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They’re trashy, they’re sassy, they’re incorrigibly tacky, but the folks at Armadillo Acres are loads of fun. Actor’s Theatre brings back The Great American Trailer Park Musical, and in the midst of this heat wave, it’s a welcome distraction.
Betty (Taffy Allen), Pickles (Cassandra Howley Wood), and Linoleum (Carmen Schultz), begin our adventure in trailer park land by introducing this story of, what else, love gone bad in the sleepy little Florida town. The women narrate throughout, but each has her own issues, too. Linoleum’s husband has a date with Old Sparky (the electric chair) at the prison, Betty functions as renter and know-it-all gossip, and young Pickles has phantom pregnancies.
Toll collector Norbert (Matthew Corbett) and shy Jeannie (Lisa Smith Bradley), have been married since high school, and were happy until their baby son was kidnapped. Jeannie has since become agoraphobic, severely straining the relationship. Enter Pippi (Heather Hamby), the sexy stripper who comes into town and turns Norbert’s not too bright head. Another complication is Pippi’s psychotically jealous ex-boyfriend Duke (Ryan Stamey) who is pursuing her.
Director Dennis Delamar, perennially proficient, draws excellent performances from his top notch cast. Lisa Bradley Smith and Heather Hamby have especially good voices, Taffy Allen, Carmen Schultz, and Cassandra Howley Wood add good comic timing to the mix, Matthew Corbett is good as the sad sack husband, and Ryan Stamey is an energetically disturbed boyfriend in pursuit of the one that got away.
The music is serviceable, and Marty Gregory and band keep it grooving, but it’s those durn lyrics that will have you laughing with outrageous lines like those found in most quotable country songs. Eddie Mabry’s choreography accomplishes more than you would think possible on a stage filled with a large set. The lighting by Hallie Gray, set/sound design by Chip Decker (which includes such touches as a clothes-line owl, satellite dish, pink flamingos, and a wall-studded interior—-because after all, “knick-knacks is what make a trailer park a home”), costumes (including an apropos Snuggie) by Jamie Varnadore, and scenic art by Kate VanderWood Shore, all add to the good-natured redneck soap opera effect.
If you’re fixin’ to go, get ready for some good times. You won’t be sorry.
Review by Ann Marie Oliva
Ann Marie Oliva is a local playwright and freelance writer. She is the producer/editor of ARTS à la Mode and a judge for the National Youth Theatre Awards. Ann Marie is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.
Memory is an amazing thing. It brings joy about times shared. Sadness about loss. Fear and anger about buried stories, which younger generations need as clues to their fate. A new, very well-made comedy by Don Cook explores all these aspects of memory—in an Omaha family of 1969 that emerged from a touring jazz band. (Full disclosure: Don Cook is a friend of mine. We both belonged to a former playwrights’ group at Theatre Charlotte.)
There are many great lines in this play. "Nebraska is a state, but Omaha's a state of mind." "You open a can of worms and things get slimy." "Kids need to hear their dad loves them, no matter how old they are." These are not just sayings. They're demonstrated through this play's ironic journey into night.
Bright yellow walls, shelves, calmly framed photos, a period phone and TV, sofa, chairs, small tables, and many knickknacks fill out the set, giving a realistic environment to the reunion of family members (with lighting and tech design by Ben Pierce). Eddie, known to the family as Old Grouch or Stone Face (Bill McNeff), is a shaky patriarch, part Archie Bunker and part Don Rickles, getting silly only when he drinks, but with a biting wit all the time. His meathead son, Scott (Scott Reynolds), makes "fast trips" to visit family, takes detours to Iowa to meet his married girlfriend, and wears a dashiki to disturb the scene, yet claims to be a conventional industrial writer in Detroit, despite his long, strangely styled hair. His half-sister Liz (Annette Saunders) is more sensible about managing the craziness around her, yet she also pokes at secrets when she scents them. Her mother, Connie (Divina Cook), who's been married to Eddie for 34 years, brings even more life to the party, plus a sense of limits. She is eventually pushed to her breaking point when Sticks (George Gray), an old drummer from the band in which she was the singer and Eddie played trumpet, teases out the passions of the past and Scott demands to know why his father left him and his mom for Connie so many years ago.
Cook and Saunders bring the most energy onstage. Without them, the play suffers in the first act from the frozen resentment between father and son, although humorous edges break the ice—as, for example, when Eddie jokes about being in a "bonding" scene with Scott. The play also points to absent characters, Eddie's parents and his first wife (Scott's mom), who play increasingly significant roles in the unfolding of past choices and current fates, through various perspectives of those present in the family room. The Sixties frame the social environment as well, influencing the generational differences with references to hippies and feminism.
Yet Scott, the "hippy writer," is brought to a poignant realization that he is not rebelling against his father's neglect, but repeating it with his own son, while blaming that boy's mom for keeping them apart, like his dad blamed his mom. Further reflections between relationships develop toward the farcical climax of old men fighting and women restraining them. But serious feelings are also at play—with betrayals revealed and ideals unmasked.
While set in the Sixties, this play reflects our own time, too, with questions about false bravado in patriarchal roles, about women sacrificing careers for marriage and motherhood, and about the effects of romantic illusions for those who come after. Through its tragic and comic edges, it offers hope for change, even in characters that have lived long, resisting difficult memories. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre at UNC-Charlotte and author of Ghosts of Theatre and Cinema in the Brain, Theatres of Human Sacrifice, and Inner Theatres of Good and Evil. 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.
Real Women Have Curves is more than a coming of age story, as most would describe it. It's the Latina version of Steel Magnolias, but ends much happier. No one gets married, except personalities, nothing perishes, except fear.
This sassy story of five Latina women trying to make it in 1987 East Los Angeles, without La Migra (Immigration Officials) looming overhead, is entertaining for the young and not-so-young. Pouring her heart out in her journal, young Ana, played by 15 year old Caterina Giammerisi, aspires to be a famous writer and attend New York University, far away from her family, their poor neighborhood, and their various female problems. Her older sister, Estela, played by Cristina Layana Varas, is the owner of a seamstress factory and has a major problem that can't be easily sewn back together and forces her to live in hiding. Co-worker, Pancha, Maria Garcia, longs to have children, while Rosali, played by Delia Rabah, attempts to diet her way to an unhealthy size 6. The matriarch of them all, Carmen, Basia Watts, tries to keep the peace in the mini sweatshop while battling her own life’s dilemmas.
While this production is written from a Latin perspective, many others can appreciate each lady's individual predicament. They effortlessly transition over age, race, and time, making each character feel like a friend or relative you have met before: the liberated teen, the ambitious twenty-something, the clock-ticking older women, and an over-the-hill mother. While each woman is immersed in her own problem, they manage to support each other despite arguments, hurt feelings, and disappointments.
The venue, CAST, affords the play to be situated in a small intimate space, putting you closer to the action. I was so close to the set, I could have easily slipped into one of the beautiful dresses hanging on the racks. The audience is nestled around the floor that houses sewing machines, spools of thread, and boxes of material waiting to be pieced together and sold at wholesale. During the performance, an electrical plug popped, sending screams and smoke into the air, leaving me to wonder if it was apart of the act or was it a malfunction that the cast played off calmly. Either way, the ladies didn’t miss a beat.
Although the first act explored each woman’s individual issue, including Rosali’s goal to fit into a size 6 dress, I hoped to hear a play on the title, but was disappointed until the second act. During Act II, the performance ran away with the title and decided to show a lot more than just curves. Each woman boldly stripped down to her unmentionables and pranced around, showing off gravity’s generosity, or lack thereof. Comparisons of scars, lumps, breasts, and rolls caught the audience’s attention and commanded cheers and screams of support. Covering up in beautiful hats and stylish suits, the show ended with each woman walking an imaginary runway and plucking watchers out of the audience to share a dance.
This production is strictly the equivalent of a chick flick even though I saw several men laughing and enjoying themselves. My guest and I did manage to miss a few jokes due to the language barrier (our Spanish is limited), but still enjoyed the production. If you’re looking for an off-Broadway show complete with singing, dancing and a large cast, you may want to skip Real Women Have Curves. This play is strictly for those with a heart, an interest in controversial issues, and those who want to reconnect with his or her feminine side. Review by Dawn Cauthen
Dawn Cauthen is a freelance writer in the Charlotte area currently working on a screenplay, a novel, and many freelance articles. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in Writing for Stage and Screen from Queens University of Charlotte. She has appeared in Uptown Magazine and enjoys reviewing theater productions, movies, and loves most things artistic.
If you want to spend an entertaining, charming evening sharing knowing laughs about girly things, Girls Only will provide it for you. Last night, actors Bethel Caram and Diana Dresser worked hard to give the audience a light-hearted, laugh-at-yourself experience. Do you remember writing in your diary in middle school? Do you remember obsessing about bras? Do you remember the boys you liked who didn’t like you, but that prettier girl instead? This is your chance to go back and relive some of it, this time without the drama.
This is not an edgy show. The humor is tame compared to what’s out there now. Occasionally, it’s more like cleaner (and better) Saturday Night Live skits. There are a few creative videos where we even get to see creators Barbara Gehring and Linda Klein perform. Funny song lyrics often replace the originals for added humor.
Ms. Caram and Ms. Dresser are onstage already in their underwear (and credit to them for seeming so comfortable in front of a crowd) as the audience enters. The point is made immediately that so much about girls is thanks to our special hormone-driven anatomy. From puberty to pregnancy to menopause, our physical being is much more complicated for us than for men, and adjustments are constantly being made.
Both actors are likeable, girls who could easily be your girlfriends. Bethel Caram is appealing and Diana Dresser sparkles. They have a good rapport onstage. I especially liked the physical comedy bits, the improvisation, and the audience interaction.
The show will be at the Stage Door Theater for a while so you have the opportunity to get a few girlfriends together and make a night of it. It will certainly bring you back to those early days, and even give you a few ideas about other uses for feminine products.
Review by Ann Marie Oliva
Ann Marie Oliva is a local playwright and freelance writer. She is the producer/editor of ARTS à la Mode and a judge for the National Youth Theatre Awards. Ann Marie is a member of the Dramatists Guild.