Open Wardrobes

This afternoon I went to see The Royal Family at Lakeshore Players. Loosely based on the Barrymore family, this 1920's comedy chronicles the misadventures of the Cavendish family, from Uncle Bertie's latest attempt to get back on the stage to latest scandal of black sheep Tony Cavendish. It is a chaotic family, with everyone coming and going at every moment, although at times the nearly three hour show suffered from slow pacing. In the end though director Joe Hendren brings us along for a fun roller coaster ride with a family we are secretly glad we don't have to spend Thanksgiving with.

Karen Rene-Peterson as Julie Cavendish helps anchor the family and the cast, as the current leading lady of the family she has to help keep everyone else's life together while trying to keep a handle on her own. She aptly portrays a woman at a crossroads as Julie looks back on her life wondering if she took the path she truly wanted or the one simply expected of her. Syd Stephen and Jan Arford as Uncle Bertie and Aunt Kitty play wonderfully off each other as the bickering couple trying to recapture their former glory. Christopher Kidder does a nice job as the fun-loving, wild son of the family, and James Crews stands out as Oscar Wolfe who has the unenviable job of trying to manage the Cavendish family's affairs. Miranda Mewes also gives a strong performance as Gwen, youngest of the family, whose conflict between the family name and her own desires mirrors her mother's own struggle.

Beyond the comedic surface of the play lies the question of what causes some of us to choose the artistic life, despite all of the trials that such a life brings with it. Julie and Gwen both struggle with this question, with part of them wanting nothing more than to quit the stage and lead a "normal" life. However, in trying to do so they discover that when something is your passion it has a way of drawing you back, however impractical it may seem. Despite the the chaos of the life she lives, in the end Julie seems to realize that the life she has led is the life that has made her truly happy. From my own experience, this is indeed what brings so many of us back to the theater time and time again, despite all of the work involved. Somewhere in the middle of memorizing lines and the long nights of rehearsals, we realize that coming together and creating this ephemeral work on the stage is what brings us joy.

Lastly, Technical Director Dennis Joslyn works his magic once again with a beautiful set that makes you wonder just how he managed to fit it on such a small stage. The Royal Family continues for three more weekends, performing Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 2 PM through March 28th. 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.

You write a play, toil over every word, send hours putting together submission packages, and finally one day it finds a home with a publisher who sends it out into the world. I was curious the other day at just what sort of a reach my plays have had, published and otherwise, and so I decided to pull together all the information I have about where my plays have so far been produced. Fortunately all of the publishers I work with give me this information in some way the basic information, plus I've kept all those details for productions I've licensed as well.

What I learned is that so far I have had plays performed in over 30 US states, in 5 Canadian provinces, and an additional 8 countries around the world across a total of 5 continents. The majority of the productions have been thanks to Illinois Jane and the Pyramid of Peril which has done well so far with Pioneer Drama Service. I have at least one more US state coming up (North Dakota with the premiere of The Princess and the Moon at the Shade Tree Players this summer), and possibly my first South American production as well, hitting continent #6.

It's exciting to see how far my plays have traveled so far and I hope that their reach will continue to grow, as my existing plays travel further and new ones join them in their travels.

After working on the commedia and the Adaptation over the past couple of months, I've come up with a new goal for myself for this year:

To write five rough drafts.

It's an ambitious goal, but I'm well on my way with two rough drafts down already in about a month and a half, which made me realize the virtue of setting a goal towards which you have already made significant progress. Part of this goal is that at least two of these rough drafts be brand new (such as the commedia) while the rest can either be new or be finishing up a draft that I've started but haven't yet finished (such as the Adaptation). Right now as I work on some revisions to the commedia I'm also sketching out some ideas for a new play, a comedy. I have a few other ideas that I've been meaning to work on, plus a couple of other pieces that have been gathering dust, and this seemed like a good way to motivate myself to get at least a full draft down on paper. The idea isn't that all of these plays will be finished and polished by the end of the year, but at least I should end the year with a lot of raw material down and ready for the next stage.

Yesterday afternoon Kelly and I went to the Tea Source and I wrapped up the very rough draft of the Adaptation. It is indeed VERY rough, my goal with this first pass mostly being to start laying out the structure and figure out what parts from the book I want to keep and what definitely needs to be cut. So far I don't feel like I've had to cut too much (it's not an extremely long book). The next pass will, I think, be focused on streamlining the structure so that I can keep scene changes and technical needs to a minimum. In the rough draft I was also pulling out the dialogue from the book I think I want to keep, plus starting to add in my own dialogue where it's clear that some sort of bridge is needed. For the moment though I'm going to set it aside as I start to work on revisions to the commedia piece. But it's exciting to think that since January 1st I've written an entire rough draft (the commedia) and picked up and completed a second draft (the Adaptation).

Last night Walking Shadow Theatre Company opened their second production this season: Mojo by Jez Butterworth and directed by company member Amy Rummenie. Set in 1950's Soho as Rock and Roll is growing in popularity, the play centers around the staff of the Atlantic nightclub who believe they've found the next big Rock and Roll star and are eager to get a piece of the pie. After a hit concert starring their find, Silver Johnny, they think their fortunes made, but it all goes south when the nightclub owner is sawed in half and Silver Johnny disappears, all courtesy of the local mob boss, and the rest of the nightclub staff holes up in the club waiting to see what the fallout will be.

I've mentioned before that the scripts Walking Shadow chooses can be hit or miss for me, though the production value is always top notch. Mojo wasn't the best script they've chosen, but overall I thought it was a fun piece. The play had a nice rhythm to it, even if the characters spend most of their time waiting for a hit that never comes. It also could stand for about 20-30 minutes of trimming; at almost 3 hours (including an intermission) the play was long for what the story was, despite the actors' great pacing. (And due to the excessive language, it's definitely not one to take the kids too.)

But whatever you think of the script itself, this was a production that belonged to the actors. The strong cast kept the play moving swiftly along, a must for a script that is mostly talk. A weaker cast would have quickly become bogged down in the text, but such was not the case here. Skyler Nowinski was my favorite, with his quirky portrayal of Potts who schemes and dreams of riches in the wake of his great find. He is wonderfully complemented by Joey Ford's delightfully good-natured and none-to-bright Sweets who is mostly along for the ride. Ryan Parker Knox provides a nice counterpoint to this humorous pair as the straight-faced number two who must figure out how they can survive the night in the wake of his boss' murder. Mark Benzel does a nice job as well as the awkward Skinny who tries desperately to fit in while escaping the harassment of the sadistic Baby (Anthony Sarnicki). Kudos must also go to the cast for dealing with the the unexpected seventh cast member: a bat who flew around for about 20 minutes during the second act. They persevered despite its repeated interruptions and it certainly made for a nice humorous break. (There are some experiences you just can't get except in live theater.) I have to also call out the great scene design by Steve Kath. I wasn't so impressed during act one, just a simple room on one side of stage... until I realized during intermission that once it and the curtains were removed there was an entirely different set for the downstairs of the club behind it!

So all in all a solid production. Shows continue through February 27th at the Red Eye Theater in Minneapolis with a Pay-What-You-Can performance this Monday night (shows at 7:30 PM, except for Sundays which are a 3:00 PM). 4 out of 5 stars.

Last Sunday afternoon we wrapped up Doubt with our last performance, and 15 minutes later were hard at work tearing the set apart. Four weekends felt like the right amount of time to me for a run. I'm always sad to have a show over: you may work with the same people again or do the same play again, but it's never quite the same. Each production is it's own unique experience that can never be recaptured again, on stage or off, and that is part of what is so wonderful about it. It is transient, but there is a beauty in that transience, just as there is in a sunset. It happens every day and yet each in unique, and were it not so it could easily become mundane. Even within a production every performance is different. The wonder of live performance is that it never is the same twice but wholly unique. And we as actors and audience are changed by the experience, in large ways and small, and do not come out of it the same as we went in, not if we are truly experiencing it. The end of a production means leaving the character behind, parting ways after spending so much time together, but I am always conscious that a piece of the character stays with me. I am a different person than I would have been for not portraying this role (which is why I believe that a good actor is not someone who can play any role, but is someone who knows what roles they should play). The experience of being in a show is too an interesting observation of human nature. You can throw a group of random people together, potentially where none of they have ever met each other before, and by the end of the show have a group that functions as a family. Certainly this does not always happen, most actors probably have at least one story of a completely dysfunctional cast, but when it happens there is a magic there and it translates to what you see on stage.


And the show is over, and these people you have spent hours and hours with over the course of weeks or months you may not see again. But something special has been created that goes beyond the performance. It is, I think, akin to what is meant in the Christian sense when we talk of the Body of Christ: together we are something that we could not be alone, and yet without any loss of our individuality. C. S. Lewis compares the Christian view with others that seek a Oneness of humanity, pointing out that Christianity differs in its thoughts on this in that as the Body of Christ we are more ourselves, not less, for being one in God. A theater performance is much the same: we need to be our unique selves in order to create something together that is more than the sum of its parts. It is a paradox, but one thing life has taught me is that "paradox" is not a synonym for "false," however much it means we may not understand.

Over the past couple of months I've been sending out emails to community and children's theaters in Minnesota and neighboring states, searching for an initial production for The Princess and the Moon. I've had some nibbles and several companies interested in reading the script and others who weren't. And then, a couple days ago, finally, a bite. I had an email from the program manager at Shade Tree Players Children's Theatre in Bismark, ND saying that they wanted to do The Princess and the Moon as one of their productions this summer. Shade Tree does a number of shows over the summer and their focus is plays performed by kids and teens (similar to Lakeshore's Summer Youth Project). I'm planning to drive out there for a few days to catch the show. So, it's exciting to finally have someone interested in doing this play and I look forward to seeing it!

On Sunday morning, before I had to head off for my Sunday matinee of Doubt, Kelly and I decided to go sit at a coffee shop for a bit. We tried a new place here in Saint Paul, on Payne Avenue, called Polly's Coffee Cove. We soon realized this was the neighborhood spot - everyone else seemed to know everyone else. It was a nice spot. Kelly did some reading while I continued and finished the first draft of my commedia piece (still needs a good title, hmmmm...). I'm shooting for something around an hour and this looks so far to be more, so that gives me some room to trim (or perhaps shoot for a 75-minute piece?). I was surprised at how quickly the draft went (23 days), but it helped a great deal that I had a detailed outline drawn up before I sat down and started writing. I mentioned in an earlier post that I did this to try and more closely follow the style of the true commedia, where the actors would post a detailed scenario (showing the scenes and entrances and exits) and improv the show from there. I don't normally do an outline when starting a new play and so it made for a fun change of pace for me. And seeing how quickly the draft went once I had the outline, I see the benefit of it! The Playwright Purge (i.e. write something everyday for 30 days) I'm participating in finishes up next week, and so I've started chipping away again at an Adaptation I'm working on to round out the Purge, and then will start looking at revisions of the commedia piece once I've typed the rest of it up. On the Adaptation I'm in the middle of a bit with an interesting technical challenge - how do you portray giants on stage when they need to interact with normal-sized characters?

Yesterday afternoon, before heading off to my own performance, Kelly and I went to see The Mousetrap at Lyric Arts. I've seen the play a couple of times before (including the long-running production in London), but not for many years and Kelly hadn't see it at all. It's the first time I've seen Lyric's space. It's a great theater and the beautiful set fit in perfectly (I wasn't always sure where the set ended and the theater itself began). Overall this cast of 8 was strong. Rachel Weber was a highlight with her reserved and inscrutable Miss Casewell, as was Ron Tolliver with his genial Major Metcalf. Joe Hendren gave a solid performance as Sergeant Trotter as he tries to unravel the mystery despite the lack of cooperation among the guests. Mary Kay Fortier-Spalding was also a delight with her hard-to-please Miss Boyle. Allie Munson was nice, if busy, as Molly Ralston and she made a good pairing with Toby Rust as her husband Giles. I found Tim Gage's Christopher Wren a little over the top, and Keith Wynecoop's Paravicini was sadly lacking any sense of mystery.


While a long production (a good 2 1/2 hours or so, including intermission) it did not feel slow-paced and Christie's wonderful script keeps the audience engaged throughout. The show runs for one last weekend (January 28 - 31) with evening shows on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and matinees on Saturday and Sunday. Definitely a good opportunity to catch a classic. 4 out of 5 stars.

With the first weekend of Doubt over, I've had several days off which has given me time to work on the commedia dell'arte piece. Kelly and I spent Monday afternoon (off from work for Martin Luther King Day) at the Tea Source, as usual one of our favorite writing hangouts (with some great baked goods from La Patisserie in addition to the wonderful tea). I spent several hours working on the commedia piece which is nearing its climax. Commedia scenarios were often very complex, and so I've been trying to work in as many different threads as I can. The challenge of course is to get them to all come together in the end. I went on for several pages with one false start on Monday before I found the right direction for the scene I'm working on. Sometimes seeing a few wrong ways for a scene to go helps me identify the right way. It's been interesting working on a piece like this where the characters, after a fashion, are pre-exisiting. I want to give them my own flavor, but the general outlines have been around for centuries, I'm just coloring them in a little as I'm sure the actors of the original commedia all did. It's a good example of how sometimes having set factors in a piece can help. Staying as true to commedia conventions as I can has actually helped spur this piece along. Having certain parameters to work within has freed me to focus on the story. I've been participating this month in the Playwrights' Purge, a companion to the Binge, where you write something, anything, every day for 30 days. This has been my project and having that extra impetus to be writing every day has been helpful. We're about halfway through the Purge right now and I have a rough draft nearly complete! At this point my only concern about the Purge is what to work on once the rough draft of the commedia is done. That's a good feeling.