Super Variety Match Bonus Round at Fringe

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Jousha Productions presented Super Variety Match Bonus Round at Orlando Fringe.Written by Deb Hiett and directed by Tara Kromer, the show featured Mags (Elizabeth Murff) and Erns Eagleton (Rod Cathey) who were lower middle class people living out their retirement in a small Texas Town. They were set in their ways being rather xenophobic, and homophobic. Their daily routine was only occasionally interrupted by the UPD delivery lady named Delores (Maria Flores).

As the play opened Mags was asleep in front of the TV. Erns entered with soup and the loving way her served her was heart warming. Mags was supposed to have narcolepsy which means she could nod off at any moment. They reminded me of members of my own family living only through the TV news that supports their views.

However there was a hint of loss in the set. An American flag was folded into a triangle and framed in a wooden display case. This unfortunately was from the loss of their son who had served in the military. Part of what held them in place was their grief and guilt over his death. Without informing Mags, Erns had decided to rent out their sons room as an Air B and B. A large concert was rolling into their small town and it would be easy to rent out the space which would help with their mounting expenses. Mags was upset about the idea of allowing a stranger in to their home but she relented since it was already a done deal.

Enter Chrz (Douglas Warren Jensen) who wore a bright pink feminine blouse showing his tummy, a furry white anime cap with long ears a white skirt and knee high red striped socks. The cap had led lights that made it glow. it was magical. His high spirits and enthusiasm were in stark contrast the couples insular conservative life. Clearly they had never met someone as joyously gay as Chrz. He was honest sincere and compassionate so these polar opposites began to share and relate to each other.

He decided the couple needed to loosen up if they were to find their way through grief and when he left for the concert he left behind a small bit of LSD which was hidden in Erns and Mag dinner as they settled in to watch TV. The second act was a high stakes LSD fueled game show in which the couple had the chance to win the life of their son back or a chance to move on with their lives. A small seed had been planted for them to once again embrace their life instead of regretting their loss.

Driving Miss Daisy at Saint Lukes Methodist Church.

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Driving Miss Daisy is a warm hearted,
humorous and affecting study of the unlikely relationship between an
aging, crotchety white Southern lady, and a proud, soft-spoken black
man. A long-run Off-Broadway success and an Academy Award-winning film. It is the Winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize and the
Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Play. I went to a dress rehearsal at the Theater at St. Luke’s (4851 S. Apopka-Vineland Road, Orlando, Florida 32819.)

The
place is the Deep South, the time 1948, just prior to the civil rights
movement. Having recently demolished another car, Daisy Werthan, (Elizabeth Murff) a rich,
sharp-tongued Jewish widow of seventy-two, is informed by her son,
Boolie, (Chad Lewis) that henceforth she must rely on the services of a chauffeur.
The person he hires for the job is a thoughtful, unemployed black man,
Hoke, (Michael Mormon) whom Miss Daisy immediately regards with disdain and who, in turn,
is not impressed with his employer’s patronizing tone and, he believes,
her latent prejudice. 

But, in a series of absorbing scenes spanning
twenty-five years, the two, despite their mutual differences, grow ever
closer to, and more dependent on, each
other. Slowly and
steadily the dignified, good-natured Hoke breaks down the stern defenses
of the ornery old lady, as she teaches him to read and write and, in a
gesture of good will and shared concern, invites him to join her at a
banquet in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. 

As the play ends Hoke has a
final visit with Miss Daisy, now ninety-seven and confined to a nursing
home, and while it is evident that a vestige of her fierce independence
and sense of position still remain, it is also movingly clear that they
have both come to realize they have more in common than they ever
believed possible—and that times and circumstances would ever allow them
to publicly admit. The chemistry between the veteran actors, was natural and charismatic. I had seen these actors play the same parts back in 2010 and they have grown into the roles over the years.

Tickets ($15) are available.

Performances are at 7PM at Saint Luke’s Building C Founder’s Hall.

Remaining show dates:

2:30 PM Saturday January 20, 2018

7 PM Saturday January 20, 2018

2:30 PM Sunday January 21, 2018

Play in a Day – Tech

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Play in a Day at the Orlando Shakes, featured 20 actors, 7 writers and 7 directors. A lottery done the day before picked the creative teams for the seven plays. Each play was given a 20-30 minute tech. Tech is when the play is rehearsed in the theater so sound and lighting cues can be worked out. One of the plays referenced the set… “It looks like a children’s theater show gone horribly wrong!” I sketched as the play “Out On Top” written by Kenny Babel was being rehearsed. Kenny wrote the play between 2am and 4am the night before. Elizabeth Murff as the wife, Steven Johnson and Anthony Pyatt as the sons, played family members who just lost their father. The father had died in a freak accident at the opening of LEGO Land. He had climbed a LEGO Empire State Building and fell. A Bank of America skyscraper pierced his heart. In one scene the two boys stood with their hands at their wastes as if at a urinal as they spoke about their father.

Family Road Trip which I had been sketching all day entered the theater to polish their tech. John Connon slipped up on a line and then he shouted, “I f*cked it up ya’ll!” He followed with, “I wanna do art and I wanna get paid!” Both lines are classic Beth Marchall standards, delivered with her distinctive sharp southern drawl. Beth said, “I wanna be famous just so drag queens can play me. Also I wanna make tons of money so I can throw it at talented people.” She walks the walk. Posing for photos with the cast, she compared tattoos with John for Kristen Wheeler behind the camera which made me happy since I had painted the makeshift tattoos on John as a lark using my portable watercolor set.

Soon the theater filled with an audience. Beth stood, “Thank you for coming to Play in a Day and what a long day it has been.” Lindsay Cohen who had written “Welcome to Heaven” sat in my row. She seemed nervous since she had no idea how the audience would react, and she didn’t get to see the development process. When the audience responded with thunderous applause I glanced over and saw her relax.