ALVIN AILEY DANCE THEATRE
Choreography by Alvin Ailey, Rennie Harris, Paul Taylor and Joyce Trisler
Blumenthal Performing Arts
Knight Theater at Levine Center for the Arts
May 15 - 20, 2012
Last night's curtain speech was given by none other than Robert Battle. Looking out into the Knight Theater--filled with well-dressed Charlotte dance fans--the newly appointed Alvin Ailey Artistic Director asked us: "Where do you get your barbeque?" In that folksy moment, Battle expressed the importance of Ailey to this generation of dance audiences: Alvin Ailey is important, successful, and enduring, but he is also accessible, and he belongs to us.
As most of last night's pieces show, the Alvin Ailey Company does joy like no other. This evening began with Paul Taylor's 1981 Arden Court. Here Taylor playfully interprets English court dance forms with his signature runs and balletic verticality. The projection of a rose that fills the upstage wall is the outdoor setting for a group of dancers practicing traditional forms meant for the courtly indoors. Taylor stages the last moments of youth without any sense of sadness.
Hip-hop choreographer Rennie Harris' 2011 Home is an explosive dance-party day-in-the-life. The opening image is like a tableau vivant of commuters in a crowded subway train. The restless pack sways and jostles until one dancer breaks from the crowd, and the others follow. They dream a day of their own imagination and memories. With space to move, they dance in daylight as if on a street, and then they dance on a dimly lit stage as if they'd moved to a nightclub. Harris' choreography is an embodied history of hip-hop. 1970s Funky popping combines with African and Latin rhythms, extended arms in gestures of worship, and jazz footwork by way of vaudeville. The high-energy, relentless happy Home spans the space and time of personal and cultural memory.
In Journey (Joyce Trisler 1958), a different history is made legible, that is, Ailey's study with Martha Graham and his other modern forebears. In this tense solo, Linda Celeste Sims deconstructs movement with glacial contractions and falls, giving the impression of a wheel's forward motion. Her white costume resembles a flag or a sail, reminding us of the forces of nature necessary to make a journey. Her white costume is echoed in the final piece of the evening, Ailey's own Revelations, in Antonio Douthit's dancing of "I Wanna Be Ready." Even the pageantry and energy of "Move, Members, Move" was no match last night for Douthit's meditation on redemption, managing somehow to execute small movements of astonishing physical strength while appearing to be blown by the wind.
When Battle replaced Judith Jamison as the company's artistic leader, he inherited the legacy of success marked by responsible financial stewardship and a solid respect for the company's repertory. He also inherited criticism on the company's reliance on Ailey most famous work, Revelations. New works like Harris's Home are among Battle's first answer to these critiques, and I look forward to what's new and what's next. But I couldn't help but feel a surge of pride when Battle assured me that "Revelations will be here for a long time. And so, we hope, will you." Review by Jeanmarie Higgins
Jeanmarie Higgins is Assistant Professor of Theatre at UNC Charlotte where she teaches Theatre & Society and Dramaturgy. Two of her plays--Science Fair and To Moscow! are published by Playscripts, Inc.
ELEEMOSYNARY
By Lee Blessing
Directed by Chip Caldwell
Ballantyne Arts Center
Blackbox Theatre
May 11 - 26, 2012
This is another outstanding production from the young Ballantyne Arts Center, a company Charlotte theatre-loving people would do well to support (and it's really not that far away). Still in its infancy, the company's second play is as much a pleasure as the first one, Almost Maine, but brings more dimension and expertise to the blackbox stage, showing they can do drama as well as comedy.
Three generations of females in a dysfunctional family (what else?) try to work out the hurt, anger, pressure, and handle the balance of trying to live up to what the others want of her, against her own needs. The matriarch, Dorothea (Linda Healy Vespa), wanted more than marriage and motherhood, but instead got three sons and a daughter. Though she is thwarted and can't soar on her own, she wants her daughter Artemis (Martina Logan), called Arte, to do that and more. Yet Arte becomes pregnant with Barbara, renamed Echo (Kat Caldwell) by Dorothea and disappoints her mother.
The dynamics here are complicated, as you would expect with women, and there is much leaving, coming back, and leaving again both physically and mentally. Though it's clear that emotionally speaking, there is always love, which is precisely why it's so painful. Arte can't deal with her mother's dominating personality, accusing her of "intellectual child abuse" though she is brilliant in her own right. Echo is left to Dorothea's hyper-vigilant push for achievement, such as when she tries to teach Echo the alphabet at three months old. This leads to Echo becoming a spelling bee expert with the word "eleemosynary, " meaning charitable and forgiving, becoming special to her.
The three actors are simply wonderful. Linda Healy Vespa brings every bit of Dorothea's eccentricity and intensity alive, but also her underlying vulnerability. Martina Logan is touching as the daughter/mother in-between generation woman who can't stay but never really leaves. She says, "I have trouble with my memory, I can't forget." Kat Caldwell is moving as she represents the genius teenage girl who is so masterful that one might forget she still aches for, and wants and needs mothering.
Eleemosynary is worth seeing with this excellent cast and expert direction by Chip Caldwell. The show both entertains and illuminates. Review by Ann Marie Oliva
Ann Marie Oliva is a playwright, fiction, and non-fiction writer, and reviewer. She is the theatre/film editor of ARTS à la Mode and a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.
RHINOCEROS
By Eugene Ionesco
Directed by Mark Sutton
Children's Theatre of Charlotte
Ensemble Company
Wells Fargo Playhouse
May 10 - 12, 20122
Young adults are told to "do the right thing" but rarely does that follow with, "and doing the right thing is almost always harder." Why is it harder? The phrase "path of least resistance" comes to mind. In the physical world and the human realm this is the course that will be taken most often. Written by Eugene Ionesco (in French) in 1959, post World War II and towards the end of the Cold War, this play was reportedly his caution of passively accepting extreme political movements like Nazism, Fascism, and Communism.
Yet, because of the way the play is written and presented, as comical Theatre of the Absurd, it reaches far more individuals than dry lectures or preaching ever would. This spare production of Rhinoceros hits all the major points. An admittedly flawed man named Berenger (Ian Easterbrook) meets with his finicky friend Jean (Stephanie Uttro) at a café. As she scolds him for drinking too much an odd event occurs: a rhinoceros runs through the small town. The citizens are astounded, and then a second rhinoceros crushes a small cat. But life goes on and Berenger goes to his job where the girl he has a crush on named Daisy (Morgan Wardlaw) helps him out with his boss.
The story progresses as more and more rhinoceroses show up, but now they are becoming increasingly more violent and destructive. A woman at the office recognizes that one of them is her husband and she leaves to join him. People in the town continue to join the herd until only Berenger and Daisy are left. Each one must make a decision. Ionesco purposely makes Berenger not very honorable in the opening scenes. Is he reminding us that you don't have to be perfect to have courage and find a moral voice?
The utilitarian set by Andrew Gibbon serves the play well. Unlike other productions there are no masks, or representations of the animals themselves except puffs of smoke and an outline of one running behind a scrim. Costume designer Mahealani Jones shows the conversion of people into rhinos by putting them in loose-fitting pajama-like outfits that recall prison uniforms. (Once you are in there's no getting out.)
Director Mark Sutton and Assistant Director Jonathan Slaughter have cast the play well. Ian Easterbrook stands out as Berenger physically, being taller than the other actors and light-haired, so that the difference between his character and the others is easier to define from the beginning. He also has a good stage presence showing the progression of Berenger's development from an imperfect everyman who can yet be heroic. Stephanie Uttro also does a very good job with her character of Jean (Jean is French for John and this part is often played by a male) who has an intense reversal from the first scene. Morgan Wardlaw is well cast as Daisy and brings a graceful, delicate quality to the part. The entire ensemble is excellent and work together well, especially carrying each other around in various configurations, dancing, snorting and moving as threatening rhinos, and interacting with other actors. They bring out the droll humor and absurdist qualities in the play quite well.
Rhinoceros is a quality choice for teens and adults to ponder the nature of individualism without being too heavy-handed. Good socially relevant theatre does that, even fifty years later. First-rate job. Review by Ann Marie Oliva
Ann Marie Oliva is a playwright, fiction, and non-fiction writer, and reviewer. She is the theatre/film editor of ARTS à la Mode and a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.
PASSION
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by James Lapine
Directed by Glenn T. Griffin
Queen City Theatre Company
Duke Energy Theatre at Spirit Square
May 3 - 19, 2012
How does obsessional love begin--or end? Sondheim and Lapine's 1993 musical, based on the 1860s novel "Fosca," by Iginio Ugo Tarchetti, explores this still current question through the ideals of love and duty, of male soldiers and pining females, in an earlier, Romantic era.
Young Giorgio is already passionately in love with Clara, though she's married, pregnant, and lives in Milan, when he's stationed at a boring provincial post, with other officers, who joke and play cards. Yet he finds his superior officer's cousin, Fosca, of interest--when a plate is set for her at their table and she does not appear. He learns from the military doctor--and we eventually see (through today's post-Freudian awareness)--that she's an obvious hysteric, bursting into screams, offstage and on, or curled in bed with psychosomatic illnesses that put her at death's door.
Giorgio and Clara continue to sing of their passion for each other, while sharing letters at a distance, yet Giorgio also becomes compassionate toward Fosca. Then she gets obsessive with him (an obvious "attachment disorder" we’d say today) and that disgusts him. But the doctor implores Giorgio to be kind to Fosca, to "save her life" (like he did with men on the battlefield) by going to her bed, where he simply lies beside her during the night and then writes a love letter that she dictates. Eventually, this not only gets Giorgio into trouble with his superior (Colonel Ricci), but also shifts his affections toward Fosca, mysteriously, so that he has more passion for her, through her sacrificial devotion to him, than for Clara, his beautiful and healthy lover in Milan. What he had sung about, with Fosca, as obsessive and demanding, becomes his deeper desire.
I have not mentioned the actors' names yet, because there are so many problems with this production that I do not want to point the blame at individuals. I will say that the lead females (Clara and Fosca) have wonderful voices, though their acting needs more dimensionality. The lead actor (Giorgio) lacks both the voice and acting ability for this complex role. His voice breaks on high notes or he resorts to shouting. Putting great intensity into the role also reduces its subtleties.
Yet, the supporting cast offers moments of sportive fun and musical clarity. Scott A. Miller is especially good in his minor role, during a flashback, as Fosca's initially dishonest, yet then brutally honest husband, Ludovic. And the set designer, Tim Baxter-Ferguson (a friend of mine, but I didn't notice his name until I checked just now) did an amazing job in fitting an elaborate set into the Duke Theatre's tiny stage space, with wooden blinds, drapes, a dinner table with lace cloth, crystal decanters, upholstered chairs, and even some tile and brick details on the raked stage and steps. The actors also do a fine job in moving the set pieces between scenes, changing it all to a bedroom or park, along with nice shifts in lighting (designed by Barbara Berry). The minimal orchestra performs well, too, in a tight space above the stage--with keyboards, violin, and percussion.
But I cannot recommend this show. There are many witty insights in its lyrics and dialogue, such as the doctor saying, "Beauty is something one pays for, as is goodness." Yet, the beauty of Passion, with the complex, contrasting layers of Sondheim's music and Lapine's postmodern twists, is difficult to find here. So the audience is not getting the beauty or passion it pays for. 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.
COME FLY AWAY
Conceived, Choreographed & Directed by Twyla Tharp
Music by Frank Sinatra
Blumenthal Performing Arts
Belk Theater
May 1 - 6, 2012
As a part of the Broadway Lights Series, the essence of Frank Sinatra is being brought to life at the Belk Theater during the first week of May. The stage, initially designed as a dark and sultry lounge, takes on many forms later when different couples in different phases of their relationships use it to act out the highs and lows of their complicated romances.
As a silent musical (no words, just tunes) the Big Band members certainly create a lively atmosphere with the many brass and percussion instruments playing heartily in unison, complete with solos to tickle your ears. Playing Sinatra favorites such as "Let's Fall in Love", "Fly Me to the Moon", "You Make Me Feel So Young", "Makin' Whoopee", and tens of others, the band deserves a show all its own. If that isn't enough, Frank's butter-like voice croons perfectly as if he was inconspicuously hiding in a corner gripping a shiny retro microphone with a Lucky Strike cigarette teetering between his lips.
Observing that my husband and I were probably some of the younger patrons in the audience, hundreds of heads filled with white hair swayed back and forth while hearing the music of their day. Smiles adorned most faces while others briefly closed their eyes to take it all in.
The phenomenal ensemble of dancers are just as explosive as the band and add a certain indescribable feeling that makes your heart beat faster, in a good way. These performers represent many races, backgrounds, and dancing strengths that fuse together amazingly to produce a talented rainbow of scenarios. How many people can successfully tell a story by twisting and twirling their bodies in suggestive ways that chronicles bouts of love, heartache, seduction, fear, and other emotions? I'd say, not many.
The 80 minute performance did not have an intermission and rightfully so, due to the intensity of the storylines. I'm guessing had there been a break, the momentum may have been lost. The production ended with the entire ensemble kicking up their legs to the infamous "New York, New York" while the audience erupted in nonstop applause.
Having not been much of a Frank Sinatra fan entering the wooden doors to the theater, I was sure one after exiting for the evening. 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. Her work has appeared in Uptown Magazine and Dawn enjoys reviewing theater productions, movies, and loves most things artistic.
FLOYD COLLINS
Book by Tina Landau
Music & Lyrics by Adam Guettel
(additional lyrics by Tina Landau)
Directed by Michael R. Simmons
Musical Director John Coffey
Carolina Actors Studio Theatre
April 12 - May 12, 2012
Floyd Collins is an ambitious, complex, unconventional musical that would challenge the mettle of any theatre company. The award-winning Off-Broadway play premiered in 1996, but the man, explorer/dreamer, and caver Floyd Collins of 1925, continues to haunt a segment of America's psyche.
While exploring a cave in Kentucky, Floyd (Jonathan Elliott Coarsey) finds a large cavern (he believes all the caves in the area are interconnected); one that he proclaims will make his fortune. But in his haste on the way back out of the narrow passageway his light falls over and in the dark he dislodges a rock that pins his leg. He is soon found by rescuers who try for days to free him. When reporters, especially Skeets Miller (Daniel O’Sullivan) begin to cover the incident, it becomes the first major media event to spread all over the country, with tourists and reporters flocking to the area.
At first his father, Lee Collins (Lou Dalessandro), thinks this is just Floyd needing a cave rescue again, but as the situation becomes dire his brother Homer (Chaz Pofahl) realizes time is against them. Floyd's fragile sister Nellie Collins (Holly Cenzer), and steadfast step-mother Miss Jane (Paula Baldwin) try to calm tensions between Lee and Homer as the frenzy fractures the family. Because of his small stature, Skeets is able to go down the passageway and communicate with Floyd. His reports that started the "circus" bring assorted characters to aid in the rescue, and various methods to free Floyd are tried but fail. As the situation becomes desperate, Floyd's physical and mental state deteriorates.
While some productions have been minimal, under CAST's banner of "experiential" theatre the treatment is on full display--from the oversized "Cave" sign outside, to the ushers wearing hard hats and miner's lights--so that CAST sets up the atmospherics even before you cross the threshold of the theatre. The technical elements of the show are phenomenal. Inside on the stage the dark "cave" that Floyd has loved to explore now becomes his prison and looks as lonely and forbidding as it must have felt to Floyd once he was trapped. Notable is the set design by Dee Blackburn, scenic art by Cathy Colley, light design by Cyd Knight, and especially sound design by Sean Kimbro whose echoes add much to the production and the mystique of caving.
Musical director John Coffey and his musicians do an excellent job with the intricate musical score by Adam Guettel (grandson of composer/theatre legend Richard Rodgers). It includes about twenty songs in a distinctive American style. Unlike other modern musicals where music seems to be added because they need a song at certain points, the music here is totally integrated as part of the narrative. The music isn't melodic, and in fact, has a fair amount of dissonance making the audience "feel" Floyd's terrible dilemma. The various musical themes are woven throughout. If you listen to the lyrics they are random phrases, and in fact are the playwright's way of communicating the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters.
Director Michael R. Simmons selected a talented, fully committed cast starting with Jonathan Elliott Coarsey in one of the best performances of the year in the grueling role of the "lucky" Floyd Collins. Chaz Pofahl is a standout, too, as Floyd's loyal brother Homer. Their harmonious duets are moving. Lou Dalessandro convincingly conveys a father's disappointment and frustration. Always giving a reliably strong performance is Paula Baldwin. Holly Cenzer brings a lyrical quality to Floyd's sister who supports him the best she can. A pleasant surprise here is the noteworthy performance of Daniel O'Sullivan as the reporter who informs the world of Floyd's plight then regrets becoming part of the story himself. It is through his eyes that we see Floyd in his most vulnerable state. It is worth saying the entire cast is to be commended.
Kudos to CAST for this outstanding production. Every detail has been worked out, attended to, and is evidenced in the performance. This is not a play where you will leave skipping and smiling; this is one that makes you question fate. Though I wouldn't exactly characterize him as a crusader, writers, like author Roger Brucker (who attended the performance last night), and those in the caving community, have made sure that Floyd Collins gets his due as a man who believed in and was totally dedicated to his life's work. He also represents the humanity in all of us; the mistakes, the foolhardiness, the passion, and what that eventually costs us. How many people would sacrifice everything for their vision? That is why it is so hard to watch Floyd struggle against forces greater than himself. We never know what will happen because we are all at the mercy of chance. Yet Floyd Collins will live on as a tribute to those who fearlessly follow a dream.
Review by Ann Marie Oliva
Ann Marie Oliva is a playwright, fiction, non-fiction writer, and reviewer. She is the theatre/film editor of ARTS à la Mode and a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.