Orlando Director’s Forum

Posted on by Thor

I went to the Orlando Director’s Forum at Valencia College East Campus (701 N Econlockhatchee Trail, Orlando, Florida 32825). The forum featured a group of Orlando’s most stylistically diverse stage. This was a great opportunity to hear unique perspectives on inspiration, casting, rehearsal process, trouble-shooting, and overall creative process of directing. Seth Kubersky hosted a moderated discussion followed by a questions and answers with attendees.

The event featured (in alphabetical order)…

Rob Winn Anderson: Consulting Artistic Director – Garden Theatre

Mike Carr: Artistic Director – SAK Comedy Lab

John DiDonna: Program Chair of Theater – Valencia College, Director/Creator – Phantasmagoria

Pam Harbaugh: Director – Theater on the Edge

Beth Marshall: Producing Artistic Director/Theatre Artist – Beth Marshall Presents

Eric Pinder: Director in Residence – Opera Orlando

Donald Rupe: Director of Theatre – Central Florida Community Arts

Jeremy Seghers: Independent Producer and Director

I love these kinds of events because listening to these directors talk about the creative process reminds me that all the arts share the same creative challenges. It offered inspiration to keep sketching and painting despite any setbacks. I have seen and admired the work of each of these directors in turn as I sketch the arts scene around Orlando. Orlando has such a vibrant theater community since so man actors come to Orlando to work for the theme parks. Those rolls offer limited artistic challenges, so they are always looking for more edgy options to test their chops.

The Whale pulls at every heart string.

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The Whale, written by Samuel D. Hunter, and Produced by Beth Marshall Presents will make its Central Florida Regional Premiere on March 18th. I arrived at a dress rehearsal about an hour before the run through of the show. Director, Rob Winn Anderson, wanted to revise several scenes that had kinks to be worked out. Ellie,Rachel Comeau read a book review she had written about Moby Dick. The play is book ended by her heart felt review, and it’s significance only becomes clear as her relation ship with her father Charlie, Michael Wanzie comes to light. The stage set by Tom Mangeri, felt like a diorama on stilts. At key moments in the play, blue and green lights would flicker on beneath the stage making it seem like the set were floating above dock moorings.

Charlie is effectively eating himself to death. His marriage to Mary, Beth Marshall, fell apart when he fell in love with another man. Estranged from his daughter, he wants to get to know her at the end of his life. He bribes her to spend time with him, by offering to help her with her school work, and offering her what turns out to be a sizable inheritance since he never leaves his apartment. Ellie is strong willed, smart, vicious, and sharp tongued but bored by school and her classmates.  She created a blog in which she complains about everyone she knows. 

Liz, Jamie Middleton, is Charlie’s health aid. She also seems scarred by life, and her morose barbed dialogue offers some of the shows biggest-laughs. Elder Thomas, Anthony Pyatt Jr. a Mormon missionary enters Charlie’s apartment to give Charlie gods word. When Liz finds Thomas preaching to Charlie she rips into his beliefs. When Ellie an Thomas meet, she manages to erode his holy facade and she has him smoking weed and confessing that he isn’t exactly who he claims to be. 


Ellie’s harsh embittered view of the world is fueled be be parents divorce. Charlie teaches an online writing course, and his lessons to his students reflect what he wishes he could pass on to his daughter. He implores his students to stop editing and rewriting every sentence. Instead, he begs them to just write from the heart. This brings us back to the moment when he asks Ellie to read her book review. The paper had been given an F because it was a review of the wrong book. Ellie was furious at her father and hadn’t bothered to read the review. She cursed her father’s request to read, not because she hated him, but because she loved him and was furious at how he had let his health go. She had written the book review years before and it highlighted how the book seemed to reflect what was happening in her own life. Although she was angered by life, this paper proved that she had a heart and cared a bout everyone around her. Anyone who could write such a heartfelt review would also have the talent to share many more stories that would touch others. My eyes welled up as she read her paper. Ellie’s eyes welled up as well. For the first time, Charlie rose from his chair and he struggled to cross the room to reach out the his daughter. She was amazing, beautiful and his life’s greatest accomplishment. 


The show combines humor with absolutely heart wrenching sadness. It celebrates what it truly means to be alive, and the strong bond of family even when it is dysfunctional. Although dark and bitter, the show also exudes hope, despite all odds. This
play was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding
New Off-Broadway Play. It won a Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play and
won a Drama Desk Special Award for Significant Contribution to Theatre.


The Whale 

March 18 to April 3, 2016

Thursday 8pm, Friday 8pm, Saturday 2pm (April 2) & 8pm, Sunday 2pm
Industry Night: Monday, March 28

Winter Garden Theatre 160 W Plant St, Winter Garden, Florida

Tickets: $21 – $28

The Whale surfaces at the Winter Garden Theater.

Posted on by Thor

On June 22, 2015, I went to the Winter Garden Theater (160 W Plant St, Winter Garden, FL) to sketch auditions for “The Whale.” March 18th will be the Central Florida Regional Premiere of this play written by Samuel D. Hunter and staged by Beth Marshal Presents. I love sketching auditions, I get to witness so many talented actors that all bring their own creative take to the characters. This isn’t a story about a great white whale, but instead an intimate look at a father daughter relationship. 

On the outskirts of
Mormon Country, Idaho, a six-hundred-pound recluse hides away in his
apartment eating himself to death. Desperate to reconnect with his
long-estranged daughter, he reaches out to her, only to find a viciously
sharp-tongued and wildly unhappy teen. In this gripping and big-hearted
drama, The Whale tells the story of a man’s last chance at redemption,
and of finding beauty in the most unexpected places. This play was
nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New
Off-Broadway Play. It won a Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play and won a
Drama Desk Special Award for Significant Contribution to Theatre.

Cast
Charlie – Michael Wanzie
Ellie – Rachel Comeau
Liz – Jamie Middleton
Elder Thomas – Anthony Pyatt Jr.
Mary – Beth Marshall

Production Team
Rob Winn Anderson – Director
Anastasia Kurtiak – Stage Manager
David Merchant – Assistant Stage Manager
Tom Mangeri – Set Design
Amy Hadley – Light Design
J.G. Lantiqua – Sound Design
Marcy Singhaus – Costume Design

Dates:  March 18 to April 3, 2016
Thursday 8pm, Friday 8pm, Saturday 2pm (April 2) & 8pm, Sunday 2pm
Industry Night: Monday, March 28 

Tickets: $21 – $28
Special pricing for opening night, Thursday performances, seniors and students.

This show contains adult language and scenes. Recommended for mature audiences.

Winter Garden Heritage Museum

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On October 28th, I went to Winter Garden to drop off several prints with Beth Marshall. Her production of “Alice Lost in Wonderland” was coming to the end of its run at the Winter Garden Theatre (160 West Plant Street, Winter Garden, Fl). The final performance was November 3rd. Since I got to Winter Garden early, I started a sketch of the Winter Garden Heritage Museum while I waited to hear from Beth. Beth sent a text letting me know that I should meet her at the back stage door. The sketch wasn’t finished but I walked down Plant Street to the theater. I waited outside for a few minutes then realized she might have meant to meet me inside the stage door so I went in. A stage manager guided me through the black curtains on stage and then into the theater. Beth was seated in the front row talking to the cast on stage.

The cast was offered the opportunity to purchase any props from the show at below cost. Costumes needed to be clean and hung, ready for collection by costuming. There was some concern that the green room refrigerator had started to smell, but author and Director, Rob Winn Anderson, pointed out that it wasn’t a cast issue. This evening was Industry Night which means reduced ticket prices for people in the industry which means it could be a full house.

The cast began a run through of the fight sequence as Beth walked me back stage. It was rather fun walking through the middle of the brawl as it happened. It is always rewarding to present my work to Beth since she understands the value in what I do. I returned to the Heritage Museum to finish my sketch. Some models were posing for a photographer in front of the caboose as I approached. A husband, wife and their son walked towards downtown holding hands. The ten year old used his parents arms as a swing as they walked. There is a real charm to this downtown street which has history minus the strip mall over development seen in the rest of Central Florida.

Alice Lost in Wonderland Dress Rehearsal

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Alice Lost in Wonderland written and directed by Rob Winn Anderson had its original world premiere at the Garden Theatre (160 West Plant Street, Winter Garden FL.). The show marks Beth Marshall Presents’ 9th production in partnership with The Garden Theatre. The first thing that struck me was the wonderful Steam punk mental asylum set by Tom Mangieri. It was vaguely reminiscent of the set for Wicked.

Actors gathered for a group photo and then ran through a fight sequence choreographed by Bill Warriner. Becky Eck, who played Jane stood on stage alone as other actors got into place.  I assumed from the title that I should look to sketch Alice, but it became quite clear that Jane was the lead character. I had sketched auditions and heard several dozen actresses read for the part of Jane. When I saw the monologue performed by Becky in the context of the play, I was floored, astonished at the meaning and implied emotion in her performance.

  Alice Lost in Wonderland, uses Lewis Carroll’s classic book to inspire
the story of Jane’s frantic search for what she has lost. Years
of falling in and out of mental institutions have broken her and now she
finds herself in a terrifying situation where chances are final and
journeys into dark places are both wonderful and haunting. This
whimsical psychological thriller steps out of reality and into a
shattered mind to create a classically creepy and intriguingly creative
journey through wonderland.

In one compelling moment Jane is stripped of her cheerful childhood clothes by grey institution patients. She stands bare for a moment in her bra and panties and then the patients slip the dingy grey institution uniform over her head. It becomes clear that her Wonderland quest makes her one of them. I was delighted to see Tod Caviness as the Caterpillar. He gave the character a hip 60’s flair that only a poet could perform.

Jane’s search for Alice in Wonderland is actually a way for her to avoid horrible memories from her past. As these memories surface, the play takes a dark sinister turn to face the worst in human nature. This is NOT a kids show. Issues and horrors faced are all too real. The show is quick witted and light when in the Wonderland fantasy then grey and sinister when facing the realities of doctors who consider electroshock therapy an enlightened practical approach to mental health. This show is a perfect addition to the Halloween season.

Mark Your Calendar! This show runs through November 3rd. Show times are Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2pm and 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm. Tickets are $25 for adults ($21 for seniors/students). There will also be an Industry Night on Monday, October 28 at 8pm. This show is open to the public with $15 tickets for those in the theatre industry. Pilars Bar next door will be open and offering drink specials for patrons on Industry Nite Monday Oct. 28th.

Get your tickets now at BethMarshallPresents.com or GardenTheatre.org!