Native Gardens at the Shakes.

Posted on by Thor

Native Gardens written by Karen Zacarias is being performed at the Orlando Shakespeare Center (812 E Rollins St, Orlando, FL 32803) .  A young couple, Tania (Alea Figueroa) and Pablo (Fredy Ruiz) move into a quiet Washington D.C. suburban home.  The place is a bit run down, but Tania has big dreams for the back yard, with it’s big old oak tree, planning to turn it into a Native Garden with all native plants.  Pablo is working at a law firm putting in long hours.  Their neighbors, Virginia (Kate Ingram) and Frank Butley (Michael Edwards) are an older couple on the verge of retirement.  Frank shares Tania’s love of gardening.  Each year he plants a gorgeous perennial flower bed with hopes of winning the neighborhood’s best garden award.  

An old chain link fence separated the back yards of the two properties.  The butlers welcomed the young couple bringing them wine and chocolates.  Tania is allergic to chocolates but liked the gesture.  The four of them chatted amicably and agreed that a nice wooden fence would be nice to replace the old chain link fence now overgrown with ivy.  Pablo in a move to impress his boss, decided to host an office BBQ in his backyard.  With the yard a mess, the couple had to rush to get ready for the party.  As the couple made plans to install the fence, they discovered that their property actually extended two feet beyond the fence, essentially the full width of their neighbors flower bed. 

When they informed their neighbors that they planned to place the fence right on their property line tempers began to flair.   Being a lawyer, Pablo stated the case with blunt force and with no notion of compromise.  Frank is crushed since the flower bed was his labor of love.  First the men bickered and then the woman bickered and postured.  What had been a friendly welcome shifted into a brawl.  To top it all off the older couple were Republicans and they suspected their neighbors were Democrats.  The escalating tension was treated with hilarious results.  Both side felt they were the victims and polite manners melted away into crude name calling.  

Native Gardens is a fun and highly entertaining show.  The show runs through February 4th.  Start your year off with a good laugh.  Go and see native Gardens. 

Beautiful Together

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The Dr. Phillips Center of the Performing Arts had a sold out house for the Pulse victims concert titled “Beautiful Together“. I sat in the isle on my artist stool so I didn’t have to worry about sitting in a sold out seat. With minutes to go before the show, Mayor Buddy Dyer and his entourage sat center stage. From my vantage point, I had a great view of the sign interpreter. I couldn’t see huge chorus but I had sketched them earlier during the rehearsal.

Once again, white flower pedals fell from the rafters as names were read for the 49 victims of the terrorist attack at Pulse. The emotional response was just as heightened on the second viewing. This time more pedals fell in a constant cascading stream set to “Lord of the Dance”, by Sydney Carter . A poet named Fredy Ruiz came out, and recited a poem by Maya Angelou titled “And Still I Rise“. It was a magical moment when words written 40 years ago seemed to perfectly address the tragedy and how we all must rise up despite the loss.

The ballet was still lyrical and the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and chorus lifted every soul. The audience response completed the magic of the evening. Everyone was hungry for any message of hope and the best way to express that longing is through the arts. Orlando has an incredibly vibrant arts community and on this evening 50 plus organizations came to get to help Orlando heal.If you missed this powerful evening, it is worth seeing on You Tube.

All Shook Up Brings the 50’s to Life in Mount Dora

Posted on by Thor

Opening the Sonnentag Theatre at the IceHouse‘s 67th season, All Shook Up, the Joe DiPietro musical features the love songs of Elvis Presley and characters and plot devices from “Twelfth Night” by William Shakespeare to Mount Dora. The plot was paper thin with characters that were stereotypes with no any depth. The show was a reason  to string together as many Elvis songs as possible. Love was the driving force for the action and the music with back up by a live band backstage was fun, fast paced and at times spectacular. The set designed by David Clevinger had a barrage of commercial images and scenes. It was much like the show with many elements thrown together with no single point of interest. I became frustrated by the many set changes which would force me to stop sketching as the theater went black.

A small Midwestern town’s  moral code is set by the Mame Eisenhower decency act. Then a roustabout (Fredy Ruiz) drives into town dressed like James Dean on a motorcycle. His motorcycle needs repair and Natelie, (Whitney Abell) the town mechanic is immediately smitten. She does everything she can to win the roustabout’s love and she doesn’t succeed until she decided to dress as a boy to approach him as a friend. The roustabout only has eyes for the exotic curator at the town museum (Carly Skubick) but she sees him as a brute with no culture. When she lets her hair down, watch out! Everyone in town seems to fall in love with the wrong person and then the show spins out of control to try and find balance and meaning in unrequited love.

Director, Darlin Barry, faced challenges bringing the show to the stage. The lead actor playing the roustabout wasn’t showing up to rehearsals so she had to do something. Fredy stepped into the roll from withing the cast of about 20 actors. When everyone including the ensemble are on stage dancing the stage is close to overflowing. I was made aware of this dress rehearsal by stage mom Kathy Wilhelm Witkowski, who’s daughter Corina was in the show. Corina introduced herself before the show and let me know that she had almost been in one of my sketches last year when I sketched the Buddy Holly Story at the Icehouse. She was on stage checking her cell phone on stage right and she walked back stage before I put her in the sketch. I kept my eyes open for her but she didn’t appear on stage until very late in the first act when she posed as a statue with five other women in the museum. It was a perfect sketch opportunity, and I penciled her in the sketch several times as a statue but couldn’t find a reason for showcasing a statue in the middle of the action that I had put in the sketch already. I had to erase her for the sake of the composition.

Sylvia, (Laurie Sullivan) who owns the local honky-tonk sang brilliantly. She courted Natalie’s widowed father Jim (David Coalter). Songs in the show include “Jailhouse Rock,” “Heartbreak Hotel,” “One Night with
You,” “Love Me Tender”, “Devil in Disguise” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” A five-piece
band will accompany the singers with music director Justin Ward Weber on
keyboards. The music often bought back memories of working on Lilo and Stitch which incorporated many of these Elvis songs in the soundtrack.

All Shook Up is a simple fun summer romp. It runs July 18th to August 3rd.

Performances begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. The show is already 85% sold out. Tickets are $20 for adults, $18 on Thursday and for seniors. Student tickets range from $10 to $15. For reservations or for more information, call 352-383-4616.