SAN DIEGO THEATRE SCENE

"CURTAIN CALLS" #228

By Pat Launer

www.sdtheatrescene.com

2/1/08

Some very dramatic presentations,

From Fences to Pericles’ peregrinations.

From families and conniving cabals

To the timeless tunes of Guys and Dolls

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

THE SHOW: Fences, an intense family drama by the late August Wilson, set in the 1950s in the Pittsburgh of his youth. It’s his third play chronologically, but in terms of his ten-play cycle chronicling the decade-by-decade history of African Americans, it’s number six. The play was written in 1985; during the 1987 Broadway run, it garnered four Tony Awards, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

THE STORY/THE PLAY: It’s pre-Civil Rights America. Trash collector Troy Maxon is chafing under the thumb of his white boss, aching to know why black men can’t be drivers, only haulers. In his youth, Troy was a baseball superstar in the Negro leagues. By the time Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, he was too old to cash in. He’s been to prison, he’s fathered three children. He loves his wife, he has a strong sense of responsibility to his family, but he’s still not comfortable in his skin. And he cannot accept his sons, whom he denigrates at every opportunity. When he spurns his wife, his life is turned inside out.

This heart-rending, beautifully and musically written work reads and plays like a kitchen-sink drama at times. It has less of the spiritual/magical/metaphysical than some of Wilson’s other creations. It shares with them an emotionally flawed central character and a man with less than perfect mental capacity who has flashes of insight or wisdom or power. The final, heart-stopping moments of the drama capture that mystical, otherworldly element that courses through the other plays.

THE PLAYERS/THE PRODUCTION: This is the third time I’ve seen this play done by (most of) these people. The first production was in 1987 at Southeast Community Theatre, directed by Dr. Floyd Gaffney. It took my breath away, and I never forgot it. The second was a reading in 2006, directed by the lead actor, Antonio TJ Johnson, initiating an ongoing collaborative effort between Cygnet Theatre and San Diego Black Ensemble Theatre. Having seen that magnificent reading, I strongly urged a full production; this play, and these players needed to be seen.

And so, here we are, witnessing a splendid, fully realized production helmed by the sensitive, earnest and meticulous director Delicia Turner Sonnenberg. Familiarity with the work, and the passage of time, have contributed to the depth of this production. But it’s also clear that Turner Sonnenberg has led her cast ever deeper into their characters. There’s been a bit of juggling in the roles. Twenty years ago, Grandison Phelps III played Troy’s son, the shiftless Lyons; now he’s grown into Troy’s former prison-buddy, Bono. In the recent reading, Mark Christopher Lawrence played Lyons; but this time, he’s taken on the role of poor brain-damaged, bugle-carrying Gabriel, forever waiting to trumpet the opening of the Gates of Heaven.

At the center, anchoring the play now as they did decades ago, are TJ Johnson and Sylvia M’Lafi Thompson. It’s clear that both of them know and feel these characters in the very marrow of their bones. There’s a palpable honesty, a depth of understanding that makes the character authentic and sympathetic, despite unsavory deeds or words.

As Troy is forced to confront himself, his sons, his life choices, Johnson is nothing short of astonishing in the ways he veers from sexual innuendo to humiliation, from frustration to fury. Remarkable work. And Thompson matches him, moment for moment, every inch of the way. Hers is the more subtle character at first. She is the good-natured, long-suffering, chicken-frying über-wife, until he steps over the boundary of their trust and commitment. Then, she unleashes a tirade that churns up the jagged emotions of every betrayed woman since Medea. Glorious intensity and a stellar performance.

Laurence Michael Brown has the requisite charm, smile and nonchalance of Lyons, a slacker who says he’s a dedicated musician, though we never know for sure. Phelps is solid and totally credible as a devoted but prison-honest buddy. Reprising his role from the reading, Patrick Kelly is forceful and heart-breaking as the ever-striving son who can never please his father. He takes a journey into manhood, and his all-too-familiar confrontations with his deprecating dad cut across race, class and socio-economic status. Lawrence does a splendid job with Gabe, a difficult role to finesse; he’s got to be earnest but not goofy or over-sentimentalized. And he has to believe what he’s saying with such fervor that at the end, everyone comes over to his side. Turner Sonnenberg confessed that she refused to choreograph Lawrence’s final glory-dance; she wants him to improvise every night. And that’s what makes it so fresh and riveting and mind-boggling. It’s the perfect supernatural capper to an otherwise naturalistic (though impassioned) play.

Mike Buckley has created a gritty, real, and slyly-changing house of weathered wood slats, a porch, a yard and a fence that is gradually extended through the course of the play. Eric Lotze’s lighting, Veronica Murphy’s costumes and George Yé’s sound perfectly suit the action and the era. The characters may teeter on a behavioral tightrope, but the production is in perfect balance.

THE LOCATION: Cygnet Theatre, through February 24

BOTTOM LINE: BEST BET

The Peregrinations of Pericles

THE SHOW: Pericles, Prince of Tyre, a Shakespeare play that didn’t appear in the all-important First Folio, probably because it’s thought not to have been written by the Bard alone. Completed around 1608, it’s been compared to Homer’s “Odyssey,” because here, too, a peripatetic man is cast adrift in the world, enduring all manner of travel and travail, until he comes full circle, having learned about life, love, death, grief, redemption and rebirth.

THE STORY/THE PLAY: Spanning the decades from youth to late middle age, the fictional Prince Pericles is forced to see the best and worst of humans and their relationships, from father-daughter incest to mutual trust and respect between servant and master. The play is structured like a fantasy or fairy tale, narrated here by masked, clownish Gowers who lead us through the labyrinthine plot twists and ever-changing locales.

The PLAYERS/THE PRODUCTION: When Darko Tresnjak directed the play at the Old Globe in 2002 (our first glimpse of his genius), it was a mammoth, elaborate affair. Now, acclaimed Romanian director Andrei Belgrader, this year’s Quinn Martin Chair in Directing at UCSD, has chosen to decrease the scale, placing the hyperkinetic action in a black box, invoking maximal use of audience imagination. Hovering over the action is a giant gilt frame, which contains projections of roiling seas, as rain sticks and thunder drums are employed to create the sounds of the storms. Or the picture we see is a parched, bone-strewn desert, the setting for one land’s famine.

Minimal prop and costume changes tell us all we need to know about the various locations, so we can focus on the human relations that tell the story. Belgrader has trimmed the play down to its essence, and it clocks in at a brisk two hours (including intermission). The students, who range from undergrads to third year MFA students do a fine job of keeping the language crisp and clear. The soon-to-be-graduating Liz Elkins is luminous as the beautiful and radiant daughter of Pericles, Marina. As the title character, second year MFA student Josh Wade takes a magical journey, from wide-eyed, callow youth to wizened, hirsute, broken and barely recognizable older man. It’s a lovely, heartfelt performance. Joel Gelman is strong as several potent potentates, Irungu Mutu has a stately stage presence, and Jiehae Park is aptly beastly as the smiling, murderous Dionyza (less convincing as the Bawd, who seems to have a sort-of New York accent). Belgrader’s direction is inventive and often whimsical; his stage pictures are attractive and provocative (those three skewered heads make for a particularly chilling image). This may not be the definitive Pericles, but it’s certainly an intriguing and enjoyable one.

THE LOCATION: UCSD Theatre and Dance, in the Mandell Weiss Forum Studio, through February 2

BOTTOM LINE: BEST BET

Dumbs and Dames

THE SHOW: Guys and Dolls, what some call ‘the perfect musical,’ with a spectacular score by Frank Loesser and book by Abe Burrows (and Jo Sperling)

THE STORY: Based on the short story, “The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown.” New York writer/journalist Damon Runyon wrote distinctive, Prohibition-era tales of high-minded low-lifes on Broadway who spat out a clipped, colorful slang devoid of contractions, eternally spoken in the present tense. Here, his cast of characters includes the suave, bet-on-anything gambler, Sky Masterson; the “mission doll,” Sarah Brown, an uptight Salvation Army soldier who surprisingly falls for Sky, and vice versa; Nathan Detroit, the perpetually harried organizer of the ‘oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York’; and his perpetually-sneezing, 14-year fiancée, Adelaide, whose ‘psychosomatic symptoms’ stem from her eternal engagement.

THE PLAYERS/THE PRODUCTION: San Diego’s newest theater company made a stellar debut last year with The Full Monty, which was just about perfect right out of the gate. This time, they chose a classic that comes with a long pedigree and great expectations. Despite some wonderful performances, the production just wasn’t ready on opening night. It seemed to be 2-3 tech rehearsals short. Both sound and lighting cues were frequently bungled. The mics were inconsistent at best; singers sometimes had to strain to be heard over the robust, 14-piece orchestra, under the baton of musical director Don LeMaster.

The principals are vocally strong and well matched. Handsome Robert J. Townsend has the ideal look, charm and self-assured swagger for Sky Masterson, and his rich baritone nailed every number. He connected quite credibly with delightful Amy Biedel, whose pure voice is lovely in alto or soprano range, less so in making a mid-song transition between the two (e.g., “I’ll Know”). Terra Macleod was an audience favorite as Adelaide, but she wasn’t half as amusing as she could have been, or half as sexy as other Adelaides in the Hot Box numbers (“Take Back Your Mink,” in particular). She rarely sneezed, which made the whole ‘cold’ bit less funny than it usually is. Her accent came and went like her symptoms (in one line, “poils” rhymed with “girls”).

Jamie Torcellini was unequivocally superb as Nathan. As he proved last summer in Moonlight’s Me and My Girl, his comic timing and physical antics are absolutely nonpareil. He also had a flawless New York, tough-talking, shoulder-shrugging mien. Except for Eric Vest, amusingly Noo Yawk as Benny Southstreet, almost no one captured the taste or feel of Broadway or Runyon. As Nicely-Nicely Johnson, Jason Maddy was cast against type. Even though there are comments in the script about the character’s corpulence and constant eating, this was a slim, trim Nicely. But it worked Nicely enough, especially in “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat.”

In small roles, Ria Carey stood out as the Salvation Army General, hilarious in her little swooning outburst (though her costume was distractingly ill-fitted), and Ole Kittleson put in a touching performance as Arvide, with his sweet, Irish, Arvide-bromide, “More I Cannot Wish You.”

The sets (rented from Fullerton Civic Light Opera) had moments, but sometimes they seemed rather low-budget, which wasn’t apparent in last year’s Monty production at all.

Director Troy Magino kept the pace sprightly, but some songs or scenes felt rushed (“Runyanland” and “Fugue for Tinhorns,” for example). The Townsend-Biedel duets are uniformly delightful, and the large production numbers (“Luck Be a Lady” and “Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat”) are the high points of the evening. Perhaps it all came together after opening night. But in such a large house (about 1400 seats), the run of the show is of necessity short, which doesn’t give the actors time enough to sink into their roles, or to the tone and tenor of the piece. This was the opener of SDMT’s first full season; hopefully, the company will have time to iron out the kinks for their next big production. (Bye Bye Birdie, June 20-29).

THE LOCATION: San Diego Musical Theatre at the East County Performing Arts Center, through February 3

NEWS AND VIEWS ….

… The PIX ARE UP… and the SHOW GOES ON… TV!!

The fabulous photos of the Patté Awards celebration are up on the Patté website (www.patteproductions.com). Check ‘em out!

And DON’T MISS the TV broadcast… it’s gonna be stupendous! Watch it, tape it, TiVo, whatever… but be there! Saturday, February 2 at 7pm on Channel 4 (Cox and Time-Warner). If you were there, you’ll want to see it all again… and if you weren’t, this is your chance to catch the passion!

…What’s behind the V?… V-Day is coming up, and Carla Nell, founder of InnerMission Productions, is excited about her production of The Vagina Monologues, presented in association with Battlecry and Step UP Theatre (a youth organization). Hers is one of the first VM’s ever with an adult and teen cast (17 in all), some from as far away as San Francisco and Colorado. Several of the cast-members have received rape counseling from this year’s beneficiaries, the San Diego Center for Community Solutions and the Chadwick Center. Nell reports that North Park businesses have been extremely welcoming and supportive. She calls it “a Vagina-friendly zone.” Every year, playwright Eve Ensler makes the rights to her internationally acclaimed (and ever-evolving) show available for worldwide productions that benefit organizations battling violence against women. This is the 10^th anniversary of the V-Day global movement, which has raised more than $50 million thus far. Last year, there were 3000 benefit productions of The Vagina Monologues. Nell’s is at 7pm on February 7 in the Birch North Park Theatre. www.innermissionproductions.org

… Headin’ South… Later this month, Nell will perform in the V-Day Chula Vista production of The Vagina Monologues, at Onstage Playhouse, 8pm on Feb. 22. the cast also includes new Mom Julie Sachs. Husband Jon Sachs joins the cast the next night, Sat. 2/23 at 8pm, for a presentation of A Memory, A Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer: Writings on Violence Against Women and Girls. Proceeds will be donated to Casas Seguras in Chula Vista, as well as the nationwide 2008 Spotlight Campaign, which is focused on “Katrina Warriors,” the Women of New Orleans and the Gulf South. 619-422-7787; www.onstageplayhouse.org

…Art + Spirits = Fun… Bound Contemporary Dance announces a new program for the new year: Bottle Night, at Basic Urban Kitchen and Bar, 410 10^th Ave., the first Monday of every month, starting Feb. 4. 7:30pm, 21+. Pay what you can.

… Youth for Peace… Tell a kid! There’s a Peace-Building Conference coming to town. Organized by the San Diego Council of Hostelling International USA, for young adults age 18-29, the event will feature workshops on leadership, community action, cross-cultural communication and more. Participants will help create a “Community Wall Mural.” The USD Joan Kroc Institute of Peace and Justice is a local partner and will provide the keynote speaker. March 7-9 at the House of Pacific Relations in Balboa Park. Info and registration: 619-338-9981; www.sandiegohostels.org/peace.shtml

…Don’t miss your Jitney… This month, Cygnet Theatre and the San Diego Black Ensemble Theatre re-commence their readings of the plays of August Wilson. Jitney, written in 1983, set in the 1970s, is up next. Saturday, February 2 (3pm at the City Heights Performance Annex) and Monday, February 4 (7:30pm at Cygnet Theatre).

… Music, dance, magic and poetry (who could ask for anything more?)… Chronos Theatre Group presents a staged reading of the Persian poetic classic, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Feb. 4, 7:30pm, at the Lyceum.

…They’re baaack… those wildmen Phil Johnson and Mike Sears, with their funny/crazy Nemesis, a tale of boys and bullying that this time, includes Terri Park in the cast. D irected by Cynthia Stokes. At 6^th @ Penn Theatre, March 20-April 6.

… Counting, cataloguing, storing… Two experiences of same in a week. The San Diego Press Club had an exclusive behind-the-scenes glimpse at the 10,000-piece subterranean collection of the Museum of Man. Fascinating private tour; wonderful learning experience. And another tour, with more uncountable items to archive: the Old Globe’s new Technical Center in Southeast San Diego. The enormous, 42.000 square-foot Market Street property will house the theater’s props, sets and costumes (but it’s not clear that all those items will ever be archived on computer!). Many of the tech employees have been there for decades, and it seemed like a lot of the inventory and organization were in their heads! Still, the building, a high-ceilinged, former beer distribution warehouse, is quite impressive. The small-group tours that followed the ribbon-cutting by Mayor Sanders and City Councilmember Tony Young, presented a personal challenge: viewing some of the dusty, out-of-context set-pieces and trying to imagine or guess what production they’d come from. The turnout was notable for a Wednesday morning, and there were many representatives of the local community. The Globe plans a good deal of outreach, including internship programs for Southeast San Diego youth.

'NOT TO BE MISSED!' (Pat’s Picks)

Fences – stunning production, stellar performances. Don’t miss it!

Cygnet Theatre (in collaboration with San Diego Black Ensemble Theatre), through 2/24

Pericles – inventive direction, clear storytelling, well acted

UCSD, through February 2

The Pillowman – very dark, intermittently funny, brilliantly executed (pardon the pun)

Ion theatre, through 2/16

This is Our Youth – disaffected young folks in Reagan era New York. Unlikable characters, compulsively watchable performance

New Village Arts, through 2/17

In This Corner – interesting, if flawed play, wonderfully acted; more history than character, but it’s a knockout boxing story

Cassius Carter Centre Stage, through 2/10

(For full text of all of Pat’s past reviews, going back to 1990, use the Search engine at www.patteproductions.com)

What?! February already? Can Daylight Savings be far behind? While you’re waiting, enjoy the dark… in a theater.

Pat

© 2007 PATTÉ PRODUCTIONS, INC.

For more than 20 years, Pat Launer has been the only regular broadcast theater critic in San Diego. An Emmy Award-winner with a Ph.D. in Communication Arts & Sciences, Pat sees and reviews more than 200 local theater productions every year. For the past decade, she has hosted and produced The Patté Awards for Theatre Excellence, a gala community event that honors local theatermakers (“San Diegans making theater for San Diego”) and celebrates the broad diversity of San Diego theater.