Little Shop of Horrors

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Director John DiDonna staged a lively production of Little Shop of Horrors at the Annie Russell Theater in Rollins College. I love the Annie Russell’s fabulous Baroque architectural touches. As the audience filled in, several bums lounged on the stage, occasionally shifting positions to get comfortable. I’ve always loved the music from this play. I used to blast it while I painted in NYC. I always hoped that someday I’d live somewhere that’s green.

Audrey, the plant, was four different sized in the production. I ended up drawing the third largest version. When Audrey was at his largest, he filled the little shop. John took me back stage after the show to see the inner workings of the puppets. A puppeteer had to get inside the plant and bend at the waist to get the plant to talk. I must have been physically exhausting.

On stage right a chair was draped and hidden with fabric. It turned out this was the dentists chair. Today I went to the dentist and discovered I needed four wisdom teeth pulled. I was given Nitrous gas and told to relax. Old x-rays from eight years ago turned out to be from another patient mixed in with my own. As new x-rays were taken the tech told me they were short staffed. An assistant disappeared because of a family emergency. As the dentist worked on my teeth, he kept coaching the assistant so she wasn’t in his way as he worked. It seemed like this was her first time applying suction. I suspect she was usually in the reception area but she was excited to learn.

The bright light in my eyes, I saw a large needle and felt a sharp burning sensation in my gums and in my cheeks. I flinched and the doc apologized. He kept the needle in and kept vibrating it pushing hard. He repeated the process on all four quadrants of my gums. The worst pain happened when he stabbed the roof of my mouth. I was fitted with a bright orange clowns nose with two hoses for the gas. My head swam and my legs relaxed. Some sort of wedge was inserted inside my mouth to keep it open.

Before he began, he advised me to take an extra deep inhale of the nitrous. I heard his stomach gurgle. The dentist started prying at my back wisdom tooth and he pushed hard under the roots. I heard a crunching noise, like a tree branch breaking and I felt the tooth give way. For an eternity he continued to pry. There was cracking and crunching as he broke the teeth free. Giant hands and tools invaded my field of vision. “I should be sketching” I thought. When he was done he patted me on the shoulder and said, “Time flies when you’re having fun, kind of makes you wish you could have them all out.” He loved his work.

I was left reclined in the seat to recover. My whole mouth was numb and I realized I couldn’t swallow. My throat felt like it was constricting. I started to panic. I heard shoes ringing on the tile as assistants and dentists rushed from station to station. Would they notice if I stopped breathing? I gasped for air through my mouth and struggled to relax. When I was finally seated upright and the orange nose removed, I breathed a deep sigh of relief. A simple trip to the dentist for a deep cleaning turned into an unexpected horror.

Julie Bunny Must Die!

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This Fringe show in the Pink venue was a fun comical musical. A graphic artist and comic named Adam Chase, played by Bert Rodriguez, grapples with the superficial and insignificant nature of living as a freelance artist. His one true love is a comic character he created as a child named Julie Bunny. The bunny is an international spy whose arch nemesis is an evil Chef, played by Michael Colavolpe. As an artist I am enthralled by the idea of this musical. Some of the lyrics fell a little short but on a whole the songs were fun and creative. While trying to please a corporate ad executive Adam finds himself overworked with insane tight deadlines. With so much work on his plate he can not find the time to write his beloved comic. The comic characters unite and try to write their own back story on their own. Penny a blond bombshell, is consistently ignored every time she opens her mouth. Her song, where she laments people never taking her seriously is a highlight of the show. It turns out she had all the answers all along.

Adams girlfriend, played by Stefanie Clouse, doesn’t understand his obsession with the comic character while a fan who dresses in furry costumes to go to comic conventions understands perhaps too well. The girlfriend tries to convince Adam to take the safe graphic arts jobs which pay far better than an underground comic. Julie bunny, played by Laura Hodos is on stage as the girlfriend is looking at the comic. When the girlfriend utters, “Its not exactly your best work.” The bunny raises her toy gun and shouts “I will cut you bitch!” I laughed out loud and my watercolor wash splashed across the page in the wrong direction.

This was a really fun show don’t miss it!

Tuesday, May 25th 10:25 PM

Friday, May 28th 9:50 PM

Saturday, May 29th 4:45 PM

Sunday, May 30th 4:40 PM

The Arts and Social Responsibility

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Billy Collins the former US poet laureate, Jules Feiffer, a Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist, novelist , playwright and screenwriter and Marsha Norman a Pulitzer prize-winning playwright all came together at the Annie Russell Theater at Rollins College to discuss the arts and social responsibility. Feiffer kicked off the discussion by pointing out that most of his cartoons were about the narrative of social injustice. He was fascinated by the way politicians would say one thing and mean something entirely different. In his mind fear is the most common human emotion.He saw Death of a Salesman when he was a young boy and he was truck by the way the family in that play never told the truth to one another. He saw his own family mirrored in the hidden meanings of what was left unsaid on the stage. He felt that the play “Waiting for Gordot” was a play with cartoon dialogue which as a cartoonist he could identify with.
Marsha Norman discussed how her play “Night Mother” came to fruition. She was angry at having just lost a job and she found herself in a new city not knowing anyone. She wrote the play from that place of anger feeling she had nothing to loose since no one would ever produce the play. The play was about time and anger and the end of a certain journey. As it turns out this was the play that won her the Pulitzer Prize. She said winning that award gave her the four word title in front of her name but little else. Writing her next play she knew she had to start from scratch and anything she produced would always be compared to the former high water mark. She started discussing how the intermission is so important in a play. The audience has met the characters and seen the obstacles. She compared the audience to a jury. She felt it is important for the audience to deliberate during the intermission. When the audience returns it is important that no key moment be staged in the first few minutes since audience members are still adjusting to the seats and thinking about their neighbors and any annoyances. Then she wants the audience to feel they are on stage with the characters. She said the brains main function is to predict and at all times the audience is making predictions and judgments.
In a question and answer session after the talk, a student asked the open ended question which has the most elusive answer, “What should I be doing if I want to write a great play?” I was surprised at the simple and obvious answer Marsha offered. She said, “Write some short one act scenes of dialogue. One could be a love scene, an argument and a scene where one character wants something the other character has. Then get some friends to rehearse these scenes and perform them in public places like a cafeteria or a park. The people in these public places will be your audience and see how they react. Keep writing. Write some more.”

Confessions of a critic

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Wall Street Journal theater critic Terry Teachout gave a talk on what he feels a theater critics roll is in society. He told a story of how he met a critic once over a drink and when he asked his fellow critic what he was up to next, the critic perked up and said with glee that he was about to pan a play. He explained that to many critics go into a production with a review already set in there mind. He feels that to many critics are not competent enough to right reviews. The first 15 minutes of any play always have the audiences full attention. At that 15 minute mark the play ether continues to grab the audience or they are lost. He always goes into a play wanting to write a good review.
Terry confessed that his first love was music, but at a painful point in his life he had to admit that he did not have a creative spirit. He found he was a better writer than a musician. Therefor he always approaches a theater review with a bit of reverence, respecting the very act of putting on a show. He explained that theater is as vibrant as ever, but in these uncertain economic times it is important that people go to the shows. The very future of theater depends on it.