Theatre--Review (ART at Theatre 810)

Acadiana Repertory Theatre has done something unusual by launching a New Works Festival. Various artists associated with ART will read the parts of characters from ten new plays, two on Friday, two on Saturday, and one on Sunday over two weekends. The plays are quite diverse, and the first weekend provided lively entertainment, though it’s always a little hard to gauge a play’s true potential without
seeing the blocking. Still, it’s fun to try. Thanks to an illness, I missed the Friday night performances but was able to catch Saturday’s and Sunday’s.

So far, Sunday’s entertainment is the clear winner. David Stallings’ Barrier Island had the sound of a compelling drama all too true about the Gulf Coast people and those who remain no matter what hurricane is barreling their way. It concerns Capadona’s Bar in Galveston, Texas, owned by Laura’s parents Margie and Charlie, but effectively rented to and run by Nate and Suzie, friends of the family one might say. Laura, who’s been gone for over a decade, has hastily returned with her son Daniel for two reasons: recent unemployment and her father Charlie has suffered a stroke. She returns home to discover the family’s finances in disarray, her mother Margie essentially is the throes of Alzheimer’s, and the house looks like a disaster area with opened food cans everywhere. The sturm and drang of the play comes in the second act, where the audience discovers that Laura’s family’s financial troubles are due to Nate and Suzie, who had stopped paying rent for the last year, citing financial pressures of sending their own children to expensive schooling. Even in the best of families such difficulties arise and the fighting is just as classic. There are no wasted characters in this gumbo, with a classmate of Laura’s named Trey Dobbs, to the bar regular named Bob, his daughter Cheryl and his granddaughter Stephanie, who’s taken a liking to a slow-witted patron
named Carl. There is a lull in Act one from about the thirty minute mark until the act ends at approximately one hour where the play tends to drag a little. The opening and almost all of Act two make the play well worth listening to, and a full staging of this play would certainly be interesting.

The other two productions on Saturday paled in comparison. Matthew Ivan Bennett penned the frank In the Open, focusing on two picked-on teenagers who exact revenge in the worst possible way. Set in Utah, in the heart of Mormonism, In the Open is a brooding, disturbing tale of Dustin and Jordan and the all-too-typical problems teenagers face in small town communities. Dustin’s mother, Chris—short for Christina,
I’m assuming—is in a dead-end job and finds solace both in her relationship with her co-worker, Valerie, supposedly a lesbian, and her soon-to-be-adopted Mormon faith, solidly shown through the works of a Mormon teacher Daniel, who happens to be Jordan’s father. That’s how Dustin and Jordan meet, through a prayer meeting between Chris and Daniel, but the pairing of the two boys leads to disaster. These friends exact lethal revenge on a racist teacher and his bully son, and though Dustin’s girlfriend of sorts, Stephanie, tries to stop the boys, she fails to prevent their attempt to intimidate their tormentors. Overall, the play had some thoroughly unbelievable dialogue between the teenagers, though the scenes involving Stephanie and Jordan had an appealing innocence. The actual teenager who attacks the bully is unexpected, something actually pleasant in theatre these days, but the final scene felt like a rushed and badly written attempt to tie up
loose ends. The final scene was anti-climactic and it slightly ruined what had been up to then a somewhat interesting production.

The least satisfying of the three productions was the play The Terrible Girls, a captivating title for a less-than-fulfilling play by Jacqueline Goldfinger. Perhaps the blocking adds to the production, but I found it difficult to warm up to the three protagonists, waitresses who work in a rural Southern bar in White Springs, Florida. One senses immediately that the three gals don’t necessarily get along, but they don’t leave either, something which becomes eminently clear as they are all linked by intrigue and murder. Minnie is the simple-minded and religious waitress, but Bertie is the somewhat sensible and more prudish character who’s offended by the salacious manner of Gretch, who goes after and picks up a deaf patron. In a scene of hilarity, Gretch is making out with the poor deaf fellow until she accidentally punches a hole in the dry wall and a skull comes rolling out. The audience is no longer in Kansas anymore as all three ladies prove that they have skeletons—literally—hiding everywhere. It’s Grand Guignol in the style of Hush… Hush… Sweet Charlotte, and the horror soon drenches everything in this production. The ending is rushed, little is explained as to who are these bodies or exactly how many there might be, how they get away with it all, and who actually did all the murdering. It’s a play that needs some work.

I’m looking forward to the second weekend of the New Works Festival, which is slated to include 100 Planes by Lila Rose Kaplan, and Human Capacity by Jennifer Barclay on Friday, Principal Principle by Joe Zarrow and A Place to Land by Chelsea Marcantel on Saturday, and A Home Across the Ocean by Acadiana native Cody Daigle on Sunday. Whichever play gets the most votes will become part of ART’s regular upcoming season, an intriguing way to select your plays. I look forward to seeing which play wins.
---Vincent P. Barras

Theatre--Performance (Playwright Profile)

This is the next in a series of introductions to the playwrights whose shows are part of the ART New Works Festival beginning on June 22nd at Theatre 810.

This is Jacqueline Goldfinger.  Her play, THE TERRIBLE GIRLS, will be read on Saturday, June 23rd at 8:30 pm.

Jacqueline Goldfinger is a Barrymore nominated Philadelphia-based playwright/dramaturg who teaches playwriting at University of the Arts. She is the Playwright-in-Residence at Azuka Theatre where she is developing her new dark comedy, Skin & Bone. Her other full-length plays include Slip/Shot (PlayPenn, Lark Playwrights Week, Flashpoint Theatre Company, Weissberger Award nominee), the terrible girls (Azuka Theatre, Moxie Theatre, NYFringe, Barrymore Award nominee for Outstanding New Play), The Oath (Theatre Exile, Off-Off Broadway Maieutic Theatre Works, Penobscot Theatre), and The Burning Season (Winner of the National Plays for the 21st Century Competition). Her work is published by Playscripts and Smith & Krauss. 

Theatre--Performance (Playwright Profile)

This is the next in the series of playwright profiles, introducing you to the playwrights associated with the ART New Works Festival, which will open on Friday, the 22nd of June at Theatre 810.

This is Matthew Ivan Bennett, author of IN THE OPEN, which will be read on Saturday, June 23rd at 6:30 pm.

Matthew Ivan Bennett is the Resident Playwright of Plan-B Theatre Company, with whom he's premiered several plays, including Di Esperienza, Block 8 and Mesa Verde—the latter of which was nominated for a Steinberg award by the American Theatre Critics Association. Three radio plays of his, Alice,Frankenstein, and Lavender & Exile, have been broadcast nationally through KUER and XM, and Frankenstein received the Best Feature Program award from the Utah Broadcasters Association (2009). His short works have been at Salt Lake's Wasatch Theatre Company, in Chicago's Circle Theatre, Hunger Artists Theatre Ensemble in Los Angeles, at Rising Sun Performance Company in New York, at Monkeyman Productions in Toronto, and at the Source Festival in Washington DC. His poetry has been published with the Western Humanities Review, Mixer Publishing, and he's a 2012 Honorable Mentionee in the Writers of the Future contest for Science Fiction and Fantasy. His new dysfunctional family comedy, A Night with the Family, will premiere at the Omaha Community Playhouse in 2013. Matt earned a Bachelors' of Theatre Arts at Southern Utah University.

Theatre--Performance (Playwright Profile)

This is the second in a series of profiles of the playwrights who have shows presented in the ART New Works Festival.  This is Carol Carpenter, whose play, SWEET SWEET SPIRIT will be read on Friday, June 22nd at 8:30 pm.

Carol Carpenter writes about small town people who live far, far away from New York City, and she’s proud to be part of the Acadiana’s inaugural New Works Festival. Her play Sweet, Sweet Spirit will be part of Barrow Group’s 2012-2013 Development Series, won the High Desert Play Festival, and is being produced in Fall 2012 at the American Southwest Theater Company. Her play Good Lonely People won Best Playwriting at Planet Connections, Audience Favorite Award at MTWorks' NewBorn Play Festival, and was a semifinalist for Pandora Productions New Play Fest (Louisville). Her newest play, The Guadalupe, is part of On the Square’s 2012-2013 development season.

Other work has been headlined by Lily Tomlin and Bruce Vilanch (El Rey Theater, Los Angeles) and has received readings at Manhattan Theater Club, Geisberg Studio, Arclight Theater, Santa Fe Playhouse, Garson Theater Center, Columbia Gorge Repertory Theater, and the Engine House Theatre. Her monologues have appeared in the popular guerilla theatre piece The Inauguration Different (Santa Fe) and in Storyboard: A Collection of Monologues. This year, she will be featured in Sunstone Press's upcoming book on Southwestern theater artists.

In her previous life, Carpenter published five young adult novels with Random House Children's Books under her pen name Amanda Christie, spent several years as an editor and writer at Paramount Pictures, and she holds a master's degree in dramatic writing from the University of Southern California. She is a Sewanee playwriting alum and a proud company member of MTWorks. 

More about her work at www.carolcarpenterwrites.com.

Theatre--Performance (Playwright profile)

 David is the mind behind THE DIVINE VISITOR which will be read on Friday, June 22nd at 6:30 pm at Theatre 810. David has a great mind and a quick wit and ART is thrilled that we get to work with him. Check out his bio below and visit his website please!

David L. Williams (Playwright) is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Cornell University, where he was a four-time award recipient in the Heerman’s-McCalmon Playwriting contest (two 1st prizes for his plays The Murder of Gonzago and Ingulf and two 2nd prizes for his plays Behind the Nine Ball and Near Tragedy). He is a member of the Dramatist Guild and has written more than twenty-five plays and musicals, and his work has been produced in California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Oregon, and Washington, D.C. His unproduced play Spake won EBE Ensemble’s “You Fill In The Blank” festival (NYC) and was a finalist in HotCity Theatre’s GreenHouse New Play Festival (St. Louis) and Inkwell Theatre’s Inkubator Festival (Washington, D.C.). His most recent play, The Winners, won the 2010 HotCity Theatre GreenHouse New Play Festival, and had its world premiere produced by HotCity in St. Louis this past September. The Winners was nominated for a Kevin Kline award for best new play, and reviewers called it “a Pinter play with a dirty mind,” “disquieting stuff,” “a shocking look at human nature,” and “a sharp, edgy story.” His work has been featured in the New York International Fringe Festival on four separate occasions.  David recently moved from New York to Bellefonte, PA with his wonderful wife Kathleen.

http://www.playwrightdavid.com/

Theatre--Review (Acting Unlimited at Theatre 810)

What fun it is to watch a theatre develop its groove. Theatre 810 has developed into a lovely intimate space that caters to intricate little gems of plays or one-act collections. Since the beginning of the year, Theatre 810 has hosted David Ives’ Lives of the Saints )a collection of seven one-act plays), PG-50 (three one-act plays), the double-billed Krapp’s Last Tape and The Zoo Story, and A Woman’s Journey, two one-act plays. Add to this mix The Complete Women of William Shakespeare, a collection of two one-act plays devoted solely to the women of Shakespeare’s life. It’s a cavalcade of femininity on the stage and an opportunity for the women of Acadiana to show their acting chops.

The first play, Second Best Bed by Tim Kelly, is the stronger of the two plays, mostly due to its compact, poignant and funny story concerning Shakespeare’s will. A gathering of gossipy women has converged on Anne Hathaway’s house to discover not the contents of the will—this they already know—but the reaction by Shakespeare’s widow that she has been left only one item: the second best bed. The humor is evident as the play begins—the maid calls the vicious gossip-mongers a bunch of geese—but the revealing tenderness is what people absorb, for the ending is not what it seems.

The second play, When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet by Charles George, begins nicely enough but its raison d’être—to milk as many jokes from what would happen should Shakespeare’s fictional women converge to give each other advice on love—tends to get old after a while. The audience experiences some hearty laughs upon seeing Juliet (Romero and Juliet), Portia (The Merchant of Venice), Desdemona (Othello), Ophelia (Hamlet), Cleopatra (Antony and Cleopatra), and Katherine (The Taming of the Shrew) exchange witty banter and actual Shakespearean lines. Three performances are noteworthy from this play. Monique Arabie brought just the right touch of loving innocence and naiveté to the part of Juliet, and Erin Claire Couvillion was delightfully batty as the doomed and detached Ophelia. Jan Corzo, however, played Portia as a shrill shrew, an odd choice that was jarringly out of sync with the rest of the cast. Her noisy, strident performance needed some restraint because Portia’s intelligence does not equate with harsh braying.

On the technical side, the two plays win some and lose some. The set, borrowed almost completely from Walter Brown’s considerable collection and Duncan Thistlethwaite, is perfect as always, and it brought back warm memories of William and Judith. I question not the use of a photograph on the table in When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet, but only its extremely modern look; it stands out in a most distracting way. The costumes were all pitch perfect except for one: Ophelia’s lavender and silver outfit, while gorgeously stunning and sparkly, clearly is a Mardi-Gras-style outfit that stood out for the wrong reasons. Also there were too many extraneous characters on stage during the latter play: three witches, two women both stage right and stage left, and three fairies. They were unnecessary characters who had little stage business other than to distract from the six ladies on stage. The three witches were particularly egregious in this manner, upstaging the story with their toiling and boiling. And why put the maid (played nicely by Laura Blum) on stage for the prerequisite introduction of turning off cell phones and pointing out exits? It gives the impression that a seasoned actress like Laura made a mistake and entered too early.

Kate Schneider has made a promising directorial debut with this collection of one acts, and has utilized the intimate nature of Theatre 810 to great effect. The plays will continue this weekend as well as next, with Friday and Saturday evening performances at 7:30 and Sunday Matinees at 3:00. Call 484-0172 for tickets to this delightful pairing of Shakespeare’s women.
---Vincent P. Barras

Theatre--Performances (Cast Interview)

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH:  CATHARINE ARCENEAUX

1. Who do you play in The Complete Women of William Shakespeare?

          I play Prudence, I am one of four friends that go to Anne Hathaway’s house to ‘console’ her, aka get the juicy gossip on the rich folks in town.

2. What is your role in Second Best Bed?

          I think my role in Second Best Bed is to illustrate the weakness in envy.  My character wants everything that she doesn’t have.  So she looks for ways to undermine other people’s happiness and tries to capitalize on their pain in order to make herself feel better about not having the world.

 3. Favourite Scene to play? Favourite Line?

I love the first few opening lines that establish the relationship ‘the ladies of Stratford’ have with Anne and her household.  We just walk in and take over whatever space we can in the Shakespeare household much to their servant Dorothy’s, chagrin.  Dorothy cannot keep her distain for these women.  My favorite response to one of her quips is ‘If impoliteness were a virtue Dorothy would be a saint’. This line drips with irony.

 4. Through your character's eyes, what is Second Best Bed about?

          From Prudence’s eyes, this play is about the foibles of jealousy.  She wants anything she doesn’t have and hates those that have what she doesn’t.  I think this production shows that no matter the cause, if you act with hate and envy in your heart, you will lose against someone acting with love and patience. 

5. What do you hope audiences take away from these two shows?  

I hope people leave inspired and full of laughter!

Theatre--Performance (Cast Interview)

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH:  MEGAN CONNOR

1. Who do you play in The Complete Women of William Shakespeare?          I play Susanna Shakespeare-Hall in Second Best Bed and Titania, queen of the fairies, from Midsummer Night's Dream in When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet.

  2. What is your role in Second Best Bed and When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet?          Susanna, the eldest daughter of Shakespeare. I have to explain to my mother , Anne, that my Father, William Shakespeare, has left most of the inheritance in his Will to me.

3.   Favourite Scene to play? Favourite Line?          My favorite scene is when I help Dorothy shoo the women out of the kitchen like a flock of geese.     Even though it isn't my line, I think the best one is when Marchette says that she "detests gossip."  It makes me giggle every time.  

 4. Through your characters eyes what is Second  Best Bed and When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet about?          Suzanna has been given almost the entire Family's inheritance.  This puts her in an uncomfortable position, especially when she has to explain this to her mother making her feel almost like the bad guy.  She doesn't believe that Shakespeare loved Anne at all, so she agrees with the gossips.  However, she does not approve of them coming into the house and attacking her mother.  The Second Best Bed is about belief.  While Anne and Judith still believe in Shakespeare, Suzanna does not. 

 5. What do you hope audiences take away from these two shows?          I hope that audiences simply enjoy the shows.  The Second Best Bed is clever and entertaining.  The lines are playful and there are several witty remarks.  There is definitely also a lesson about true love in there somewhere.

Theatre-Performance (Cast Interview)

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH: NANCY DERE

1. Who do you play in The Complete Women of William Shakespeare?
          Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife.


2. What is your role in Second Best Bed and/or When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet?
          I am caught in the middle of gossip, disappointment, surprises and love.

3. Favourite Scene to play? Favourite Line?
          When Anne remembers the day her husband, William, left for London. “I might as well have tried to
bring the Moon to Earth.”

4. Through your character's eyes, what are Second Best Bed and When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet about?
          A very deep, unselfish love.

5. What do you hope audiences take away from these two shows?
          Some fuel for life, excitement, laughter and fun.

Theatre--Performance (Cast Interview)

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH : MITU DASGUPTA

1. Who do you play in The Complete Women of William Shakespeare?
          Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile

2. What is your role in Second Best Bed and When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet?
         Cleopatra, I come to give Juliet the final pieces of advice in the play.

3. Favourite Scene to play? Favourite Line?
          Why, I’m the siren of the Nile. Men quake and quail before me.

4. Through your character's eyes, what is When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet about?
         When Shakespeare’s ladies Meet, they talk about love relations gone wrong.

5. What do you hope audiences take away from these two shows?
          A feeling of satisfaction that they saw two good plays.

Theatre--Performance (Cast Interviews)

This is another in a continuing series of interviews with the cast of THE COMPLETE WOMEN OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, opening Friday, June 8th at 8 pm.

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH: ERIN CLAIRE COURVILLION

1. Who do you play in The Complete Women of William Shakespeare?
I play Lady Ophelia of Hamlet.

2. What is your role in When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet?
Lady Ophelia is "nutty as a Yuletide fruitcake'" returned from drowning to advise Juliet.

3. Favourite Scene to play?
Reclining drunkenly and raising glass to recite "To be or not to be . . . "  Favourite Line? "No--I went mad instead."

4. Through your character's eyes, what is When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet about?
Lady O is compelled to seek Juliet "to warn her of the pitfalls of love!"

5. What do you hope audiences take away from these two shows?
I hope they laugh together all the way home.

Bonus: Describe your character in WSLM in five words: Elegant insanity with loving intentions.

Theatre--Performance (Cast Interview)

This is another in a continuing series of interviews with the cast of THE COMPLETE WOMEN OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, opening Friday, June 8th at 8 pm.

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH: ALICIA ROBERT (ALI)

1. Who do you play in The Complete Women of William Shakespeare?
          I play Desdemona from Othello.

2. What is your role in Second Best Bed and/or When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet?
          As my mother likes to say "If I can't set a good example, let me serve as a horrible warning." I think that about sums up what Desdemona serves here...she is a great tale of caution.

3. Favourite Scene to play? Favourite Line?
           Just watching Ophelia in Ladies is a joy. What a fun character in this show!!

4. Through your character's eyes, what are Second Best Bed and When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet about?
           "Ladies" is a great display of how different yet the same love is for everyone, even those awfully dysfunctional folks from the Bard's mind.

5. What do you hope audiences take away from these two shows?
          A new appreciation and understanding of the humanity Shakespeare wrote with and about. A remembrance that he was, besides a playwright and innovator, a human being. And a good laugh. And hopefully no nudity...

Theatre--Performance (Cast Interviews)

This is another in a continuing series of interviews with the cast of THE COMPLETE WOMEN OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, opening Friday, June 8th at 8 pm.

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH: JAN ERIN CORZO

1. Who do you play in The Complete Women of William Shakespeare?
          Portia from The Merchant of Venice.

2. What is your role in When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet?
          Portia is the voice of reason amongst several chattering, gossiping women! She tries her best to get past emotions and bring order to a chaotic situation… but does she succeed??? (You be the judge of
that!)

3. Favourite Scene to play? Favourite Line?
          The courtroom banter between Portia and Juliet.  Just one? Favorite clever/funny line: “Some strange female approaches.” Favorite meaningful/rich line: “But jealous souls will not be answered so. They are not ever jealous for the cause, but jealous for they are jealous. ‘Tis a monster, begot upon itself, born on itself.”

4. Through your character's eyes, what is When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet about?
          It is a plea for a circle of ladies to convince a naïve, love-struck child to her senses… And if there is
anyone that can do it it’s me!

5. What do you hope audiences take away from these two shows?
          Wet Kleenexes, a lingering smile as well as a genuine reflection on their own relationships with their
loved ones.

Theatre--Performance (Cast Interviews)

This is the next in the series of interviews with the cast of THE COMPLETE WOMEN OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, which will open on Friday, June 8th.  Tickets are available now.

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH: SHANNON KENAST

1. Who do you play in The Complete Women of William Shakespeare?
          I play Nell, one of Anne's gossipy neighbors in Second Best Bed.

2. Who do you play in The Complete Women of William Shakespeare?
          Nell's role is the younger town gossip, there to find out what's in the will. She's sort of an underling to Marchette and Virginia, but she's still pretty spunky which I enjoy about playing her.

3. Favourite Scene to play? Favourite Line?
          My favorite line for Nell would be when she asks Judith what she received in the will, and Virginia scolds her. Her immediate reply is 'I'm interested!' in this very defiant voice and I laugh inside every time I say it!

4. Through your character's eyes, what is Second Best Bed about?
          Second Best Bed is about what happens after Shakespeare passes away. Nell is distraught that her
hero is gone. She visits Anne's house with the others, curious about what he left in the will. When they discover the answer, they are shocked at Anne's calm acceptance.

5. What do you hope audiences take away from these two shows?
          I hope the audience takes away a sense of hope. That even when things seem terrible, they are not always what they appear, especially when it comes to love. And I also really enjoy how Anne handles the gossipers. She never let's them see how hurt she is and stays strong until the moment they leave. I think we should all react that way in the face of people like Marchette.

Theatre--Performance (Cast Interviews)

This is the 4th in a series of interviews with the cast of The Complete Women of Shakespeare, an AUI production opening June 8th at Theatre 810. 

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH: ERICA JURE

1. Who do you play in The Complete Women of William Shakespeare?
          Marchette/ one of the witches

2.What is your role in Second Best Bed?
          Marchette is the sister of Shakespeare's lawyer. She is the one who delivers the news. She's the gang leader of the mean girls.

3.Favorite scene/ favorite line?
          My favorite scene is when the women are asking me about the will and I'm relishing in their curiosity. I'm being very dramatic in my delivery of the news in order to string them along.  My favorite line is," ...and I've breathed not a word to a soul. You know how I detest gossip."


4.Through your character's eyes, what is Second Best Bed about?
          I think this is about self importance for Marchette.I'm the one with the juicy gossip to spill. Everyone
wants to hear from me, so I'm driving this drama between the ladies. I am also throwing the news in Anne's face. I resent her for being married to a famous man. Now that I think he's left her with nothing I can stick it to her that I'm better than she. Throughout the play I am exercising my power over the women and acting like I'm better than everyone.

5.What do I want the audience to take away from the play?
          I hope they realize how harmful gossip is. I also want them to notice how Anne rises above it and she is rewarded in the end. I'd like the audience to be swept away by how romantic and sweet the ending is.

Theatre--Performance (Cast Interviews)

This is the 3rd in a series of interviews with the cast of THE COMPLETE WOMEN OF SHAKESPEARE, which opens on June 8th at Theatre 810.

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH HOPE GARRETT COOK

1. Who do you play in The Complete Women of William Shakespeare?
          I play Virginia in Second Best Bed & Beatrice in When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet.

2. What is your role in Second Best Bed and When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet?
          Virginia is a neighbor of the Shakespeare's. You get the feeling that she has known the family for some time, and feels comfortable (maybe a bit too comfortable) in their home. She is a gossip and a busy body, but I feel she genuinely cares for Mistress Shakespeare and her girls. I'm not so sure she holds Master Shakespeare in high regard. I play Beatrice in When Shakespeare's Ladies Meet. I hope to showcase her wit, sarcasm, and tenacity. I must admit, using only body language to do this, might present a challenge.

3. Favourite Scene to play? Favourite Line?
          My favorite scene to play is any scene where I am going toe to toe with Dorothy, the maid. Dorothy is fiercely protective of Mistress Shakespeare, and has no qualms with speaking her mind.

4. Through your character's eyes, what is Second Best Bed and When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet about?
          The two plays highlight the women of Shakespeare in such a way as to 1.) Present a human quality
to a scandalous, much debated historical event (Second Best Bed), and 2.) To present the heroines of
Shakespeare in a comedic light, with a touch of modern sensibility.

5. What do you hope audiences take away from these two shows?
          I hope to bring Virginia to life for the audience by attempting to fully understand her role in the life of
the Shakespeares. I want the experience of playing Virginia to leave me with a more defined ability to
study a character, understand their motivations, and bring that knowledge to life on the stage.

Theatre--Performance (Cast Interviews)

This is the second in a series of interviews with the cast of AUI's THE COMPLETE WOMEN OF SHAKESPEARE, which opens June 8 at Theatre 810.

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH : LAURA BLUM

1. Who do you play in The Complete Women of William Shakespeare?
          I play Dorothy in The Second Best Bed.

2.  What is your role in Second Best Bed and When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet?
          Dorothy’s role is that of the “nurturer” of the family. Though she is only the maid, she feels responsible for the family and very protective of Anne.

3.  Favourite Scene to play? Favourite Line?
          My favorite scene to play is the scene where I get to kick the nosey women out of the house.  Favorite line: “Out you silly geese, out.” I also like “Marchette and the others belong in the
fields…..with the crows.”

4.  Through your character's eyes, what are Second Best Bed and When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet about?
          I haven’t seen or read Shakespeare’s Ladies yet, but I think that, as Dorothy, Second Best Bed is a tribute to Anne and her love for William and her daughters.


5.  What do you hope audiences take away from these two shows?
          I hope that audiences leave the show with a much better understanding of Shakespeare, his family and his female characters! I also hope that audience members who may be new to watching Shakespeare will gain a desire to see a whole Shakespearian play.

Theatre--Performance (Cast Interviews)

This is Part 1 of a series of interviews with the cast of Acting Unlimited's THE COMPLETE WOMEN OF SHAKESPEARE,which opens June 8th at Theatre 810.

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH : PATRICIA DRURY SIDMAN

1. Who do you play in The Complete Women of William Shakespeare?
          I play Dorothy, Anne Hathaway's maid, in The Second Best Bed.

2. What is your role in Second Best Bed and When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet?
          In addition to Dorothy, I also play Mistress Ford, one of the Merry Wives of Windsor who wanders in to the setting of When Shakespeare's Ladies Meet.

3.  Favourite Scene to play? Favourite Line?
          My favorite scene is the opening scene when all the town's nosy neighbors flutter in and make themselves at home in Anne Hathaway's kitchen, much to the annnoyance of the territorial and protective Dorothy. Dorothy is offended and, being naturally sarcastic anyway, she makes a crack about all the “busybodies and gossips” When one of the neighbors haughtily asks to whom is she referring, Dorothy replies with my favorite line and a hostile stare: “Guess.”

4. Through your character's eyes, what are Second Best Bed and When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet about?
          Second Best Bed is about the love my dear mistress and friend, Anne, has for her recently deceased husband, Will Shakespeare, and the obnoxious neighbors who try to disabuse her of it. Ah, but Will has arranged for a twist no one anticipated. Hah!

5.  What do you hope audiences take away from these two shows?
          I hope audiences have a great time laughing at these characters (or at least at those silly geese, the neighbors) and realize or remember that Shakespeare always had something up his sleeve to delight his audiences. I hope too that they come away realizing that old Will would have been nothing without all his women – in his life or in his head!

Theatre--Performance

Gris Gris Productions and Richard Howes Productions proudly present Sam Shepard’s award-winning play True West from May 31- June 3 at Theatre 810 (810 Jefferson St. in downtown Lafayette).  

True West is a character study that examines the relationship between Austin, a screenwriter, and his older brother Lee, set in the kitchen of their mother's home 40 miles east of Los Angeles. Austin is house-sitting while their mother is in Alaska, and there he is confronted by his brother who proceeds to bully his way into staying at the house and using Austin’s car. In addition, the screenplay which Austin is pitching to his connection in Hollywood somehow gets taken over by the pushy con-man tactics of Lee, and the brothers find themselves forced to cooperate in the creation of a story that will make or break both their lives. In the process, the conflict between the brothers creates a heated situation in which their roles as successful family man and nomadic drifter are somehow reversed, and each man finds himself admitting that he had somehow always wished he were in the other’s shoes.  

"I wanted to write a play about double nature, one that wouldn’t be symbolic or metaphorical or any of that stuff,” Shepard explains on his website. “I just wanted to give a taste of what it feels like to be two-sided. It’s a real thing, double nature. I think we’re split in a much more devastating way than psychology can ever reveal. It’s not so cute. Not some little thing we can get over. It’s something we’ve got to live with."
“ True West has ... arguably become Shepard’s signature piece, the leanest, most pointed of his full-length works,” writes David Krasner in “A Companion to Twentieth Century American Drama.”

The play stars Brock Hoffpauir, Blake Hoffpauir, Dominick Cross and Winnie Daphin-Bacqué and is directed by Bruce Coen.  “I’ve been wanting to do this play for a long time because I feel that Sam Shepard is one of our great American playwrights and it’s time to bring him back to Lafayette,” said Coen.

Performances are 7:30 p.m. on Thursday (May 31),  Friday (June1) and Saturday (June 2) and, 3 pm pm Sunday (June 3).

This show is based on adult themes and adult language is used at times. Therefore this is not a show for children.

For more information, email Theatre 810 at theatre810@gmail.com or call (337) 484-0172.

Theatre--Review (Kimberly Johnson-Nagle at Theatre 810)

It all came back to me in a flash. Try to imagine a nerdy sixteen-year-old junior in high school who knew few girls from his own town and wanted to go to prom. As a sophomore, I had won a trip to Washington D.C. with twenty other Louisiana teenagers, one of whom was named Jennifer. She was—and still is, for all I know—a vibrant, beautiful, giving human being. Though she lived at least two hours away, I wanted to go with her to the prom, and I invited her. I was sitting at the living room counter while my mother was preparing dinner, and I, a white teen, asked aloud what I thought was an innocent question, “I wonder what people would think if I took a black girl to the prom?” My mother’s chilling response was “You had better not.”

All those memories and the bitter reactions that followed surged through me in the one-act play Colorless, part of two plays presented under the title A Woman’s Journey at Theatre 810. Kimberly Johnson-Nagle has penned two fine plays, but the first one was her best. In Colorless, Kay (Bria Hobgood) and William (Cris Matochi) are celebrating a year together and are finally revealing their relationship completely to their parents. By completely, they mean they are finally exposing the biracial aspect of their relationship—she’s African American, and he’s Caucasian—but neither of the parents are aware of this crucial fact. Kay’s mother Daphne (Linda Bernard) is naturally reticent about this relationship, even more so that her daughter would hide this from her. What results is rather heart-breaking, made more so by the honest performances from the three on stage. Linda Bernard delivers lines crisply, and with a mere wave of her hand, she is not only dismissing the glass of wine William is offering her, but also dismissing this interloper to her life. Bria Hobgood has great facial expressions, especially when showing hurt as her mother’s throws verbal jabs at her. But the breakout performance, a term Cody Daigle used to describe Matochi’s work in Kaleidoscope, belongs again to Cris Matochi, who makes the audience believe in his love for Kay. When describing Kay’s beautiful qualities, Matochi says to Daphne, “I know that it had to come from you.” That kind of earnestness is impossible to fake, and it makes the ending even more shattering.

The second one-act play, The Female Being, is not as strong as Colorless, but it has its merits. This play comes across as rather expository, with women on stage celebrating their femininity by endlessly talking. Think The View but with an African American cast, though Kristie Rose Trahan was a white woman in the cast. Ironically, here were five women on stage praising the female body, but actually they were engaging in somewhat destructive actions toward each other. When the story finally reaches its dramatic conclusion with a strong performance by Sheryl Ned, The Female Being hits its groove, and the women truly bond in an uplifting final scene.

There were elements of both plays that undermined some of the believability. Cris Matochi’s ring was simply too large to be credible, and it made people laugh at a moment when his acting is just heart-breaking. A more modest item would have been the perfect ending to an entrancing play. Plus someone should have picked up the box which stayed on the floor as a major distraction for the entire second play. Most of the blocking was fine, except that in Colorless, this meant walking either stage left or stage right, but rarely in the center. Bria Hobgood as director chose good costumes, but her Southern accent in The Female Being was unnecessary. And Theatre 810 is an open stage, so talking backstage during The Female Being was slightly distracting. Though I had no problem with the dance scene between the two plays, I question its effectiveness at bridging the two plays.

But the acting, the extraordinary acting often makes people forgive a great deal. It also helped that Kimberly Johnson-Nagle’s plays are nicely written with some genuine situations. When Linda Bernard acidly comments, “Where are the good white folks?” when Matochi’s parents don’t show, he devastates the mother with a short monologue about Kay’s wonderful qualities. He then says that he loves Kay, and adds, “Why can’t that be enough for you?” I wish it had been enough for me twenty-seven years ago when racism reared its ugly head in my life. Nagle’s plays give me a little hope that things might have advanced, while simultaneously showing that decades may pass and things can still stay the same.
---Vincent P. Barras