Almost, Maine Extra Credit

Almost, Maine is a play set in Maine at 9:00 pm about unrelated love stories, which are happy, sad, and funny.  The play seems to vaguely exist in a realistic world, although there are many elements where that is not the case.

The costume designs by Terri Rohlfing blended well in the play.  The idea of the costumes was to show that it was set in Maine, which means that it was very cold out.  However, there was a way this could have seemed like the designer really wanted the audience to know instead of just collecting natural costumes that don't draw attention to the fact that it's winter.  In outdoor weather, the cast wore heavy, thick winter coats, sometimes winter head gear, and usually gloves.  When they were indoors, they wore clothes you would expect any American to wear.  It was simplistic, but that's what it needed to be.

The scenic design by Gregory J. Owen was extremely minimal, which became almost charming.  If you're going to have a low budget on sets, you might as well go all out and get as few sets as physically possible.  I think only pieces that were absolutely necessary were used.  I thought the doorway intruding on the stage was an odd choice.  Of the eight plays, most of them didn't use the doorway.  Hell, the play where the couple are arguing about giving and taking love from each other seemed set up for the doorway... and they ignored it.  It's not a large complaint, but it was a weird choice when the rest of the play was so minimal.

The acting in the play was good.  Chad Hardesty stood out to me in the play in particular.  Each role he played was well-acted and just different enough from the rest of the characters.  You didn't get the sense that he was trying too hard to distinguish the characters, which I got from a couple others.  Jason Cavallone's first role as the spurned ex-boyfriend wasn't badly-acted, he just choice a really obnoxious voice that sort of ruined the performance for me.  His other roles were more normal and were refreshing to me.  It sort of highlighted that he was trying too hard to make the roles seem different.  On the women's side, Michele Curry provided the same steady performance across all three roles that Hardesty did for the boys.  When she was in the sketch, I knew I could rely on her performance.  Jillian Dent, on the other hand, was way too overexcited on stage.  In her sketch with Hardesty, it really stood out to me, because his performance was more nuanced and in control.  She seemed to really emphasize each line.  Again, her subsequent performances were much better so it could simply have been another case of trying to make the characters different from each other.

Mini-Review

For an upcoming, small theater company, it seems almost a requirement to perform Almost, Maine due its emphasis on acting and minimal amount of set work required.  The Talking Horse Productions were the latest small company to tackle this musical at Talking Horse Theatre.  The play featured eight different set-ups with six actors doing triple duty, some of them back-to-back.  The play featured good performances from all the actors, with a slight misstep here or there, but overall the acting held the play together.  The set work is adorably minimal with only the absolute necessary aspects brought on stage.  The costumes are virtually indistinguishable from everyday life, but that's the point.  But the sets, costumes, and scenic design are not the point of the play, but the ability of the actors to showcase their ability.  On that note, Almost, Maine works really well with an audience who laughing most of the play.

Fifth of July brings new life into old play

With evocative costumes reminiscent of the 1970s, Fifth of July does the sparkling dialogue justice, creating a fully realized world in Lebanon, Missouri.

The University of Missouri Theatre brings life into the old play by the late Lanford Wilson at Rhynsburger Theatre.

Fifth of July revolves around the Talley family and reveals itself to be a reflection of the impact of the Vietnam War on this small town family.  This is most obviously reflected in Kenneth Talley (Joshua Johnson), a gay paraplegic veteran.  Before the war, he seemed to be a passionate school teacher.  Afterward, he's having trouble going back to the school due to his condition.

 Talley and Jed Jenkins (Jarrod Beck), his lover, are both gay, but it's a peripheral part of the play.  It's a relatively inconsequential aspect of the play except for its uniqueness.  They are treated in Wilson's script as any other heterosexual couple has been treated in pop culture works of art.  This is not a surprise for people familiar with Wilson's history.  He was openly homosexual and it was a major theme in most of his plays.

The strength of the play without a doubt is in its ability to depict 1970s Missouri.  This is mostly due to the costume design of Kerri S. Packard.  Her costumes are fun and most importantly era-appropriate.  The men of the play get the most inspired costumes, whether by choice or accident.  They wore the typical hairy-chested, open-shirted button-down shirts with short shorts.  John Landis (Scott McDonald) gets the best costumes with his lookalike Miami Vice suit and big sunglasses and slicked back hair.  Then there's the almost obligatory hippie character in Weston Hurley (Jeffrey Simpson), who lives up the stereotypical look with his long hair and excess of facial hair.  Jenkins mostly gives the specific "hick" Missouri look with his worn-down shirt and blue overalls.

With such a dialogue-driven play, it's hard to overstate the importance of the performances of the actors.  Johnson as Kenneth Talley gave a sneaky, understated performance who nonetheless is able to connect with the audience thanks to an emotional scene.  (Tears were shed)  Rachel Bauer, as Sally Friedman, probably gives the best performance of the cast who somehow convinces as a much older woman.  McDonald also hits the right notes as the smug, overconfident businessman.  It may have not been difficult for Simpson to play the dumb, perpetually stoned hippie, but he really has a great sense of comedic timing generating laughs with nearly every line.  Lastly, Blair Ussary probably should have toned it down a bit as she really hams up her performance as the smarter than her age teenage girl.

It may not seem like an important aspect, but the direction and staging of the play is vital to maintaining the audience's interest.  Nobody wants to watch two hours of people just sitting and talking.  Thankfully, David Crespy helps keep the action going by having the characters constantly moving.  Despite the constant movement, the staging felt natural and yet never interfered with the audience's ability to see the characters.

Scenic Designer Brad M. Carlson helps bring about the Missouri aspect of the play.  The walls are an off-color yellow and everything seems a bit more colorful.  It's not immediately obvious what period the play is set in from the scenic design by itself, but it definitely gives the sense that its set in Missouri, an aspect that was lacking in the costume design.  The sets compliment the costumes and neither would truly achieve its purpose without the other.

The lighting design by R. Dean Packard had a two-fold effect.  It helped contribute to the 70s aspect of the play by having an almost airy atmosphere.  It also had a pretty clever way to show the characters were outside by having one portion of the side significantly brighter than the other portions of the stage.

A script penned by a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, great production, and good performances led to an enjoyable experience despite running perhaps a little long.

Sherlock Homes: The Final Adventure

Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure is a play based on Arthur Conan Doyle's original 1899 play.  It will be instantly recognizable to any mild Sherlock Holmes fan.  This production seems to sort of model itself after the television series, Sherlock, at least based off each act beginning and ending with the theme to that series.

A key component to the success of this play was the acting.  There were several memorable performances, but unfortunately neither were the main characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson.  Neither were bad, and in fact, both were quite good at times, but it's impossible not to compare them to the great performances of past people who have played these characters.  Jason Herman, who played Sherlock, seemed to consistently speak in the same manner with the same accent while Kristopher Pettey at times struggled to maintain a British accent.  Jason Wayne Christian stood out from his first scene on stage.  His first appearance, where he introduces himself, was an instant scene stealer.  He had a booming voice that commanded the audience's attention.  Despite barely being in the first act, his introduction made the audience aware of his impending arrival and what that meant for the characters.  Two other actors who stood out were Charlie Wilkerson, as James Larrabee, and Chelsea Christian, as Madge Larrabee.  Despite little character backstory, the actors were able to convey who they were as people.

Since this is a play about Sherlock Holmes in the late 1800s, an important aspect to nail down is the costumes.  The costumes were serviceable but not remarkable.  Sherlock Holmes wears various disguises in this play, most of them very slight changes that make for a convincing disguise.  When he dresses up as a priest, he simply puts on a floppy hat and an alb (I believe that's the term).  Obviously, there are enough limits to completely fool the audience, but very little changes like that make for a world of credibility with the audience.  Also, speaking as a person unaware of the clothing popularity of the late 1800s, they were convincing as clothes from Britain back then.  I thought the King of Bohemia's costume was the least effective.  It did the job of portraying his importance, but it looks too cheap for a king.  It looks like it was either plucked from a costume room or made from scratch, which is very well might have been.  It wasn't that harmful, because like I said, it got the point across.

The lighting design mostly focused on making sure the audience was paying attention to the right part of the stage given that only half of the stage was used at any moment.  An unrealistic wish from myself would be that the other side wouldn't be seen at all, but given the monetary constraints, that's not a realistic complaint.  Still, the lighting did the job in showing where the audience can look and nothing stood out for pointing the lighting in a confusing way.  The one impressive feature from lighting that had to have been planned was when the King of Bohemia walks on stage looking for Sherlock.  He's checking places where he could be and you can see the king's shadow on both walls, the wall to his right and in front of him.  I'm not sure if there was any significance to this decision, but it made for a cool visual.

Mini-Review

The Columbia Entertainment Company Theatre recently premiered Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, a play based on the original 1899 play.  Director Jim Yelton clearly is a fan of the popular series.  The acts were preceded by the theme song of the British TV series, Sherlock.  Since they were aiming high for this play, the costumes were a vital part of the play.  Costume Mistresses Beth Key and Mary Shaw did not do any amazing work, but they were believable and in the right time period.  If there's a weakness to this play is that the supporting players were better acted than the main performances of Sherlock Holmes (Jason Herman) and Dr. Watson (Kristopher Pettey).  However, this may not be their fault, because it's near impossible to not compare them with previous adaptations, which have been blessed with some great actors.  The plot of the play is most likely well-known and easy to follow.  Any fans of Sherlock Holmes will be satisfied by this play.