Comedy of Hope: Human Nature

The Prize of Hope, a kind of international lifetime achievement award for live theatre as a popular and accessible art form, will be presented at Dell’Arte this Saturday as part of the annual Mad River Festival. Given annually by Denmark’s Institute for Popular Theatre in partnership with Dell’Arte, its presentation alternates between the two hosts.

 Not only is the presentation here this year, but the prize is being given to a local Lost Coast ensemble called Human Nature, and its founders, David Simpson and Jane Lapiner. Known for environmentally-oriented shows Queen Salmon, The Wolf at the Door and What’s Funny About Climate Change, Human Nature will perform an excerpt from its work in progress, Two Old Birds or Tripping on the Tipping Point, as part of the presentation program and dinner on July 26, beginning at 4 pm.

 The new show, as their previous one, centers on the complex cacophony of issues called climate change. So among the ironies for Simpson and Lapiner is their home base in Petrolia. “Yes, it’s named after petroleum, because this was the first place in California that oil was discovered,” David Simpson said. “Fortunately it petered out quickly.”

 Burning up the jet fuel to research climate change and its attendant politics from the Arctic to recent conferences in Copenhagen and Bolivia is a more accustomed irony among activists, since the warming is global. Plus the gasoline to tour their show, which uses comedy to expose the deadly folly of fossil fuel dependence.

 If the overwhelming consensus of climate scientists is right, the outcomes are likely to shake if not dissolve human civilization and life on earth as we know it, so comedy may seem a counterintuitive approach. But Simpson and Lapiner outline several of its functions, confirmed by their experience with audiences.

 Satirical humor that they describe as “not light but not nasty” can expose faulty facts as well as dubious motives. But when people are involved, there’s generally plenty of pomposity and delusion on all sides of the issue. So they’ve gone after enviros, too. 

The comedy “gets people to laugh at themselves,” Lapiner said. That’s particularly useful when a major barrier to confronting this complicated and immensely consequential problem is the mental and emotional freeze-up of denial.

 Getting people to lower their defenses often paid off in the post-performance discussions at universities and other venues, which could last for an hour more. “Sometimes a few would stay, often maybe a hundred, “Simpson said. Climate scientists were happy to participate. “We got into some really good discussions, and not just with the converted. There were opponents who took the risk of saying what they felt.”

 Human Nature (which includes their daughter, Joyful) toured the first climate change show over four years, when the agenda was confronting ignorance and denial. The new show is aimed at “provoking action.”

 In their travels they’ve seen the dramatic difference between the most intense present effects on the world’s poorer peoples versus the dithering lassitude of rich nations. Stopping fossil fuel pollution and instituting a clean energy society are necessary steps to head off runaway climate collapse in the far future.

 But nothing will prevent serious effects already underway that will shape the nearer future. So besides helping to shake loose the will to act, comedy can help with the coping. “Climate change is real,” Simpson said. “It’s best to know what’s coming. Comedy is a tool for helping with the transition.”

 “We have to change, but it doesn’t have to be dreary,” Lapiner said. Change can be an adventure, with joy and fun as well as challenge and grim necessity.

 David Simpson was a comic actor and Jane Lapiner a dancer when they met in the San Francisco Mime Troupe of the late 60s. Comedy comes naturally but it also has a definite intent.

 “Hope is a commodity we need now,” Simpson said. “A lot of people know what’s ahead—it’s very daunting. So part of our mission is to promote hope.”

 They are currently getting Two Old Birds or Tripping on the Tipping Point in shape for the fall, but the excerpt they’ll perform this week involves Adam and Eve evicted from their consumerist Eden into the real world. “It gets bawdy, I fear,” David Simpson said, though he didn’t sound too regretful.

 Coming Up: Dell’Arte celebrates its host city’s centennial with its production of Blue Lake: The Opera to start off the Mad River Festival on Thursday (June 24.) Set in 1910, when Blue Lake really had an opera house, this sounds like a collision of comic opera and the usual Dell’Arte summer silliness. It’s performed at 8 pm out back in the Rooney Amphitheatre, Thursday through Saturdays this weekend and next. They promise no chickens will be harmed.

Congrats to Tony Winners

Congratulations to Viola Davis and Denzel Washington, winners of Best Actress and Best Actor in leading roles for August Wilson's Fences, which itself won for best play revival. It was also a good night for Arthur Miller, rock & roll and movie stars. Congrats to all the winners.

Here's a review of the New York Fences production. And speaking of August Wilson, a review of this spring's re-staging of Wilson's Jitney in Pittsburgh. The last production there was one of the last times I saw August Wilson--he was in town to do some rewrites of this play, his actual first. Then we saw him again after opening night. Both plays are set in Pittsburgh, as are all but one of his 10 play cycle.

That 70s Play: Same Time Next Year

 In some ways, Same Time Next Year is the quintessential 70s play. The 70s were when the 60s made it to suburbia, and to Middle America generally. Vietnam protest, the generation gap, sexual revolution, women’s liberation, encounter groups, Open Marriage and a skyrocketing divorce rate—all of it really happened in the decade that began with Kent State and ended with the Eagles doing disco.

 It’s unlikely that this play’s premise could have been accepted as fit for comedy before the 70s: a New Jersey accountant and an Italian Catholic housewife meet in northern California and have a passionate night together—and then they continue their affair for decades, but only for one weekend every year.

 But the 70s were more than ready. To suggest how avant garde this wasn’t, the play is by Bernard Slade, whose previous work included a Neil Simon knock-off and episodes of Bewitched. He went on to create The Flying Nun and The Partridge Family.

 But it was provocative enough, in a 70s way, for some observers to find it offensive, while others thought it was superficial. I suspect there are some in both camps today as well. Though the 1975 Broadway production was a long-running hit, probably more people saw the 1978 movie version starring Ellen Burstyn and Alan Alda.

 But given its parentage, it may be surprising that Same Time Next Year works much better as a stage play than a movie. At least it did for me in 2010, in the current Ferndale Repertory Theatre production.

 The play follows an affair that begins in 1951, with the final scene in 1975. Admitting that ordinary people actually had extramarital affairs in the 50s was already a 70s innovation. Novelists could tell you in the privacy of your reading experience, but not plays, with all those people around you who know you’re watching it—and laughing. Now there’s a certain nostalgia to it all, though the slides projected during scene changes depicting events of those decades—including wars and assassinations as well as sex, drugs and rock & roll—also can evoke the pain of the period (even when some events seem shown slightly out of order.)

 Though Slade’s chronology also seems doubtful in places, he had the benefit of those years being recent, and he had the ear to suggest each period’s particular vocabulary. Technologies may be changing faster at the moment, but each year of the 60s and early 70s seemed almost like its own decade.

 Alexandra Gellner as Doris and Ilan Ben-Yehuda as George bring the likeable characters to life. They do the physical comedy well, but don’t overdo it. Especially at the beginning, this starts the audience laughing. But the play doesn’t dwell on the sex comedy aspect. It doesn’t become a farce.

 The emphasis is on the separate lives of Doris and George, and how their relationship supports each of them, and even each of their marriages. There’s a certain quality of a fable about it all, which comes across even as the actors create a convincing relationship on stage with believable charm. They both avoid the temptation of being too whiny. All of this encourages the confidence the audience needs to identify and to laugh.

 Director Marilyn McCormick (former exec director of Ferndale Rep) brings out the skilled structure and deft writing of Bernard Slade’s script, as well as adding some brilliant business. She also keeps the pace from flagging, and so each of the six individual scenes pays off as it should.

 There’s a certain formula to how each of the characters changes in opposite ways from the other, and in how they relate to external events, but the craftsmanship is solid, the actors are winning, and the resulting comedy carries it along.

 I happened to see this on Donor Appreciation Night, and some considerable portion of the audience appeared to recall the 60s and 70s. Their surprisingly randy laughter suggested, among other things, a certain authenticity in the script. They roared at the mention of Berkeley in 1965, and caught Slade’s pitch-perfect Encounter Group psychobabble of the 70s.

 But I suspect that there is enough universal human comedy (and drama) to involve and please those for whom the 70s are known mostly from a retro sitcom. There aren’t that many laugh-out-loud comedies, even in the summer theatre repertoire. This production provides one of them.

 Seth Stone designed the warmly California set, with an assist from Nick Trotter’s lighting design. Vikki Young assembled the slide shows, and designed costumes with director Marilyn McCormick. Same Time Next Year plays two more weekends at Ferndale Rep, ending on June 13.

Coming Up:  Dell'Arte School grad and now teacher Gale McNeeley returns to the Arcata Playhouse after 30 years (when it housed the Pacific Arts Center) to present his one-person play, archy and mehitabel, based on the Don Marquis characters, on Saturday June 12 at 8 p.m.

Script Tease: Gypsy

The musical Gypsy, now on stage at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Eureka, is the story of Rose, often called the “ultimate stage mother,” and her daughters, June and Louise. Rose sets her sights on making June a child star in Vaudeville during its waning days in the 1920s and 30s, and when June rebels, Rose turns to the lesser talent, Louise. Louise eventually becomes Gypsy Rose Lee, the burlesque queen and show business legend whose memoirs formed the basis for the musical’s story.

 Gypsy is one of the most acclaimed American musicals, with rabid fans and distinguished critics who call it the best ever. It was specifically developed for Ethel (“There’s No Business Like Show Business”) Merman in 1959, and she was followed by other powerhouse actresses in the part of Rose, including Rosalind Russell, Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone and Tyne Daley.

 The show was created by a one-time combination of Broadway legends: music by Julie Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Arthur Larents (West Side Story), who also directed two of its subsequent Broadway productions.  The original and revivals were showered with awards. Several of its songs became standards. 

Apart from hearing Ethel Merman sing its best-known tune, “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” on every conceivable TV variety show (the natural heir to Vaudeville) as a child in the early 60s, I knew nothing about this play. I suspect Merman played Rose more heroically than Dianne Zuleger does in this North Coast Rep production, and to her credit and that of director Xande Zublin-Meyer, neither softens the edges of the character or the story.

 Rose is relentless and hard-driving, with a selfless dedication to her children that is ultimately selfish, and the product of her own frustrated dreams. She has moments of appearing admirable, as when she complains to a producer that he interrupted her in the middle of a sentence. “You’re always in the middle of a sentence,” he retorts.

 But the costs paid by her children are also on view. While Rose is a character that remains relevant—check out those child beauty pageant videos, or just go to a Little League game—I couldn’t respond to this treatment, which by now felt familiar, mawkish and tediously extended.

 The production does try to give a sense of vaudeville, that classic American amalgamation of song and dance, comedy teams, novelty and animal acts. There’s even an old fashioned theatrical curtain across the North Coast Rep stage. 

Zublin-Meyer and everyone concerned get extra credit just for managing the logistics of it all, with a large cast of children, seniors and all ages in between, plus a dog, a very large cow with very large eyes, and a duck (I loved the duck—the best vaudeville trick trotted out in the often entertaining but sometimes baffling set pieces between scenes.)

 But for all the show biz, the play seemed a creaky and tenuous platform. There’s a joke in Rose sending her daughters out with basically the same cheesy act for years, but that doesn’t make it easier to sit through variations of it several times, even with different charming performers.

 The 90 minute first act feels very long, and it doesn’t create any real musical sparks until Louise (Christina Comer) and June (Nanette Voss) sing “If Momma Was Married,” which for me was the single musically thrilling moment of the evening—the kind of moment that’s unique to live musicals.

 There are some fine voices in the cast, so it was frustrating that Comer and David Powell as Rose’s long-suffering partner Herbie didn’t have more to sing. Comer’s Louise transforming from supposed ugly duckling to teasing swan was a highlight, though I would have appreciated it more if it had occurred about an hour sooner.

 North Coast Rep regulars like Adina Lawson, Anders Carlson, Evan Needham were solid, and Kyle Ryan’s dance number with Comer was gracefully executed. The opening night crowd was enthusiastic, but I didn’t feel the show itself generating much energy. The live band had flashes of adequacy. Perhaps a faster pace and tighter production will evolve during the run.

 Tom Phillips is musical director (with effective attempts to suggest the 20s and 30s), and Heather Sorter the choreographer. Daniel Lawrence designed scenery and lights. Gypsy runs weekends until June 19.

 For the curious: In reality, Gypsy Rose Lee had a singular career. After beguiling international audiences with her sophisticated strip-teases, she appeared in a few movies and became a Hollywood celebrity, mystery novelist, humanitarian activist and San Francisco TV talk show host. She died in 1970.

 Her sister, the actual runaway daughter June of Gypsy, became June Havoc, movie (My Sister Eileen, Gentlemen’s Agreement) and TV actress (a regular on “Search for Tomorrow” and briefly on “General Hospital”) as well as an author, playwright and Tony-nominated director. She died in 1991.

This North Coast Weekend

Not a lot of activity this weekend, but certainly a variety. North Coast Rep opens the musical Gypsy tonight (Thursday) at 8 (bottom photo). Directed by Xande Zublin-Meyer, it features Dianne Zuleger, David Powell, Christina Comer and Nanette Voss, with musical direction by Tom Phillips. Performances continue on Fridays and Saturdays, with 2 pm Sunday matinees on May 30, June 6 and June 13.

Now in its second and final weekend,the Dell’Arte International School MFA’s present their Thesis Festival (top photo.) There are four original works, all presented at each performance: an “investigation into the rhythm of tension and the nature of fear,” a surrealistic comedy, a comic meta-operetta, and a day in the life of three eccentric clowns. All performances are at 8, Thursday through Sunday in the Carlo: May 20-23.

At the Arcata Playhouse, the final Playhouse Family Fun Series presentation is Monkey King: A Circus Adventure by the San Francisco Circus Center's Clown Conservatory. This is the same group that brought an Alice in Wonderland circus adaptation to the Playhouse last year. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 7pm, Sunday at 2.

Marking the Twains

The Twains Meet! Never the Twains shall meet, you say? I beg to differ, for here they are: left to right top row, that's a portrait of Mark Twain, then the Cal Pritner version. Bottom left is the most famous Twain impersonator, Hal Holbrook, who won a Tony and an Emmy, and revived his Broadway show just a few years back. Finally, Jarry Hardin, as Twain with Counsellor Troi aboard the Enterprise. This role for Star Trek: The Next Generation inspired him to create and tour his own one-Twain show.  He appeared at Center Arts/HSU a few years back in a play about the Scopes trial that also featured Ed Asner and John deLancie.

Samuel Clemens, known as Mark Twain, was born in 1835 in the tiny town of Florida, Missouri, then numbering 100 citizens, and now down to 9. Cal Pritner, who pretends to be Mark Twain, was born 100 years later in 1935, nearby in the somewhat larger Kansas City. In this centennial year of Twain’s death, Pritner brought one of his one-Twain shows, Mark Twain: Traveling, to a sellout crowd at the Arcata Playhouse recently, for his third appearance there.

In addition to his work as an actor (including a featured role in Robert Altman’s movie about his home town, Kansas City), Pritner has a distinguished career as a teacher, administrator and mentor to various theatre notables, such as our own Dell’Artisan, Michael Fields. He started the theatre program at the University of Illinois, out of which came many of the stalwarts of the now legendary Chicago troupe, Steppenwolf.

Even with unfamiliar tales, this show fulfills expectations of Twain as a wry humorist and observer of the textures of earlier times. One reason that Twain adapts well to one performer stage shows is that he created and performed them himself, in several tours around the world. Pritner’s show pretends to be one of Twain’s lectures, though Pritner also took stories from Twain’s travel writing as well as his lectures. Pritner’s other Twain show is about race and racism.

Among the books Pritner has authored is How to Speak Shakespeare, and while Twain’s prose presents fewer difficulties (no couplets or anything), his rich 19th century vocabulary requires clarity and interpretation. Pritner did that so well that eventually he had the crowd audibly responding to his every sentence. That he looks the part also helped.

In important ways, Twain was the first authentic literary voice of the American West, and even with the pleasing but unfamiliar vocabulary, it’s clear that voice still connects with an audience that’s about as far west as you can get. With his irony, mixture of sharp description and fantasy, his moral sense that related the usually ignored ordinary people to the cosmos, as well as his narrative voice, Twain influenced a lot of American literature of the past century. That especially includes our twentieth-to-twenty-first century Twain, Kurt Vonnegut.

Pritner is nevertheless not the only Twain you might meet. The most famous is Hal Holbrook, who did the whole Twain: the funny yarns, the sometimes harsh social and political commentary, and the insightful stories from childhood. Jarry Hardin played Twain in a Star Trek: Next Generation story, and liked it so much he created his own traveling one-Twain show. Hardin performed at HSU several years ago (though not as Twain) in a play about the Scopes “Monkey Trial” that featured Ed Asner and another Star Trek alumnus, John (“Q”) de Lancie.

A Modest Tutorial

I don't have advanced degrees in any aspect of theatre, and scant experience in productions. But neither does William Goldman, who got his education and experience in writing. I have long admired his book on Hollywood and screenwriting, Adventures in the Screen Trade, but I had never read his book on a year of Broadway theatre (1967-68) called The Season. Until about a month ago.

Like Adventures, it's fun to read, well-crafted and opinionated. And again, I don't agree with all his opinions, but there was one observation that jumped out at me that I agreed with completely--because I had said exactly the same thing in this 2009-10 season on the North Coast.

Goldman was writing about the staging of a musical that failed, directed by a famous name with major credentials. Goldman complained that "he had the bulk of the action taking place on stage at a distance far removed from the audience, making the show, in a musical-comedy sense, all but invisible."

I said something like that, but here's the part that's nearly word-for-word: "Most musicals need to be brightly lit and played as close to the footlights as possible so that the audience can see and hear them."

That just makes sense, it's just extrapolation, as well as (I would guess) veteran lore. When I said it, I was just stared at as if speaking an alien language. Goldman got a different response, or at least he made one up, with the story about an encounter with three theatregoers after the show, that follows the above observation:

"Well, it's not as bad as they say," the first said. The second said, "I liked that patriotic number a lot." A man walking out ahead of them turned and said, "May I tell you why you liked that number?" The ladies nodded.

"Because it was done down by the footlights. You could see it."

"Yes!" all three ladies said, and they all but jumped up in the air on the word.

Since I was the man walking out ahead of them, I can swear to the veracity of the anecdote.

I suspect that part of why such observations seem alien is that they basically come from the experience of being in the audience, a point of view that both academics and professionals can too easily forget.

There are other such simple rules, violated at the peril of everything else that goes into a production. For example, the David Letterman rule: if you want the audience to laugh, keep the theatre temperature cool. People don't laugh when they're too warm and drowsy. (However, after attending an outdoor performance one cold clear night last week I would add the corollary, but not too cold. It's hard for people to laugh when their teeth are clenched.)

People stare at me when I mention this as well. But all the hard work, the actors' sweat, the creative blocking, the expensive scenery, the ads and the opening night buffet--they all depend on people laughing, and ventilation is dangerous to ignore.

Here's another Old School comedy rule: make sure there's a Laugher in the audience. Somebody who laughs out loud. It's not just that laughter is infectious, but that the audience needs permission to laugh. Especially these days, when the appropriate response to plays isn't always clear, and life is complicated--people may worry if they laugh at the wrong stuff, they will either embarass themselves or offend someone. So whenever possible, don't leave it to chance. Get a Laugher.

There was a great Laugher behind me at the preview of Glorious! at Redwood Curtain. In fact she was so loud that she nearly deafened me. That she was an actress, and the vocal coach of the leading lady, doesn't matter. The time to be embarrassed is after the show is a success, because people laughed. Assuming of course that it's funny (something else that was missing at that outdoor show.)

Of course, you don't have to listen to me. Or Bill Goldman. But don't say we didn't warn you.

Doom Boom: Don't Waste My Aocalypse

Pig Tree: a post-apocalyptic comedy in two acts played last weekend at the Arcata Playhouse—or rather, outside of it. Theatregoers were led from the Playhouse lobby into the cold night, to bleachers facing a set (a bench, steel desk and a few other pieces), in front of a few stylized bare trees and the cement wall of a real building.

 It gradually emerged that the actors in tattered clothes (Sarah Peters and Adam Curvin) were playing former servants who remained at the aristocratic house they served, even after some unspecified apocalypse. Their employer (“the Laird”) is missing, apparently along with almost everyone--except for two thugs on bikes (Scott Simmons, Eric Puttre), a self-appointed boss called Potts (James Peck, also the playwright) and Pap (Ben Clifton), his minion with the convenient hunchback he beats.

 All the actors performed admirably—especially Peters and Curvin-- and the outdoor arena allowed for some effects less likely indoors, including tall shadows created by Michael Foster’s lighting.

But the setting, the style, the story screamed meanderingly of attempted Samuel Beckett, plus minor acrobatics. For me, a determined imitation of Waiting for Godot needed more than some poetic dialogue and a familiar rendering of power relationships to justify freezing for art.

 After the one hour first act, I joined the 20 or so hardy souls who returned for the remaining 45 minutes, but when Pozzo reappeared beating Lucky—sorry, Potts beating Pep—I headed for warmer pastures, perhaps missing the moral of the story.

 I don’t want to fall into the trap of praising the pleasing execution of basically lightweight fare like Glorious! or Man of La Mancha, while dwelling on perceived flaws of plays that attempt something different. In some ways, Pig Tree was textbook “theatre of the absurd”, but audiences don’t come from textbooks, and this needed to do more than illustrate the form. Though well-executed, for me this experiment raised more expectations than it met.

 That partly had to do with the premise. Several plays done locally over the past few years involved doomsday, often as a starting point, including more than one at the Arcata Playhouse. Maybe there should be a festival of them—“The Apocalypse Playhouse: Where the world ends, and the fun begins!” It has built-in drama, but I wonder if it’s getting too easy.

 Some 20th century literature saw partly in the blasted landscapes of two world wars the evidence of civilization as frenzied wasteland, piling up its own doom. But there were also elements of the cautionary tale—of warning—that implied there was still time to prevent apocalypse.

 These days, particularly in books about climate cataclysm I’ve been reviewing elsewhere, some kind of apocalyptic future is seen as probable, if not inevitable, and not far away. People may deny it, but they feel it. It may not happen, but it seems to be gradually getting real. It is something people may have to make a life within. I think this raises the bar for apocalyptic stories on stage. Not that they can’t employ humor, but we need them to say something new, something useful.

 Humboldt Light Opera Company presents the musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the CR Forum Theatre Friday at 7:30, continuing Fridays and Saturdays through May 15, with Sunday matinees at 2 on May 9 and 16. I received no advance information on this show as NC Journal theatre columnist either from HLOC or the Journal. Apparently (from what I read in the paper) the show includes some celebrity ringers as spelling bee contestants. I wasn't asked for that either. I pretty much knew where I stood in North Coast celebrity terms--apart from how funny I find that idea to begin with--but when I don't get information, let alone an invitation to review, repeatedly, it kind of discourages the attempt. It certainly has discouraged this one.

Glorious Debut for New Redwood Curtain Theatre

Lynne Wells plays Florence Foster Jenkins, the operatic singer who was so bad she was great, in Glorious!, the comedy that inaugurates Redwood Curtain’s new theatre in Eureka.

 Jenkins, who died in 1944, was a real if forgotten footnote to the New York City musical and society scene, until she became the subject of three plays in this decade based on her life, or at least her legend. The North Coast has now hosted two of the three.

 In 2008, Humboldt Light Opera did Souvenir by Stephen Temperley, with Carol Ryder as Florence and Kevin Richards as her longtime piano accompanist, Cosme McMoon. As I recall, it was told mostly from McMoon’s perspective, and accented by Jean Bazemore’s direction and Gerald Beck’s moody set, it maintained a sense of wonder about this woman and her effect, and explored what I suspect most musicians fear: that what they hear in their head is not what comes out of their mouths or their instrument.

 Glorious! is different—it is completely a comedy, adding three comic characters to the mix. Bob Wells plays St. Clair, a British-born itinerant actor who is Florence’s companion. When he learns the young McMoon grew up in Chicago during Prohibition, he exclaims “You must be thirsty.” That pretty much sums up this character, and Bob Wells performs it with judicious hilarity.

 Dorothy is a middle-aged friend with her own artistic pretences (and a dog), played by Bonnie Halverson with an oblivious bright-eyed enthusiasm that’s mesmerizing. Maria is the Spanish-speaking maid no one understands, and while this is hardly original or even very funny in itself anymore, it’s amazing how the old bits can still work, and Elisa Abelleria skillfully plays them with the attitude and timing to earn the laughs. Pamela Lyall has an effective scene as the comic villain, Mrs. Verrinder-Gedge.

 Directors Peggy Metzger and Clint Rebik have nicely balanced the comic tones of the characters. This script (by Peter Quilter) gets around the mystery of why Jenkins was such a sensation by suggesting her biggest fans (like Cole Porter) were gay, so she was camp. He accents this by emphasizing that pianist Cosme McMoon is gay and that Florence has no idea that he or anybody is, or what it means. Again the jokes aren’t original, and Larry Pitts as McMoon plays them pretty broadly, but the general comic energy seems to propel them well enough.

 So with the Manhattan society version of the cast from You Can’t Take It With You for support, Lynne Wells is free to build the central character as clueless but not really guileless. The comic moments of the exposition-laden first act, and even a well-managed big comic twist, are all just preliminaries to the musical numbers.

 Since Carol Ryder is principally a singer, Souvenirs provided a certain substance to exploring the musical mystery of Florence. But Lynne Wells is principally an actor, and appropriately so for Glorious!, she goes full out for comedy in these numbers, accentuating Florence’s dramatic seriousness and determination, as she not only sings expansively but acts out operatic scenes in astounding costumes.

 She has the audience rooting for her. These scenes are well supported by the direction and Amy Echeverria’s costumes, but basically they are Lynne Wells unleashed. Particularly in the Carnegie Hall concert scene, she careens across the wide stage, singing with full-throated sincerity and outrageous awfulness. Florence’s triumph is doubled by that of Lynne Wells, in a stellar performance.

 Scenic design is by Daniel C. Nyri, lighting by Michael Burkhart, sound by Jon Turney. And if you haven’t figured out the play’s meaning, not to worry, the author spells it out for you at the end.

 As for the new theatre, it’s been a long time coming, but Redwood Curtain finally is in its new theatrical home down on the waterfront in Eureka, between C and D on First Street. There’s parking on the side and nearby, with the walk-in entrance in the back, from Snug Alley. Because the building is long and narrow, the stage configuration is unusual—very wide, not very deep, facing the eighty or so seats on the other wide side.

 I still remember the first Redwood Curtain production I saw, which I believe was also their first: Terrence McNally’s provocative, dour yet oddly exciting A Perfect Ganesh, in the Eagle House. I was new to the North Coast then, and so much seemed possible.

 Glorious! at Redwood Curtain continues Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights through May 15.

 Coming Up: Pig Tree, an apocalyptic comedy by Dell'Arte International faculty member James Peck, plays May 6, 7 & 8 outdoors behind the Humboldt Creamery Building, in conjunction with the Arcata Playhouse.

 The HSU 10 Minute Play Festival does its final weekend, Thursday through Saturday, at Gist. Humboldt Light Opera Company continues The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee in the College of the Redwoods Forum Theater Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30, and Sundays at 2, until May 16.

This North Coast Weekend

At Ferndale Rep, the annual Teen Show this year is Beyond the Fringe, April 30 and May 1 at 8, and May 2 at 2pm. I am impressed by the boldness and taste of this choice—it is such sophisticated humor, and so British. A Broadway hit in the early 60s, it starred a young foursome who individually became icons: Jonathan Miller (far left in photo) became an author and TV, stage and opera director; Alan Bennett has become a major playwright; Dudley Moore (foreground) became a movie star (Arthur, etc.) after teaming with Peter Cook (far right) for a couple of films (the original Bedazzled) and Brit TV series--the excerpts I've seen are some of the funniest bits ever.

But when they did this show, they had simply been four of the funniest student performers at Oxford and Cambridge. Peter Cook, the least "successful" of the group later, wrote most of the sketches, and was regarded by the others as the funniest. Together with David Frost's Brit TV series That Was the Week That Was, and Richard Lester's early movies (including the two Beatles films), this show not only launched a new style of British satirical humor in the UK and internationally, but sparked a taste for a U.S. approach. Still, with one or two exceptions, this style remained decidedly British.

The Beyond the Fringe performers were heroes to members of Monty Python, and gods to Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Doctor Who) and his generation. The Oxbridge connection is clearly in the humor, especially in the absurdities of language. Both Oxford and Cambridge were 20th century centers of language philosophies--Beyond the Fringe even has a satire on philosophers starring Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore.

Again, I congratulate these students for engaging this material. It's great to know the work of these comic greats--so different from the sad run of comedy today--still lives on.

Update: Well, I stand corrected. It turns out this show is a combination of Monty Python and Beyond the Fringe sketches, with the numerical emphasis on the Monties.

12th Annual 10 Minute Play Festival at HSU, always a popular show, begins its two weekend run tonight (Thursday, April 29). Just six plays this time, but it's a veteran group of student playwrights, directors and actors--graduate student and producer Alex Gradine has been part of five annual Festivals. Photo above is Omari Howard (his third Festival), Everado Cuevas and Sarah Dwyer in A Life at the End of the Tunnel by Mackenzie Cox (her fourth), directed by Steven Robert King (at least his third.) The Festival runs Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 in Gist Hall Theatre this weekend and next, with a matinee this Sunday, May 2, at 2 pm.

Books: Theatre Craft

Theatre Craft: A Director's Companion from A to Z
by John Caird
Faber & Faber paperback, 797 pages

Born in Canada and with his first theatrical experience there, John Caird has directed extensively in the UK as well as in Japan and Sweden: classics with the Royal Shakespeare Company, musicals, television, pretty much the gamut. He's done adaptations, fringe theatre, opera, World Wildlife Fund fundraisers. So he knows the territory.

And indeed, this book is organized as an A to Z guide (though it gives out at W; "there must be dozens of really good Zoroastrian theatre companies but I've never seen their work.") Caird is witty and he may be wise, but I'm not sure how useful this book really can be, organized in this way. I can see a young director looking up "Design and Designers," but when stumped, who is likely to look up the six pages on "Denouement?"

Even the "Design and Designers" pages may have limited value, in that they seem to describe a particular kind of theatrical organization, probably not applicable to every kind everywhere. I suspect a lot of this will be lost on American directors, and certainly on theatres that don't count the proper use of animals on stage as one of their typical problems.

But there are categories of more universal usefulness, from "Rehearsing a Play " and "scrims" to "Verse and Verse Speaking." The usefulness of these depend on what you already know, and what his writing suggests to you. They are in no way definitive. Some entries, like "Pace and Rhythm," are pathetically short and not necessarily to the point. Were I directing, I would not depend on this book, though I might consult it.

The cover begins with a blurb by the great Judi Dench: "This book is written with such humour and common sense that I may have to carry it around with me all the time." Well, Dame Judi may be bossing James Bond around these days, but she probably still would require an assistant to carry this huge volume, even in paperback. It's a badly made book to boot--hard to hold, hard to keep open, but it feels flimsy enough that to really crack it open might break the binding. That makes it physically difficult to simply read this book, for pleasure as well as practical advice. Of course, there is the humour.

This North Coast Weekend

Motion Collage, the annual dance concert from HSU Theatre, Film & Dance is performed for one weekend only, Thursday (April 15) through Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 2 in the Van Duzer. Dances range from social commentary to comedy (a water ballet on dry land) and traditional dances from the Yucatan. Though the local press (except for the Arcata Eye) apparently doesn't care, this is the only dance event of its kind in Humboldt County for the entire year. It's really too bad the Eureka papers didn't bother to note it, since these authentic dances from the Yucatan might appeal to some of the growing Mexican American population. More information and photos at HSU Stage.

Iphigenia Must Die, based on a play by Euripides, is the Dell’Arte School annual presentation on tragedy by second year students. “Tragedy was born in a time when the gods were believed to have some control over our destinies," said director Joan Schirle. “What the students are hoping to do is create a tragic vision that works for today-- that admits a inextricable link between free will, Fate, and human choice.” Performances are Thursday through Sunday at 8 pm in the Carlo, on the now standard pay-what-you-will basis. 668-5663.

Jeff DeMark performs his Writing My Way Out of Adolescence, the show that started it all, at 7:30 pm on Saturday (April 17) at Redwood Yogurt in Arcata. He’s joined by singer songwriter Josephine Johnson and guitarist Andrew Goff, playing before the show and in it as well.

Ferndale Rep continues Man of La Mancha, which I reviewed in this week's NC Journal, and Beti Trauth reviews in Tri-City. This is North Coast Rep's final weekend for its production of Doubt: A Parable.

Auditions

Ferndale Rep is bringing in guest artist, Director/Choreographer, Millicent Johnnie, to direct its production of Rent. Preliminary auditions will be held on Saturday April 17th and Saturday April 24th at the St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1675 Chester Avenue Arcata, CA 95521-6827. From 11am – 3pm. By Appointment Only. To make an appointment email FRT Executive Director Ginger Gene at ggene@ferndale-rep.org or call 707.786.5483.There are both male and female singing lead parts, in addition to many chorus roles for men and women. A cast of fifteen, between the ages of 18 and 30is required for the play. Audition Requirements: The first round of auditions will be video taped and consist of singing only. We are asking each auditioner to prepare one of four available selections from the show.Sheet music is available in Ferndale at FRT, 447 Main St. Ferndale CA 95536.Sheet music is available in Eureka from Musical Director Nan Voss, nanettevoss@gmail.com.

North Coast Repertory Theatre announces open auditions for Over The River And Through The Woods, a comedy by Joe DiPietro, directed by Rae Robison. There are roles for two men and two women aged 55 or older; one man aged 20’s to 30’s; and one woman aged 20’s to 30’s. Please be prepared to do cold readings from the script. Prepared monologues are optional but always appreciated. Auditions will take place Saturday, May 1 at 4pm and Sunday, May 2 at 6pm at NCRT, 300 Fifth Street in Eureka. Production dates are July 22 through August 14, 2010. Please call 268-0175 if you have any questions.

A Quixotic Triumph: Man of La Mancha

If ever a role and a North Coast performer seemed made for each other, it’s Don Quixote in the musical Man of La Mancha, and Brad Curtis. In the current Ferndale Repertory Theatre production, that dream is not impossible—it’s fulfilled.

 The frequent star of Humboldt Light Opera, North Coast Rep and Ferndale Rep productions, Curtis has the looks, voice and bearing of a leading man. But he can also act, and he commits to shaping a character. So at a given moment, his Quixote is somewhere between addled and innocent, deluded and shrewd, confused and committed.

 Curtis also plays the author Cervantes in the framing story (telling of Quixote’s adventures while in prison), with a little earthier mixture of practical bravado and ironic humility (“I did not have the courage to believe in nothing.”)

 The emotional high point of the play—not surprisingly—is Quixote singing “The Impossible Dream” to start the second act, and Curtis nails it. As Aldonza (the serving wench Quixote decides is his ideal lady, Dulcinea), Andrea Zvaleko again astonishes with her powerful acting and singing, providing the other emotionally resonant moments.

 In the mostly comedic first act, John Ludington shines as a vaudeville Sancho Panza, while Kyle Ryan stands out in his brief but bracing scene as the cowardly barber. In one of those sneakily crucial roles, Steve Sterback is steady and believable as the innkeeper, and Danielle Cichon’s sinuous dance enlivens the second act.

 The cast as a whole performs admirably, with most excelling in their group and choreographed scenes, and their individual moments. Ginger Gene directs with both a command of the whole and attention to detail. In the musical comedy genre, this production is an artistic and technical triumph for all, including Dianne Zuleger as musical director and conductor of the live band, Daniel Nyiri as scenic designer, Michael Foster’s lighting, Lori Knowles and Ginger Gene’s costumes, Jasper Anderton’s fight choreography.  A special shout-out for the clarity and support of both the speaking and singing by sound designers Ian Schatz and Dillon Savage, and sound board operator John Riddenour.

 The Ferndale production provides solid musical theatre entertainment, especially if you aren’t bothered by a certain dramatic sketchiness in the play. Admirers of Cervantes might also point out that in this script Quixote has not been adapted so much as kidnapped. Despite lifted lines, including some from Cervantes deathbed note, this play turns Cervantes’ satire of heroic romance into heroic romance. Still, it’s more ambitious than usually credited, and the music, while mostly forgotten, was innovative. But it’s the energy, judgment and skill of this Ferndale production that stands out.

 Coming Up: Jeff DeMark performs his “Writing My Way Out of Adolescence,” the show that started it all, at 7:30 pm on Saturday (April 17) at Redwood Yogurt in Arcata. He’s joined by singer songwriter Josephine Johnson and guitarist Andrew Goff, playing before the show and in it as well.

 Iphigenia Must Die, based on a play by Euripides, is the Dell’Arte School annual presentation on tragedy by second year students. “What the students are hoping to do is create a tragic vision that works for today, that admits a inextricable link between free will, Fate, and human choice,” said director Joan Schirle. Performances are Thursday through Sunday at 8 pm in the Carlo, on the now standard pay-what-you-will basis. 668-5663.

 Motion Collage, the annual dance concert from HSU Theatre, Film & Dance is performed for one weekend only, Thursday (April 15) through Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 2 in the Van Duzer. Dances range from social commentary to comedy (a water ballet on dry land) and traditional dances from the Yucatan. HSUStage.blogspot.com.

 On longer-range radar: I stopped by Redwood Curtain’s new theatrical home at 220 First Street (between C and D) in Old Town, Eureka, as Clint Rebik and crew were busily applying paint and otherwise preparing for the opening show: the comedy Glorious! starring Lynne Wells as Florence Foster Jenkins, a singer so bad she was great. Co-directed by RC founders Rebik and Peggy Metzger, it features Bob Wells, Bonnie Halverson, Larry Pitts, Elisa Abelleira and Pamela Lyall. It opens April 29, and continues Thursdays through Saturdays until May 15. The theatre has fewer than 100 seats, so advance tickets are recommended. 443-7688, www.redwoodcurtain.com.

 Also opening on April 29 is the annual HSU Ten Minute Play Festival, for two weekends in Gist Hall Theatre.  By then the fate of HSU theatre may have been decided, as the university looks to cut programs to save money.

Stage Matters Special: Humboldt Staged Marathon

The Humboldt Tourism Bureau hosts a 24-hour marathon of theatre in its first annual Staged Humboldt extravaganza, beginning at midnight (right now!)Thursday at the Arcata Theatre.

Expanding the concept of David Ferney’s solo show, The Misunderstood Badger, Arcata Playhouse presents Roob, a new Ferney work about a hick professor in the Australian outback obsessed with kangaroos, performed entirely on a trampoline. Jackie Dandeneau adds an a cappella rendition of the Van Halen classic, “Jump.”

Dell’Arte contributes California Faust, a commedia version of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, starring Joan Schirle as Ahnold the Magician and Michael Fields as his tempter, Robus Arklius. The Tyler Olson-penned tunes include “If I Only Had a Soul.”

Former members of Shake the Bard and Shakespeare in the Park combine for two shows: a new version of Othello set in the 2001 Los Angeles Lakers locker room, called Shaqthello, and a time travel mash-up of authors too dead to sue in Antony and Cleopatra and Jane Austen, and Vampires, Dude.

The Bard is also represented in NCRT’s Macbeth, set among burl sculptors in Orick in the 1980s, with music by Devo, Cyndi Lauper and the Cars.

Dan Stone combines elements of plays by Beckett and Eugene O’Neill with Neil Simon and the Firesign Theatre in the Santuary Stage production of Waiting for the Iceman or Someone Like Him, starring Tinamarie Ivey as Tina Fey playing the Virgin Mary, and Bob Wells as Father Time. “It’s even more obscure than usual,” Stone promises.

Redwood Curtain presents the postmodern Small Cast Sex Melodrama by contemporary playwright Tabitha Overly-Werkshopt. Graduates of HSU’s dramatic writing program return to perform Sixteen Playwrights in Search of a Production.
The Very Precious Players of Northcoast Prep combine music from Threepenny Opera and Oklahoma in a socially conscious dinner theatre presentation, Oklahoodie. Director Jean Bazemore warns sensitive Arcatans not to be alarmed if they see Klingons in the parking lot—it’s all part of the show.

Ferndale Rep presents a stage version of Hitchcock’s Psycho. Director Jasper Anderton confirms that Kimberly Haile’s shower scene will be “realistic, taking place offstage in a real motel room shower, probably in Garberville.”

Humboldt Light Opera continues its tradition of adaptations from classic novels with lots of parts for women with the operatic version of The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, with Brad Curtis in the role of Troy Aiken. However, the College of the Redwoods rendition of Richard III, set on a contemporary community college campus in northern Ca---no, that's southern Oregon--has been suddenly cancelled.

And what would a Humboldt theatre marathon be without live radio drama? KHSU brings back its all-star cast in the first of a series of underwriter-specific radio dramas, The Wildberries Mysteries: The Case of the Mislabeled Organic Banana. One innovative feature announced by co-organizer Jeff DeMark: “Special glasses will be available for those in the audience who want to watch this radio show in 3-D.”

This column--minus a few web-only additions--appears in the current Arcata Eye.

This North Coast Weekend

On Thursday, HSU Theatre, Film & Dance opens Stefanie Hero by Mark Medoff, a witty fairy tale for all ages directed by Jyl Hewston. It plays two weekends, Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 in the Gist Hall Theatre, with a 2 pm matinee on Sunday, April 11. HSUStage.

Also on Thursday, Ferndale Rep opens the classic musical Man of La Mancha, starring Humboldt County’s leading leading man, Brad Curtis, who plays the dual role of author Miguel Cervantes and his iconic creation, Don Quixote. It continues Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 until April 25.

On Saturday at 8 pm, the chaotic comedy of The Cody Rivers Show returns to the Arcata Playhouse with Right Back Where We Finished. This is a one-night- only stop on the duo’s national tour.

Continuing at North Coast Rep is Doubt: A Parable, reviewed below.

Doubt: A Haunting Parable at NCRT

The following review was scheduled for my Stage Matters column in the North Coast Journal this week (April 1 issue.) While I was writing it this weekend, I was informed that it wouldn't run--apparently a space issue. When the paper comes out tomorrow, perhaps we'll know why.

Some version of this review will now appear in the Journal in the April 8 issue (I hope.) But given the short run of the play reviewed, I thought I could at least publish the review here, at the time it was supposed to appear.

Live theatre happens in a particular time in the real world. No one associated with the North Coast Repertory Theatre production of Doubt: A Parable—a 2004 play that concerns allegations of a priest’s sexual misconduct—could have known that it would open as the Catholic Church is facing accusations over its handling of child abuse by clergy---and this time the charges are so serious that some observers suggest it is the gravest crisis the Church hierarchy has faced in modern times.

Some of the cases in the news are from the 1960s, and this play is set in a Bronx parish in 1964. But even though it is pertinent in some respects, it will probably disappoint those looking for complete answers on this issue. As written by John Patrick Shanley, this play has some of the qualities of the topical debate plays that were popular in that era, like Inherit the Wind or Twelve Angry Men. But the word “parable” is in the title for a reason. The play concerns such philosophical issues as the nature of knowledge, doubt and certainty, and the turmoil in the human heart.

The Oscar-nominated 2008 movie version (which Shanley wrote and directed) added incidents and characters, as well as the specific atmosphere of the Bronx. This stage version however has only four characters—all adults-- and takes place in just a few locations.

The story pits Sister Aloysius, the stern veteran principal of St. Nicholas grade school, against Father Flynn, a progressive priest who advocates a gentler approach. Sister Aloysius suspects Father Flynn of improper behavior involving an eighth grade boy, who is also the only black child in the school. Sister James, whose observation sparked this suspicion, is a young nun caught in the middle—trying to live up to the senior nun’s standards, but sympathetic to the priest’s apparent openness and enthusiasm. The fourth character is the boy’s mother (Mrs. Muller), who adds more complications. Sister Aloysius makes her accusation, and the consequences comprise the rest of the play.

Since I attended Catholic schools in this era, taught by this same order of nuns (Sisters of Charity), certain details reminded me of what I’d forgotten I knew. The principal’s office at the center of William Nevins’ efficient set had the right photos on the wall—Popes John and Paul (Popes George and Ringo came later—ha ha, Catholic schoolboy humor), but the crucifix seemed way too small. I was unexpectedly scandalized when Sister Aloysius crossed her legs. The nuns in my school would have considered that provocative, almost lewd.

Janet Waddell as Sister Aloysius was convincingly scary but also complicated, and Josh Kelly as Father Flynn conveyed a more youthful spirit, but also a troubled nature. Wanda Stapp effectively portrayed Sister James’ anguish in trying to reconcile the conflicting influence of the two alphas. Though Michelle Renee Kegan has only one scene as Mrs. Muller, she evoked powerful emotion.

Michael Thomas directed with intelligence and intriguing effects, especially in the riveting climactic scene. Sister Aloysius seemed to get hypnotically demonic, emphasized by Katie Pratt’s dramatic lighting. But when I pried my eyes away from her to look at Father Flynn, his anger was just as dark—and seemed just as emphasized by the lighting.

Though most of the play consists of dialogues between two people, it seemed to be more a set of monologues, in which the actors—perhaps intentionally-- didn’t engage each other. They talked past and over each other, and rarely made eye contact.

Catholics in the audience may be more attuned to the issues of religious faith and doubt, and those who remember this era know that it was a time of major transition: in just a few years, such traditions as the Latin Mass would be gone, and that young nun could kick her habit for more contemporary clothes.

But doubt and certainty have political and judicial consequences, and it’s on the central matter of the priest’s guilt or innocence that the play is often a Rorschach test, apparently by Shanley’s design. As a parable, it doesn't seem to have a clear moral. The play both illustrates how dangerous allegations of such crimes can be, and suggests the shadowy machinations of cover-up.

But I think it’s fair to say the play takes no firm position on even the facts of the priest’s behavior, so for some it may feel more like too clever a vagueness rather than a mind-opening ambiguity. Perhaps it works in the territory between the unsettling and the unsatisfying. But for whatever reasons, or from whatever point of view, this is apt to be a haunting 90 minutes of theatre.

But you have to see it to decide. Doubt: A Parable continues weekends at NCRT until April 17.

This North Coast Weekend

North Coast Rep opens Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley tonight for a weekend run through April 17. All performances will be Friday and Saturday at 8, with another Thursday show on April 15, and two Sunday matinees at 2, on March 28 and April 11. Michael Thomas directs.

There's a free staged reading of an original script at HSU this weekend: On Death and Living by Alex Gradine, directed by Steven Robert King. It's Friday at 4 and 7 pm, and Saturday at 7 in HSU’s Theatre Arts building 117. Talk backs will follow the show.

This North Coast Weekend

Did you miss me? Don't answer that. But with the car and the computer both in the shop this week, it's been quiet hereabouts. Elsewhere however, there are shows up and running: Antigone at the College of the Redwoods Forum Theatre at 8 pm Friday and Saturday, with a 2 pm matinee on Sunday (photo above.)

Dell'Arte School's first years present their annual melodrama, titled On the Wings of A Dove, in the Carlo at 8 pm, Friday and Saturday. Arcata High School presents A Midsummer Night's Dream at 7:30 pm Friday and Saturday.

Random People Monologues: SoHum Tales happens on Sunday at 2 pm at the Mateel.

HSU Going Dark

If stage matters on the North Coast, then this matters: the graduate programs of the Humboldt State University Theatre, Film & Dance department are on the list for elimination. The undergraduate programs may be right behind them.

It's getting to be decision time at HSU, in the latest budget crisis. The Academic Senate has formally listed those graduate programs for elimination, and the department has to defend them--has to say why they shouldn't be scrapped.

The evaluation has nothing to do with their value. It has to do with numerical criteria devised to look like a relevant objective measure. It looks to me like the usual bureaucratic smokescreen, but what do I know.

What I do know is that virtually every production of every theatre organization here depends in part on students--graduate and undergraduate--of HSU, as well as faculty and long-ago graduates of the Theatre department. HSU students starred in, designed and worked on the latest North Coast Rep show. An HSU student directed the latest Ferndale Rep show. Even though Dell'Arte has its own fine school, its productions often use HSU faculty and grads. Humboldt Light Opera, North Coast Prep, and the other groups that come and go...none of it would be the same, and some of it wouldn't exist, without HSU theatre.

And then there's what HSU theatre produces--that no one else locally does. That too, is threatened. But it's even worse than that. Part of the reason that the HSU Theatre department looks so expensive is that it is responsible for running the Van Duzer and other performance spaces. Those costs get figured as department costs. So will those venues also close? And will the other theatre organizations who use those spaces need to go elsewhere?

It gets even worse than that. Also on the list for program elimination is the Music department. Another group of students, graduates and faculty that are essential to musical theatre as well as the musical vitality of Humboldt County. I can't imagine musical theatre at North Coast Rep over the past several years, for example, without the talents who came through HSU. Similiar arguments could be made about dance and film.

Part of the horror of the budget process is the zero sum game--if this isn't cut, then another worthy program--and its faculty and students--must go. I don't happen to think it has to be that way, but I'll stay with just this point: the local community has a stake in the decisions being made at HSU. In particular, the local theatre community has a stake in the fate of the HSU Theatre, Film and Dance department.

A particular irony now is that HSU is set to host next year's regional festival of the Kennedy Center American Theatre Festival. That's 800 to 1200 students, along with hundreds of faculty, etc., from colleges and universities in Northern California (San Francisco/Sacramento and north), Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Northern Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. They'll be in Arcata for a week, going to shows, spending money. I stood in the lobby of the Arcata Playhouse a few weeks ago, and listened to stories from several prominent local theatre figures who participated in past regionals here, including one who got his start in North Coast theatre because of it.

But next spring, it could be a wake instead of a validation and celebration. Depending on what HSU does this year.

I've got a few obvious self-interests here. I do part-time work for both HSU Theatre, Film & Dance and the Music department. My partner is probably going to be the next chair of TFD. But it seems to me that everybody in the theatre community here has a self-interest to some degree--that's my point.

Maybe that self-interest ought to be declared to those making the decisions--like the Academic Senate and the Provost. Before it's too late.

This North Coast Weekend

I comment in the post below on the HSU production of Pinter's The Homecoming at the HSU Studio Theatre, and my review of Kopit's Sing to Me Through Open Windows (photo above), a Sanctuary Stage production at the Arcata Playhouse, is in this week's Journal. This is the final weekend for both productions: the Kopit is Thurs-through-Sat at 8, and the Pinter is Thurs-through-Sat at 7:30, and Sunday at 2.

For this weekend only, North Coast Rep presents Hidden in This Picture, a one act comedy about theatre people making a movie by Aaron Sorkin (of The West Wing fame) on Friday and Saturday at 8, and Sunday at 2 p.m.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 8, The Dell'Arte Company Cabaret features your favorite Dell'Artesans plus special guests and a sneak preview of their epic work-in-progress: Blue Lake: The Opera. Then on Monday, Dell'Arte hosts visiting Le Cabaret Noir's Sin on Heels, advertised as "a tawdry blend of burlesque and gender-bending performances."