get drunk before posing for her shot. Thomas acted the part nicely but was one of the most difficult to hear. Harris and Valcho were among the most expressive of the actors. Harris portrayed Chris with joyful flirtatiousness, and Valcho played Celia with natural restraint.

There are a lot of costume changes, including some ridiculous animal costumes and holiday costumes, as per example Ruth’s bunny rabbit costume that the other women took to be a mouse or a hamster, and Celia and Chris competing for the sexiest Santa Claus costume. Plus the everyday wardrobes of the women that ranged from Marie’s bland business attire to some ludicrous sportswear (costumes by Allison Gerst).

The funniest scene in the play was the photo shoot in which the women comically and skillfully managed to strip naked (or “nude” as Chris insisted on calling it) without exposing so much flesh as to make audience members uncomfortable. The program and advertising warns of “burlesque-style nudity.” Not to worry, there’s much more to be seen on network television every night of the week.

Calendar Girls, Thursday-Saturday and 1:55 p.m. Sunday, through Oct. 4,Olympia Little Theatre, 1925 Miller Ave., NE, Olympia, tickets $10-$14, available at Yenney Music, 2703 Capital Mall Dr., Olympia, 360).786.9484, http://olympialittletheater.org/

Faculty and Staff Exhibition at SPSCC

Photo: “tv kills u,” mixed media painting by Liza Brenner

Published in the Weekly Volcano, Sept. 24, 2015

"Happy Hour" mixed media painting by Liza Brenner

This year’s faculty and staff art exhibition is one of the better shows they’ve had in quite some time and the best faculty exhibition since I’ve been reviewing them.

The first thing to strike the eye when entering the gallery is Joe Batt’s installation, “Oculus.” It is a dramatic, inventive and skillfully executed grouping of a stoneware sculpture and hanging mobiles made of wood and painted with pastel. It’s a slight variation on a similar installation readers may remember from Batt’s show at Salon Refu a year ago. The stoneware figure is a young boy dressed in white sweats and white running shoes with pale blue toes and Velcro straps. He’s wearing some kind of charcoal colored visor over his eyes. The mobile hanging above him is a group of eight satellites made of plywood and lightly colored with pastels. I love the worn-wood look of the mobile contrasted with the pasty white of the figure. Batt is also showing three nicely done mixed-media digital collages which expand on the themes of “Oculus.”

Liza Brenner is new to the SPSCC faculty and the South Sound arts scene - a most welcome newcomer. Her three mixed-media paintings with collage in this exhibition are a joy to look at. They are comically surreal with odd juxtapositions of people and objects that do not belong together — the juxtaposition of disparate elements being the very definition of surrealism. Her “What Makes Hannah Snell So Appealing?” (what a wonderful title!) is a picture of a 16^th century man wearing a red smoking jacket in the interior of a house. Sharing the house with him are monkeys, one riding in a baby carriage and one wide-eyed monkey hanging from the ceiling and holding a camera, a modern camera of a type that did not exist when men dressed like the one in the painting.

Brenner’s “Happy Hour with Friends” depicts a couple seating at a table having a friendly drink. In front of them is a group of deer, and on the wall behind them are portraits of people, presumably the friends of the title. The deer and the portraits are all contour drawings done with a brush and fairly heavy paint. All of her paintings are roughly executed in a nice manner.

More decorative are Jane Stone’s oxidation-fired ceramic tiles, each mounted in groups of two, three or four and each grouping united by theme. There’s one with images of flowers, one with landscape scenes with bodies of water, and a two-tile set with a crow and a bird’s nest with eggs. All are delicately painted; my favorites are the streams of water.

There are three paintings by Nathan Barnes, two of which I have reviewed when they were in previous shows, and one new one that is a double-faced portrait of his sister, a pianist. There are clever references to pianos. His painted constructions are always inventive and beautifully crafted.

There are also some great works by Daniel Meuse that are dark and ominous, and works by Colleen Gallagher, Liza Mellinger and Nicole Gugliotti. I wish I had space in this column to write more about all of them. But you don’t need to read what I have to say; just go to this show and see for yourself. You’ll be glad you did.

South Puget Sound Community College, Kenneth J Minnaert Center for the Arts Gallery, Monday-Friday, noon-4 p.m. through Oct. 30, 2011 Mottman Rd. SW. Olympia, 360.596.5527.]

Review: A Few Good Men at Lakewood Playhouse

Published in The News Tribune, Sept. 17, 2015

(L to R):  JACOB TICE (Kaffee), JIM ROGERS (Sam) and CASSIE JO FASTABEND (Jo)  from the Lakewood Playhouse Production of "A FEW GOOD MEN"

All photos by Kate Paterno-Link

Celebrating 50 years in the same building at Lakewood Mall, Lakewood Playhouse opens its 77^th season with the compelling courtroom drama “A Few Good Men” by Aaron Sorkin, directed by Beau M.K. Prichard and featuring a world-class performance by Jacob Tice and an outstanding ensemble cast, notably Aaron Mohs-Hale, K.E. Jenkins, Christian Carvajal, and Jenifer Rifenbery.

Sorkin, of “The West Wing” fame, never backs away from controversial subjects. In “A Few Good Men” he highlights the worst aspects of military culture, most dramatically, blind loyalty and unquestioning obedience to the code of “Unit, Corps, God and Country.”

In program notes, Prichard wrote, “The script also cleverly side-steps nakedly criticizing the armed forces by having other service members, not civilians, ask the hard questions.” But whether the questions are asked by the military or by civilians, the macho, misogynistic attitudes and unquestioning obedience to authority are put on stark display in this play.

(L to R): THE ENSEMBLE of the Lakewood Playhouse Production of "A FEW GOOD MEN"

The set by Prichard and James Venturini and lighting by Daniel Cole establish a dark and foreboding world unlike any world known by people who have never been in the military. Upstage left is a guard tower dimly lighted with a red-orange glow and manned throughout the play by soldiers who never say anything other than the oncoming sentry saying he is relieving the other sentry from duty. This, coupled with offstage voices and sound effects and the sharp movements of nearly all actors (with the notable exception of Jacob Tice as a Naval lawyer, lieutenant junior grade Kaffee who disdains military formality) creates a tense atmosphere that intensifies the already intense conflict Kaffee and his team of defense lawyers and everyone else – namely the prosecutor, Lt. Ross (Tom Phiel) and the soldiers based at Guantanamo Bay from the lowest ranked enlisted men to base commander Lt. Col. Jessep (James A. Gilletti). The rest of the set is an almost bare stage with a few tables and chairs, and off to one corner upstage right are the iron bars and hard bunks of a cell in the brig.

Tice is funny, loveable and, when need be, strong and magisterial as Lt. Kaffee. In the beginning he is a fun-loving jokester who seems to care nothing for his job or for the military, but this is all façade masking a deep commitment to justice. He is forced to take onto his team a female lawyer from Internal Affairs, Lt. Cmdr. Galloway (Cassie Jo Fastabend), who is aggressive and determined and who, at first, can’t stand Kaffee. And he brings in as a back-up and yes-man his best buddy, Lt. Sam Weinberg (Jim Rogers), who turns out to be a much better lawyer than he at first seems. The repartee between these three elevates the humanity factor.

Two young marines, Lance Cpl. Dawson (Aaron Mohs-Hale) and Pfc. Downey (K.E. Jenkins) have been arrested on murder charges and have confessed to the crime, but first Galloway and later Kaffee are convinced that the death of their fellow marine, William Santiago (offstage voiceover by Jacob Henthorn) was an accident caused by a hazing incident ordered by the base commander, Lt. Col. Jessep (James A. Gilletti). Jessep is a hard-nosed, no-nonsense commander who thinks the rules are for everyone except him. He is stiff and formal and harbors a lot of anger that comes out explosively in the trial scene when Kaffee questions his motives and methods.

“A Few Good Men” is a harsh drama acted with intensity by a large ensemble cast and sprinkled liberally with adult language that may be offensive to some audience members. The acting, the directing, and most of all Sorkin’s superb script are of the highest quality. I can’t recommend it enough.

WHAT: A Few Good Men

WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through Oct. 11

WHERE: Lakewood Playhouse, 5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd., Lakewood

TICKETS: $25.00, $22.00 military, $21.00 seniors and $19.00 students/educators, pay what you can

INFORMATION: 253-588-0042, www.lakewoodplayhouse.org

Also see Travis Earl Warner’s review in the Weekly Volcano and Michael Dresdner’s review