Talk Radio

Posted on by Thor

Theater on the Edge (5542 Hansel Avenue Orlando, FL 32809) is presenting Talk Radio by Eric Bogosian and Tad Savinar. The set by Samantha DiGeorge is amazing in all it’s nostalgic splendor and detail. The space is divided into two rooms with a glass divider so that the soundboard guy can see the talent. The date is May 8, 1987 at WTLK in Cleveland Ohio. Spike (Christopher Ivers) who was in charge of running the ads was leaning back in his chair reading his Playboy. One radio show was winding to a close with a financial expert giving lofty and hard to follow financial advice to a confused listener. I started my sketch by getting him in place with his glasses and mustache. I wasn’t aware that he was about to be replaced by the star of the next hour of talk radio Barry Champlain (Marco DiGeorge). Champlain’s sound man was Stu Noonan (Alex Jackson). The two had worked together for years as Barry’s career skyrocketed. On this night the manager Dan Woodreuff (Christian Wienker) informed Barry that his show was about to go national and that the new sponsors would be listening in.

I grew up listening to talk radio in high school, So I was familiar with the insipid callers who would say, “Long time listener, first time caller.” It seems many would call in just to hear their own voice. Marco DiGeorge gives an amazing performance as the hardened talk show host who puts some callers down just to stay sane. Each character in turn had a blue illuminated cameo in which they relate their experiences with the radio talk show host. We learn about him from those who have to deal with him daily.

The soundboard used on stage must have been live because the calls came in quick succession. One caller claimed to have been partying for two days and his girlfriend was unconscious. There was some panic in the studio by Barry saw it as a prank call. On a second call in the high strung caller admitted he was making it all up. He then insisted on stopping by the studio to meet his talk show idol. Kent (Adam Minossora) had spiked up hair and his panicked manic performance caused me to stop sketching and just enjoy the performance. Kent was hilarious with his high wire antics and I thought for sure the executives would want him to have his own talk show. He rushed at the talk show host as if intent on murder but quickly shot a photo. Barry was actually a bit of a scholar before becoming a talk show host and Kent represented the lowest common denominator that Barry now had to accommodate.

Linda McArthur (Elaitheia Quinn) with a clipboard in hand produced the show. She wore a vibrant colorful jacket with neon colors. A raw and intimate moment came as she related how she felt about the talk show host. She decided to call in and she asked the host advice about how she should deal with her boyfriend. As they looked at each other through the glass window he told her she should move on and she stormed out of the studio visibly upset.

The entire show was an amazing roller coaster of emotions as the talk show host handled racists, bigots, and quiet fans who worshiped him yet really had no idea who he was. It all pushed him to the brink of giving up on humanity. Before social media and 140 character tweets, talk radio was where you got to experience trolls and desperate lonely people looking for attention.

I stood quickly for a standing ovation. Many of the cast were the callers who nettled the talk show host all night. The show was an existential rush felling claustrophobic with so many people calling with so many needs. This was a stellar show and should not be missed. The small theater had you right on top of the action. It felt like the host might fall into the abyss at any time and yet it was just one night that looked at a thin slice of crazy disturbing humanity.

Tickets for Talk radio usually run from $22 to $26. Every seat in the house is amazing. The show runs through December 8, 2019.

12 Angry Jurors

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Having sketched a dress rehearsal for 12 Angry Jurors based on 12 Angry Men written by Reginald Rose I decided to also sketch on opening night. The jury box was reserved for audience members who wanted these front row seats. I decided I wanted to sketch the jury box and the cast, so I sat where media once sat during trials of the past. Behind the jury box, a small stage was set up for photographers and presumably court artists.

For this performance I knew when members of the jury would change seats so it gave me an advantage to catch each member of the cast in my sketch. Again the jury had to deliberate about the fate of a youth who was being tried for the murder of his father. When the jurors first entered they immediately took a vote with 11 votes of guilty and 1 vote not guilty. Elaitheia Quinn gave a strong performance as juror 8 who had doubts about the prosecutions case. She was seen as a bleeding heart liberal by Juror 3 (Rich Somsky) he got so angry at her reasoning and doubts that he could have punched her had others not stopped him.

Director Robin Olson did an amazing job casting this show. The show was set in the 1970s and the costuming reflected that time period. These were no longer just 12 angry men but an evenly split 6 men and 6 women. Each jurors age and cultural background brought a fresh perspective to the facts as presented in the trial. For instance when discussing how a switch blade is used juror 5 (Scott Browning) came from a disadvantaged neighborhood and had witnessed a knife fight in his back yard.

An added layer of drama came because I was seated next to the History Museum’s chief curator, Pam Schwartz who is in charge of preserving this courtroom which is considered an delicate artifact from Orlando’s past. The courtroom had been lovingly restored after a fire in the past. Some fire damage could still be seen on the floor. When a cup of water spilled on the table during jury deliberations she cringed. Elaitheia quickly mopped it up with tissues incorporating that into the natural flow of the show. When juror 3 punched the wall Pam cringed again. These jurors were so angry, they just might start throwing chairs, but it never went that far. After the show she inspected the table to be sure there was no damage.

Every juror was on edge. Anger bubbled over and they fought bitterly with the youths life in the balance. Racism and bigotry surfaced in Juror 10 (Rose Lamarre) and the rest of the jurors drew away from her as she spit out her monologue of hatred. Our president is embracing hatred and racism as the foundation of his campaign in 2020 making this show incredibly resonant. Thunder rumbled and ran pelted the courthouse. Outside the pavement was wet.

This is a great show in a great space with an important message. Don’t miss it.

12 Angry Jurors

The Orange County Regional History Center 65 E Central Blvd, Orlando, FL 32801.

Remaining show dates:

Saturday,  August 3 – 7:30pm 

Sunday,    August 4 – 3:00pm 

Thursday, August 8 – 7:30pm 

Friday,     August 9 – 7:30pm 

Saturday, August 10 – 7:30pm 

Sunday,   August 11 – 3:00pm

Tickets are $20 General Admission and $40 for Jury Box Seats. 

The Goat or Who is Sylvia?

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Edward Albee‘s The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? is an absurdest play with subtle references to ancient Greek tragedy. It poked fun at modern liberal ideals, and taboos. It is not an easy play to digest. In the first scene Martin (Allan Whitehead) has turned 50. He seems to have it all a very successful career as an architect and a loving wife, Stevie (Merritt Anne Cooke-Greene). They joke with each other clearly loving each others company. Martin’s friend, Ross (Mark Anthony Kelly) is a reporter and he sets up his video camera to record an interview with his longtime friend. Though Martin is at the pinnacle of his career it became clear that he was not happy about turning 50.

I had sketched a reading of Edward Albee’s play back in 2010, so I knew what was to come in the second scene. Thought Martin had been faithful for his whole marriage, he had recently met Sylvia and fell  deeply in love. Perhaps it was the country air but he was different around her. He confessed this affair to Ross who immediately wrote a letter to Martin’s wife to warn her. What followed was a long confession my Martin to his wife while she broke just about every delicate item in the living room. I have to confess that there was so much yelling that I began to tone it out. The entire scene seemed hell bent on a single note of frantic yelling and emotional destruction. Martin’s Son, Billy (Adam Minossora) was home through the confession and he didn’t take the news well. Though Martin was out doing unimaginable things in the name of love he was not accepting of his son’s homosexuality. This was strange double standard for this father son relationship.

I will say it again, this is a hard show to watch. It is unnerving. It was a daring choice for Director Marco DeGeorge to bring it to Theater on the Edge (5542 Hansel Avenue Orlando FL). The first evening’s performance was sold out. Perhaps Orlando is ready for some really unsettling and cutting edge theater.

CREATIVE TEAM:
(Producer / Set Designer)
Elaitheia Quinn (Asst. Director / Creative Asst.)
Riley Walden (Directing Asst.)
Chris Ivers (Builder)
Megan Raitano (Associate Producer / Stage Manager)
Derek Alan Rowe (Graphic Designer)
DeeDee Strauss (Box Office).

The Goat, or, Who is Sylvia? is running April 2, 2019 to May 5, 2019. Tickets are $23 to $35.

Boom at Theater on the Edge

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 In the Boom pre show, video monitors announced the upcoming performance as if we were in line for a theme park attraction like Carousel of Progress at Disney World. Barbara, (Elaitheia Quinn) is the audience’s guide in her orchestrated show about the end of civilization thousands of years earlier. She begins oddly enough by banging on a timpani drum. She then twists dials and pulls leavers bringing the action to life.

Jules, (Adam Minossora) a grad student in marine biology, and Jo, (Megan Raitano) a journalism student, meet on Saturday night in Jules’s small underground laboratory on a university campus, after Jo answers Jules’s online personal ad offering an encounter that promises “sex to change the course of the world.” Corrugated cardboard was duck taped to the ceiling and an obsessive chart tied together many fragments of research all leading to one ominous vortex. It is the type of chart you might expect from a mad man.

As Jo aggressively invited Jules’ advances, while he tried to quickly fill the awkwardness with fast paced conversation. Both characters were manic and and full of energy. Jo kept flopping down on the mattress on the floor. She spoke with a thick Flushing accent. When the two of them finally kissed it was awkward. It may have been the worst kiss Jo had ever experienced.

There was a small fish tank at the back o the stage. Jules began to explain that his research on a deserted tropical island, uncovered patterns of behavior among the fish that seemed to indicate that they feared extinction. He began his research which verified that the earth would experience a devastating impact from an asteroid similar to the extinction event that wiped dinosaurs off the face of the earth.  So he turned his tiny lab and apartment into a place to wait out the disaster and begin remaking humanity. It turns out that Jules was a virgin and he thought he might be gay. When his research prediction proved to be true, it turned out he must live out his days with a woman who hates him.

Jules and Jo’s dreams and aspirations for freedom seem to mirror Barbara’s feeling of confinement in her dead end job running the museum attraction. When she ignored her duties running the attraction things went haywire. The play seemed to indicate that our differences are minor. We are a mere speck in the universe, yet life finds a way.

Boom at Theater on the Edge (5542 Hansel Ave, Orlando, FL 32809) began November 2, 2018 and runs through December 9, 2018. Tickets are $20 to $32. This is another cutting edge performance that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

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.