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This is the 9th anniversary of the 9 x 9 x 9. It started as a forum for playwrights to experiment and try different ideas and new short work. The nine new plays are each approximately 9 minutes long by seven different playwrights. (Once upon a time they started at 9:00pm...hmmmm) It also gives directors and actors a chance to stretch different muscles so to speak. You would be surprised at the variety of styles of plays. This year the playwrights decided to do an all-comedy version. You will enjoy these new shows; laughs, giggles, guffaws and snorts were heard in abundance.
The King is Retired; Long Live the King, written by Ann Marie Oliva, directed by Ted Delorme.
Ted Delorme is his normal funny, bumbling self as the King. Brenda Hochreiter plays the Queen beautifully (a long, long time ago she was known as Sleeping Beauty). The cast is rounded out with Wyounda Horton as the gorgeous Princess Shaneesha from neighboring Gastonialee and Joel Sumner as King Junior. Laughs abound as an exhausted King has to discuss life, love and King Junior with his insomniac Queen; compounded by a visit from Junior and the Princess.
It's All About the Mayonaise written by Laura Pfizenmayer, directed by Gaye Haid
Southern humor at it cutest with Clee Knooihuizen as Mama discusses life's quirks with daughter, Lora Beth, played by Michelle Hough while making potato salad. Yes, it may take longer, but "from scratch" is much better than store bought, and it definitely is all about the mayo.
Judge Julie and the Expectant Father written by Don Cook, directed by Della Freedman
Judge Julie is set on a "live TV show set." Judge Julie is played by Della Freedman with tongue-in-cheek humor and archness. Bailiff BB is played with comic naiveté by David Cruse. Francis (Michael Szymanski) is suing Angelique (Therese St. Germain) who manages a home for unwed mothers in a reverse discrimination suit for bannning him from sleeping with his girlfriend. Cute, cute, cute!
Nature's Way written by Ryan Jenkins, directed by Douglas Welton
While stalking a leopard in some desolate bush, Porter (Paul Goodson) is challenged by Landon (Lou Dallessandro) to catch the leopard's attention in a dare. Silly, macho stupidity is a given.
Coat Postal written and directed by Tim Baxter-Ferguson
Bea (Sarah Kier) and Cal (Aaron Watkins) and Betty (Melissa Scott) and Al (Timothy Leftwich) reflect the same couple, but further along, and at the beginning of the relationship; an interesting juxtaposition on what is definitely the best set of the night.
The Penny Pincher written by Dawn Cauthen, directed by Patrick Howsare
Everyone knows someone who is a cheapskate, but Tom Olson as Steven Zeblon really kicks it up a notch. Zendyn Duelman plays his very frustrated wife, Trish Zeblon and Scott Flanary (Drew, the waiter) try to keep some semblance of normal behavior going in the face of some very funny schtick.
Momology written by Ann Marie Oliva, directed by Annette Saunders
Three mothers discuss aspects of motherhood, from first feeling the flutters of pregnancy through dealing with obstreperous teens and beyond. Shows the ups and downs, the hilarity of some situations, the poignancy of others. The moms are: Mom #1- Corrine Biazzo; Mom #2 - Charlotte Hampton; Mom #3 - Annette Saunders.
The 612-Year-Old Man written by Mark Pizzato, directed by Jim Esposito
Alan England is phenomenal as the Old Man in this hilarious play about a history teacher who thinks he has lived since the Crusades, since they are more real to him than his granddaughter (Robyn Shute). The straight man in this case is the Nurse (Michelle Fleshman-Cross).
The Shaft written by Don Cook, directed by Della Freedman
A reclusive playwright has moved into a recently renovated theatre's elevator shaft and all the furniture is from different sets from previous shows. Michael Szymanski plays Denny (the playwright) who is confronted by the Boss (David Cruse) and his assistant, Courtney (Therese St. Germain) who does know where he is and what has happened; slap-stick and very funny.
Review by Karen G. Lambruschi
Karen Lambruschi has been involved in theatre in South Carolina for over a dozen years as a stage manager, teacher, director and (under duress) an actress. She is currently on the board of Rock Hill Community Theatre and works in North Carolina in the entertainment industry.
(Full Disclosure: All of the playwrights listed have written reviews for ARTS à Mode; Ann Marie Oliva is the editor.)
What's in a face? We might say that true beauty is more than skin deep. But beautiful, young faces and bodies are so magnified today by our mass media that such inner beauty becomes hard to believe in—or find—if it is not mirrored in an outer form.
The Phantom of the Opera (based on a French novel from 1910) was originally staged in London in 1986 and later became the longest running musical in Broadway history. It is famous for its romantic characters, ghoulish mystery, and operatic passions. Yet the fame of its lead character bears much irony. How substantial is this phantom and his musical drama? He turns out to be a human, not a ghost, who wears a half mask because one side of his face is horribly disfigured. He thus combines elements of the Elephant Man, Svengali, Mephistopheles, and even the theatre god Dionysus—with a chorus girl, Christine, becoming the extension of his ideal artistic desires.
Having taught Christine to sing, the masked Phantom demands affectionate loyalty from his protégé. He also forces those in the theatre he haunts to make her a star, leaving letters that insist his new opera be performed with her in the lead. When she betrays him, falling in love with a handsome young Vicomte, the Phantom takes revenge. But he receives pity from Christine, despite his murder of two people in the theatre. She kisses him to save the Vicomte from a similar fate, yet the mystery continues. Has she fallen in love with the monstrous Phantom after all? Does this change him? Or return him, as her "Angel of Music," to hell?
This character study does not give the details of character development. Yet, its plot holes create more mystery for imaginative spectators to fill with their own passions and insights, inspired by the show's music, romance, and Gothic spectacle. It is set in 1881 (except for the opening scene, an auction 30 years later) and in various areas of the monumental Paris Opera House, plus the Phantom's underground labyrinth and a graveyard—with many amazing scenic effects.
The proscenium frame of the Belk becomes much enhanced by golden baroque angels and satyrs, some of which come alive, like flying Jack o' Lanterns. An added chandelier over the stage also expresses the Phantom's passions. There are several opera, ballet, and party scenes, with huge Egyptian cow-headed gods and a life-size (but not live) elephant, a picturesque pastoral backdrop, and a joyous yet sinister masquerade on the lobby's grand staircase. We see boxes from above the stage, inside the star's dressing room (with its phantom mirror), the managers' office, and the performers' view, from backstage, of the darkness of the audience. We even go to the roof of the theatre. And the steamy lake, where Christine floats with her Phantom to his labyrinth, is even more mysterious, as he lures her into "the music of the night."
Lighting transforms the stage during these scenes, as well as between them. The many bejeweled costumes and masks are fantastic, too. And there are surprises with fire and magic tricks, plus moving choreography and gestures, along with various moments of humor. But the best treats come from the excellent voices, in powerful arias and the complex, layered dialogue of recitative. Even if the lyrics are difficult to discern at times (and the acting not as fine as the voices), the play’s music echoes throughout its spectacle and within the bodies performing and watching, as the Belk becomes the Paris Opera House and its audience is haunted, like Christine, with the "phantom in my mind."
In Phantom, various styles of music and movement vie for power: threatening organ chords, sweet romantic tunes, grand opera, comic operetta, and dainty ballet. All of it entertains. Yet, an irony remains. With all this showiness and contrapuntal harmony, what demons are shaped in the darkness, in others without beautiful faces, who are devalued and demeaned? Or in the talented beauties that we idealize onstage and onscreen? Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre at UNC-Charlotte and author of Ghosts of Theatre and Cinema in the Brain and Theatres of Human Sacrifice. His plays have been published by Aran Press and his screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.
If, as a theatergoer, you think you've seen everything, look again. Maybe theatre cannot compete today with movie spectacle or TV immediacy, but it can still impress. Especially when there's a pool in the middle of the stage, actors appearing from underwater, and detailed scenery and costumes that evoke ancient Greco-Roman myths.
CAST is a small theatre that likes to take on big challenges. But this may be its biggest yet. Based on Ovid's stories about the interactions of gods and humans, Zimmerman's version of Metamorphoses requires a pool center stage, used throughout the show, with an underwater tunnel for entrances and exits.
With this production, the audience enters CAST through a cave-like environment when they pick up their seashell tickets. The lobby then shows the ruins of ancient columns, seagulls, and videos of ancient Mediterranean travel. Plus Bacchus joining spectators at the bar, celebrating the drinks and "Italian food" (free Fuel Pizza on Friday nights).
As it happens, I just returned from a trip to visit ancient Greek and Roman ruins in Italy and France. But I think any spectator might be drawn by this CAST lobby to imagine such ruins and their original inhabitants, from 2,000 or more years ago. The set inside the theatre, designed by Robert L. and Michael R. Simmons, brings to life the typical atrium of a wealthy Roman home (ruins of which I'd recommend seeing in Roselle, Ostia, Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Vienne). There are columns and an impluvium, a rectangular pool, which would have been below an opening in the roof, for collecting rainwater as well as providing beautiful reflections within the home.
Such liquid reflections in this show, along with fantastic costumes by Maria Marciano (a former student of mine at UNC-Charlotte), enable many mythic transformations. The bodies of 23 actors mutate into various gods and human heroes, while new music by Michael Sharpe and Alex Mauldin augments the lyricism. (Ron Taylor also sings operatically as the god Apollo in one scene.) Some of the myths may seem cliché or somewhat sketchy, yet they often bear ancient wisdom, while offering many humorous twists and modern ties.
King Midas appears in a tux and tries to explain his logic of wealth, getting annoyed at his daughter's interruptions, even before he turns her to gold. Poseidon's sea-monsters cause a wondrous shipwreck (in the pool onstage) and a parade of the dead to the underworld, with a ghost then returning to his grieving wife, Alcyone, through her prayers to Aphrodite, and further transformations. Erysichthon becomes ravenous, with Hunger riding on his back, after he defies the goddess Ceres, by cutting down a sacred tree. Orpheus goes to the underworld (through the onstage pool and its waterfall shower), regaining his dead wife as a "loan," yet losing her again on the return trip to earth. But she also gets a voice, in this show, through the poetry of Rilke as well as Ovid.
In the second act, the passion between a father and daughter, Vertumnus and Pomona, becomes both beautiful and perverse, as directed by Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Then Phaeton, son of Apollo, tells how he borrowed his father's sun-chariot and crashed it, like a wayward teen talking to a modern therapist, about his attempts at getting attention. Eros becomes a monster to Psyche, until she overcomes her fear of his passionate weaponry. And an elderly couple gives hospitality to Zeus and Hermes, disguised as beggars, which also brings a tragicomic ending to the first story in this play.
Despite the large ensemble and elaborate set, Metamorphoses flows smoothly from one myth to the next. Its ancient, poetic charm (along with a warm CAST theatre and passionate stories) made some spectators want to join the performers in the pool, though the appearance of Narcissus provided a caveat about that. And yet, the magic of this show still provides a metamorphic swim with the gods—at least in my mind. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre at UNC-Charlotte and author of Ghosts of Theatre and Cinema in the Brain and Theatres of Human Sacrifice. His plays have been published by Aran Press and his screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.