Broadway World Interview
The Glory of Living is a co-production between Athena Theatre and El Centro Theatre running October 9th thru November 21st at the El Centro Theatre in Hollywood Directed by Alice Ensor & Joe Koonce
Q: What drew you to The Glory of Living?
Alice: Rebecca Gilman - seriously, her writing is so incisive, and her characters so complex and fascinating - after months of holding readings of various plays, this piece was the one that haunted me. The fact that I could not stop thinking about it - or how it was actually so analogous to far too many of today's actual news headlines, made me want to explore it, and its characters further.
Joe: After seeing a reading of it I found the gritty, humanly flawed characters really hit a chord in me. No one is "just" evil, or "just" wonderful - and that human ability to have both live side by side within one person is an amazing thing.
Q: I hear this play is based on true events, how much of that inspired your direction?
Alice: To be honest, I didn't look at any of the accounts of the actual events the play was based on until we were about of the way through the rehearsal process. I think Ms. Gilman used the facts of the real life story as a jumping off point. I didn't want to "recreate" the real life individuals, but rather delve into the possibilities of what motivates individuals to behave as these characters do. What was more fascinating to me was comparing Glory to say the Jaycee Dugard- Phillip Garrido case that exploded in the news while we were in rehearsal. I found myself looking at Lisa and comparing her to Phillip Garrido's wife - what made that woman stay with Garrido knowing what he was doing. Where does nature vs. nurture fit into the evolution of an individual's morals and their own self image. Those were the true event questions that inspired me more than the actual accounts of the exploits of "Lady Sundown and NightRider".
Joe: It wasn't a part of my process at all - I tried to base the work solely on Ms. Gilman's script, and the rehearsal process with our particular actors.
Q: As a Co-Director how much of the process is eased or hindered?
Alice: I think that overall having a partner on this project really eased the process as a whole. Joe and I have the same respect for theatre. We share an ideology of what we think theatre can do, and how we want to affect an audience. Now that doesn't mean that there weren't many heated discussions at home on how to proceed on certain things... but when we were in the theatre with our incredibly talented group of actors - we were almost always on the same page and that was huge help to the process.
Joe: Because Alice and I have worked together for so many years, we had very similar ideas about how to handle the material - it was great to have someone to bounce ideas off of whose opinion you really trusted.
Q: What do you think the story is really about?
Alice: I actually believe that "Glory" is a love story. A very warped and twisted version of love, but a love story none-the-less. Each of these characters is incredibly human - they each seek to be loved, to show love, to understand love - and that driving need for, or inability to attain what they seek, creates behavior. Some of it we can identify with, and some of it is completely foreign to us, but we can't deny that it's out there, and that someone right now, is possibly feeling exactly that way. We can either explore it and discuss it, in which case we shine a light on darker corners of humanity - or we can ignore it, and potentially fall victim to it. If our production generates a spark of debate on any of it - I feel that we've done our job.
Joe: It's the audiences place to take what they want from it - it's my place to hopefully start the conversation about these characters, and their similarities and differences to each audience member.
Athena Theatre & El Centro Theatre presents THE GLORY OF LIVING by Rebecca Gilman, directed by Alice Ensor and Joe Koonce. The award-winning, "viscerally powerful" (The Guardian) early play by the author of Spinning Into Butter and Boy Gets Girl. Set in the rural Deep South, Rebecca Gilman's The Glory of Living received critical acclaim rare for a new American play when it had its British premiere in 1999, garnering the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright. Having opened in New York in the fall of 2001, this work focuses on fifteen-year-old Lisa, the daughter of a prostitute, and Clint, the car thief she runs away with to escape the misery of life with her mother. But the happier times that sullenly childlike Lisa yearns for never materialize, as Clint orders her to procure young runaways for him. Rebecca Gilman has created a riveting, unsentimental portrait of a young woman whose most striking quality is not her capacity for evil but the depth of her emptiness, in an environment as harsh and unyielding as the contours of her life.
Starring: Brett Aune*, Mark Deliman, Jules Hartley, Kate Huffman, Therese McLaughlin, Michael Mims, Chuck Raucci*, Carolyn Stotes, Victoria Truscott, Jeorge Watson*
General Admission $15, Ovation Award Eligible Reservations: 323-230-7261
Plenty of street parking: *Member of Actors' Equity Association. The Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
This performance is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
The Tolucan Times--The Glory of Living
"The production is outstanding: sets resemble the reality of the environment, costumes are spot-on and the theme draws you in. Directors Alice Ensor and Joe Koonce utilize the actors talents with great invention. Standout performance was by Jeorge Watson as a prison guard." -M. Jarrett Christensen
Award Overview
Since Athena Theatre's first production in 2003, we have received high acclaim from press, voters and audience alike. We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge them at this time.
Awards for Best Actor/Actress in a Play:
2007: Entertainment Today Travis Michael Holder's Ticket Holder Awards Runner-Up, Veronique Ory, Pterodactyls, Stella Adler
2006: ReviewPlays.com Jose Ruiz Top Ten Best Actor/Actress of the year Charles Howerton, Slow Dance on a Killing Ground -Athena Theatre
Veronique Ory, Wait Until Dark -Athena Theatre
2005: ReviewPlays.com TOP TEN PLAYS OF 2005
The Shape of Things Athena Theatre Company
TOP FIVE ACTRESSES - LEAD
Veronique Ory The Shape of Things Athena Theatre Company
TOP FIVE ACTORS - FEATURED
John Bobek Proof The Athena Company
TRAVIS MICHAEL HOLDER'S TOP 2005 LIST:
BEST ACTOR IN A PLAY, 2005:
RUNNERS UP: John Bobek, Proof, Athena
BEST ACTRESS IN A PLAY:
RUNNERS-UP: Veronique Ory, Proof, Athena
2004: Don Grigware - NoHoLA Best of 2004
LEAD PERFORMANCE (Play/Musical)
Veronique Ory/Jon Emm, How I Learned to Drive Athena Theatre Co @The Raven
ReviewPlays selects best of year:
THE OUTSTANDING PLAYS OF 2004
HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE, The Raven Theatre - Athena Theatre Company
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCES BY A MALE ACTOR IN A FEATURED ROLE
GJ Echternkamp, Waiting for Godot,The Raven Playhouse - The Athena Theatre Company
Jon Emm, How I Learned to Drive , The Raven Playhouse - The Athena Theatre Company
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCES BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Veronique Ory, How I Learned to Drive. The Raven Playhouse - Athena Theatre Company
2003: Reviewplays.com-Best of 2003
Top Ten Best Actress in a Play
Veronique Ory, Crimes of the Heart - Athena Theatre Company
In addition to these acknowledgements, Athena Theatre has also received Critics Pick 16 times.
Reviewplays.com Spotlight
Thank you Reviewplays.com for this wonderful article:
Athena Rests
In the early days of this website, we covered a play by Beth Henley called Crimes of the Heart.
It was an excellent production and special notice was made of a young actor who played the part of Babe. We learned this was Veronique Ory, co-founder, artistic director and the soul of a rather new company aptly called Athena Theatre Company. Those familiar with the story of Athena know she is the goddess of wisdom and in other mythologies the protector of other gods.
Over the past years, Veronique Ory has brought dozens of actors into the columns of her pantheon, explored uncharted territories and shared her gift of theatre with hundreds of people who attended her productions. Fiercely protective of the integrity of the company, Veronique has always insisted on the highest level of professionalism from her actors and those around her, but it has been her personal example and integrity that has led the way in achieving this goal. She knows no other way to do things.
Now the winds of change are taking her from the City of Angels to the Big Apple, where theatre thrives and challenges abound. We will miss her and no doubt New York will be a fertile ground for her to expand her unique and special gift.
But we won't say goodbye to Veronique or to Athena. We'll simply wish her a fruitful journey and a successful discovery of those things which she has not yet found. For now the theatre marquees in this city will shine a little less bright waiting for her victorious return when she will bridge the best that both coasts have to offer.
Thanks for the great moments in theatre and may the great white way embrace you with the same love that we have here.
Jose Ruiz
Athena Rests [reviewplays.com]
Critics Praise Unanimous
striking movement design by Adria Dawn, performed with uniform grace by the cast RECOMMENDED - Steven Stanley, StageSceneLA
a presentationalways riveting and compellingBeautiful - Jose Ruiz, reviewplays.com
A heady and surreal experiencean eerie and captivating playUnder the hypnotically focused direction of Patrick Varon, an artistically dedicated cast of 11 actors all fare well! - Pat Taylor, The Tolucan Times
Cast highlights are Guy Perry with his hysterical frolicking as Hunger, impressively talented West Liang (Orpheus), and Sally Conway as Alcyone, whose body movements are top notch. - Paul Storiale, stagehappenings.com
Reviewplays
Reviewed by Jose Ruiz
Over the years that we have covered the presentations of the Athena Theatre Company, the one thing we have mentioned in almost every review has been the willingness of the company to venture into areas that are usually reserved for the intrepid who are not afraid to explore no matter what the results. Weve seen it with shows like Crimes of the Heart, Waiting for Godot, Pterodactyls and now with Metamorphoses where one the citys most courageous ensembles steps back in time two thousand years and makes the stories of Ovid as real and up-to-date as anything you see today.
Award winning playwright Mary Zimmermans adaptation brings together some of Ovids mythical characters around a symbolic pool, where at various times narrators tell stories of the gods as they frolic, laugh, love and even sometimes die. The amazing set construction coupled with music, sound effects and visuals create an idyllic setting where a committed ensemble takes us into the realms of Zeus, Midas, Eurydice, Alcyone and others presenting us with those segments of their myths that have endured centuriesthe best judge is the public who attends, and we heard many patrons describe their reactions with one common word as they exited Beautiful.
Stage Scene LA
Reviewed by Steven Stanley
Athena Theatre has undertaken its biggest challenge yet in staging an Equity waiver production of Mary Zimmermans Metamorphoses.
As proven by Athenas most recent production (Nicky Silvers Pterodactyls), Co-Founder and Producer Veronique Ory knows how to surround herself with some of the finest design talent around. Metamorphoses features an inventive set by Stefan Depner, some beautiful lighting effects by Johnny Ryman, imaginative costumes by Kaori Mita, and an effective sound design by David Marling. Especially significant among the design elements are an exquisite original musical score by Andrew Edwards and a striking projection design by Eric Silva Most striking in this production is the movement design by Adria Dawn, performed with uniform grace by the cast. In one particularly haunting sequence, Mayo as Erysichthon is overcome (literally) by Perry as hunger, clinging to Mayos back as the King is unable to feed his insatiable appetite.
LA Weekly-Pterodactyls
PTERODACTYLS Nicky Silvers undeniably clever play might be described as apocalyptic farce, or smarty-pants nihilism, positing the notion that we, like the dinosaurs, are heading toward extinction, thanks to our denial of basic realities. Young Todd (Todd Kubrak) left home five years ago and hasnt been heard from since. Now he has returned, after a life of determined depravity and risk, to announce that he has AIDS. His sister, Emma (Veronique Ory), who has memory problems, denies that she ever had a brother. His frivolous, alcoholic mother (Gillian Doyle) refuses to acknowledge his illness and retreats into meaningless chatter, despite an incestuous attraction to Todd. Meanwhile, Dad (Christopher Bradley), leches after Emma and cherishes the wildly mistaken illusion that his children adore him. Emma has just become engaged to a waiter named Tommy (Ryan Baylor), but Mom insists that he become their servant and wear a brief French maids costume that suggests 1930s pornography. Director Patrick Varon provides a slick and brisk production on Stefan Depners elegantly sterile set, and the cast, if not quite brilliant, is accomplished and able. Athena Theatre at THE STELLA ADLER THEATRE, 6773 Hollywood Blvd., Hlywd.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun. 7 p.m.; thru July 29. (818) 754-1423. (Neal Weaver)
Back Stage West-Pterodactyls
July 18, 2007
By Les Spindle
Nicky Silver's off-kilter tragicomedy is about an upper-crust family's dysfunctions of apocalyptic proportions; the script suggests that unless we find ways to adapt in an increasingly complex world, our species could go the way of the dinosaur. To spin his bizarre tale, the playwright has drawn from a cornucopia of sources -- a little Eugne Ionesco here, a touch of Joe Orton there, a flash of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, and, most strongly, echoes of Edward Albee's The American Dream. Yet, Silver isn't so much a dramaturgic larcenist as he is a shrewd craftsman who stirs up his pot with a lot of time-proven dramatic devices to create a highly original stew. Director Patrick Varon pulls off a generally fine rendition of this challenging piece.
Each member of this grotesque clan -- despite the Ozzie and Harriet faade -- has loose screws. Patriarch Arthur (Christopher Bradley) is prone to adultery and incest. His wife, Grace (Gillian Doyle), is a lush who worries more about social proprieties than about dealing with her children's personal crises. Daughter Emma (Veronique Ory) suffers from amnesia and panic attacks. Prodigal son Todd (Todd Kubrak) returns after years of separation, confessing that he's a sex addict afflicted with AIDS. The odd man out -- literally -- is Emma's sexually confused fianc, Tommy (Ryan Baylor), the family servant, who wears a French maid's outfit and lusts after Todd.
Silver's self-absorbed characters talk at -- rather than with -- one another, leading to a lot of non sequiturs, driving home the point of a noncommunicative family. Varon could better modulate these exchanges, as they sometimes fly by too quickly for us to absorb needed information. The playwright's themes become clearer when the zany tone shifts to stark tragedy. The finest work comes from Doyle, whose basket-case matriarch feels like a cross between Katherine Helmond in Soap and Faye Dunaway's Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest. Kubrak excels as the loony artist turned amateur archaeologist, as does Ory as the seriocomic sad sack. Baylor is a hoot as the cross-dressing groom-to-be. Those with an appetite for nihilistic farce will enjoy this gleefully acidic satire.
Los Angeles City Beat-Pterodactyls
Theater Critics Choice: Pterodactyls
Nicky Silver was a fashionable young playwright in the 90s. Two of his plays, including this one, quickly reached South Coast Repertory. But, strange to say, his work never reached Los Angeles County, at least not in reviewable form, until now, with Athena Theatres Pterodactyls. As an asymptomatic AIDS patient returns to his deeply denying and screwed-up Philadelphia family, a script that begins as a bitter farce ends as simply bitter make that despairing. Silvers targets now look familiar, and not all that funny, but director Patrick Varons actors hit them with precision. Its good for L.As audiences to finally get to measure what the Silver rush of the 90s was all about.
Don Shirley
Entertainment Today.net and Reviewplays.com-Pterodactyls
For ReviewPlays.com and EntertainmentToday.net, 7/17/07
*** CRITICS PICK ***
TICKETHOLDERS
by Travis Michael Holder
Pterodactyls
Stella Adler Theatre
Denial is definitely not a river in Egypt in the Duncan household, a family that bleakly absurdist playwright Nicky Silver put through their paces with almost cruel delight in his 1993 masterpiece Pterodactyls, now lovingly revived by the ever-prolific Athena Theatre Company at the Stella Adler.
Although Pterodactyls takes place in a grandly appointed living room along the historically pish-tosh Main Line of Philadelphia and is set during the era in which the play first debuted, the spectre of the dinosaur isnt far behind in either its own time zone or ours.
The bones of one of our gigantic reptilian predecessors that returning prodigal son Todd Duncan (Todd Kubrak) prophetically finds buried on the grounds of the family estate obviously parallels the impending fate our troubled species as we crash on into our own obsolescence at breakneck speed. They raped the planet, Todd offers with a kind of skewed devotion to those massive first marauding creatures of the earth, but they cared for their young.
As Todd arrives home after a long absence to inform his parents (Gillian Doyle and Christopher Bradley) he has AIDS (has, as opposed to dying from, hes quick to correct), his wigged-out sister Emma (Athenas co-founder Veronique Ory) is about to wed Tommy (Ryan Baylor), not much of a catch according to the social requirements of her designer-obsessed shopaholic mother, especially when the kid brags that along his career path he has scratched and clawed all the way from busboy to waiter.
Rather than trying to dissuade the certifiable Emma to abandon her plans, however, Grace Duncan instead offers Tommy a position she feels worthy of his skills: replacing her maid, whose sudden disappearance from her barking employ is not hard to imagine. Much to the horror of Graces husband Arthur, Tommy fits perfectly in his predecessors little black-and-white satin French maid outfitand here this definitely signals out-fithis scruffy patch of chest hair peeking curiously from above the uniforms ruffled neckline. Worse yet, Tommys perfectly comfortable wearing it.
Under Patrick Varons sturdy direction, the classic-in-the-making Pterodactyls still has a lot going for it, this particular return to the crazy and incredibly dark Land of Silver made all the more relevant by exceptional performances all around, particularly Doyles wonderfully vapid mother and Orys perplexed innocent lost in a sea of modern dysfunction and avoidancekinda like most of us these days in our country, a place where weve let a regime we know is lying brazenly about almost everything and shafting us all as it continues to make its murderous descent on the world, prevail despite the wishes of any American with a conscience left standing.
If nowhere earlier in his script, Silvers point is made glaringly obvious in Pterodactyls last line, referring to the recovered dinosaur bones Todd gradually reassembles throughout the play in the corner of the family living room, long after his sisters suicide, Tommys death from the bug Todd passed along to him, Arthurs descent into an unemployed shell of his former stuffy businessman self, and Graces vacuous resilience to all pain as she continues to obsessively shop for Prada and come on to her gay son.
While ruminating on the mystery of what happened to the dinosaurs, Todd comes up with a scarily prophetic answer: Maybe they just ran their course, he suggests. Maybe their end was just the order of things.
Not only does that line clearly summarize the world of refutations oppressing and systematically destroying the Duncan household as envisioned by Nicky Silver in his vintage Pterodactyls, it eerily echoes the highly probable impending fate of our entire species if we dont collectively attempt to beat extinction ourselves by bearing the responsibility to make some major changesand purdy damned quick, too.
Pterodactyls plays through July 29 at the Stella Adler, 6773 Hollywood Bl., Hollywood; for tickets, call 818.754.1423.
* * *
TRAVIS MICHAEL HOLDER has been writing about LA theatre since 1987 and in Entertainment Today since 1990. As an actor, he received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Best Actor Award as Kenneth Halliwell in the west coast premiere of Nasty Little Secrets at Theatre/Theater. Four years later, he was inducted into the LADCC himself, thus becoming the only member in its 39-year history to also hold an award for performance. He has also been honored with a Drama-Logue Award as Lennie in Of Mice and Men at the Egyptian Arena, four Maddy Awards, a ReviewPlays.com Award, both NAACP and GLAAD Award nominations, and five nominations from LA Weekly. Regionally, he won the Inland Theatre League Award as Ken Talley in Fifth of July, three awards for his direction and performance as Dr. Dysart in Equus, was up for Washington, DCs Helen Hayes honors as Oscar Wilde in the world premiere of Oscar & Speranza, toured as Amos Mr. Cellophane Hart in Chicago, and traveled twice to New Orleans for the annual Tennessee Williams Literary Festival, opening the fest playing Williams himself in Lament for the Moths in 2003 and performing in An Ode to Tennessee last spring. Never one to suffer from typecasting, Travis most recent LA performances have been as Giuseppe The Florist Givola in Brechts The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui for Classical Theatre Lab, Ftatateeta in Shaws Caesar and Cleopatra at the Lillian, Cheswick in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest at the Rubicon in Ventura, and he will appear as Dave Moss in Glengarry Glen Ross at the Egyptian Arena in Hollywood Sept. 28 to Nov. 18. As a writer, hes also a regular contributor to Back Stage West, Gorgeous and Boulevard Magazines, and ReviewPlays.com. Five of his plays have been produced in LA and his first, Surprise Surprise, for which he wrote the screenplay with director Jerry Turner, is about to begin the international festival circuit as a feature film with Travis playing opposite John Brotherton, Luke Eberl, Deborah Shelton, Mary Jo Catlett and Jesse Boyd. His first novel, Waiting for Walk, will hopefully be published before he jumps off the goddam Hollywood Sign. www.travismichaelholder.com.
Reviewplays.com-Pterodactyls
PICK OF THE WEEK
Author Nicky Silver seems to know " what evil lurks in the hearts of men? He may not be The Shadow, but he manages to put his finger on some of the deepest and darkest sentiments of people, and then pries them up for exposure, wrapping them in absurd and incongruous situations. The Athena Theatre pulls another nifty number adding once again to their vast number of success laden offerings.
As families have skeletons in closets, the Duncan familys symbolic skeleton is constructed in the living room when oldest son Todd (Todd Kubrak) returns to the family home after a few years of estrangement bringing with him some old bones he found in the garden, which he assembles sporadically, eventually turning out to be a Pterodactyls skeleton. He also makes a pronouncement that he has AIDS . One should keep in mind this story first hit the boards in 1993, when AIDS was much more lethal than today and infection was a certain death sentence. That said, the play still holds its own today with compelling and gripping situations.
The well-to-do family of Arthur and Grace Duncan (Christopher Bradley and Gillian Doyle) is somewhat taken back by the news, but the reaction is not quite what one would expect, what with daughter Emma bringing home her boyfriend Tommy and the maid quitting. (Veronique Ory and Ryan Baylor) Grace feels that its important to keep things in perspective, and the maid quitting is far more devastating because now shell have to get her own drinks. However, when she meets Tommy she badgers him into staying with them and makes him wear the maids uniform, forcing him to do all the house-hold chores. Daughter Emma has a serious problem. She forgets things. She forgot she had a brother, for example, and now that shes going to marry Tommy, she seems to be more distant from reality. Arthur has lost his job as bank president, which devastates Grace because they wont be able to keep up their life style. However will they afford Emmas lavish wedding?
All around there are signs that this family is on its way to extinction, (a fact that Silver pounds into the audience with the metaphoric skeleton of the Pterodactyls) but their journey is a darkly lit tunnel of comedic tragedy. As the play progresses, its as if director Patrick Varon is guiding us through a gilded alley, and once in awhile opens a window into the familys past where we see shades of abuse at one time, alcoholism another, repressed sexual fantasies from the father towards Emma, selfish egotism and even hatred among the family members. When Todd tells his father his life on the street, he uses brutally graphic language, to which the father reacts almost indifferently. When the mother wants to spend tender time with her son, it becomes borderline incestuous and one wonders what habits the family has practiced. Homosexual encounters, pre-marital sex and other scandalous activities are commonplace for these people, each of whom is marching to a different agenda that Nicky Silver has constructed without apparent regard to cohesiveness or continuity. Except that he may be giving us a look at an amalgamation of society, wrapping many of the foibles he sees into the lives of this family in hopes of sending a message.
The wonderfully gifted ensemble responds brilliantly to the challenge, with Gillian Doyle almost walking off with the show as the neurotic alcoholic, self righteous society matron who has no clue why the family is the way it is, or even how to begin interacting with her children. As usual, Veronique Ory finds that special essence of the character and allows it to take over, giving a performance that abounds with tenderness, confusion, and sympathy while Ryan Baylor is nothing if not game for spending most of the show in a French maids outfit, as he delivers some of the best subtle comic lines of the show. Todd Kubrak is a mix of eccentric madness, rebellion and downright arrogance playing Todd. We dont know why he chose to return home, but clearly didnt find what he hoped for. Its as if Gertrude Steins statement of There is no there there applied directly to him. Christopher Bradley is a strong presence as the father who never really knew how to raise a family.
With scenes jumping back and forth from the past to the present and the characters addressing the audience as if pleading their case, one must follow this closely. In this darkly comic offering be ready to go on a highly charged ride where for every laugh there is an equal conflict and for every solution at least three new problems pop up. Youll love it!
Slow Dance on the Killing Ground - Theaterealtor.com Review
Slow Dance on the Killing Ground
by William Hanley, directed by Mark Thomas Boergers
Athena Theatre at The Lounge Theatre / June 22-July 29, 2006
WITH Charles Howerton, Veronique Ory, Matthew Thompson
DANCERS: Kim Parmon, Adrian Vatsky
PRODUCTION: Stefan Depner, set; Adam Voigts, costumes; Johnny
Ryman, lights; John Bobek, sound; Kim Parmon, choreography
The Athena Theatre has invested its modest resources
in mounting a production of little-known William
Hanley's 40-year-old ‘Slow Dance on the Killing Ground’ –
a serious contender for the Dreariest Title title currently
held by Lynn Nottage’s ‘Crumbs from the Table of Joy.’
Obviously not a play selection calculated to pack the
tiny Lounge Theatre with easy marks. Yet, last
Saturday night they nearly filled the house with people
who had at least 'Placed' in the pre-show free-style
parking competition and who, without so much as an
unwrapped lozenge, whispered epiphany or evicted
throat-frog to break the spell, watched Hanley's talky,
near motionless play become a taut masquerade for
three actors: One step back, two steps forward; one
step to deceive, two steps to come clean.
Slow Dance on the Killing Ground,which continues through July 29 at the Lounge (corner Santa Monica and El Centro), was introduced on Broadway in 1964. The play takes place on June 1, 1962, a day New York City countertops were cluttered with front page stories about the previous day's execution of Adolph Eichmann. In 1960 the Mossad had captured the high-ranking Nazi in
Argentina and removed him to Israel to answer for his part in Germany's extermination of millions. Hanley with graceful insights from director Mark Thomas Boergers uses that event as backdrop without making this a Holocaust play. He dances his characters just close enough to that abyss to bring out the darkness in their personal histories. By the end, the play leaves us with a sense that justice and retribution are forces of nature that cannot be escaped, but with which we must somehow reconcile ourselves.
Hanley's three characters are strangers meeting by accident in a small New York shop owned by a middle-aged German immigrant named Glas (Charles Howerton). The story unfolds in real time, so the length of the play (minus an intermission) encompasses everything that happens in the two hours they spend together. Randall (Matthew Thompson) is the young man who initiates things by cannonballing into the shop as if he's the star of a fox hunt. He quickly smooths himself down and engages the half-empty Glas in an oblique game of cat-and-mouse, first proving his intellectual superiority, then his upper hand for violence, and finally his moral advantage. Sometime later a young woman named Rosie (Veronique Ory) slips in, bearing the scrap of misread directions that should have had her at her abortion appointment hours earlier. Each character has enough secret showing to give the others something to pull on, with plenty left hidden to unravel as the evening unfolds.
This little microcosm that Hanley has devised allows him to touch on a number of tough subjects. Each topic: racism, anti-Semitism, the holocaust, teen pregnancy/abortion, matricide, prostitution, corrections facilities and the justice system are given extra spin by each character's involvement in, denial of, or intolerance of them.
The men are better at masking their personal crimes and weaving the cover stories that protect them. Rosie is more candid and open. She is the one still able to avoid that dance along the black hole of guilt. All, however, prefer to see someone else come clean than to air his or her secrets. The gradual cycle of revelations and threats are played like a precise card game in which each player trumps the previous one. The evening ends when the final revelation proves the high card and that player is out. The discussion constantly sparks questions: Who has the right to judge another? Are the Israelis more justified in executing Eichmann than an abused child is of killing the perpetrating parent? Is abortion murder? How guilty is someone who is a passive participant in a crime? One character asks another if he would be 'willing to die to save my life?' a question that never leaves the stage, but moves from an absurd notion to one that bears thought to one that might in fact be the answer to the whole mess.
Howerton wears his role of Glas as comfortably as he does his shopkeeper's apron. There is, in fact, a worn quality to Glas. Howerton waits for his moments, always preferring as Glas would to just blend into his shop. It's a wonderfully natural performance. As Randall, Thompson has the play's flashiest role. Despite being a young man, he is closest to the end of his life. Perhaps that's why he packs so much into every speech. Purported to have an IQ above 180, Randall delights in showing off his vocabulary and his perspicacity, but can't stop from displaying a hair-trigger temper. It makes for an extremely dense and varied line-load as he shifts in and out of black street patois -- his disguise. It's a showcase role that Thompson makes look easy. Whether showing off his overwrought language or trying to disguise it behind in your face jangle-jive, he's constantly firing on multi-syllable cylinders. When Mod Squad's Clarence Williams III created the role he was recognized with a Tony nomination and a Theater World Award. The role comes with a danger, however, as it begs an actor to go overboard. It's a line Thompson is clearly aware but needs always to watch. As Rosie, Ory has the least stage time and, as mentioned, the least darkness to conceal. Still, she works her part as foil for the other two very well, blending the right amounts of naivete, commitment and indignation.
The lighting design is lovely. The opening cross fade as the upstage scrim opaques out the dancers to reveal Glas on his ladder is a beautifully rendered bit of transportation. However, at least three times the lights cut to just stage right to isolate an actor. Unfortunately, the actor was at best half in the light. If it can't be coordinated, just leave the whole place lighted. As mentioned, however, the designer's use of the scrim storefront window to show the dancers worked well. Unfortunately, the dancing, while nice at first, did not carry the tension that the actors were creating. Especially when a dancer can be seen just walking offstage before the scrim fills in. At this performance, the final tableau missed the timing needed for the A-Ha moment, which was unfortunate given the actors' performances.
Still, Boergers' work with this cast gives Hanley's surprisingly interesting script a good spin, and turns this theater cum lounge into a welcome place for strangers to meet for an evening of probing conversation and an added dimension to the idea of a play performed in real time. - Cristofer Gross / theaterealtor.com
Slow Dance on the Killing Ground - ACCESSIBLY LIVE OFF-LINE
The Athena Theatre company in Hollywood presents William Hanley's SLOW DANCE ON THE KILLING GROUND, a melodrama of three people from three different backgrounds who face their difficult life in the present along with their deep dark past.
The setting is a Brooklyn, New York sweet shop located in a rather gritty neighborhood. The date is June 1st, 1962. This was the day when Adolf Eichmann was executed by hanging for "crimes against humanity" in his part of the Nazi party's role to eliminate the Jewish population in occupied Europe during the days of World War Two. The sweet shop is run by Mr. Glas (Charles Howerton), an older man of German extraction. In walks Randall (Matthew Thompson), a hip "Negro" who is very talkative and claims he has an IQ if 187. At first, Mr. Glas sees this man to be first a pest, later as a threat. From Randall's pondering Glas over the reaction to Eichmann's execution splashed on the headlines of that day's newspaper, he learns that Glas was in Germany in the early days of the Nazi occupation, but as a political prisoner than was a Jewish one. Randall has his own secret past as well, and perhaps a current one running away from somebody or perhaps something. Added to this mix is another urban soul who also wanders in the shop: an eighteen year old named Rosie (Veronique Ory), a street savvy woman from the Bronx who, as Randall and Glas, has her own personal issues. (In her case, she is pregnant and is seeking an abortion). This chance meeting of these three brings out a dark side to all, as they face what was to them and what is, or perhaps what really is!
This play, the only significant work written by Hanley, was first performed in 1964 and dealt with rather harsh issues of the day; from racism of the "Negro", to the issues of poverty, to the struggles of what American society is all about, and what it should be. Some of the consequences discussed has somewhat changed today, but not necessary for the better. That is why this play is just as fresh and relevant as it was some 40+ years before! The three performers appear to be deep into their characters; Howerton as the elderly man fulfilling his part of the American dream, Thompson as the jive small time hustler with a be-bop attitude, and Ory as the confused sheltered girl who wants to do better for herself while slipping along the way. The playwright used a three-act stance as in a dance residual (pas de deux, pas de trois, and coda). This imagery is presented by a pair of tango dancers (Kim Parmon and Adrian Vatsky) who brings each act as a visible expression to what this trio in the sweet shop are experiencing--real or otherwise!
Directed by Mark Thomas Boergers, SLOW DANCE ON THE KILLING GROUND is an overdue dormant gem that was worth the uncovering. It goes to show one that the so-called "good old days" were not as good as one remembers. Then again, there is a lot of episodes occurring in the naked city at all hours of the day. Perhaps this was one of them. And will things become better in the next 40 years? It all depends on one's interpretation of what "better" supposedly means!
SLOW DANCE ON THE KILLING GROUND, presented by the Athena Theater company and performs at The Lounge Theatre, 6201 Santa Monica Blvd. (one block east of Vine Street), Hollywood, until July 29th. Showtimes are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights @ 8:00 PM. Reservations, call (818) 754-1423.
Visit the web site at http://www.athenatheatre.com
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ACCESSIBLY LIVE OFF-LINE
(Vol. 11-No. 26-Week of June 26th, 2006)
Slow Dance on the Killing Ground - Entertainment Today Review
By Beth Temkin
The Athena Theatre Company's production of William Hanley's Slow Dance on the Killing Ground is a gloomy play with well-drawn characters, performed by a brilliant trio of actors. Two smooth dancers (Kim Parmon and Adrian Vatsky) open to seductive Argentine tango music, as though on a movie screen, and the backdrop then becomes a blurry shop window. The storekeeper Glas (Charles Howerton) takes inventory late at night as a young black man named Randall (Matthew Thompson) dashes into the shop. Randall has escaped from, as he puts it, the "killing ground" outside. Wearing a hat and sunglasses, Randall speaks in rapid jive talk, asking Glas endless questions.
The conversation is mostly one-sided, as the inscrutable Glas is wary of the young stranger. Glas walks with a limp, his voice tinged with a German accent, and wears a tattoo on his arm. He does not take Randall seriously until he removes his glasses and hat. Thereafter, Randall's speech turns quite cultured. Glas repeatedly calls Randall Sonny, exacerbating Randall's Jeckle-and-Hyde personality.
The end of Act One sees Rosie (Veronique Ory) enter the bar and collapse. She hasn't eaten for 24 hours and is three hours late for her appointment to see an abortionist.
Gradually, these three troubled souls from very different backgrounds become closely connected. Their various truths are revealed one by one, softly spotlighted by Johnny Ryman. The dark mood is sustained by realistic set design by Stefan Depner, as well as sensuous tango dancing between acts, under the direction of Mark Thomas Boergers.
Slow Dance on the Killing Ground - Tolucan Times Review
Slow Dance on the Killing Ground Performs at Hollywood's Lounge Theatre
By Gail Roberts
HOLLYWOOD Playwright William Hanley's showpiece, Slow Dance on the Killing Ground, presented here at Hollywood's Lounge Theatre, is an involved story of the period's culture clash, generation gap, morality, pretense, guilt, and not the least, redemption.
Most of the action in this three-character piece takes place in a dusty old Brooklyn soda shop on a dark and dangerous street (the treacherous neighborhood outside the store is referred to as the "killing ground"). Hanley calls his first act a Pas de Deux, where two characters, the elderly shopkeeper, Mr. Glas (Charles Howerton) and the young black fugitive, Randall (Matthew Thompson) perform a kind of conversational choreography transitioning between the topography of age, background and race amid 60's mores.
Howerton turns in a fine performance marked by understatement and restraint as the former non-Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany. His counterpoint is Randall, the hunted jive-talkin', opinionated young renegade who masks his panic with contrived cool.
The second act becomes a Pas de Trois when the third character, young Rosie (Veronique Ory) enters the shop on her way to an abortionist. The young Rosie's attitudes and false bravado (not quite disguising her naivite) bring together the two opposing men in a sensitive effort to save her while facing their own demons.
Director Mark Thomas Boergers made an interesting step by adding two background tango dancers to this production. My thought was that the playwright was using dance imagery as a metaphor for the characters and their interplay. I'm not sure this literal interpretation with actual dancers was all that essential or effective.
Slow Dance on the Killing Ground performs at the Lounge Theatre in Hollywood Thurs thru Sat until July 29. For tickets, call (818) 754-1423 or visit www.AthenaTheatre.com.
Slow Dance on the Killing Ground - Reviewplays.com
To say that this is a compelling story would do a huge injustice to the production. We are taken back to June 1, 1962 , a day after Adolph Eichmann was executed in Ramleh Prison for his role in the Nazi holocaust. The setting is a second rate candy store in a Brooklyn neighborhood where store owner Glas, a fifty-ish German non-Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, is taking inventory late at night. A young man named Randall, a gentleman of some color”, as he describes himself, storms into the candy store, apparently hiding from something or someone and quickly establishes a dominant position in the conversation with the owner. Randall wears sunglasses (at night), sports an umbrella and a little cap and is an obvious game player, given to verbal obfuscation and self aggrandizing, declaring that he has an IQ of 187; he proceeds to prove it by reciting random literary passages from Kafka and others. Later Rosie, a young girl, enters, saying she is lost and wants directions to an address in another not so great part of town, revealing she’s on her way to an abortion appointment.
This is the triangle set up in author William Hanley's 1964 play, which twice hit the boards in New York and was twice rejected by the critics and the audience. Nevertheless, the Athena Theatre Company decided to cinch its thespian belt another notch and go for it again, in spite of the production's less than illustrious past.
Good choice!
In spite of some minor bumps, the overly wordy, seemingly action-less work gets a tight workout by director Mark Thomas Boergers who manages to bring it to the surface making some important social statements along the way. Boergers allows the characters to draw themselves out slowly, giving us a chance to get to know them a little better and this waiting pays handsome dividends at the end when we discover some disturbing and horrible truths.
The absolute anchor in this piece is Charles Howerton, who as Glas, is a marvel of stoicism and control. Badgered and bullied by the recalcitrant Randall, Glas maintains a sense of muffled mystery and bemused understanding almost empathizing with young Randall, even though he suspects the youth could become serious trouble. Howerton’s portrait of a man with an agonizing secret and a desperate desire for forgiveness is one of the most compelling performances this year. His excellent reproduction of a foreign accent makes for chilling authenticity.
Rosie is a convolution of ideas, highly opinionated and thoroughly confused. When queried by Randall about her feelings on death, she quickly responds, "I'm against it!", yet is frustrated at having missed her appointment with the abortionist. She also declares she's writing a college thesis on the concentration camps and quickly seizes the opportunity to question Glas. In past years, this website has written many accolades about the work of Veronique Ory, but this portrayal of Rosie goes to a different level of what she has done before. Played with a mix of youth and innocence with a craftily thought out plan as to why the abortion is necessary, (which both Randall and Glas manage to shake with relative ease), Veronique has dug deep into the character and managed to find a good chunk of her soul, which she then reveals to the audience in a performance that's as thoughtful as it is sincere.
Matthew Thompson makes Randall a thoroughly obnoxious individual. He is impudent, disrespectful and a total phony, as evidenced by the way Randall chooses to change his speech pattern and vocabulary now with a deep ghetto swagger then a refined scholarly diction. Even when Randall discloses his past, his secret fears and anxieties, one wonders if he's not just making it up for shock value or if he truly faces the horrific fate he describes. No doubt he is the product of a troubled past and a dysfunctional upbringing, and Thompson is great in the role. He will be much better when he completely masters his lines so that he does not trip on them as often as he did on opening night.
Even the best-intended deeds do not go unpunished and the inclusion of dancers behind a gossamer screen is the undoing of some of the more dramatic scenes, distracting from the main actors. To be sure, Kim Parmon and Adrian Vatsky are excellent dancers, (she being the lither) and while the symbolic effect of having dancers in the background is not totally lost, even a fuzzy dark image of a perfectly executed arabesque can affect the mood adversely. Great concept - not so great result.
As in Sartre's "No Exit" where the three characters in Hell become each other's torturer, so it is that the characters here become each other's judge and jury, even going through a mock trial where secrets are exposed and fears are confessed. Randall refers to the streets as the "killing ground" a place where the victims and the helpless are pursued; a place where the stalking is often slow and deliberate, like a dance, that teasingly brings the partners in and out until the final step.
The audience will decide if the author's intended message is one of redemption by confession, resurrection by attrition or revival by indifference.
Whatever your verdict, there is no debate that the Athena Theatre Company has constructed another significant plateau in their ever constant climb to excellence in theatre.
www.reviewplays.com
Wait Until Dark - The Ira Fistell Show, KABC Radio 790 AM Review
A Dark Play
Lights Up the Lounge
By Cynthia Citron
ReviewPlays.com
And The Ira Fistell Show, KABC Radio 790 AM
If Cate Caplin were a three-year-old horse she would be well on her way to winning the Triple Crown. An award-winning dancer, a creative choreographer, and a dynamic director, Caplin runs on many turfs. Currently, she is directing Frederick Knott's Wait Until Dark at the Lounge Theater in Hollywood. Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods, which she choreographed, has only recently closed.
Wait Until Dark is well-remembered as a scary 1967 movie starring Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, and Richard Crenna. So you wouldn't think a local production on a stage about the size of a kitchen table would be something to write home about. But you would be wrong. This production has you literally jumping out of your seat.
As the blind heroine terrorized by thugs, Veronique Ory will have you convinced that she is really blind. As she maneuvers around her basement apartment, glassy-eyed and arms outstretched, her mounting terror is palpable. Jon Emm, as the "sympathetic thug" offers her a brief respite until she sees through him. But Lorin McCraley, playing multiple roles, veers from the ridiculous to the truly menacing. These two are aided by John Richard Petersen, the phony police sergeant who gives credibility to the plot. At least, Ory believes him.
The plot is a silly mishmash about a doll stuffed with drugs that her husband (Tim Maloney) has carried home from a recent trip to Canada. The drugs have a street value of $50,000, which hardly seems worth all the sturm und drang and the multiple murders perpetrated in its name. But this is Greenwich Village in 1966, so it"ll be another 40 years before we start talking about illicit money by the billions.
This is a dark drama, in more ways than one. The darkness in which the heroine lives becomes very real. Especially in the final scene, which is played with no lights. And set designer Jennifer Fulmer has managed to fill the tiny stage with a full array of kitchen furnishings, plus a washing machine, a staircase, a small photography studio, and several doors. How the nine actors manage to maneuver around all this without knocking each other over is yet another testament to the directing skill of Cate Caplin.
Wait Until Dark is a worthy production of the Athena Theatre Company; it is gripping and well acted, and highly recommended for a cold, rainy night.
The Lounge Theatre is located at 6201 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood. Wait Until Dark will run Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays through March 25th.
Wait Until Dark - Metro LA Review
Exerts from Metro LA Review Feb. 28-Mar. 13, 2006
Wait Until Dark rev. by Jerry L. Jackson
"Frederick Knott's Wait Until Dark was a phenomenon on Broadway in 1966 with Robert Duvall as the psychopath menacing Lee Remick, famously adapted to the screen in 1967 with Alan Arkin and Audrey Hepburn and less successfully revived in 1998 for an aborted run in New York with Quentin Tarantino and Marisa Tomei. It is intended as a thriller. To work, it must scare you."
"The actors are all experienced and I've seen some of their work to great advantage in other productions."
"Veronique Ory portrays Susy Hendrix, recently blinded and subsequently married to an often absent husband."
"In the play each of the 3 primary male characters has a distinct and different function: Lorin McCraley is supposed to be Harry Roat, Jr., the murderous, unrelenting threat that propels the story, Jon Emm (Mike Talman) and John Richard Petersen (Sgt. Carlino) are two bit con men forced into a sting on the blind heroine by the villaine."
"Samantha Klein as Gloria, the dead-pan teenaged neighbor whose childish lies and prankish theft actually set up most of the deadly action, got the warmest response of the evening as she actually went through a character arc, learning, growing, changing."
"Jennifer Fulmer's set provides perfect ambience and the appropriate claustrophobia for the final dance. Inexplicably, film-style music stings indicate where we should feel scared but only underscore the fact that we don't."
"The beauty of theatre is that a company can build, making each performance more accomplished at creating the emotional journey intended by the author."
Reviewplays.com - Wait Until Dark
Wait Until Dark - The Lounge Theatre
Back in 1967, Audrey Hepburn had the movie world on the edge of their seats in this mystery by Frederick Knott about a man who is asked to hold a doll at an airport, only to discover later that the doll becomes the central character in a murder plot that involves drugs, deceit and a blind woman who comes to the brink of death, using only her instincts to save herself.
Athena Theatre starts the year off with this spine tingling, hair raising thrill ride that redefines the proverbial cat and mouse game. Set back in the good old days where rotary phones were still in use and photographers used enlargers and chemicals, this is the story of blind Susy coping with two small time ex-cons who try to capitalize on her blindness as they search for the doll in her apartment. The tale unfolds tensely as the crooks invent a story of a police investigation of her husband, claiming that if she finds the missing doll, he can be exonerated. Mike and Carlino go to elaborate lengths to pull off their ruse, hoping to find the drugs stuffed inside the toy, but a third man named Roat enters the scene. A cold blooded killer, he is now controlling the two hoods and his stalking of Susy escalates as the story unfolds, begging the question; how will this blind woman defend herself?
Veronique Ory delivers a top notch performance, stumbling and shuffling around the apartment as the recently blinded Susy who is still learning to maneuver in the dark but has keenly developed the other senses – a factor that will eventually become her salvation. Her stalkers vary from the bumbling Carlino, played with a hint of comic relief by John Richard Petersen, a great favorite in the Orange County theatre scene, to the madman Harry Roat. Lorin McCraley, a recent riot as an off beat psychiatrist in Shrinks, makes Roat a chilling, calculating murderer who almost destroys the apartment searching for the doll. In between, is Jon Emm, who plays Mike, posing as a friend of Susy’s husband. Mike straddles the line from being almost sympathetic to being an ominous menace, and having befriended Susy early on, would have had the chance to do more harm, but one gets the feeling he almost feels sorry for her.
Samantha Klein plays teen-ager Gloria, a girl who helps Susy with the shopping and other errands and helps to figure out the connection between the men who keep visiting the apartment. Klein is overly bratty and gets a little carried away with the precocious bit, but does a credible turn around at the end. Tim Maloney appears briefly as Susy’s traveling photographer husband - Peter O’Keefe and Rod Simmons play police officers.
Tightly directed by Cate Caplin, who normally works with dance and musicals, the key to this presentation is the lighting – or in this case, the absence of light. Caplin choreographs the tiny Lounge stage with consummate imagination, as the wonderfully gifted cast maneuvers around the sparse furnishings covered in shadows with thin light rays that spurt out from strategic parts of the room. It has to be a tribute to the actors and the director that the most climactic scenes are played in total darkness, as Susy attempts to level the playing field against her captors. You hear yells – screams fill the room – furniture and dishes crash – and once in awhile a beam of light shoots out from the refrigerator – from a workbench – from a match - and finally from the front door, which brings closure to the drama as it is flung open.
Comparing the play to the 1967 film would be a little like apples and oranges, but if the audience comments at the end mean anything, this show rates high on the fright scale. For sure it will enjoy a successful run through March 25th. Reservations at: (818) 754-1423.
The Lounge is located at 6201 Santa Monica Blvd – Los Angeles, CA
From www.reviewplays.com
ReviewPlays.com- A Lie of the Mind
The people presented by author Sam Shepard are not the kind of people you want to know. To call them dysfunctional is definitely one step up, and the actors do a marvelous job bringing out the worst of the worst. If Sergio Leone hadn't used the title, Sam could have called it "The Good, the Bad - and the Ugly" and if he forgot to use the word Good not much would change. .
The two family groups are wisely divided into the two ends of the stage, and when there is a cross-over, sparks usually fly.
We first meet Jake, placing a phone call to brother Frankie from somewhere on the open road, claiming he beat up his wife Beth and killed her. It becomes evident this was not the first beating and that Jake is a hot head who loses his temper at the drop of a hat. Jason Weisgerber is electrifying as the seriously disturbed loser, whose jealousy brought on the assault.
Jamison Driskill is much more subdued and reasonable as little brother, Frankie giving a compelling performance.
Cut to the hospital, where Beth is alive, but not well. She is bandaged and delirious, apparently with serious brain damage that's causing partial loss of speech and memory. Veronique Ory carries off this difficult role with sympathetic rapport, never allowing us to know what's really in Beth's mind and what she feels. One gets the feeling that Beth has decided to use this trauma to help her get out of a bad marriage and lets events roll on as she carefully goes along for the ride. Her brother Mike is determined to avenge the beating and becomes obsessed with getting even with Jake. Jonathan Frappier has a couple of good scenes.
It's easy to see why Jake has problems when we meet Jake's mother. We don't want to say that Trudy Forbes as the mother, channels trailer trash- she's worse!
With a mother like that, trailer life would be an improvement, and the only one that seems to be immune from her madness is her daughter Sally who would be a normal, sweet girl if she could except for the time when she saw her father squashed by a truck in Mexico. Rachel Lyeria is excellent as the sister who is usually hazzled by the brothers and who shares a secret with Jake which has haunted them for years.
Lorraine, the mother harbors a deep hatred for her husband, but seems to have an inordinate affinity with Jake, claiming that from the day he was born he fell on his head and has never been well since.
Beth's parents are equally off center. Pamela Clay is just wonderful as Meg, the meek, submissive wife whose memory and motivations have been impaired by years of brow-beating by husband Baylor.
James Storm makes Baylor an almost cartoony, rifle slinging hick more interested in hunting a deer for the rack than the recovery of his daughter.
With Meg's memory problems, it is never clear if Beth's current condition is the result of partial heredity combined with the beating she suffered from Jake.
At three hours, the play sometimes drags under the weight of the dialog, but fortunately director Charlotte Gulezian keeps the action bouncing like a tennis match between the two households and has integrated some very effective sound designs and music which help to maintain alertness. She also has managed to draw out some excellent characterizations bringing dynamic life to the play. By the end, one feels that these people have no clue about their future, and are totally in the dark about their past. They allow their imagination and perceptions to influence their actions, but seldom stop to check the veracity of their thinking and when they act on first impulses, they later discover their mind may have lied to them but now it's too late. So they take the next step on another whim, which brings them deeper into the whirlpool of deceptions. Definitely another strongly carved notch on the winner's belt of Athena Theatre.
PICK OF THE WEEK
Proof from Reviewers
Critics Pick Entertainment Today
Critics Pick ReviewPlays.com
"David Auburn's award-winning play Proof, is receiving an award-winning, definitive production by Athena Theatre at the lovely Flight Theatre of the complex. Sharpen your pencils, Ovation Voters, and make your reservations now, because the run of this one could sell out within a week." -Metro LA
"Director Charlotte Gulezian has invested the play with the warmth of familial love and the elegance of math and science. Her blocking is liquid art. The actors move from one gorgeous stage picture to another. And she has elicited four amazing performances which don't leave a nuance unturned." -Metro LA
"Veronique Ory brings a palpably heartbreaking vulnerability to the role. Ory mines a quiet desperation that makes Catherine someone the audience can grieve for and with, as her beloved dad has died only a week before, leaving the rest of her life a gaping hole of contradictions." -Back Stage West
"Craig Braun looks every bit the college professor, a bit more lucid than he's supposed to be, but convincingly dedicated to his work, if not his daughter." ReviewPlays.com
"The loveliest turn comes from John Bobek, who brings a dynamic spontaneity and arresting sweetness to Hal, the geeky protege of the late professor's role that usually merely complements, not stands out with such striking results." -Back Stage West
"Elena Fabri is perfect as her bossy but well-meaning sister, managing to make us understand Claire's good intentions despite the character's officious manner." -Back Stage West
"This is a gem of a production, proof positive that Athena Theatre is more than fulfilling its mission of bringing quality theatre to a desert of mediocrity."- ReviewPlays.com
ReviewPlays.com- Proof
by Jose Ruiz
This gripping Tony and Pulitzer award winner by David Auburn, juggles the lives of four people with uncanny insight and uncomfortable realism.
...Elena Fabri as Claire is excellent portraying the apparently benevolent sister who is determined to impose her will believing that she is right no matter what. At times, you almost want to punch her out for being such a bitch, she's that convincing. Craig Braun looks every bit the college professor, a bit more lucid than he's supposed to be, but convincingly dedicated to his work, if not his daughter. John Bobek's college teacher, Hal looks more like a teen-age geek trying to make time, but his dialogue and delivery quickly convince you he's a serious student with serious ambitions, especially towards Catherine, a girl with a voluble temper and not much self assurance and a mind that knows no bounds when it comes to the mathematical abstracts. Veronique Ory can change emotions on a dime, and here she delivers a performance that has you wondering if she's the sweet daughter who loves her father enough to give up her education, a lazy opportunist lacking motivation or a genius suffering a touch of the same madness her father had. Whatever you select, it's a performance rich with feeling and insight.
This is a gem of a production, proof positive that Athena Theatre is more than fulfilling its mission of bringing quality theatre to a desert of mediocrity.
Pick of the Week
For full review: go to www.ReviewPlays.com (Warning: A lot of the story is revealed. If you have not seen it yet, I recommend you wait to read this one)
Reviewplays.com - The Shape of Things
The Athena Theatre Company presents
The Shape of Things
by Neil LaBute at The Actor's Playpen
What begins with an apparent casual meeting, moves quickly into an intense affair where many lines are blurred and feelings are disdained for the sake of art. In a wickedly clever study of selfishness and manipulation, four people's lives become tangled in a sort of square knot, where one pull of the right strand will unravel the seemingly tight bond. Art student Evelyn threatens to deface a sculpture at the museum and guard Adam tries to stop her, but his shift has ended and he has to leave, not before getting her telephone number and a promise of a future date.
Right away you see this is a match made in Hades; Evelyn is strong, opinionated, aggressive and beautiful and Adam is a shy, nervous, nerdy English major who is obviously way over his head with this girl.
Yet their relationship flourishes, and her casual suggestions about his style of clothes, haircut and other personal habits soon begin to make a visible change in Adam - so much so that his close friends Jenny and Phillip, notice it and tease him about being under Evelyn's thumb. Despite his protests, it's evident that she is a great manipulator and is orchestrating their relationship to the very last note.
Veronique Ory plays Evelyn with an almost frightening tenderness, loving and sweet, sexy and fetching but with calculated plotting, where every gesture of affection reeks of a secondary agenda with her. J. R. Nutt, as Adam is way too pliant, allowing Evelyn to bend his wishes at will, and he single-handedly redefines the meaning of being "wrapped around her little finger". Others would use a cruder phrase that alludes to a kitten being flogged, but such language is best left to the likes of Chris Rock.
Daniel Wisler is a bit older than the twenty-two year old Phillip he's supposed to represent, but that doesn't stop him from behaving immaturely at times, deadly serious other times and somewhat of a wishy-washy friend, as he struggles with his own rite of passage with fiance, Jenny, herself not really sure if their upcoming wedding is really for her. Emily Happe's insecure character is a great balance to Veronique's calculating spider woman.
Sometime ago there was a play called "I love you as you are - Now Change!", a perfect secondary title, were it not for the destructive premise of this play. As the plot develops, we learn more about Evelyn, and an uncomfortable nervous tension begins to build, until the surprising ending where the truth is openly revealed. At that point the only thing you feel is enormous contempt towards Evelyn and pitiful anger towards Adam for allowing his feelings and need for affection to blind him to the point where he allowed her to completely take over his life, all under the guise of love.
Director Scott Schutzman masterfully guides the plot to its unsettling climax, and his ingenious use of movable flats and backgrounds often give a claustrophobic feel to the area, as if symbolizing the entrapment that slowly surrounds Adam. Among its messages, the secondary text points to the vulnerability of youth and the cruel lengths people go to insure their own success at the expense of others.
Author Neil LaBute has been praised and vilified at various times, and this production is an excellent example of why his work elicits extreme reactions. When you see this play you will either love it or hate it, but the performances and the presentation insure that ambivalence is not an operative alternative.
Pick of the Week
http://www.reviewplays.com/shapethings.htm
Don Grigware - NoHoLA Best of 2004
LEAD PERFORMANCE (Play/Musical)
Veronique Ory/Jon Emm
How I Learned to Drive Athena Theatre Co @The Raven
How I Learned to Drive - Reviewplays.com
Veronique Ory is the kind of theatre person that takes chances, not for the sake of it, but to push herself and explore the concepts of what makes a good performance and how it affects the audience, the actors and the story itself.
This most recent effort has all the elements of walking on a tightrope, reaching the other end successfully after stepping with baited breath, and giving a cheer that lets you know she's probably thinking of doing it again.
How I Learned to Drive explores a strange relationship between a young girl and her uncle, bouncing back and forth across time from her pre-teen years to adulthood. Disguised as driving lessons from the uncle, his lust for her spins a benevolent web that captures the girl's affections and trust, and while she draws clear boundaries that he playfully pushes, there is a definite intimacy established between them over a seven year period.
Jon Emm is exceptional as the uncle torn between what he knows is definitely taboo and his agonizing desire for carnal pleasure from Lil' Bit, his precocious niece. The role of uncle/surrogate father requires that a fine line be defined between someone who has genuine love for a child, while harboring desires so strong that reason and common sense are flung to the winds. Veronique Ory is brilliant as she fills the role of the young woman who approaches the uncle's advances with wonderful childlike innocence, which slowly develops to picaresque teasing, ending in absolute abomination as she realizes how she's been used throughout the years. She makes you wonder just how much she encouraged the uncle, and he makes you angry that such a nice, gentle guy could harbor such perverted feelings.
Adding dimension to the story is a trio of excellent actors appearing like a chorus, returning off and on as her mother, her grandfather and her grandmother. If Norman Rockwell would have painted "The Dysfunctional American Family", it would have to be the characters played by Kurt David Anderson, Pamela Clay and Laura Beckner. They were so good in their parts, you instantly dislike them and you no longer wonder why Lil' Bit has to turn to Uncle Peck for affection and attention.
Author Paula Vogel draws some very sharply defined profiles, infusing her characters with plain everyday traits, skewed just a tiny bit in each person, but just enough that the congruity of a family circle becomes an unrecognizable scribble.
Scott Tiler uses this material insightfully, directing with stylish restraint, never letting the characters overplay their roles. This way, we, the audience, decide if we want to accept or reject the characters and if we believe that this story is about a beauty and a beast or about two people manipulating each other to fill their needs.
The show played at the Raven Playhouse for far too short a run, closing on October 16. Let's hope that producer Veronique Ory brings it back soon.
Reviewplays.com - Best of 2004
ReviewPlays selects best of year:
THE OUTSTANDING PLAYS OF 2004
HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE
The Raven Theatre - Athena Theatre Company
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCES BY A MALE ACTOR IN A FEATURED ROLE
GJ Echternkamp
Waiting for Godot
The Raven Playhouse - The Athena Theatre Company
Jon Emm
How I Learned to Drive
The Raven Playhouse - The Athena Theatre Company
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCES BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Veronique Ory
How I Learned to Drive
The Raven Playhouse - Athena Theatre Company
Click here for the full list at Reviewplays.com
How I Learned to Drive - NoHoLA
by Don Grigware
Uncle Peck in Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize winning How I Learned to Drive calls to mind Professor Humbert Humbert in Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. Both men are pedophiles yet victims themselves of a sick sense of love. Peck is sincerely in love with his niece Li'l Bit and we almost look past his perverted frailty to start to feel for him, especially in Athena Theatre's quintessential production playing only two more times Friday Oct 15 and Saturday Oct 16 at the Raven Playhouse in NoHo.
How is it possible to feel sympathy for a pedophile? Perhaps it's Vogel's humorous perspective. L'il Bit, as narrator states quite emphatically at the beginning of the play, finally learned that pedophilia were not people who love to bicycle.
She was victimized, yet still manages to look back at what happened with some sense of humor. Maybe when you view L'il Bit's dysfunctional family as a whole, that makes Uncle Peck seem the more stabilizing influence. Through her eyes we are introduced to her crazed Southern alcoholic mother and grandparents (the grandfather has enough testosterone for ten men and grandma can sex-talk you under the table), and then there's the gentle protective Uncle Peck whose love for L'il Bit goes back to her birth when he held her tiny body in the palm of his hand.
That picture is surely more tender than harmful. It's really quite a powerful image: a man holding a woman in the palm of his hand. Think of King Kong softly stroking Jessica Lange's hair as she sat a helpless victim in his gigantic palm. It's grotesque and beautiful at the same time. That duality may be in Uncle Peck's favor. Some may see him more a tortured soul than a criminal.
Under director Scott Tiler's careful eye, Jon Emm and the gloriously gifted Veronique Ory deliver potent performances that deserve to be seen by a much wider audience. The supporting cast of Pamela Clay, Kurt Anderson and Laura Beckner who form a Greek chorus around the principals and play all of the other significant roles are equally wonderful.
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Here are all of our reviews from Crimes of the Heart to How I Learned to Drive
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Waiting for Godot's Veronique Ory
Actress Veronique Ory triumphed as Babe in the Athena Theatre Company's production of Crimes of the Heart in 2003. She is currently at work on their next production, Beckett's classic Waiting for Godot running June 11-19 at The Raven Playhouse in NoHo.
DG: Waiting for Godot is a difficult piece. Why did you choose this particular play at this point in time?
VO: I have wanted to do Waiting for Godot since college. Elizabeth Welsh (co-founder of Athena Theatre) and I became very excited about producing the play because it is such a great piece and because it presented an opportunity to stretch our creative muscles in a new direction. The challenge of working on a Samuel Beckett play is amazingly rewarding to an artist. Due to its difficult nature, we had to find a director (Claire Titelman) who is familiar and comfortable with theatre of the absurd. Beckett's language can be confusing, but with the right director, the story can be painted very clearly for the audience, and the characters become so real and relatable.
DG: I have never seen females portray these roles!
VO: We wanted Vladimir and Estragon, played by Ory, to be female to tell the story in our own way. When Beckett was alive it was impossible to do such an interpretation because he did not want any alterations to the script. I discovered that without making any alterations to the text, I could tell the story of two people waiting to be saved in a different way. It displays that everyone is waiting for something, but from a female perspective.
DG: Describe Athena's origins and your very first production.
VO: Athena Theatre Company was created by Elizabeth Welsh and me in November 2002. Athena Theatre's debut production was Two Encounters, Birdbath, and Ferryboat by Leonard Melfi. These selected one-act plays explore the theme of what it means and what it takes for people to ultimately connect in a large and often isolated world. Written in the 1960's, Melfi is adept at flashing a mirror at human interaction and connectedness that still rings true in today's modern world. The plays ran for six weeks at the Tamarind Theatre in Hollywood.
DG: What is your mission statement?
VO: The specific purpose of Athena Theatre is to provide a supportive and creative environment for artists (actors and the technical crew team), where we take risks, try new things and consider new approaches. To provide theatre we are proud of and passionate about, representing the strength, intelligence, beauty and unique perspective of women in society. Our charitable purpose is to educate through the arts; we are currently looking for interns.
DG: Did you do theatre elsewhere before LA? How would you compare LA to those other venues?
VO: I did theatre in New York before I moved to Los Angeles three years ago. I received my B.A. in Theatre at Russell Sage College where there is a regional theatre on campus, The New York State Theatre Institute. Working in theatre in New York, there was a sense that people were fully committed to it. In Los Angeles, theatre seems to be something that people mostly do on the side.
DG: What is Veronique Ory's goal?
VO: To tap into the community that truly is passionate about creating theatre and to produce wonderful plays. athenatheatre.com for more information.
Waiting for Godot - Reviewplays.com
"Nothing to be done!" Samuel Beckett's masterpiece has the two main characters repeat the line, which can take on a different meaning from person to person and from time to time. Is it referring to boredom, is it talking about hopelessness, or maybe acceptance at the inevitability of life
The Athena Theatre Company takes a huge leap in presenting this classic example of Theatre of the Absurd, by courageously exchanging the gender of the two principal characters. If someone has never heard of Godot, this piece will fall neatly into place as Veronique Ory and Schantelle Cason play the title roles of the seemingly destitute Estragon and Vladimir with wonderful commitment and veracity, giving realistic portrayals of people in limbo. If you know the play, the gender exchange may grate at first, but soon becomes natural as the characters easily flow into the situation. Sitting on bench by a tree, they wait for Godot, who presumably will bring something better for them. Their disjoined chatter about removing a boot, wanting food and other trivialities exemplifies how people might pass the time to prevent boredom, although they often delve into the private and personal, but quickly back off.
Making the characters female permits some unscripted liberties and inevitably their sexuality becomes part of the tension that drives the story. When Pozzo, the presumed land owner enters, it's as if a new world opens. Nathan G. Johnson is superb playing a rambling often irrational man, with complete mastery of Lucky, a slave puppet who carries Pozzo's suitcase, food basket and stool. GJ Echternkamp gives a brilliant performance, speaking only when commanded by Pozzo, suffering humiliation and physical abuse. Some scenes suggest sexual intimacy between the two women and Pozzo, yet the dialog never wavers from the original even when their actions seems to correspond with their words. Pozzo and the two women remain at odds, and his appearance is another element in the passage of time. As in the original play, Godot never arrives, but sends a boy with word that he will be there the next day. Another day of waiting is in store for Estragon and Vladimir, where they will talk about boots, perhaps discuss committing suicide, perhaps nothing. They'll spend their day waiting for Godot.
Director Claire Titelman has chosen to have the main characters speak their lines with a high energy and volume, so that at first it seems overly done but as their anxiety and anticipation becomes more evident, it's easy to see how people could exhibit high tension. The starkly barren set with only a wooden crate and a dead tree in the corner is brightly lit, giving a feeling of stifling blandness, which echoes the characters' feelings.
The play has only a few performances, so it would be a good idea to call early for reservations. (818) 754-1423. www.athenatheatre.com
Beirut - Review by Systems Reviews
This Athena Theatre production of Alan Bowne's play, Beirut, powerfully depicts an apocalyptic era ruled by fear and paranoia. It details a time when those who contract an unnamed, sexually transmitted disease are forced into ghetto-like military-enforced confinement to live out their days. It is when the government advocates fear over love, and brutality over compassion. It is difficult to tell those who have hope from the hopeless. The play opens by introducing Torch (Damien Midkiff), a young man forced into a solitary existence by his testing "positive" for this aids-like disease. Sneaking through security to visit him is former girlfriend, Blue (Veronique Ory). As the action unfolds each character expresses a different form of hope -- Torch's version is to hope for health and protection from disease for Blue. Blue's hope is that her love and attraction and the connection it would bring would provide meaning to a maddened world. Yet, as Torch persists in defeating the possible connection with Blue, he deepens her own hopelessness in living. And as Blue persists, her wish to make love takes the one power away from Torch he feels he has left. But their physical attraction is undeniable and raises the possibility that connection and love are ultimately deeper than the forces that seek to destroy us. Midkiff plays torch with the intensity of a caged animal who hasn't yet completely surrendered to death or fear. Ory brings out the necessary sexual tension and energy to pull Torch towards connection. Together the actors create an energy that makes it easy for the audience to be captivated and wondering just what will happen next. The pace of the production never lags, even in quieter moments, largely due to the performances which hold us transfixed to the very end. And ultimately, this production satisfies on several levels. Not only is this an entertaining production -- it also raises more questions than it answers and -- as in all worthwhile theatre, it makes us think.
by Systems Reviews
(reviewer: Jude James)
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Week of February 9th, 2004 Vol. 9-No.6
BEIRUT, Alan Bowne's play about love, sex, and near death in a parallel society, performs at The Elephant Lab Theatre in Hollywood.
It is sometime in the near future. Somewhere in a shabby apartment in New York City's lower east side, Torch (Damien Midkiff) a young man that has been quarantined by the 'powers that be' because he has been tested positive for some deadly and contagious disease that could only be spread through open wounds or sexual contact. He is doomed to live alone with no physical contact with anyone. However, his girlfriend Blue (Veronique Ory), who does not have this disease, comes to see him in spite of the odds of not only catching this disease, but to have the authorities take her away from him. The question remains: will this two find the love/sex that they desire, or will Torch become left alone only to die as just one less person to possess this disease?
This play is a depressing one, yet it is part of those 'what if?' tales that could (and may) actually happen. The disease in question may be AIDS, but then again, it may not! Ty Donaldson is on helm to direct this one-act play, packing in a powerful production in the 70 or so minutes it takes.
Also appearing is Paul Darrigo as a security guard, watching over to separate the 'positives' from the 'negatives'.
Again, this is a play, but a real one at that. The title BEIRUT suggests a battle zone. It is one!!
BEIRUT is presented by the Athena Theatre Company and performs at the Elephant Lab Theatre, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd. (at Lillian Way), Hollywood, until February 29th. Showtimes are Friday and Saturday nights @ 8:00 PM, and Sunday evenings @ 7:00 PM. Reservations and information, call (818) 754-1423. Visit the web site at http://www.athenatheatre.com
Veronique Ory - L.A.'s top 10 female performers
Reviewplays.com has just rated Veronique Ory as L.A.'s top 10 female performers.
We're very excited about this and VERY proud of her:
http://allegrophoto.com/topten-2003.htm
Reviewplays.com review for Crimes of the Heart
Theatre NoHo LA Review - Crimes of the Heart by Don Grigware
August 2003
As many times as I have seen Beth Henley’s Pulitzer-Prize winning play Crimes of the Heart, if the production values are high, I never tire of it. On the contrary, I get caught up in the pain/joy of the Magrath sisters. Laughter through tears is a saving grace. It comforts the soul. When the obstacles to happiness keep getting worse, or when the sky rains lemons, these gals make lemonade-literally! The Athena Theatre Co. did the honors this time at the Actor’s Workout Studio in NoHo, and a passionate commitment from director Elizabeth Welsh and her cast of six infused the space with cheerful aplomb.
Sisters Babe, Lenny, and Meg, like the steely Southern belles they are, will somehow find a way to survive. Veronique Ory is just right as the sweet Babe, who wouldn’t hurt a fly, except this one time…she shot her husband. But he deserved it, the abusive son-of-a-bitch! Lenny, who is turning 30, has to deal with caring for her ailing granddad, has a shrunken ovary-which is enough to keep any man 100 miles away-and now must give her Babe all the support she needs! Lenny is a rock, the strong member of the family, and as played lovingly by Cameron Meyer, wins our hearts at the very start.
Then there’s sister Meg, the black sheep, who left Hazlehurst, Mississippi for a singing career in Hollywood, only to end up in mental collapse before returning home. A burgeoning Blanche Dubois with a cracked sense of humor, Meg (the beautiful Tessa Munro) has a tainted reputation with men and is known as white Christmas trash by her obnoxious kin Chick (a witch played with appropriate venom by Emily Stiles) What a motley quartet!
Then there are the men in their lives, simple-living Doc Porter (Scott Tiler), who although married, cannot resist flirting with Lenny and spending one night with Meg and even simpler Barnette Lloyd (Matt Braaten), Babe’s lawyer, who just happens to love her orange pound-cake. Yes, it’s soapy, but gutsy, campy, crazy, and in the hands of this entire cast, pure joy.
Review from ReviewPlays.com - Crimes of the Heart
August 14, 2003
After winning a Pulitzer, where do you go from there? The Athena Theatre decided to host their Inaugural Event at The Actor's Workout Studio, which is not a bad place to follow up on Beth Henley's drama-comedy of a Mississippi family of women facing the cliché riddled fork in the road. Southern accents flail wildly in this presentation, where three sisters are brought together by the extreme illness of their grandfather and the possible incarceration of the youngest, who shot her husband in the stomach.
These Southern women have a strange way of expressing their feelings. Babe, the baby of the three keeps saying she shot her husband because she didn't like him anymore. She later divulges the trivial detail that the husband caught her doing the nasty with neighbor Willie Jay, a fifteen year old - who just happens to be Black. Her color blindness is admirable, even if her anger management could use a bit of a tweak.
In truth, all the women have issues, from the oldest who's sees herself a victim of life and self appointed guardian of the grandfather, to the middle one who is a failed singer returning from Hollywood, to the cousin who is a Prima Donna wannabe socialite.
As played by this wonderful cast, the four women have great interaction between them, and the brisk dialogue keeps the play alive and believable. When Babe explains why she shot the husband, you just know that this girl isn't paddling with all the oars and you see her boat sinking faster than a bailing bucket with a hole. Vèronique Ory is great in this part, with just the right innocent look which keeps you guessing if she's really slow, or a black widow.
Bubbly Meg is the singer, and Tessa Munro nails the part with the true charm of a Southern Belle, sweet and perky, but not above having a little fun on the sly and getting her way when she wants it. Cousin Chick is married, and rubs it in with brilliant sarcasm as Emily Stiles becomes the snooty but beautiful outsider who thinks that she's just too - too good to hang around the riff raff her cousins have become.
The outwardly strong and responsible Lenny, who is becoming the head of the house could not have been better as played by Cameron Meyer in a conservative old lady dress, celebrating a birthday alone, with a candle and an oatmeal cookie. Meyer is excellent as the sister who tries to keep the family going, secretly harboring romantic desires, but suppressing them because of a medical condition that keeps her barren.
Director Elizabeth Welsh moves the action quickly, pacing the comic scenes with the more serious elements of the story. Never overplaying it, she wisely backs off the melodrama which could have easily taken over some of the more heart tugging moments.
Behind the issues of the sisters waiting for the grandfather to die, and struggling with their love lives, is the struggle of siblings who have to balance family love with family feuds and resolve years of antagonism and bitterness between them.
In the final analysis, when it seems that Babe is sure to go to jail, they all pull together in mutual support, realizing that regardless of the past, they still have each other to lean on.
Oh yes - there are two men in the play. Scott Tyler plays Doc, a former flame of Meg, who is now married with two children. Widely criticized for having married a Northern girl, Cousin Chick is appalled that his children are "half Yankee." No self respecting Southerner would even allow that to happen. However Doc isn't about to let a little detail like a wedding band get in the way of a one night fling with Meg, especially since she seems so willing. Tyler comes across more like Gomer Pyle than Casanova, so its hard to believe a looker like Meg would go for him . . . but this is the South , and perhaps it's not easy to find men who aren't your blood kin - at least once removed.
Matt Braaten plays Babe's lawyer, and you know he's no kin to anyone, with his nervous twitches and stammering accent. For a brilliant lawyer, he sure doesn't have it together with women, but for some guys, walking and chewing gum just don't mix. Bratten makes lawyer Barnett Lloyd appear to have trouble doing both but lucky for him Babe seems to have a crush on him. She sure forgot about Willie Jay real fast.
We don't learn if Babe will be convicted of the shooting, or if Lenny will connect with a former date, or if any of the other setups that are presented will work or not. In that sense, this is a very direct play, that is a look at the present moment, a brief glimpse of the past, and a huge question mark about the future.
A little bit like daily life, only more fun.
CRIMES OF THE HEART
Directed by: Elizabeth Welsh
Lenny Magrath..................................................Cameron Meyer
Chick Boyle..........................................................Emily Stiles
Doc Porter...........................................................Scott Tyler
Meg Magrath.........................................................Tessa Munro
Babe 'Magrath' Botrelle......................................Veronique Ory
Barnette Lloyd......................................................Matt Braaten
Actor's Workout Studio
4732 Lankershim Blvd
North Hollywood, CA