This North Coast Weekend

Closing out its Family Fun series, Arcata Playhouse hosts Santa Barbara's Boxtale Theatre Company with its production of The Odyssey Friday and Saturday  (April 12-13) at 7 p.m. plus a 2 p.m. show on Saturday.  Using physical theatre, masks, stilts, shadow puppets and live music, the show dramatizes the homeward voyage of Odysseus and his encounters with Poseidon, Athena, Zeus, the Cyclops, the Sirens, etc.  This is of course a family-friendly event (school classes will see it in addition to these public performances.)  (707) 822-1575, arcataplayhouse.org.

Dell’Arte presents a work-in-progress, Elisabeth’s Book, Friday and Saturday (April 12-13) at 8 p.m. in the Carlo Theatre.  (There will be no Thursday show for the public, as previously announced.)  This original piece uses movement, music and images to tell the story of three women who survive concentration camps and further trials after World War II. Based on a true story and conceived by Joan Schirle, it is a collaboration among performers Schirle, Laura Munoz and Ruxy Cantir, and director Alain Schons (a French designer/director and former director of the Dell’Arte School.) Audiences for this in-progress version will help shape Elisabeth’s Book for its official premiere at Dell’Arte in July. Tickets are pay-what-you-can. It is deemed not suitable for young children. (707) 668-5663 ext. 20. www.dellarte.com.

After the weekend, Dell'Arte also presents a one night reprise of Three Trees, the anti-militarist clown show created and performed by Lauren Wilson, Stephanie Thompson and Joe Krienke, on Tuesday April 15 at 8 p.m. in the Carlo.  It's a warm-up for a subsequent tour.  The Dell'Arte publicity quotes the North Coast Journal as describing it as "Alice in Wonderland meets Mother Courage."  I guess that was me.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] continues at North Coast Rep Friday and Saturday at 8 . Then on Sunday at 7 p.m., another film in "NCRT's Night at the Movies" series is screened: the classic 1950 Cyrano de Bergerac, with Jose Ferrer, directed by Michael Gordon.  It's free to season ticket holders and five bucks for everybody else.

Physical Reality, the HSU Dance Concert, completes its run Thursday-Saturday at 7:30 in the Van Duzer, with a matinee on Sunday at 2 p.m. Maia Cheli-Colando reviews it in this week's NCJ.  HSU Stage & Screen.  Tickets: 826-3928.

This North Coast Weekend

The annual HSU Dance show, this year entitled Physical Reality, opens tonight (April 3) at 7:30 in the Van Duzer Theatre.  It continues Friday and Saturday evenings, Thursday-Saturday next weekend, with a matinee on Sunday April 13 at 2 p.m.  Tickets: 826-3928.  Information: HSU Stage and Screen.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] continues at North Coast Rep.  My NCJ review includes the following sentences--see if you can spot the multiple puns. (Yeah, well I've got to have some fun.)

So the authors of this more recent revision had the benefit of hundreds of audiences to fine-tune a perfect laugh machine. If the highly lubricated opening night audience at North Coast Rep is any proof, it works.

This North Coast Weekend

Humboldt Light Opera Company opens the baseball romance musical Damn Yankees on Friday (April 13) at 7:30 p.m. at the College of the Redwoods Forum Theater.  It stars James Gadd, Carol Escobar, Lela Annotto-Pemberton, Robert Keiber, Melissa Trauth, Bill Ryder, and Brad Curtis as the devil.  The show plays weekends (Sunday matinees at 2) until April 28.

At HSU, Of Time and Rhythm, this year's spring dance concert, opened Wednesday and plays Thursday-Saturday at 7:30, Sunday at 2 in the Van Duzer Theatre. (One weekend only.)  I don't know enough to write about dance so I usually don't, but I saw this show opening night and enjoyed all the dances and the music.  But I was really knocked out by one dancer.  Her name is Kara Ajetunmobi.  She first attracted my attention last year, for a typically goofy reason.  In editing publicity photos for the HSU Stage blog and to send out, I was struck by her resemblance in the photos to the British actor Freema Agyeman (TV's Bleak House, the David Tennant Doctor Who, and most recently on the UK version of Law & Order.).  I enjoyed her dancing last spring, but this year I was simply mesmerized.  Strong, graceful but economical, not a gesture wasted or less than impressive.  I noticed her especially in two dances in the second half of the program: "Follow" (and I wasn't the only one--when it finished I heard a gasp and a "wow" not coming from me) and "O'numinous." (She's first in the photo.) 

The student choregraphed dances, the big show pieces by faculty members Erin McKeever ("Constellations") and Sharon Butcher ("No Ecosystems...") were terrific, but I was anticipating Linda Maxwell's Broadway/Hollywood show dance, which I knew (and publicized) by its working title, "Slap That Bass."  That song, and another in this dance ("You Can't Take That Away From Me") are originally from the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rodgers movie, Shall We Dance, with music by George Gershwin.  I just watched it again recently on DVD, and a featurette that revealed that at one point, George Balanchine was asked to choreograph a dance for the film.  He was interested but scheduling didn't work.  He admired Fred Astaire tremendously.  Just months afterward, George Gershwin was dead at the age of 38.  But imagine what history might have been made with Gershwin, Astaire and Balanchine! 

In any case, this dance didn't use the Astaire versions of these songs.  I was unfamiliar with the shows excerpted, but it was all fun, and the dancing was like musical theatre dancing at its best--big, energetic, winsome, enthusiastic (Dani Gutierrez especially sparkled, and some great dancing guys really added to the energy.)  But it made me wonder: why don't we ever see dancing like this at HSU in an actual musical?

This North Coast Weekend

The HSU Opera Workshop presents Mozart's opera The Magic Flute for three performances this weekend: Friday and Saturday (April 22, 23) at 8 p.m., and Sunday (April 24) at 2 p.m. in Gist Hall Theatre.  Students Brandy Rose and Philip de Roulet, and community singers Nanette Voss, Christopher Hatcher and Steve Nobles sing the principal roles. With dialogue in English, it’s relocated by director Elisabeth Harrington and scenographer Rachel Parti to the Mayan culture, which adds color and imagery (a leopard, a lion and lots of birds) and strengthens a nature-based emphasis. “It’s a show for all ages,” Harrington said, “with magic and comedy and drama, but focused on love and friendship, nobility and bravery.”  Paul Cummings, who directs the accompanying 20-piece orchestra, says the music is among Mozart’s best.  More info.

The Fence In Its Thousandth Year by contemporary British playwright Howard Barker is presented at Dell'Arte Thursday through Sunday (April 21-24) at 8 p.m. in the Carlo. According to Dell'Arte: "Written in 2005, Barker's play is a powerful theatrical journey into the borderlands between social classes, metaphorically presented as a literal fence where the powerful and the powerless exist in a tense, emotional symbiosis. Sexually explicit, viscerally emotional and hauntingly poetic, Barker's imagined world speaks to our contemporary social and cultural divisions through the heightened language of the theater." This project on tragedy by the Dell'Arte School's second year MFA's is directed by Stephanie Thompson.

Continuing: Final weekend for the HSU dance concert Gravity Defined in the Van Duzer; Othello continues at North Coast Rep, South Pacific at Ferndale Rep.

This North Coast Weekend

Opening this weekend for two weekends--Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 in the Van Duzer Theatre--is Gravity Defined, the annual HSU dance concert.  While that begins this weekend in the Van Duzer, the HSU 10 Minute Play Festival has its final 3 performances in Gist Hall, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 and 2 pm on Sunday.

Continuing: Othello at North Coast Rep (see review below) and South Pacific at Ferndale Rep, directed by Ginger Gene, with musical direction by Dianne Zuleger, choreography by Linda Maxwell, scene design by Daniel Nyiri and lighting by Greta Stockwell.  Headlining the large cast are Brad Curtis, Christina Comer, Brian Morrison and Spanky McFarlane. 

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 [email protected] 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, [email protected].

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.

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

Humboldt Light Opera presents the childrens show Seussical Jr. the Musical this weekend at College of the Redwoods. A one woman show from Portland, The Last Show You'll Ever See, is on stage at the Arcata Playhouse on Saturday. The HSU Opera Workshop presents a children's opera and other theatrical offerings on Friday and Saturday at the Fulkerson Recital Hall. The HSU spring dance concert, From Floor to Flight, has its last weekend at the Van Duzer Theatre, with the annual Silent Auction on Saturday (photo above). And Ferndale Rep continues The Secret Garden (top photo above.) For specific information, click on the appropriate organizations in the links list to your right at you go out.

This North Coast Weekend

Opening this weekend is the annual HSU spring dance concert, From Floor to Flight, at the Van Duzer Theatre. I don't have the vocabulary to write about dance, but I can say I was really moved by three of the dances presented on opening night, and admired other dances and dancers in them as well. In the finale, dancers interact with the 60 member Arcata Interfaith Gospel Choir. It was a good theatrical evening. The shows start at 7:30, this Friday and Saturday, and next Thursday through Saturday. More information at HSU Stage.

This North Coast Weekend

Pure Abstractions HSU spring dance concert
Thurs-Saturday at 7:30 at the Van Duzer.
For the Dell'Arte School performances and
Jeff DeMark at the Arcata Playhouse Saturday,
see the column below.

This North Coast Weekend

The indefatigable Rudi Galindo and members of his newly forming Latino Theater Collective present an original work, Esperando la Luna at the Dell'Arte's outdoor Rooney Amphitheatre this weekend, Friday to Sunday (April 20-22) at 8PM. Described as a "lighthearted evening of mime and comedy with a hint of pathos," this final production of the Dell' Arte Los Puentes Project is previewed by Wendy Butler in the ER and Jonathan Glen in the T-S. It sounds like it will be an eye-opening and entertaining evening of theatre.

The Rocky Horror Show continues at Ferndale Rep. Barry Blake in the T-S calls it "the best entertainment around." He awards it Four Cookies. (I made that part up.) Laura Provolt in the ER calls it a "ghastly giggle."

I recall seeing those long lines for the Rocky Horror Picture Show in the 1970s in Cambridge, and in western PA and just about everywhere I traveled in the early 80s. But though I've seen (and heard) snatches of it from various TV segments, I never quite got around to seeing the movie. I can imagine it would be very theatrical on stage, and I can certainly imagine that a lot of people will enjoy it (particularly those who know the movie or want to know it more than I do) but I doubt that I'd have anything to say about it.

Also continuing this weekend in the Van Duzer Theatre (Thurs.-Sat. at 7:30) is the HSU spring dance show, Suffusion , which no one has written about, except me, here. Saturday is the Silent Auction, with proceeds going to fund student trips to a national dance convention and to bring guest dancers and dance teachers to the North Coast.

North Coast Weekend

What's wrong with this picture? I have no idea. But something is wrong about the dancers form, so I couldn't use this photo for the blog I put together on behalf of SUFFUSIONS, the HSU spring dance show. Doesn't matter, I guess, since nothing like this is in the show anyway.

You've now figured out that I don't know a lot about dance. But having seen opening night, I can tell you that this show is very theatrical. Most of the 12 dances are large ensemble pieces, and there's a lot to watch all over the stage. I was also very impressed by the imaginative sets and settings--there were a couple of set designs that are among the best I've seen this year. And despite my ignorance of dance vocabulary, I was moved by several pieces. It doesn't take an expert either to see the skill of somebody like Kevin Lynn Dockery. Some very fine music, too, and variety of styles on display. A fun evening.

If you saw last year's show, by the way, you may recall Sarah Jane Carlton's "Walkabout," which she danced solo (or very close to it.) Well, it's a solo no more. It's a very colorful, large ensemble piece now, about an Australian aboriginal rite of passage involving a hunt. Great music, and one of several dances that mix western dance vocabulary with non-western, indigenous dance. It's the first dance of the program and gets the evening off to a rousing start.

SUFFUSIONS plays in the Van Duzer Theatre Friday through Saturday, and again next weekend, Thursday through Saturday (April 19-21), with the Silent Auction on Saturday the 21st. It starts at 7:30pm. Check the blog for details--and the approved photos.

Elsewhere this weekend, Ferndale Rep opens "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Barry Blake (I almost typed "Bake," a Freudian/Martha Stewart slip for the cookie king) has a preview of the show at the T-S. There's a cabaret with some 20 acts down at the Arcata Playhouse, one night only, tonight (April 13.)