Proof by David Auburn at Theater on the Edge.

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On the eve of her twenty-fifth birthday, Catherine, (Megan Raitano) a troubled young woman, has spent years caring for her brilliant but unstable father, Robert, (Allan Whitehead) a famous mathematician. She enters the stage crying and beside herself with grief. She consoles herself with some bubbly and then her father enters the stage to wish her a happy birthday and to talk about the good times they had. For some ominous reason he always spoke it int past tense until it becomes clear that he isn’t really there.

Following he father’s death, she must deal with her own volatile emotions; the arrival of her estranged sister, Claire (Elaitheia Quinn); and the attentions of Hal (Barry Wright), a former student of her father’s who hopes to find valuable work in the 103 notebooks that her father left behind.

Over the long weekend that follows, a burgeoning romance and the discovery of a mysterious notebook draw Catherine into the most difficult problem of all, namely, how much of her father’s madness, or genius, will she inherit? In one scene her father sits outside at the table in the freezing cold excitedly writing away in one of his notebooks. As he put it all cylinders were firing and the math problems were finding creative and inspired solutions. Catherine was excited for him and when she reads the paper, we watched her expression slowly change as she realized that the inspirations were nonsense having little to do with actual math.

Proof is a 2000 play by the American playwright David Auburn. Proof was developed at George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey, during the 1999 Next Stage Series of new plays. Theater on the Edge always brings the latest cutting edge plays to Orlando allowing the small audience a front row set into contemporaneity dreams and aspirations often with a touch of madness.

This incredible play rips out your heart and stomps on it for good measure. It runs through March 31st. Get your tickets at theaterontheedge.org at Theater on the Edge 5542 Hansel Avenue Orlando FL 32809.

Howler’s Theater presents Wind Up 1957 at the Savoy.

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Howler’s Theatre‘s World Premiere production of an immersive play, written by Scott Browning, which invites audience members into a gay bar in the 1950’s to witness life and love at a time when the truth could get one arrested and conformity was almost mandatory. “Wind Up 1957” is a theatrical experience that dissolves the law of time to ask, has much really changed since then?”

The play was inspired by the book “Gay Bar” by Helen Branson – the first novel about gay culture that was legally printed in the U.S. Playwright Scott Browning explains, “I fell in love with Helen so much that I just wanted to bring her and her boys back to life, 60 years later, at her Hollywood bar “The Windup.”

Pam I went to a dress rehearsal in The Savoy (1913 N Orange Ave, Orlando, FL 32804). Director Vera Varlamov was incredibly welcoming. She bubbled with delight each time an actor arrived dressed in their best 1950s suits and ties. music from the 50s filled the theater in the round. Actors checked their cellphones to pass the time until the rehearsal started. The setting for the play was perfect. The Starlight room is an intimate cabaret space inside the Savoy. The air smelled of cigarette smoke covered by strong perfumed cleaners. In this interactive space, an actor might just sit down next to you.

Vera lead the actors in a viewpoints session. The actors walked the space getting used to the new space which was larger that the spaces they had been rehearsing in but also filed with chairs. Vera referred to the chairs as the ghosts in the room, soon to be filled by an audience. The actors had to get used to walking among the seats.In the first phase they walked the space not acknowledging each other. Then they added eye contact and emotion to their steps. In the final phase, they projected outward filling the space with their presence as they moved. For me it was  a quick introduction into how each character moved.

The edgy and funny bar keep, Carol Begerow-Adubato, was my favorite character in the production. She didn’t take any crap from anyone and she instinctively knew how to protect her patrons. There was a natural playfulness to many of the scenes, like the characters were regulars who often joked together. Scott Browning was good at being intense and brooding. A slow dance with his stand in partner was incredibly sincere. One actor was in another production across town, so his lines had to be read by the tech.

Since this was the first time in a new space, the scenes had to stop once and a while to work out staging issues. But in general the production flowed nicely. The director acknowledged the audience of two and when the seats fill, there will be a new energy that will fill the space.

Other acting talents included Mitchell Dean Wells, Benjamin Dupree, Josh Breece, Barry Wright, Alina Alcantara, Rashad Alii, and Brandon Fabian Lope.

Tickets are $12.

Where: The Savoy (1913 N Orange Ave, Orlando, FL 32804)

When: All shows are from 8 PM to10 PM.

Friday     November 3, 2017

Saturday November 4, 2017

Friday     November 10, 2017

Saturday November 11, 2017

Friday     November 17, 2017

Saturday November 18, 2017

Friday     November 24, 2017

Saturday November 25, 2017

William Shakespeare’s King Lear at Osceola Arts.

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The set design by Nate Krebs, for King Lear established the multiple platforms as checkerboards as if in a game of chess. Directed by Beau Mahurin, the show is definitely dark and brooding. In the first act King Lear (J. Michael Werner) the aging king of Britain, decides to step down
from the throne and divide his kingdom evenly among his three
daughters. First, however, he puts his daughters through a test, asking
each to tell him how much she loves him. Goneril (Samantha Behr) and Regan (Katy Polimeno) , Lear’s older daughters, give their father flattering answers.asks his daughters to praise him and Cordelia (Monica Mulder) refuses, simply acknowledging that she loves him as a daughter should., He is furious and essentially disowns her. She is cast to the ground. The other two sisters play his game, but they plot to overthrow his in secret.

Cordelia returns disguised as a jester and helps her father to overcome the endless espionage. There is some serious sword play and sitting in the front row, I at times got nervous that I might be a little too close to the action. Edmund (Barry Wright) sat at the chess board as he plotted his next move against the king. Selfish princesses were pawns in the battle for power. Some of the Shakespearean dialect was lost on me since I was concentrating of the sketch.

This is a truly tragic play. The evil sisters kill each other since they are both in love with Edmund. Cordelia returns with an army to battle her sisters army but she is defeated. The death of all three princesses leaves Lear distraught and overcome. Lear appears, carrying the body of Cordelia in his arms. Mad with grief,
he bends over Cordelia’s body, looking for a sign of life. The strain
overcomes Lear and he falls dead on top of his daughter.

A year ago 49 people were murdered at Pulse Nightclub here in Orlando, so the entire city had had to come to terms with loss and grief. This made the end of this play most timely and difficult to watch. The human struggle never changes and tragedy is the same in the past as it is in the present. senseless violence greed and corruption will always remain but if the cast of King Lear all had assault riffle instead of swards, s then the carnage would have been much worse.

Penumbra, the Perfect Futuristic Society?

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When Shadows Fall is a groundbreaking first-person interactive experience that takes place in a 15,000 square foot maze of futuristic offices, labs, and a dark labyrinth. Mallory Vance and I were recruited by Daedalus (Joe Hall) to recover documents from the office of acting president Nickolai (Barry Wright). Documents we found hinted at a sordid affair with Odessa (Cassandre Heinrich). She had been a gold member of society, but she volunteered for experiments which scarred her for life and cast her as an unknown in the Labarinth. The relationship was abusive. Mallory hoped that if we kept the abusive relationship a secret, that Nikolai might one day repent and the couple could live happily ever after. She was a romantic at heart but ultimately an enabler.  Of course life never is that sweet and innocent. Besides, weren’t the only ones who knew this dark secret.

What had been described as the perfect society was less than perfect. Posters proclaimed that “After acclimation everyone has a place” and “Join our society towards good.” Our reward for joining the greater good was to be banished to the labyrinth for our anti-social behavior. Mallory was the most social of the new citizens, and of course I am an artist and therefor deserved be be part of the gold cast of society. As the unnamed, we had to give up our old name and embrace a new name, I became know as Odin and Mallory became Sarah.

In the end we all met in a public square where the true face of the society showed itself. Ideals were clouded by jealousy, rage and revenge. The misshapen underclass fought against their oppressors. Nathanael, the Minotaur (John Reid Adams) seemed the most tortured of the unnamed.  One of his prosthetic horns was broken off. His pained screams could often be heard in the halls. I clearly only experienced a fraction of the stories that could be unearthed. The experience left me yearning to learn more. One evening in Penumbra only begins to scratch the surface. You have to experience it for yourself.