Ghost and Funeral Party at ME Theater.

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Producer Jeremy Seghers presents Ghost and Funeral Party which are two one act plays by Ashleigh Ann Gardner.  When the audience enters the theater,  Petra (Monica Mulder) is asleep on her couch while music fills the space. She woke and started to tidy up her art studio until she finally started working on a  painting. I admired all the sketchbooks, and the loose references strewn about the studio. For me it was a familiar scene. Monica confided to me before the show that the painting on the easel was by her mother and the photos around the studio are her own. Her quiet moment of creation is interrupted by a loud knock on her door which caused her to spill coffee all over her blouse. A
strange coincidence of fate brought neurotic postal courier Lyle (Ricardo Soltero-Brown) to her
apartment door.

In the awkward exchange that followed, it became clear that these two knew each other. It turned out that they had been friends who had had a spontaneous sexual encounter in a closet at a wedding, though Petra was engaged to be married to Lyle’s friend. After that Petra ghosted Lyle. Ghosting wasn’t a term I was familiar with, but it means leading somebody on before cutting off all contact rather than explaining why the relationship might not work. Lyle stayed to demand an
apology from Petra, using every avenue available to him, including relating their story to a
male model named Sebastian (Jamie Roy). Sebastian turned out to be a self-indulgent prick, dignity is lost, and
Lyle and Petra find themselves wondering if two impossibly flawed people
might actually be good together. I of course felt a warm glow hoping that an artist might actually find happiness in this flawed world.

The second play, Funeral Party, actually starred the playwright, Ashleigh Ann Gardner as Gwen. She and Trip (Jon Robert Kress) sneak into a crematorium to mourn the death of their best friend, Clay (Jamie Roy on the gurney.) Clay’s
sudden suicide has Trip reeling with guilt, but has left Gwen detached
and distracted. What was meant as a playful night’s adventure turned into a night of personal regrets and revelations. 

They turn to a list they’ve compiled to keep them on
track for the evening: drinks, Chinese food, dancing, coffee. To  lighten the mood, the two put on birthday caps and even put a cap on the lifeless Clay. When Gwen becomes
reluctant to proceed with the evening’s planned events, a dark secret
about her relationship with Clay is brought to light.

This play was hard hitting and unexpected. When Gwen was forced by Trip to touch the lifeless body, she broke down with such a wail of sorrow that cut me to the core. She fell to the floor. I have heard so many stories of the sorrow that filled the Beardall Center after families were told of the loss of sons and daughters after the Pulse Nightclub massacre. Ashley’s performance brought that flood of sorrow back. Guilt always follows a suicide but Gwen’s guilt had deeper roots. In an emotional exchange Gwen confessed that she loved Trip and that offered some hope and solace in their darkest hour.


I left the theater feeling a sense of pride and joy at getting to see these two plays by a talented local playwright. The second play truly struck me to the core and the first gave me the voyeuristic satisfaction of seeing an artist open herself to find happiness.


Ghost and Funeral Party runs:

February 22-24, 8:00 p.m.
February 25, 3 p.m.
at ME Theatre
1300 La Quinta Dr #3, Orlando, FL 32809

Tickets are $18

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.

This is Our Youth.

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This is Our Youth, written by Kenneth Lonergan is running at Macbeth Studio, (37 North Orange Avenue, Orlando, FL) through February 25th. Billed as a comedy, the show, directed by Jeremy Seghers is actually quite dramatic. Set in a 1980s NYC apartment, the show looks at the relationship between two young men, one a domineering former high school jock, and part time pot dealer named Dennis (Jack Kelly) and the other, Warren (Austin DavisJack Kelly) just trying to escape from his father.

The play is set in Dennis’s apartment. The theater is actual a photographer’s studio on the 9th floor of a downtown office building. The audience watches the scenes unfold in the round since they are seated along a wall and in seats lining the other side of the room as well. David Horgan on of “Dem Guys” the hardcore Fringe patrons, sat beside me and we debated about the year the play was set in. The rotary phone predated cell phones. A TV guide on the floor placed the time around 1982. Books on the bookshelf further verified the detective work.

The play began with Dennis sprawled on his mattress watching TV.  The intercom rang repeatedly. He wanted to ignore it, but couldn’t. He buzzed up Warren, who had just left home and hoped to find a place to crash for a bit. Dennis buzzed with adolescent energy. As the two threw a football around the apartment, Warren managed to throw the ball into the book as breaking a sculpture that Dennis had of his girl friends. Dennis lost it, and wrestled Warren by the neck and punched him when he was down. The entire friendship was build around his bullying and belittling Warren.

Dennis was also schemer and he arranged to sell of his friends collection of vintage toys to raise cash. When he was gone, One of Dennis’s girlfriends,  Jessica (Monica Mulder) came up to the apartment. She was beautiful and Warren stumbled all over himself trying to impress her. His attempts were comical. Of course I was rooting for the geek to get the girl. Through all the awkward exchanges they were surprised that they have very common tastes. Warren stole money from his father when he left home, and he decided to use that money to take Jessica on a expensive night on the town, including an expensive hotel stay.

After the date Jessica stopped by the apartment a second time to see Warren. Although it was clear these two cared about each other, they started fighting. Intimacy sparked before they knew each other, so they were both defensive, trying to maintain boundaries. Warren’s favorite possession was a baseball hat from his grand father. Of all his possessions he asked his friend Dennis not to sell the hat. Jessica knew how important the hat was, and when Warren offered her anything for love, she asked for the hat. He was glad to give it to her. But he couldn’t find it. He searched the apartment in desperation. It was gone. So was any hope of winning Jessica’s love. They exchanged bitter words and were driven apart by a hat. It was painful to watch.

When Warren is bullied by his friend Dennis in the third act, I kept hoping that he would fight back. He would loose a physical confrontation but he needed to stand his ground. Friendships and relationships seemed to be about nothing but taking and steeling from one another. For a comedy, this is a dark view of the world. Politics however imply that this is the American way.

Remaining show dates are, February 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25
All performances @ 8:00PM

Tickets available.

American Buffalo at Theater on Edge.

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I went to a dress rehearsal of American Buffalo at Theater on Edge, (5542 Hansel Avenue Orlando, FL 32809). The theater is very intimate with just two rows of seats. Monica Mulder, an actress who played Oberon in a recent production of Shakespeare’s, A Mid Summer’s Night Dream invited me to the rehearsal. She was seated in the audience having a quick fast food diner. I assumed she would be in the production. I was wrong however, she is also a photographer who took shots to promote the show. I had followed a young man into the theater. He spoke to Monica multiple times in a barely audible whisper. I finally had to ask Monica if he was “in character” and she laughed, saying he was. He had a tough role as Bobby in the production.

American Buffalo is a 1975 play by American playwright David Mamet. The stage set was amazing. It replicated the chaos of a junk shop. A tiny horse carousel trinket reminded are of the Glass Menagerie that I had sketched days before.   Donny, Allan Whitehead, who owns the junk shop where the entire play takes place, had sold a buffalo nickel to a customer for ninety dollars but now suspects it is worth considerably more. He and his young gofer, Bobby, Zack Roundy, planned to steal the coin back. Teach, Marco DiGeorge, a poker buddy of Don’s, arrived and learned of the scheme. He
persuaded Don that Bobby is too inexperienced and untrustworthy for the
burglary, and proposed himself as Bob’s replacement. Teach suggested they
steal the whole coin collection and more. Don insisted that their poker
buddy Fletcher join the heist to watch their backs. Teach insisted that Fletcher was not needed. 

From the moment Teach arrived in the shop in his brown leather suit and brown pants, along with his 70s style handlebar mustache, he was a a violently paranoid braggart, a raw nerve of twitching swirling energy. He was a stark laughable contrast to Donny and Bobby’s lazy meandering conversation about what to get for breakfast. These high-minded grifters fancied themselves
businessmen pursuing legitimate free enterprise. But the reality is
that they were merely pawns caught up in their own game of last-chance,
dead-end, empty pipe dreams. Their dream was based on false information which lead them to turn on each other. 

I was completely riveted. In one scene, Teach almost choked on his breakfast bacon. The director Pam Harbaugh, later said that this wasn’t method acting, she was concerned for his well being. She was also thrilled that the audience of media were laughing so much during the production. After so many rehearsals, it is rewarding to hear the reactions. Violence later the play was shockingly real. I was caught off guard. I loved the intimate staging that left a fine line separating the audience from the action. 

American Buffalo runs from November 3rd to November 20th. Seating is very limited, so be sure to order a ticket online. 

A Mid-summer Night’s Dream at the Stonewall Bar.

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I went to sketch a dress rehearsal of the William Shakespeare classic, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” presented by Howler’s Theatre and Unseen Images T at Stonewall Bar (741 W. Church St. Orlando FL). While walking to Stonewall y was shocked to see the new MLS Stadium half build in the heart of the Parramore district. Gentrification is spreading fast, west of downtown. Stonewall is right next to the stadium with rainbow colors projected in column on the facade.

The play opens with Lysander (Nick Lubke) deeply in love with Hippolyta, (Tiana Akers). He pursues her, but he heart is not so easily won.  Each time she refuses his affections his adoration grows stronger. When this love is lost, she is confused.

HERMIA

Why are you grown so rude? What change is this,

Sweet love?

LYSANDER

Thy love! Out, tawny Tartar, out!

Out, loathèd med’cine! O hated potion, hence!

These lovers are in my sketch, as Lysander restrains Hermia who is at a loss to see why her lover has abandoned her, and accuses Helenus (Scott Browning) of stealing Lysander away from her.  This production features plenty of gender bending with men taking female roles and women taking men’s roles . This gives the plot a modern twist and ads plenty of colorful fun to the plot.

 Oberon, king of the fairies (Monica Mulder), dressed in black, calls upon Robin “Puck” Goodfellow, (Charlie Wright) her “shrewd and knavish sprite”, to help her concoct a magical juice derived from a flower called “love-in-idleness”,
which turns from white to purple when struck by Cupid’s arrow. When the
concoction is applied to the eyelids of a sleeping person, that person,
upon waking, falls in love with the first living thing they perceive. This potion applied to the wrong eyes leads to lovers previous affections to melt like the snow as they pursue a new love. Both Lysander and Demetrius, (Domino Thomas), fall desperately in love with Helenus and since all three are men, the lover’s triangle becomes as physical as a football match.

Although the
performances will take place outdoors, the audience will be completely
covered from rain and all performances will go on rain or shine. Due to
the location of the show, only guests 21+ will be admitted.

The production will run for 8 performances on the following dates and times:

Friday and Saturday evenings September 2 – September 24 at 7:30 pm.
Please note that the Saturday 9/10 performance will begin at 7:00 pm
instead of 7:30.

Tickets are $22 and can be purchased at:
https://unseenimagestheatre.ticketleap.com/midsummer/