[title of show]

Life is a mixture of dull and exciting, happy and sad.  Steven Eubank’s direction of Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen’s irreverent self-aware musical [title of show] by Johnson County Community College mixes great comedy and good drama with lackluster singing and unintelligible line delivery to create a uniquely lifelike experience that engages us, but does not transport us.

The show begins with self-aware humor poking lighthearted fun at theatre convention, transitioning into questions about how much an artist should change their script, and whether adapting to fit a different venue’s needs is more important than staying true to your vision.  The comedy carries itself well, making the audience care for these actors as they transition from goofy jokes into serious arguments.  The message the play presents—that what the artist wants to create is more important than pandering to audience expectations—has been heard before, but the delivery here is far less preachy, making it easier to swallow.  The actors warm to their roles as the play progresses, balancing out the generally weaker writing in the second half of the show with stronger characterization.

Jordan Malone and Austin Skibbie star as Jeff and Hunter, the writers of [title of show] as they struggle and squabble over writing the show, opening it on Off-Broadway, and making cuts for a Broadway premiere.  Malone and Skibbie joke and fight like old friends; the chemistry between the two is palpable.  Unfortunately, Malone mumbles many lines, and Skibbie ignores several laugh lines, causing us to miss a lot of punchlines and dialogue.

Lianna Klinger and Sarah Dickson play Susan and Heidi, Jeff and Hunter’s two friends who help the two men to create the show.  Klinger’s wacky, sarcastic Susan is constantly enjoyable, funny to the point of tears.  Dickson’s kind, emotional Heidi provides weight to this comedic piece, making us care for the show’s events through sincere feeling in comedic and dramatic moments.  The two secondary characters stole the show from the two leads during ensemble moments.

Only a few of the songs stand out.  Malone struggles to be heard during his solos, and Skibbie drowns him out during their duet scenes.  Skibbie's voice disappears at the top end.  Klinger remains fairly consistent, though she misses a few notes; her empowerment song “Die, Vampire, Die” showcases her voice beautifully.  Dickson performs the best musically, though her solo pieces seem unsuited for her voice.  Dickson's voice soars when performing with the group; in her solo "A Way Back to Then", however, she is nasally and subdued.  Ensemble pieces such as “Awkward Photo Shoot”, interspersed with dialogue, are far better than solos or duets.  Michalis Koutsoupides’ keyboard work as the thankless pianist Larry perfectly accentuates every scene, adding humorous musical interludes and quiet, dramatic keys whenever appropriate.

[title of show] has little technical design, but it enriches the show through clever usage.  Consisting of four chairs and a keyboard, the set consists of props rather than set pieces.  Props Mistress Theresa Delarosa manages to capture character differences through the chairs alone, each character’s chair stating character differences.  Jeff's chair is the simplest, conveying his down-to-earth nature; Hunter's is similar, but bright green paint and smoother contours showcase Hunter's more extravagant nature.  Susan's chair seems simple at first, but the swiveling and bouncing it sustains through the show reveals Susan's quirkiness outside of her desk job.  Finally, Heidi's comfortable plush purple chair illustrates her devotion to art and originality.  The actor’s manipulation of the chairs create the play’s locations without needing elaborate sets.

Life varies extraordinarily; days excite, they bore, and they are everywhere in between.  [title of show] excites through clever technical design, hilarious comedy, and strong dramatic moments, but bores through pitchy, too-quiet singing and murmured lines.  [title of show]’s portrayal of life comes across as decent—not life-changing, perhaps; but certainly fun, and well worth seeing.

Re-Imagining the Artist-Critic Relationship: Theatre for the 21st Century

Event: Re-Imagining the Artist-Critic Relationship
Date: Friday, January 23rd, 2015
Time: 3:30-4:45 P.M.
Place: Level 8, Cargill Classroom, Guthrie Theatre
Maximum of 25 participants.

Theatre changes continually; how should theatre criticism react to these changes?  This is the central question of the workshop “Re-Imagining the Artist-Critic Relationship”, which will be held at the Guthrie later today.  Workshop leader Alan Berks plans to engage in conversation with writers and students, to discuss the successes and failures of historical criticism and what has changed to “open up the field”.

Alan Berks is a playwright, director, and designer based in the Twin Cities.  Berks and his wife created the theatrical reviews and career building website minnesotaplaylist.com in 2008, which is current.  From this background in theatre performance and criticism, Berks sets out to discuss what separates 21st century criticism from earlier criticism.

This workshop is not for critics alone, however; Berks stated “to be honest, I was thinking more about artists than critics” when he first planned this workshop.  He went on to state that theatre work deals with how best to support the vision that we create, and this workshop strives to evaluate how we provide information on this vision to a 21st century audience.

Theatre affects society and is affected by society.  Theatre criticism is similarly affected by where and when it occurs.  Adapting criticism to societal changes can create stronger critical work and provide a way to clearly convey an artist's message to an audience.  This is what this workshop centers around.  Come to the Cargill classroom at 3:30 for an enlightening look at how to better shape our art in a changing world.

Of Mice and Men

Dreams are foolish things; yet life is empty without them.  John Steinbeck’s play Of Mice and Men Men deals with what happens when fools and dreamers meet harsh reality through the relationship between the simple, kind-hearted dreamer Lennie and the pragmatic realist George, as they attempt to capture the American Dream as ranch hands during the Great Depression.  Although in reality, Missouri Western State University’s production Of Mice and Men (directed by Dallas Henry) was beset with acting and technical problems, the dream they presented lifted their production beyond its difficulties.

Riley Bayer gave us a kind yet savage Lennie; a child's innocence tempered his destructive acts.  Steve Catron’s portrayal of the intelligent, pessimistic George provided a perfect foil to Bayer.  The other actors were sometimes difficult to understand, background noise or thick accents obscuring their words.  When the actors could be heard, many failed to interest as characters; Daniel Montgomery’s rendition of the jerkline skinner Slim was notable, but he spoke his lines as if they were only words on a page.  The actors excelled in silent scenes, however; Jordan Jinkerson’s expression of mingled pain, grief, and rage upon finding his character Curley’s wife’s body (played by Samantha Simmons) created sympathy for an otherwise unsympathetic character.

Jeff Stover’s realistic, straw-covered set encapsulates the play’s grim, hopeless reality, contrasting the grandiose dreams of George and Lennie and accentuating the pain when those dreams are destroyed.  Stover’s lighting design mostly complemented his set, but hiccups in the deployment of the lights during the production lessened their effectiveness.  Chris Rayle’s sound design grounded the play in the 1930s, but the incidental sounds overtook some scenes, confusing the stage action.  Donald Lillie choreographed quick, brutal brawls, perfectly fitting the world’s harshness.

Lennie and George’s powerful relationship forgave any acting or technical issue.  Lennie and George’s shared dream shone through Bayer and Catron’s chemistry, and that dream’s destruction was more poignant because of its inherent foolishness.  We rooted for the two when George planned their future, we cheered when it seemed within their grasp, and we despaired when Lennie accidentally killed Curley’s wife, destroying their dream forever.  George’s decision to kill Lennie could have been that of a man callously destroying a “useless” burden; instead, George’s and Lennie’s mutual bond transformed this act into the only mercy George could give to his friend.

Of Mice and Men explores the relationship between “crazy” dreaming and barren reality.  Missouri Western State University’s production of this show had several acting and technical problems, but their illustrated dream made those problems fade into the background.  It may be foolish to excuse their flaws because of the message they present; and yet, dreams are foolish things.

The Clean House

Sarah Ruhl's The Clean House centers around Lane, a woman who requires her house to be a bastion of order, and the people who draw her from that order into the chaos that is life.  Anne Byrd's direction of Normandale Community College's production of The Clean House was mostly well-acted and very well-set, but it could not overcome the superficiality of the script.

         Molly J. Weibel portrayed the stiff, controlling Lane well in the first act, but failed to transition out of this stiffness when it was needed in act two. Haley Starr Sowden played Lane's obsessively clean sister Virginia; her witticisms stole the show.  The characters were presented interestingly at first, but they lurched between emotions within an unnaturally short period of time, becoming caricatures rather than true people.

         Sarah Bradner's white, sterile set gives us a sense of Lane's bastion of order; the slow accumulation of color and clutter beautifully illustrates the breakdown of this order and the introduction of humor and life.

          In the end, the play felt contrived, less an artistic endeavor by someone passionate about their work and more a paint-by-numbers list of funny and dramatic moments strung together with a thin story.

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Nicholas John Lilienthal is a senior at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, Minnesota, majoring in Theatre and double-minoring in English and Psychology.  He plans to become a professional theatre critic after graduating this spring.  Nicholas is currently in his college's production of Hello Dolly, playing the part of Cornelius.  In his free time, he enjoys reading, watching older movies, and playing video games.