Organized by The Stereofly, a music blog that seeks to unite musicians across the Southeast, the Memorial Day Rootsy Revival (this Sunday, May 26th, at the Art Bar) presents an excellent mix of some of the best local and regional roots-rock acts around, with all proceeds benefiting Hidden Wounds, a Midlands based nonprofit that provides counseling to veterans dealing with PTSD.

BLACKLIGHT ROOM
05:00-05:30 The (Hollerin’) River Talkers
06:15-07:00 Black Iron Gathering
07:45-08:45 Co.
09:45-10:45 The Restoration
11:45-12:45 Banditos

OLD TV ROOM
05:30-06:15 Overmountain Men
07:00-07:45 Elim Bolt
08:45-09:45 The Mobros
10:45-11:45 Megan Jean & The KFB
12:45-01:45 Masonjar Menagerie

While featuring many local Columbia bands we here at Jasper are big fans of (The Mobros! The Restoration! Black Iron Gathering! The Hollerin’ River Talkers!) and a couple of Charleston’s most buzzed-about (Company, Elim Bolt), the real draw here is a couple of awesome-but-little known regional acts: the Nashville-based, Birmingham-bred Banditos and Piedmont, NC’s Overmountain Men. The former is a gritty, hard rockin’ honky tonk band with a soulful heart, the latter a casually elegant group that splits the difference between good-time string band stately folk-rock. Check out the videos below–these are two bands worth turning out for, in addition to the onslaught of local talent that will be populating the twin stages of the Art Bar on Sunday.

Workshop Theatre’s latest production, Songs for a new World is a dialog-free series of songs by Jason Robert Brown.  Each song transports you to a single moment in a character’s life where they have to make a decision, make a first step, or move forward in a way that will change their life forever.  There’s no singular story being told, but each of the songs are meant to form a sort of story arc nonetheless. Brown says, “It’s about one moment. It’s about hitting the wall and having to make a choice, or take a stand, or turn around and go back.”

Songs for a New World was originally intended for a four person cast.  In this production, the cast has been inflated to 9, plus 4 dancers.  This leads to several issues.  First off, there are differing levels of vocal talent and range among the actors in this show.  The actors who are capable of making their brief vignette powerful and moving stand in sharp contrast to those who are working outside of their vocal range, some of whom seem to struggle to hit the right notes. Another addition that detracted from this production [for me] was the dancers.  Wayland Anderson’s choreography was beautiful, thoughtful, and well-executed, but didn’t belong in the world of this show.  There is a beauty in simplicity and that is what this production needs.  The blocking was visually interesting, but less would have truly been more. It’s difficult to concentrate on the character bearing their soul in front of you when you’re surrounded by visual clutter.

Don’t think I’m saying this production is without merit.  There is too much talent involved in this production for that.  While I don’t agree with all of the decisions he’s made here, Chad Henderson (director) has choreographed some of the most striking scene transitions I’ve seen, all in keeping with a theme of traveling across the ocean to some unknowable land.  There are some amazing performances as well.  Vicky Saye Henderson makes a hilarious Park Avenue matron who threatens her husband from the ledge of their penthouse apartment—deciding whether or not to jump into the crowd below (Song:  “Just One Step”).  With a strong voice and a powerful presence, she steps into the shoes of her many characters and takes you with her.  Kendrick Marion’s determination and vigor inspires and moves from his first number (“On the Deck of a Spanish Sailing Ship, 1492.”) until the very end.  I would have liked to have seen and heard more from Kanika Kay Moore, whose strong soprano would have been an asset in several pieces.  Andy Bell was another surprisingly underused talent.

Songs for a New World is a bold choice for Workshop, and I applaud them for choosing something this unique and difficult.  Theatre shouldn’t just be about making safe bets.   I eagerly look forward to the rest of their season.

– Jillian Owens

While Ned Durrett and the Kindly Gents have been around the music scene for a while, this weekend sees the re-launch of the group as Ned and the Dirt, replete with a muscular new album that sees the band stretching its wings musically and Durrett moving tentatively beyond the earnest romantic longing of his early songwriting efforts. Jasper caught up with the young bandleader this week via email to ask a few questions about their latest recording effort, the full-length Giants, which the group will be releasing tonight, 5/17, at New Brookland Tavern. Where’s Wolf, Foley, and Ben Patat (of Lilies and Sparrows) are also performing.

J: So the first time I saw you perform was quite a few years back at The White Mule, and you had just released a rock/pop-focused solo album. How did you go from there and that to this new record as Ned and the Dirt?

ND: I think the difference between the two records and simply an obvious growth musically.  Our band added Trey Lewis on lead guitar and from there we realized we had the tools to fill in the songs with the rock n’ roll sound we had been waiting for.  My music has become music that’s seen some stuff in its life, instead of the wide eyed acoustic teen it was before.

J: Tell us a little bit about the recording process with Kenny McWilliams at Archer Avenue Studios.

ND: Working with Kenny was one of the best decisions we’ve made musically.  The man is brilliant and on top of that he’s unbelievably easy to work with.  We spent two straight weeks in his studio and by the end of it we all felt like we were friends.  I even texted him a couple days after recording to tell him a missed him.  It was a moment.  If I had all the money and resources in the world I would still come back to Archer Avenue and record my next record there too.

J: There seems to be an interesting balance of adventurous indie rock, Southern rock guitar riffage, and more conventional pop/rock stylings on Giants. How does this balance work? Is it difficult to get these different elements to coexist?

ND: I think the styles on this album all come from our band being into all different kinds of music.  We’re always listening to new bands and trying to stretch our comfort zone musically that I think the main way that we can make sense of it all is by making a physical manifestation of our understanding of these different genres.  I think when you listen to “Giants” you’re able to dive right into our minds and how we hear these different genres of music.

J: As a songwriter, how do you think you’ve grown over your years at USC?

ND: My songs are more complex and my lyrics have become more introspective I think.  When I first starting writing songs, they were all about a young look at love, that fluttering feeling it gives you and the ache that comes from losing it.  Now my songs are about love, marriage, talking to people that aren’t there, being afraid of not being able to fully reciprocate love, etc.  I’m covering more topics and those topics are being covered in a much more profound level.  I hope that I have this same thing to say about myself 4 years from now.

J: Where can people get the new record if they can’t make the release show?

If you can’t make it to the release show you can buy our album on any major online distributor, or you can go down to Papa Jazz and pick up a physical copy if you want.  We also have a Bandcamp page where people can go to pay their own price for the album!  Either way, we just want you to have our music.

J: For a taste of the new record, check out the advance single “Physical Proof” here.

Muddy Ford Press

at the

SC Book Festival

______

Saturday, May 18^th

11 – 12:30 Muddy Ford Press Booth #416

Don McCallister will be signing Fellow Traveler

11:20 – 12:10 in Lexington Meeting Room A

Cindi Boiter will sit on the USC Press Panel for State of the Heart with Aida Rogers, Pat Conroy, Ken Burger, Billy Deal, and Sandra Johnson. Signing will follow.

2:30 – 4 Muddy Ford Press Booth #416

Alejandro Garcia Lemos and Cindi Boiter will be signing Red Social:  Portraits of Collaboration

4:10 – 5 in Lexington Meeting Room B

Don McCallister, Janna McMahan, Aida Rogers, and Kristine Hartvigsen will present a panel on The Limelight – Highlighting Columbia’s Artist Community, moderated by Cindi Boiter. Signing will follow – all Limelight contributors are invited to join the panel for signing following the presentation

Sunday, May 19^th

12 – 2 Muddy Ford Press Booth #16

Kristine Hartvigsen will be signing To the Wren Nesting

1:15 – 2:05 in Lexington Meeting Room B

Cindi Boiter will sit on a panel for Collections of the South:  Anthologies Celebrating Writers in Community with Curtis Worthington and Brian Carpenter

2 – 3:30 Muddy Ford Press Booth #416

Laurie Brownell McIntosh will be signing All the In Between:  My Story of Agnes

2:20 – 3:10 in Lexington Meeting Room A

Cindi Boiter will sit on a panel on Short Stories with Cliff Graubart, Stephanie Powell Watts, moderated by Michelle Maitland

BOOK FESTIVAL SPECIAL

ANYONE PURCHASING A MUDDY FORD PRESS PUBLICATION THIS WEEKEND WILL RECIEVE A FREE COPY OF

JASPER READS:  DOWNLOAD

A CHAPBOOK OF EROTIC POETRY EDITED BY ED MADDEN

Jasper Magazine wanted to know what the deal was with this weekend’s big Jam Room fundraiser at Rockafellas‘, so we pulled aside Jay Matheson, owner of the Jam Room Recording Studio and asked him. Here’s what Jay had to say:

Jasper: So what are we calling this very cool fundraising event and how did you come up with the concept?

Jay:  When I met the new owners of Jake’s I could tell that they wanted to embrace the musical legacy of the bar, where the previous owners seemed to want to distance themselves from the building’s heritage. I’m constantly coming up with crazy ideas, but this one just seemed to actually be good enough to put into operation. It’s called Back to Rockafellas’ because we all finally get to go back, not to reminisce but to actually re-experience it. And hopefully, we’ll raise some funds for this year’s FREE Jam Room Music Festival, so we can bring Columbia the best show possible.

Jasper:  What’s the line-up look like?

Jay:  Since it’s a benefit for the Jam Room Music Festival we had to keep budget in mind, but I think it’s going to be a great gig and I think the bands will be glad that they played it. We got a strong bill together and we’re very happy with it. The first night has a Rock ‘n’ Roll theme with a country-ish opener. The second night more indie, and the punk matinee and acoustic Sunday evening speak for themselves. It’s basically an exact copy of the format of a normal weekend from the heyday of the old Rockafellas’.

Steve Gibson, the original owner of the bar said that he preferred to have fresh, current new bands, rather than trying to have defunct bands reform. I agreed and feel that Steve’s input is essential in doing the most appropriate event that we can. This show was designed to appeal to younger people, but also to be something that the older Rockafellas’ crowd will like.

Jasper:  What do you think is going to be most surprising to folks attending?

The most surprising thing will be the vibe that the place still has and the sense of camaraderie and community.

Jasper:  How are things going with plans for this year’s Jam Room Festival – can you give us a little preview of what’s in store?

Jay:  We’re already working hard on planning the event for September 21st. We’ll have two stages set up at Main Street and Hampton Street, with an eclectic mix of  bands, just like last year. We’re planning on bigger and better, and we’re talking to a number of great artists but no specific details are  available just yet.

Jasper:  Anything else you want to share with Jasper’s readers?

Jay:  The Jam Room Music Festival is always looking for volunteers and sponsors so I’d like to encourage anyone with interest to contact us through our website or through Facebook. I really hope that both this fundraiser and the Jam Room Music Festival will inspire some other people to get off the sidelines and get involved with creating some new music events or even improve our current music venue variety. We’re hoping to help put Cola back on the map as an important music city

Jasper:  Finally, what dates should we mark on our calendars for both the Rockafellas’ Fundraising event and this year’s festival? 

Jay:  Back To Rockafellas’ is the weekend of May 17 -19.
We have a number of other fundraising events coming up later this summer. One is a Ladies of  Country Music show at Trustus Theater on Sept. 6th. The others will be at the Whig and at Jake’s, with more details to come on those later on.
The Jam Room Music Festival happens on Sept. 21st on Columbia’s Main Street.

I’m not sure that Jasper has ever broken any news before, but to my knowledge, this is the first report from last week’s “One Last Hurrah” celebration at the Art Bar, the culmination of One Month, One Columbia. Representatives from many of the area’s theatres announced their seasons for 2013-2014.  A few were not able to make it, and I’ve lifted some titles and dates from their websites.  Others do a calendar year format rather than a “school year,” so in those cases I’ve listed what info is available.

First Disclaimer: I have not included commercial venues (like the Township, the Koger Center, etc.) that book productions, but they have some great shows coming up too.  Nor have I included one-time shows, high school shows (however excellent they may be), church and religion-based events, dance and music productions, etc.  I’m all in favor of those too, but this is about local community and professional theatres.

Second Disclaimer: theatre seasons often change, so this is in no way a definitive or comprehensive listing.  Look for something in a future print issue of Jasper – The Word on Columbia Arts for details and more specific dates and information.

Third Disclaimer: the event was held at the Art Bar, so my memory may not be perfect.  If there’s anything significant that I have listed incorrectly, drop me a note at akrickel@jaspercolumbia.com .

That said, in no particular order, we have the following shows to look forward to!

Town Theatre

Les Miserables – September

The Foreigner – late fall

Elvis Has Left the Building – January

Stand By Your Man: The Tammy Wynette Story – March

Shrek: The Musical – May

……….

High Voltage Theatre

Dracula (a new stage version by Chris Cook, developed in collaboration with Dacre Stoker, great-grand-nephew of Bram Stoker) at the West Columbia Riverwalk Amphitheater – October 10-13, 17-20, 24-27, 30-31

classic thriller at Tapp’s Art Center (details tba) – February

classic thriller at West Columbia Riverwalk Amphitheater (details tba) – Spring

……….

USC’s Theatre South Carolina

Arcadia by Tom Stoppard – Sept. 27 – Oct. 5 at Drayton Hall

The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov – Nov. 15-23 at Longstreet Theatre

The 39 Steps by Patrick Barlow – Feb. 21 -  March 1 – Longstreet Theatre

Hamlet by William Shakespeare (OK, like you didn’t know that) – April 18-26 – venue tba

plus a full season of black box shows (details tba)

Stage 5 Theatre

Hamlet – September

Lombardi – November

Special Holiday Event – December

Clybourne Park – April

……….

Lexington Arts Association (at the Village Square Theatre)

Shrek: The Musical – September 20 – October 6

Steel Magnolias – November 1 – November 10

Always…Patsy Cline – December 6 – December 15 (non-season show)

9 to 5: The Musical – January 17 – January 26

Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka JR. – March 7 – March 23

a musical revue (details tba) – May 9 – May 18

……….

Workshop Theatre

Beehive – September

Sleuth – late fall

Crimes of the Heart – January

Biloxi Blues - March

Young Frankenstein – May (including Frau ….BLUCHER!)

……….

Theatre Rowe

Murder Ahoy! – June 27 – July 28

Over the River and Through the Woods – August 16-17, 23-25

The Altos (tentative) – September 20-22, 27-29

Little Shop of Horrors – October 18-19, 25-26, 31

Chapin Theatre Company

How to Eat Like A Child (based on the book by Delia Ephron) – Aug. 2-4 at the Old Chapin Firehouse / American Legion Building

Unnecessary Farce, by Paul Slade Smith -  Sept. 19-22, 26-28 at Harbison Theatre at Midlands Technical College

……….

South Carolina Shakespeare Company

Hamlet – Oct. 16 – 26

Les Miserables – Apr. 16 – May 3

……….

On Stage Productions

An Evening of One-Acts – September

Yes, Virginia – The Musical – December

Second Samuel – February

Hey G – April

……….An Evening of One Acts –  September - 

Columbia Children’s Theatre

The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley – September

Ho Ho Ho! – November/December

Puss In Boots (a new comic version by CCT’s Jerry Stevenson) – February

The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fair(l)y (Stoopid) Tales – April

The Commedia Snow White – June

……….

Trustus Theatre

Thigpen Main Stage:

Ragtime – September

Venus in Fur – November

A Christmas Carol – December

Clybourne Park – January-February

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, by Tom Stoppard, with music by Andre Previn; featuring the SC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Morohiko Nakahara – Feb.-March

See Rock City and Other Destinations – spring

The House of Blue Leaves – May

Evil Dead: The Musical – summer – groovy.

Winner of the Playwrights’ Festival – August

Side Door Theatre

Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche (returning from its sold-out run in January) – Fall

El Diario De un Psiquiatra (A Psychiatrist’s Diary) – a world premiere by Julia Vargas, presented in Spanish by La Tropa – November

Love, Lost and What I Wore, by Delia Ephron – January

a NiA Company show – Spring

Off-Off-Lady Series

The Adding Machine (pending rights) April 24-May 4 – venue tba

In the Red and Brown Water – June – at the Harbison Theatre

……….

If you didn’t notice, including the groups collaborating in the Side Door, that’s 14 different theatre groups!  In little bitty Columbia, SC – who knew?  Well, you probably did, since as I’m saying more and more these days… Columbia has always been a theatre town.  Look for details on all of the above in coming months here, and in print issues of Jasper – The Word on Columbia Arts. And many thanks to Larry Hembree and Debora Lloyd, the co-chairs for Theatre for OneColumbia, for organizing and facilitating One Last Hurrah!

~ August Krickel

Advance press material notwithstanding, Vera Stark is neither a screwball comedy (although it is sometimes funny, if perhaps not hilarious) nor a riff on Gone With the Wind (although Mixon sometimes channels the breathless drawls of Vivian Leigh and Olivia de Havilland.)  Gloria is desperate to land the lead in The Belle of New Orleans, a weepy film melodrama that draws from classics like Camille and Dion Boucicault’s The Octaroon. That term, by the way, turns up frequently: it’s a 19th-century term for a person with one-eighth black heritage, who would still have been classified as a slave. (A mixed-race friend of mine once laughingly used that term to describe herself, and later a co-worker asked “What did you say you were again?  A Macaroon?”)

Vera, clearly a close friend, confidante and sister-figure for her scatterbrained employer, wants a shot at playing the “Belle’s” maid, an actual dramatic role with lines beyond “Yes, ma’am.” In moments that define the play’s central issues, Vera and roommate Lottie (Annette Dees Grevious) discuss the inherent irony of Vera’s situation; these conversations, and scenes where Vera flirts with ambitious, driven jazz musician Leroy (an earnest and smooth Jabar Hankins) could be excerpts from a good August Wilson drama set in the 1930′s. Strangely, however, different scenes and different characters in the first act are written in drastically, sometimes jarringly different styles. When Jacobs and Grevious banter with Janell Bryant (as their saucy friend Anna Mae, who intends to find stardom via affairs with white producers and directors who think she’s Brazilian) the mood lightens, and the laughs come fast and furious, in the vein of socially-conscious comedies from the ’70′s like Good Times.  Hollywood types turn up: Bobby Bloom as a no-nonsense producer who could be from a realistic 1940′s drama, and Clint Poston as an idealistic director, clearly an Otto Preminger figure, but as broadly comic as if Franz Liebkind’s accent and Roger DeBris’s flamboyance were taken from The Producers and morphed into a single character.  Bloom’s studio exec, by the way, could easily have been one-note, and played by an older man, simply a quasher of any projects that won’t sell at the box office. The youthful Bloom gives a remarkably three-dimensional performance, proving that there are no small roles, only small actors.  With the simplest of tools – suspenders instead of a belt, hair parted a certain way, a cigar held like Bogart, wire-rimmed glasses, assertive body language – he perfectly conveys an Irving Thalberg-like visionary, who wants to give audiences a brief escape from the grim realities of the Depression.

Mixon, meanwhile, dives into the role of the vodka-fueled Gloria with as much gleeful abandon as she dove into that quiche a few months ago in the Side Door Theatre, flamboyantly vamping like Lydia Languish or other 17th and 18th-century heroines of classic farce. When all these characters are on stage together, the show comes closest to capturing the spirit of a vintage screen comedy, a la Golddiggers of 1933, or How to Marry a Millionaire, with Grevious taking the older, more cynical Lauren Bacall role, Jacobs becoming sweet Betty Grable, and Bryant as the luscious but clueless Marilyn Monroe.  But if these references to obscure shows and characters you may not be familiar with are becoming a little annoying, that to some extent is my point. The author clearly intended this mash-up of genres, and each cast member does just fine, but at times the effect is confusing, as if disparate characters from separate plays all found themselves on stage together.

The storytelling chaos coalesces into something different entirely, however, as Act Two becomes a retelling of, reflection on, and subtle satire of the themes we saw in Act One. Three modern scholars (Grevious, Bryant, and Wela Mbusi) debate the legacy and sociological impact of Stark’s life, as we see first a “clip” from The Belle of New Orleans, featuring Gloria, Vera, Lottie, and even “Brazilian Spitfire Anna Fernandez” (i.e. Anna Mae) in the roles that defined their careers, followed by a clip from a 1970′s Merv Griffin-style talk show, where we see the older Vera and Gloria reunite. Here director Dewey Scott-Wiley brilliantly captures the differing levels of narrative: we the audience are watching a contemporary academic forum, whose participants are in turn watching a 40-year-old TV clip (acted out live by the performers from within a framed portal;) the talk show guests are in turn watching a film clip from 40 years earlier, the very movie that the characters were obsessing over live on stage in the first act.  Confused?  It actually makes perfect sense, and is a superb payoff to the confusion of Act One. Vera has become a parody of herself, much like the aging Josephine Baker or Eartha Kitt, and we learn that she ended her life soon after this TV appearance, dying young like Dorothy Dandridge, who likewise struggled for mainstream roles in Hollywood.  Leroy turns up as a bitter and defiant Charlie Parker-style burnout, excellently embodied as an older man by Hankins, while Gloria has naturally become a beloved screen goddess of yesteryear.  Scott-Wiley’s inventive staging places the live action of the 70′s clips behind scrims, eliminating the need for any significant make-up effects, while the 1930′s movie was actually filmed in black-and-white by Jason Steelman, and directed by Scott-Wiley.  While it is supposed to be a parody of the era and its cinematic and acting conventions to some extent, the movie-within-the-play is actually pretty decent, with some nice angles, and plenty of attractive shadows, beams of light, and shades of gray.  Bloom doubles as the talk show host, and again manages to create an entirely different character, saying volumes with his pained expression as his interview/reunion devolves into a catfight.

Scott-Wiley doubles as scenic designer, and the art deco-influenced set is serviceable, but looks unfinished. The scrim effects are outstanding in the second act, but really should have been covered up by paintings, tapestry, anything, in the first act. Portions of the stage become particular locales (Vera’s apartment, the exterior of the studio, etc.) but little is done to give any sense of change, and the actors’ blocking within these smaller areas sometimes seems cramped and constrained. Costumes by Amy Brower expertly define varying eras; a number of characters wear striking creations from La-Ti-Da Jewelry Designs, which are also featured on display in the theatre’s bar/gallery area.

Nottage has won just about every award imaginable: Pulitzer, Obie, Guggenheim, even a MacArthur “Genius” grant, but I don’t think any were for this play.  The show is enjoyable enough, but never entirely decides what it wants to say, or what kind of play it wants to be. It’s never a complete laugh-fest, nor do the more serious moments delve particularly deeply into material ripe for exploration. I also fear that some of the structural madness and much of the very broad comedy in the first act may turn off patrons who expect more from Trustus.  To them I say that the second act is the pay-off, and it’s worth the wait. Remember – the venue is called “Trust Us” for a reason.

By The Way, Meet Vera Stark runs through Saturday, May 18th on the Thigpen Main Stage at Trustus.  Information can be found, and tickets may be purchased online at www.trustus.org , or call the box office Tuesdays through Saturdays 1-6 PM at 803-254-9732.  And you can read James Harley’s review of the production at Onstage Columbia and at the Free Times.

~ August Krickel

Milena Herring:  I have wanted to direct this show since first reading the script in New York in 1997.  Donald Margulies is a gifted playwright, one of my favorites, and I had directed another of his plays, Sight Unseen.  I saw an early, first-run production of Collected Stories at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in the Village, starring Uta Hagen and a young Debra Messing. That was an indelible production. I moved to Columbia in 2010, but I never forgot about Collected Stories. Then last spring, Dewey Scott-Wiley was feeding my cat while I was on vacation, and I left a copy of the script for her to peruse and perhaps consider for a Trustus production. It turned out that the Trustus season had already been chosen, but they were adding an Off-Off-Lady Series, and she and Larry Hembree thought it would be a good addition to that.

Jasper :  The show will be presented in conjunction with the South Carolina Book Festival.  What are some themes that the show touches on, that might be of particular interest to Festival attendees?

Herring:  One of the central questions asked in the play — Who owns your memories? — may be of particular interest to attendees of the Book Festival. Literary appropriation, intellectual property rights, whether a person’s life events are suitable for another to use in their own creative process — I think these are provocative issues that will be interesting to everyone. Collected Stories really explores very universal themes of lost love, betrayal, and aging. Lest that sound too heavy, let me add that the play explores these themes with great comic as well as dramatic writing.

The story is centered on a respected short-story writer and professor in her mid-fifties, Ruth Steiner, and Lisa Morrison, a naive and talented graduate student and aspiring writer who Ruth hires as her assistant. Taking place over six years, Collected Stories eavesdrops on Ruth and Lisa as their relationship evolves from mentor/protégée to loving friends to adversaries and, ultimately, disintegrates over some of the issues I’ve just mentioned. The playwright doesn’t come down on the side of either character, but lets the audiences decide for themselves who is wrong or right. I love that.

It takes very skillful actors to perform a full length 2-character play.  The beauty of Collected Stories is the many layers of meaning and depth of the two characters as they transition and evolve over 6 years. I have a director’s dream in Elena Martinez-Vidal as Ruth and Elisabeth Gray (EG) Engle as Lisa.  Elena and EG are inhabiting the roles fully, and finding nuances and subtleties in these two flawed but honest women. They are also a joy to work with, and we are having a wonderful time.

 Jasper :  The Off-Off-Lady series of plays has taken Trustus out into the community, into alternative venues. Tell us about the space you are using for this production.

 Herring:   We are fortunate to have the use of a huge, loft-like space on the 2^nd floor of the Columbia Museum of Art. Most people have never seen this space before, and it is exciting to be part of building new audiences for Trustus in unusual venues. I believe people will leave our production at the Columbia Museum of Art not only debating about the issues explored in the play, but wowed by the unique theatricality of the setting.

Jasper : Columbia is fortunate to have you back home, but most of your career has been in New York.  What were some highlights?

Herring:  As soon as I finished my theatre studies at USC, I moved to Manhattan and lived there for almost 30 years. For the first six of those years, I pursued my dreams of acting. I studied with Sanford Meisner, and I made the usual, endless rounds of auditions. I got parts in Off-Off-Broadway showcases, Upper Eastside Shakespeare productions in church basements, small roles on All My Children and One Life to Live. I shot a TV commercial that went national, but nothing that could really sustain body and soul. So, with several friends I started a theatre company, and began to hone my skills as a director. For the next 8 years I served as the artistic director of Leap Productions, in a small 99-seat theatre. We did 5 shows a season and among the off-Broadway plays and musicals I directed there were Eleemosynary by Lee Blessing, Sight Unseen by Donald Margulies, A Cowboy’s Dream by John Foley, Painting Churches by Tina Howe, Lips Together, Teeth Apart by Terrence McNally, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me by Frank McGuiness, Oil City Symphony by Mike Craver and Mark Hardwick, and Smoke on the Mountain by Mark Hardwick and Connie Ray, among many others. We all worked 70 hours a week doing everything from marketing the season to writing grants, and I loved it. I always say that if I’d had a trust fund, I might still be doing it. But eventually the building we rented was sold, and by that time I was exhausted. Frankly, I needed to make some money so I could afford to actually GO to the theatre. My last 15 years in Manhattan, I worked in advertising and as a professional fundraiser, and enjoyed having weekends off.

Jasper :   Columbia theatre, and the arts scene, has certainly changed in the last few years. What are some of your impressions now that you are back home?

Herring:  I was in my first play at Town Theatre when I was 8, and I didn’t stop acting in local productions until I moved to New York at 23.  I cut my teeth under the tutelage of the beloved children’s theatre director, Mary Lou Kramer. Later, I was part of the first generation to grow up with Workshop Theatre where my mother, the late actress, director and drama teacher, Bette Herring, was one of the founders. It was a great privilege to have the opportunities afforded me by supportive parents who made sure I got to dance classes at Calvert Brodie, rehearsals all over town, and still made me do my homework– even if it was done backstage!  Columbia had two strong, healthy community theatres when I was young and it has an even larger and more diverse performing arts community today. When I was ready to leave New York, one of the reasons I chose to move to Columbia was because of the vibrant and exciting things happening in all of the arts here. Columbia is fortunate to have a first-class art museum, a wonderful symphony orchestra, several ballet and modern dance companies, a large variety of music outlets – I could go on and on. It was, and is, clear to me that Columbia understands how important the arts are to its financial health. By supporting the arts, a city is repaid exponentially by its ability to attract new businesses and industry, by growing its tourism dollars, and by a culturally enriched population.

Collected Stories, sponsored by Callison Tighe and Muddy Ford Press (publishers of Jasper – The Word on Columbia Arts)  opens Wednesday, May 15 at the Columbia Museum of Art, and runs through Sunday, May 19. Contact the Trustus box office at 803-254-9732 for ticket information.

~ August Krickel

OnStage Productions presents A World of Wealth, a new musical by Robert Harrelson and Gloria VanDalen.  That’s right – a world premiere of a new musical, right here in town!  The cast includes Christy Shealy Mills, Zanna Mills, Emma Imholz, Liberty Broussard, Tracy Davis Davenport, Charlis Wright, Gene Davis, Kristen Kimery, Zach Tenny, and Corin Wiggins.

From press material:

When a wealthy family decides to move uptown NYC from the south to bring the family closer together the chaos begins. Love and Money have always appeared to the forces opposed to each other as we find out that Money is more than dollars and cents. The show is a funny but dramatic look at family values and believing in friends to make life exciting. Songs such as A Spanglish , Forever Friends and I Don’t Want to Grow Up and More proves the show to be a sure hit! This dramatic, comedic and  heartwarming production will run April 26th 7:30pm   , April 27th 2:30pm  and 7:30pm , April 28th  2:30pm , May 2 and 3 , 7:30pm  , May 4 , 2:30pm and 7:30pm , May 5th, 2:30 PM -  at The On Stage Performance Center,  680 Cherokee Lane, West Columbia, SC 29169. For questions please call Robert Harrelson at 407-319-2596 or check On Stage Productions website at www.OnStageSc.com

Stage 5 Theatre meanwhile is producing Bark! The Musical, which opened for a preview run last weekend, and officially opens tonight. The theatre is located at 947 S. Stadium Rd., near Williams-Brice.

The entire show is presented from a dog’s point of view. Through song and story, the audience is exposed to the tenderness, aggression and frustration of these beings as they share personal stories of past and present, owners and friends, and their desire to be loved and part of a family. For more details see www.mbfproductions.net .

Cast:

USC’s Lab Theatre is presenting Becky Shaw, by Gina Gionfriddo for this weekend only.

From press material:

My First Time continues at the the Trustus Side Door Theatre through Saturday 4/27. From press material:

The Trustus Side Door has been taking patrons on a “Sexploration” this season, and audiences have responded by packing houses nightly. The Side Door’s current production My First Time is sure to thrill and titillate as four actors relay hundreds of stories about real people’s first times. My First Time opens in Trustus’ intimate 50-seat Side Door Theatre on Friday April 12 at 8:00pm, and runs through April 27, 2013.

In 1998 – a decade before blogging began – a website was created that allowed people to anonymously share their own true stories about their first times.  The website (www.myfirsttime.com) became an instant phenomenon as over 40,000 stories poured in from around the globe that were silly, sweet, absurd, funny, heterosexual, homosexual, shy, sexy and everything in between. Producer Ken Davenport adapted hundreds of stories from the website into an acclaimed 90 minute evening where these true stories and all of the unique characters in them are brought to life by four actors. The show was such a hit in New York that it enjoyed a two and a half year run Off-Broadway before it closed in 2010.

Trustus’ founding Artistic Director Jim Thigpen had wanted to bring My First Time to the Capital City many times throughout the past 3 seasons; however the opportunity never presented itself. This season, with all of the Side Door shows under the umbrella of “Sexploration”, My First Time was an obvious choice.

Company member and director Jade Johnson cast four talented actors to relay the hundreds of stories that comprise My First Time. Trustus company member G. Scott Wild (Next Fall, Avenue Q) joins Trustus alum Shane Silman(Plan 9 From Outer Space, The Motherf**ker With the Hat) in reliving the men’s first times. Trustus welcomes two new talents to the Side Door as Jennifer Moody Sanchez and Brandi Perry give us the scoop from the women.

My First Time runs through Saturday, April 27, 2013.  Shows on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays start at 8pm. The Sunday matinee on April 14 will be at 3pm. The doors and box office open thirty minutes prior to curtain. All Trustus Side Door tickets are $15. Reservations can be made by calling the Trustus Box Office at (803) 254-9732 or online by visiting www.trustus.org.

Trustus Theatre is located at 520 Lady Street, behind the Gervais St. Publix. Parking is available on Lady Street and on Pulaski Street. The Trustus Side Door Theatre entrance is through the glass doors on the Huger St. side of the building.

For more information or reservations call the box office Tuesdays through Saturdays 1-6 pm at 803-254-9732. Visit www.trustus.org for all show information and season info.

You can read Susan Levi Wallach’s review of the show here, and James Harley’s review at Onstage Columbia.

King Lear continues at USC’s Drayton Hall.  You can read a Q+A with lead actor James Keegan here, and August Krickel’s review of the show here.  From press material:

Theatre South Carolina will stage Shakespeare’s revered tragedy King Lear, the epic tale of a ruler’s loss of power and descent into madness, April 19-27 at USC’s Drayton Hall Theatre.

Show times for King Lear are 8pm Wednesdays-Fridays, 7pm Saturdays and 3pm on the first Sunday.  There is an additional half-price late night performance on Saturday, April 27 at 11pm.   Tickets for the production are $12 for students, $16 for USC faculty/staff, military personnel and seniors 60+, and $18 for the general public.  Tickets can be purchased by calling 803-777-2551 or by visiting the Longstreet Theatre box office, which is open Monday-Friday, 12:30pm-5:30pm, beginning Friday, April 12.

Shakespeare’s gale-force drama rips back the curtain on a family torn by greed and an unquenchable lust for power.  The aging King Lear decides to split his kingdom between his three daughters, but tests their loyalty first to finalize the arrangement.  When his most devoted daughter, Cordelia, refuses to flatter him, Lear disowns her, paving the way for a venomous plot to usurp the throne concocted by his remaining heirs.  The King flees, leading him on a spiraling descent into madness as he fights to regain control.  King Lear is a riveting story about the corruptive nature of power and a broken man’s agonizing struggle for redemption.

“The real difficulty with Lear is that you’ve got to play him all, you know, shaky legs and pratfalls and the dentures coming out, ’cause he’s ancient as hell, and then there’s that heartrending scene when he goes right off his nut, you know, ‘bliddle dee dee diddle deebibble dee dee dibble beep beep beep,’ and all that, which takes it out of you, what with having the crown to keep on. So Lear is tiring, although not difficult to act, because you’ve only got to do despair and a bit of anger, and they’re the easiest.”

~ John Cleese, Monty Python’s Matching Tie and Handkerchief (1973)

Theatre South Carolina tackles that “most difficult of Shakespearean tragedies,” as program notes for USC’s King Lear admit up front, adding Peter Brook’s description of the play as a “dramatic mountain whose summit had never been reached.”  Inventive and daring choices in staging and interpretation create some hits as well as misses, but a talented crop of first-year MFA students in leading roles make for an entertaining and thought-provoking evening of classic theatre.

Full disclosure:  Lear is not a favorite of mine, and I’ve never seen it live, only a filmed performance with Laurence Olivier and Diana Rigg in the ’80′s.  Still, I spent much of the spring of senior year in high school with my buddy Greg, researching term papers; his topic was the madness of Lear, mine was the motivation of Iago, and we helped each other as we taught ourselves research and character analysis while sneaking into Thomas Cooper. Greg’s conclusion, off the record and indicative of the era, was that Lear was “a crazy old, fish-eyed fool.” Decades later, I think he may have had a point.  Still, let me say up front that I recommend this show highly, and varying interpretations that lead to discussion are what Shakespeare is all about.

Lear tells parallel stories of fathers and children, madness and betrayal. Acknowledging his advancing years, the King intends to split his kingdom among three daughters, disowning the youngest when she declines to try to top her sisters’ overly-effusive declarations of how much they love him. Meanwhile, loyal vassal Gloucester (Terry Snead) has likewise been betrayed, as his bastard son Edmund (Cory Lipman) frames legitimate son and heir Edgar (Josiah Laubenstein) as a conspirator.  Guest director Cristian Hadji-Culea, Scenic Designers Nic Uluru and William Love, and costumer Sean Smith have re-imagined Iron Age Britain into a modern-dress, urban setting, which often makes strong visual and thematic statements that help clarify plot and context.  As Lear, guest artist James Keegan excels at making the tricky blank verse understandable to the audience. Keegan’s Lear is a vigorous man of middle years, however, and has few signs of dementia in early scenes. Eccentric, yes, foolish, yes, temperamental unquestionably, but at moments when the text suggests he may not recognize his daughter, Keegan plays these as broad jokes. This is a valid interpretation, and likely one developed with the director, but I just wasn’t buying it.  A key figure is the Fool, often a voice of reason and insight in Shakespeare.  Kate Dzvonik gives an excellent, energetic performance, but here the character is depicted as a broadly comic, (and to me, annoying) clown-like music hall performer. Keegan’s Lear really, really seems to appreciate this schtick, and when his own madness kicks into high gear, that’s what he channels: not so much noble, pitiable madness, but goofy, John Belushi-like pratfalls and nonsensical prancing and singing.  As above, this is a quite legitimate take on the material, but I found myself wishing for some easier explanation.  In a film, one could zoom in on a bottle of anti-psychotic meds that Lear has cast away, which would explain everything, including his miraculous recovery after a day or two of rest.  Here, one just has to enjoy Keegan’s vitality and enthusiasm, and remember that Lear is indeed a difficult play for some to appreciate. That said, I’d love to see Keegan take this same characterization as use it as Didi or Gogo in Waiting for Godot.

Leeanna Rubin as Goneril and Melissa Peters as Regan, Lear’s villainous daughters, are superb. Until we see their truly dark natures, both seem quite reasonable, their “betrayal” of their father nothing more than wanting to reduce his retinue of knights, who are brawling, drinking, eating the kingdom out of house and home, i.e. carrying on much like their liege. The equivalent of taking Meemaw’s keys away, but Lear will have none of it, storming off to the barren heath (here re-imagined as alleyways and abandoned warehouses) in a royal hissy fit.  “She struck me with her tongue, most serpent-like” is about all Lear can legitimately gripe about.  Rubin is a commanding presence on stage, appealing and even sexy, in a tie-you-down-and-hurt-you sort of way. Her interaction with Lipman blurs the lines between plotting, domestic violence, and foreplay.  Her costumes also reveal much about the character:  first she wears an elegant evening dress, which quickly is traded for a sort of practical riding-dress with leggings underneath, and finally slacks, boots, and a fierce, fur-lined vest.

Peters is much tinier, and uses her size for inventive moments of physicality, leaping onto men in passion or in rage. It’s no spoiler to reveal that as in most tragedies, all the bad guys die, as do most of the good guys, and a flaw in the text is that so many of them do so off stage.  Here Hadji-Culea brilliantly allows us to see Goneril and Regan’s last moments.  Rubin goes out with quite a bang, and I could only recall James Purefoy’s line from the HBO series Rome: “Now THAT was an exit.”

A highlight was a special-effects-enhanced storm; rapid little blips of light were projected onto a scrim, and the result was like something straight out of graphic novels (and their movie incarnations) like Sin City or Watchmen. That combined with a visually striking depiction of an alleyway, seen from an odd angle, made me want James Costello, playing loyal retainer Kent disguised in pull-down mask, to raspily mutter, Rorschach-style,  “Kent’s Journal: a king went mad tonight.”

So many aspects of the contemporary production design worked:

- Trey Hobbs, as the milder, gentler Albany, dresses in a sweater and glasses, perfectly summing up the character’s nature.
- good-and-bad brothers Laubenstein and Lipman are first seen in a natty summer suit and a leather jacket respectively, again making a perfect contrast.
- plot exposition among wealthy characters takes place on a country club golf course.
- a reference to trumpets in the distance becomes a car horn.
- Edgar, disguised as a mad beggar, is depicted as a homeless man wrapped in trash bags, and the “cave” where he takes shelter becomes a dumpster.
- awesome wind effects blow random trash across the stage in the middle of the storm.
- overturned trash cans signify the decline and decay of Lear’s kingdom.
- Lear breaks his crown in half, and the pieces handily become tiaras for his daughters.
- police sirens in the distance often signify a battle offstage, or a manhunt for a character on the run.
- Kent wearing multiple layers of clothing and toting a sleeping bag as he and Lear seek refuge in an abandoned building likewise establish tone and setting.
- massive brick columns anchor both sides of the stage (at least until one actor accidentally brushed up against one, revealing them to mainly be a painted design on fabric – but the illusion was perfect until then.)

A few things didn’t work at all:

- three extra actors appearing as multiple visions of the Fool, to signify Lear’s delusion; great idea, but distracting.
- a couple of fights using golf clubs in lieu of swords.
- many of the fight scenes in general.  The cast needs to sit down and watch an hour of pro wrestling, because an actor really can strike someone without hurting them, but here punches, slaps, and slashes to the throat rarely connect, and seem pantomimed.
- the blinding of Gloucester, which should be vastly more horrific, and painful for the character. That said, Regan’s dive into the fray is terrific and believable; playing golf with one of the eyeballs, maybe not so much.
- Lear breaks his crown, his scepter, a ceremonial orb …and everything neatly splits in two, just a little too conveniently.
- sound and music cues often drowned out crucial moments of exposition at the end of scenes, and an off-stage microphone that was cranked up to 11, nearly deafening the audience at one point.  (Disclaimer: I saw a preview, and that has surely been fixed.)
- moments of flamboyant exuberance that caused many of the students in the audience to laugh when there really wasn’t anything funny going on.

At this point, one might ask “If you didn’t like it, why spend so much time talking about it?”  Which is the point – a solid 90% of this show (which ran about 3 hours including a generous intermission) really impressed me, a triumph given that I’m not wild about the material. Someone else could easily love everything I didn’t care for, and rank King Lear among Shakespeare’s best.  Either way, the visual design from Uluru and Love, and the work of some remarkable young actors, made this production memorable for me.

So go see it, and you be the judge.  King Lear runs through Sat. April 27th at USC’s Drayton Hall.

~ August Krickel