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.