Arts

Elaine Stritch may sadly be gone, but Nashville Repertory Theatre is happily still here.

The company’s 35th season opened splendidly Saturday with the rousing absurdity of Greg Kotis and Mark Hollman’s self-mocking satire “Urinetown: The Musical.” Director Jason Tucker and his colleagues have obviously worked hard to make it look so entertainingly easy.

“Well, hello there. And welcome – to Urinetown!” the show’s narrator, the charming but ever-dutiful Officer Lockstock (played by Jacob York, an always welcome entertainment import from Atlanta), tells us before setting the musical’s tone: “Not the place, of course. The musical. Urinetown ‘the place’ is … well, it’s a place you’ll hear people referring to a lot throughout the show.”

Indeed you do. But this show won’t stand for being too “wordy,” as noted in dialogue that occurs a short time later between Lockstock and the sweet but extremely precocious street urchin Little Sally (played by Galen Crawley, York’s wife and every bit the fine actor her spouse is):

LITTLE SALLY: Say, Officer Lockstock, is this where you tell the audience about the water shortage?
LOCKSTOCK: What’s that, Little Sally?
LITTLE SALLY: You know, the water shortage. The hard times. The drought. A shortage so awful that private toilets eventually became unthinkable. A premise so absurd that—
LOCKSTOCK: Whoa there, Little Sally. Not all at once. They’ll hear more about the water shortage in the next scene.
LITTLE SALLY: Oh. I guess you don’t want to overload them with too much exposition, huh?
LOCKSTOCK: Everything in its time, Little Sally. You’re too young to understand it now, but nothing can kill a show like too much exposition.

That’s true of reviews as well. Suffice it to say that after a 20-year drought calls of nature are done at public amenities for a fee. That fee goes to the private Urine Good Company run by the utterly ruthless Caldwell B. Cladwell (played with great oily charm by Chip Arnold), whose monopoly is built on bribes to lawmakers like the corrupt Senator Fipp (Matthew Carlton amusingly channeling his inner South Carolinian) and enforced by such on-the-take officers as Lockstock and his partner, Officer Barrel (a devilishly delightful turn by Samuel Whited).

“Urinetown” is a marvelous mix of the dystopian and droll; satire sits comfortably beside silliness, a high-wire act of storytelling as farce since a delicate balance is needed to keep things both clever and coherent. It’s as if Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht and Clifford Odets joined a writer’s room with Mel Brooks and Eugène Ionesco after channeling the spirit of Victor Hugo and didn’t come out until they had a funny, biting, witty take on social injustice as well as corporate and governmental corruption.

Whew! It’s no surprise that in 2002 Kotis copped a Tony for his book, while he and composer Hollman won for the show’s score and John Rando won for his direction of the piece. (Incidentally, that came on the same night “Elaine Stritch at Liberty” won a Best Special Theatrical Event Tony, to keep my Stritch motif going in a very tangential way.)

There are so many golden nuggets to mine from Kotis and Hollman’s musical that I could write a review double the size of this one, but I’ll behave by not spoiling all the fun and mention a few of the many highlights: Megan Murphy Chambers going full Lotte Lenya in “It’s a Privilege to Pee” as Penelope Pennywise, the sell-out with a big secret; returning hometown talents Mitchell Ryan Miller and Mariah Parris turning love into a painfully funny experience (I laughed so hard I began to choke!) as star-crossed lovers Bobby Strong and Hope Cladwell in “Follow Your Heart,” and the ensemble featuring those two and such great triple-threats as Garris Wimmer (Hot Blades Harry) and Tamiko Robinson Steele (Little Becky-Two Shoes) in the gas-of-a-gospel-like “Run, Freedom, Run!”

Everywhere you turn your head there’s something fun to see – Derek Whittaker as the obsequious Mr. McQueen and Rona Carter as the long, long suffering Josephine “Ma” Strong may not read as hilarious given their character descriptions, but these stage vets get you giggling every time they’re on. The same for Scott Rice as Tiny Tom – even that character name’s a hoot, of course. The rest of the ensemble hangs right with these entertaining folks – Meggan Utech, Mike Sallee, Maria Logan, Juan Graterol and Ayla Williams take a back seat to no one with their acting, singing and dancing abilities.

Pamela Atha (in concert with Tucker for the musical staging) choreographs with her impeccable sense of story, characters, rhythms and energies. Aiding Tucker on the music side to playfully render the show’s musical-theater-sendup score is the very gifted Kelsi Fulton. The three of them make a masterful musical trinity, and they’re joined in this excellent endeavor by several gifted theater professionals like Artistic Associate Erica Jo Lloyd.

Gary C. Hoff’s metal-and-rust set (fulfilled by the work of Scene Shop Foreman R. Preston Perrin and Master Carpenter Tucker Steinlage, among others) captures the spirit and themes of this show perfectly. You don’t need my description of it to know that, though – just look at the Michael Scott Evans production pictures that accompany this review and you’ll see what I mean.

Likewise for Colleen Garatoni’s costumes – her work always reflects and enhances the characterizations of the actors that wear her creations (her team includes Costume Manager Lori Gann-Smith, Wardrobe Supervisor Lakeland Gordon, Costume Technician Lauren Terry and Rentals Manager Emily Irene Peck). Amanda Creech’s contributions as props master are no less inspired, and round out our understanding of the people, places and actions in “Urinetown.”

Kudos should also go to Director of Production Christopher L. Jones, Lighting Designer Dalton Hamilton and Sound Designer Randy Craft for their top-flight technical contributions along with Run Crew members Maggie Jackson and Karch Abramson. Their wonderful complements to other elements in this production allow each moment of this “Urinetown” to shine and be heard with clarity and creativeness.

And last, but never least, my customary and well-deserved shout-out to the ever-important folks in stage management. If you’re ever in doubt about what keeps shows going, seek out Stage Manager Teresa Driver and Assistant Stage Manager Kristen Goodwin: It’s obvious they know exactly what their unceasingly demanding positions require and a big “Bravo!” to them!

From founding company member Wimmer to newcomers like Sallee, from Managing Director Drew Ogle to members of the troupe’s internship programs (which include several “Urinetown” cast and crew members), Nashville Rep is not only still here, it’s positively thriving, as their delightfully droll “Urinetown” attests. Go see it, then let’s check out the rest of their 35th season starting with “Pipeline” in October.

Nashville Repertory Theatre’s production of “Urinetown” continues through Sept. 29 in the Johnson Theater at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (500 Deaderick St.). Click here for more information; click here to buy tickets.

The game is delightfully afoot once more in Chaffin’s Barn Theatre‘s entertaining presentation of “Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure.”

Prolific play writing genius Steven Dietz fashioned his 2006 Edgar Award-winning Holmes homage from such Arthur Conan Doyle classic tales as “A Scandal in Bohemia” and “The Final Problem” along with William Gillette’s 1899 theatrical smash “Sherlock Holmes.” Dietz (fondly remembered for his time in Nashville as the 2011-12 Ingram New Works Fellow at Nashville Repertory Theatre, when he was developing the play “Rancho Mirage“) wrote in his preface to the published play that the stories of Conan Doyle’s consulting detective “stay with us through days both remarkable and mundane, adventures grand and forgotten; through love and loss and a thousand wonderful conversations about nothing at all.” (And very happily so, this reviewer concurs, having read my first Holmes tale when I was eight.)

Nashville Children’s Theatre offered an absolutely delicious 2012 production of the play, starring the late David Compton as Holmes opposite his best friend and chronicler Dr. John Watson, played in that show by Matthew Carlton. As my review of that presentation indicates I really enjoyed it. I happily, unreservedly say the same of the Barn’s distinctly different effort; I’m grateful for the chance to see this piece again in a another setting with another cast.

Watson (Michael Roark) is our guide through this ultimate adventure set in 1893 London. It finds Holmes (Charlie Winton) apparently juggling two very different matters: The King of Bohemia (Josh Kiev) needs to avoid scandal by retrieving an amorous photograph of himself and the great opera diva Irene Adler (Shannon Hoppe), and the “Napoleon of Crime,”  Professor James Moriarty (Benjamin R. Jones) plans to set the trap that finally rids him of his dogged pursuer. How those seemingly separate strands tie together is just part of the fast-paced thrill-ride…

Winton handles the complexities of this play’s Holmes quite well; he has the detective’s certitude, which allows Holmes to remain calm in even the most chaotic moments, but there’s a gentleness in his interactions with kindly Watson and the alluring Adler that appears at appropriate moments. Roark, whose wide range as an actor has been on enjoyable display in Nashville for several years, warmly and convincingly gives us a strong and thoughtful friend. Kiev is such an energetic treat. And Hoppe? This seasoned pro hits all the right notes in her performance, too — smart, clever, strong, caring. Adler may be a diva, but it’s her humanity that gives us reason to feel something beyond the excitement of watching an escapade unfold.

The villains are in top form as well. Jones, a veteran performer with cross-country credits, is terrific at summoning both the cerebral and pragmatic aspects of his terrifying master criminal, and his acting accomplices (Gabe Atchley as the nefarious James Larrabee, Lauren Proctor as his equally evil sister Madge and Scotty Phillips as the nasty henchman Sid Prince) all bring the right amount of wicked relish to their roles.

The offstage creatives have all done good work that ensures this thriller with a touch of love moves and looks as it should — Annie Magan (Dramaturg and Properties Assistant), Joy Tilley Perryman (Properties), Kaitlin Barnett (Sound Design), Miriam Creighton (Costume Design), Alexis LaVon (Stage Manager, who “turned 24” the day I saw the show) and Daniel DeVault (Lighting Design and Director). Given the consistent quality of the revitalized Barn it’s easy, but inappropriate, to overlook all the hard work that supports what we audience members see and hear in each performance.

To use an archaic British expression, “Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure” is a ripping good yarn. Yes, Dietz, Gillette and Conan Doyle deserve great credit for the trail built by their contributions, but in this production it’s ultimately the Barn’s troupe of professionals that successfully close the case.

“Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure” continues through Sept. 15 on the main stage at Chaffin’s Barn Theatre; click here for more info, showtimes and tickets. “The Wedding Singer” follows on Sept. 19 through Oct. 19; click here for more info, showtimes and tickets.

What’s the state of Nashville Shakespeare Festival after three decades? It’s heartily proclaimed in a lovely production of “The Tempest” in its shimmering new “Summer Shakespeare” home at OneC1ty.

What do I mean? If the troupe was a singer, a certain Leslie Bricusse-Anthony Newley tune for “The Roar of the Greasepaint–The Smell of the Crowd” (the song famously covered by the fabulous Nina Simone) would provide Nashville Shakes with its lyrics: “It’s a new dawn/It’s a new day/It’s a new life for me/And I’m feeling good!”

William Shakespeare’s great dramatic poem, which was likely first performed around 1611, has magic as well as human frailty and nobility coursing through its theatrical veins. It has the virtue of being as complex and messy as life while simultaneously offering a beautifully focused artistic benediction. A quick search of library collections and the Internet provides a host of literature analyzing and debating the inspirations for and interpretations of “The Tempest”; but scholarly works, and critic’s reviews, will never thoroughly relate or match the experience of either performing or watching it.

For first-time readers/viewers, here’s a setup: Prospero (Mark Cabus) was once the Duke of Milan. He was however too bookish for the good of himself and his subjects, and his brother Antonio (Angela Madaline-Johnson) used that preoccupation to steal the dukedom from him with the help of King Alonso of Naples (Alan Lee) and his brother, Sebastian (Brad Oxnam).

The deposed duke was set adrift in an unsafe boat with his then-baby daughter Miranda (Delaney Keith). They providentially landed on an island once ruled by a witch named Sycorax; as the play opens it’s 12 years later and Prospero’s books have guided him to dark arts mastery of the island. Sycorax’s son Caliban (Kit Bulla) and the spirit Ariel (Caroline Alise Conner, Ella Rieniets, Isabel Webb and Lane Williamson) reside there as well. Now the “strange accident” of a tempest has brought Prospero’s enemies and others to the island, and it’s time for a reckoning…and some romance…

The play’s protagonist may know magic, but he’s as realistically complex as any character in Shakespeare’s canon; it takes an actor of great skill and experiences onstage and off to bring us the flesh-and-blood Prospero that’s in the text. Enter Cabus, pursued not by a bear but by a dream – to give us his character’s love for his daughter, pain from his brother’s betrayal, progress toward the self-healing balm of forgiveness, and vulnerability in acknowledging the mortality that will soon ring down the curtain on his life.

Cabus casts a spell with his mastery of the actor’s art. He’s been a student, teacher, director and performer of Shakespeare for more than 40 years; the Bard and he have long resided together well (such as when he played Trinculo in a 2011 Georgia Shakespeare presentation of the play). As a masterful performer he never forgets that truth makes the best illusions: Shakespeare’s words are his character’s spontaneous speech, and the actions, reactions and emotions engendered by those words flow genuinely from him to an appreciative audience.

I’ve seen several excellent portrayals of Prospero in person, on streaming video or by other means; one instance occurred when I watched the enthralling Brian Webb Russell play the man “more sinned against than sinning” (to borrow from “King Lear“) the last time Nashville Shakes did the show in a 2010 Winter Shakespeare production at Belmont University’s Troutt Theater. Other recent favorites in the role were greats like Christopher Plummer and Simon Russell Beale. But the emotional vulnerability that flows through Cabus’ delivery of the oft-quoted Act IV “Our revels now are ended” speech made it brand new words to me on opening night, and as tears welled in my eyes and a lump developed in my throat, I once again thanked my lucky stars for the gifts he’s shared with fortunate audience members like me for many years.

(It’s appropriate to disclose that Cabus and I have been friends, and sometimes professional collaborators, for 30 years. I have a bias for his work, and him, just as I have a need for oxygen to breathe. But the evidence of eyes, ears, hearts and minds is not mine alone; I’m confident that many who will watch his performance in this production will assess it similarly.)

Cabus is part of a very good cast picked by Denice Hicks, the show’s veteran director (assisted by Justin Hand) and the company’s executive artistic director. She’s played Ariel more than once in other productions, and the wonderful decision to have Conner, Rieniets, Webb and Williamson combine as an harmonious bundle of Ariel aspects is engagingly rewarded thanks to the foursome’s full commitment to that choice.

Keith, Bulla, and Joe Leitess, who plays Ferdinand, Alonso’s son and heir, all bring proper energy, focus and textual understanding to their roles, which helps to conjure great believe-ability in the fantastical “Tempest” realm. Lee (welcome back, sir!) and Oxnam, favorites of mine for many a moon, are superb as usual.

Others in the cast are no less complete with their characterizations, including but not limited to Jocelyn Kasper’s wise and compassionate Gonzalo as well as Joy Greenawalt-Lay (Trinculo) and Jaye Phelps (Stephano) who play their foolish drunken knaves to the entertaining hilt. And I want to pay a special tribute to Madaline-Johnson without giving away specifics from the ending for those unfamiliar with it; her character’s reactions to the words and actions of Cabus’ character are brilliant and gripping choices.

Like the four actors that bring Ariel to life, the spirits that inhabit the island (and work their way so wonderfully through the audience throughout the piece) are played by the talented members of the NSF Apprentice Company: Andrew Johnson, Lydia Klaus, Sawyer Latham, Grey Eli Marron, Jamal Moore, Abigail Nichol, Lucca Herrera Silva, Storm Sloan, Reese Twilla and Abby Wyatt.

(The apprentice company has its own “Summer Shakespeare” show this year as well – click here for info on their Friday presentations of Shakespeare’s “Pericles, Prince of Tyre” directed by Laramie Hearn where you’ll also find info for “The Tempest” (there are even some double feature days noted on the company’s September calendar in addition to the shows’ dates this month and then).

The late British actor/producer Sir John Clements (the man who followed Lord Laurence Olivier as the Chichester Festival Theatre’s second director) wrote in a 1971 introductory essay that “The Tempest stands alone in [Shakespeare’s] opus as a play which is from the first moment to the last suffused with the feeling of music.” Suffusing this production with appropriately sprightly and ethereal compositions is Rolin Mains, who also serves as the show’s musical director. Playing alongside the masterful Mains as a rich complement to the action are equally expert musicians Luke Easterling and Jack Kingsley.

The better-than-ever balanced blending of music and voices is a tribute to the sound work done by engineer Cameron Cleland, assistant Ryan Gabriel and operator Sam Bartholomew. Light designer Janet Berka has quite a penchant for the challenging task of illuminating scenes amid the ever-changing background of an outdoor production;  Fish Powell has engineered the lights, and he’s also part of a able run crew that includes Zeke Whiteside. Rounding out the superb tech team are set technical director Chelsea Flowers and site technical director/master electrician D.J. Ranta.

Andy Bleiler’s striking set is a yellow network of platforms and thrusts which he’s incorporated into OneC1ty’s 20-foot-tall, 42-foot-wide, curved 3-D printed pavilion installation. It looks good and the action plays well on, around and under it. The show’s carpenters are Jacob Friend, Cooper Humphreys, Drew Flickinger, Hatty King and Brooklyn Thompson.

Lynda Cameron-Bayer has long been a beloved figure in Nashville theater, and as she bids farewell to the Music City and moves to California she’s put plenty of colorful touches in the show’s costumes. The wardrobe supervisor is Denese Evans-Kelley and she’s also one of the stitchers along with Erin Thomas and Julia Weaver. 

Among the other creatives that deserve a note of thanks for their singular contributions are dance choreographer Tosha Marie, fight director David Wilkerson, text coach Santiago Sosa (also the apprentice company’s director) and dramaturg Katie Stueckle. Their work does more to enhance the show than many may realize while they’re watching it.

Last but most certainly not least, there are the folks that make sure the theatrical trains onstage and off not only run on time but as efficiently as possible: the great stage manager Cecilia Lighthall (assisted by Kilby Yarbrough), house manager Eric Ventress (assisted by Sarah Bolek), pre-show coordinator Tessa Bryant and volunteer coordinator Anita Reed.

Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s sparkling new summer setting – where pedestrians peer down in wonder from the adjoining Francis S. Guess Connector Bridge and CSX trains run easily behind the space (and a wall) as if on cue – and its enchanting “Tempest” show the organization wants to take its art to a higher level more than 30 years after its founding. It’s been a rich blessing to Nashville beyond its significant cultural contributions to the Music City. Those of us that love Nashville theater should do all we can to help them build more “stuff as dreams are made on.”

“The Tempest” continues through Sept. 22 in The Yard at OneC1ty before moving to Franklin’s Academy Park Performing Arts Center Sept. 26-29. “Pericles, Prince of Tyre” runs through Sept. 20 at OneC1ty. The festival’s ticket page is here. For driving directions, specific dates, times, parking and other info on these “Summer Shakespeare” shows click here to visit the Nashville Shakes website. Click here for information on NSF volunteering and internship opportunities; to donate to Nashville Shakes please click here.

It was raining as I drove to Chaffin’s Barn for Saturday’s closing performance of “Annie.” Thankfully the rain ended just before I parked and exited my car.

There was a beautiful rainbow arching its way toward the recently renovated theater. I took a picture and posted it on Facebook, writing that “The spirit of Martin Charnin is with us!” A rainbow is a promise. And yes, its corners turn down and not up, but it’s also a smile. In case you didn’t know, you’re never fully dressed without one.

Chaffin’s Barn’s exuberant “Annie” was a promise fulfilled with plenty of smiles.

The eternally optimistic lyrics of the Tony-winning Charnin (who left this life last month) coupled with the upbeat music of Charles Strouse and the entertaining book by the late Thomas Meehan (Tony winners as well) has bedazzled and enchanted audiences since its 1976 world premiere at Goodspeed Opera House under the direction of legendary former Goodspeed Musicals Executive Michael Price. Charnin directed the show when it started its 2,377-performance original Broadway run at the Alvin Theatre (now the Neil Simon Theatre) on April 21, 1977. There have been revivals on Broadway and around the world ever since.

Chaffin’s production not only had the creators’ wonderful work but also Joy Tilley Perryman’s astute direction, Lauri Dismuke’s hellzapoppin’ (see the Urban Dictionary definition if you don’t get my meaning) choreography and Rollie Main’s masterful musical direction, among other contributions from top-notch creatives. What a professional pleasure it was.

The thoroughly entertaining cast I saw, to borrow from a colorful expression I heard in New York years ago, could play anywhere from Broadway to Timbuktu. As with many professional productions involving children there was double casting of various juvenile roles, including the title character, so I’ll list those I didn’t see in parentheses when I mention those characters.

On closing night Annie was played by Elle Wesley (who shared the role with Ana Rivera during the run). She’s already established an impressive theater career for herself and it’s easy to see why: Her voice is like the beautiful peal of a powerful bell. Her timing is impeccable. Her energy is focused. Her acting is always believable. Her appeal is undeniable. When she sings “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow” every cloud in the sky gets blown away. It was her Chaffin’s Barn debut – hopefully we’ll see her there again!

My favorite artistic polymath Galen Fott is Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks. As an actor he can do it all, too, and the Tennessee native’s time in the Big Apple was wonderfully channeled into his very “Noo Yawk” characterization of the Hell’s Kitchen native he portrays. Warbucks is tough but tender, and Fott’s proud lead on “NYC” and his gorgeous rendition of “Something Was Missing” were gems for the heart to treasure. I love watching him perform.

Jenny Norris was an absolutely delicious villain as the dastardly, but also hilarious, Miss Hannigan. I got to see Tony-winner Dorothy Loudon and Kathleen Freeman in that role, and in my book she’s right up there with them. Her comical and serious moments as an actor are excellent, and so is her singing and dancing – her “Little Girls” was such a great character revelation, and watching “Easy Street” with the equally enjoyable Curtis LeMoine (getting everything out of his terrifically terrible Rooster Hannigan) and Christina Candilora (with a voice and gestures as Lily St. Regis that made me laugh until I cried) was such a thrill.

The support from other cast members was uniformly excellent, including Natalie Rankin as the caring Grace Farrell, W. Scott Stewart as the ever-on-his-toes Drake and the ever-assured Daron Bruce as FDR. And I want to especially mention the Molly I saw: Aubrey Rodgers (Lilah Rose Benjamin played that role during the run as well) is not only an adorable seven-year-old, she’s already a strong performer with good acting skills. It’s rare to see someone that young with her performance gifts already in their proper place, so it was a real treat to watch her work.

Also adorable and every bit the treat as actors/singers/dancers were Adison Rodgers as Duffy (shared with Abigail Levy), Grayson Caughey as July (Annalaura Lyon), Daisy Urbanowicz as Pepper (Samantha McWright), Hailey Ridgeway as Kate (Adriana Rivera), and  Olivia Harper and Demetrius “D.J.” Knowles II sharing the part of Tessie on Saturday and throughout the run.

The rest of the ensemble also deserves kudos for their triple-threat portrayals of multiple parts – Kelsey Brodeur, Seth Brown, Hannah Clark, Delaney Jackson, J. Robert Lindsey, Gerold Oliver, David Benjamin Perry, Emma Puerta, Morgan Riggs, Austin Jeffrey Smith, Vicki White and Katie Yeomans. When they combined their singing and dancing in such numbers as “We’d Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover,” “I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here” and “I Don’t Need Anything But You” it was positively electric! And veteran actor Rufus deserves plenty of extra dog treats for his lovely appearances as Sandy!

Spotless work came the band (Mains on keys, Daniel Kozlowski on drums, Luke Easterling on guitar and Raymond Riley were scintillating) and off-stage creatives like Catherine Forman (stage manager), Davy Grace McGuirt (assistant stage manager), Miriam Creighton (costumer), Daniel DeVault (lighting designer), Robin Lawshe (technical director), Kaitlin Barnett and Jacob Allen (sound engineers) and Delaynie Rizer (production assistant). As if she didn’t have enough to do the ever-amazing Perryman also did props while directing the show, and a special nod goes to the “orphan wranglers” that oversaw the child performers offstage – fellow castmate White, Kim Thornton Nygren and Monykah Tyson. As a former child performer I know just how vital that wrangling was.

When he was at Cumberland County Playhouse in 2004 directing the “Two By Two” musical he’d revised with the late Peter Stone a conversation Charnin and I had turned to “Annie.” “I always smile thinking about the smiles she still creates after all these years,” he joyfully told me. Chaffin’s Barn just made a bunch more of those.

Chaffin’s Barn’s next mainstage show is a revival of the uproarious “Southern Fried Funeral” by J. Dietz Osborne and Nate Eppler running Aug. 8-24; click here for info and tickets. There’s also “Showdown at the Rundown Saloon,” a Wild West audience participation murder mystery fundraiser produced by the lovely and talented Mr. Adam for the Make a Wish Foundation in Middle Tennessee on Aug. 20; click here for info and tickets. (And check out their delicious menu before you go – the writer of the above review loved devouring the homemade chicken salad platter with fruit, pasta salad and crackers topped off by peanut butter pie!)

What constitutes “good play writing,” “good directing” and “good acting” are obviously highly subjective, and seemingly endless, discussions. But clear communication between playwrights, directors, actors, and the audience where each receiver feels they’re having a meaningful one-on-one with the sender is a fine place to start (and finish).

How does the communal setting of a theater performance become so personal? There are an infinite number of routes, but the journey is propelled by active listening. How is that done? With all the senses. To quote from Uta Hagen’s “A Challenge for the Actor”: “We listen with our entire being when we are engaged in truthful dialogue.”

Over the past two weeks – in the intimate spaces of Darkhorse Theater, Actors Bridge Studio Downstairs at the Darkhorse, and Belmont University’s Black Box Theatre – the power of sustained truthful dialogue between theater-practitioners and theatergoers has been on engaging, electric display. It’s come through The Destiny Theatre Experience’s world premiere of “23/1” by Shawn Whitsell, Actors Bridge Ensemble’s production of Adam Szymkowicz’s “Kodachrome” (2018) and Pipeline-Collective’s presentation of Keith Bunin’s “The World Over” (2002).

23/1

Whitsell – DTE’s founder and artistic director – produces, co-directs (with Candace-Omnira), and stars in the play he penned. It’s a wrenching portrait of a soul searching for redemption while fighting for sanity. Whitsell plays Darnell, a young drug dealer whose lengthy prison stretch in Texas serves as both a hellish pit of despair and a possible crucible for hope. The play’s title references the fact that much of Darnell’s time is spent in solitary confinement, meaning he’s allowed outside for just one hour a day.

His heartrending performance is a both an artistic blessing and a social lesson to behold. Whitsell’s active listening has attuned him to the world his character inhabits, and he stays focused on delivering that reality. As he wrote in a recent Instagram post, “This is not about me. It’s about those men and women on the inside and the families and communities impacted by their mistakes or injustices served, and their absence, regardless of what the circumstances are. I’ve volunteered at a prison for five years, which gives this piece added value for me. I know men just like the one I play. I wanted to honor their struggle and their humanity. This piece is my contribution to the cause.”

And what a contribution it is. “23/1” uses back-wall projections of often brutal images, music from a myriad of genres, styles and eras, and a large prison cell (contributed by Tennessee Playwrights Studio following its recent “Maidens” premiere at the Darkhorse). Robert Allen’s striking lighting design and some powerful movement choreography from Shabazz Chijioke are also notable offerings, as are the voices of Kenley Smith, Molly Breen, Michael Diallo McLendon, Alicia Haymer and Jack Chambers along with appropriate wardrobe contributed by Patrick James. But most of all, this play utilizes the writing and acting gifts of the extraordinary Mr. Whitsell.

Whitsell’s words appropriately strike like unrelenting blows. The pain in Darnell’s truth is that there’s nothing noble about his surroundings or condition; the power in that truth is the righteous spark in his soul. As he says in a pivotal scene, “…I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking I’m being disrespectful. Because I’m not looking you in the eye. … It’s just hard for me to look at anybody who isn’t a guard or another inmate, especially people who knew me before.”

For those who will see a future production of this show – I firmly believe, to use an old phrase, that it will “have legs” – I won’t spoil anything. Just know that no easy answers or trite truisms spring from this play: “23/1” shines its unsparing light so that illumination can inspire transformation in us all.

(July 29 Update: Due to popular demand there will be encore performances of “23/1” Aug. 2-3 at 7:30 p.m. Click here to visit Eventbrite for information and tickets.)

Kodachrome

Adam Szymkowicz’s play successfully debuted last year at Portland (Ore.) Center Stage at The Armory. Now his funny, often tender, and rhythmic conversational writing comes (for the third time – read a review of the first time here) to Nashville’s ever-in-the-moment Actors Bridge Ensemble troupe. In the vein of Sanford Meisner they root their performances in the “reality of doing,” and as usual it’s a beauteous thing to behold (the playwright himself got to at Friday’s performance).

The Photographer (Mary Claire Reynolds) lets us know up front that she has things to tell us about the people in and the small town of Colchester. At first blush this might feel like a 21st Century nod to Grover’s Corners in Thornton Wilder’s 1938 masterpiece “Our Town,” but “Kodachrome” isn’t playing copy-cat; it’s just Szymkowicz’s welcoming route to characters trying to find (or replace) connections. As we watch various human snapshots, the dances people do with one another – complete with steps of love, longing, joy and sadness – is on touching, but never treacly, display.

Reynolds plays her character with such affability that we like and trust her immediately – which works to the story’s advantage as more and more revelations reveal just how complex that character truly is. C.J. Tucker, Barry Kennedy, Jr., Nyazia Martin, Ani Pareek, Hayley Jo Pellis and Hanna Lipkind each have multiple roles, and it’s a consistent tribute to the material (and to the memory of Meisner) that each part they portray is distinct and realistic.

Paul Gatrell’s striking scenic design features storefront windows, a brick facade and containers of fresh-cut flowers where various cameras sit on shelves and picture frames adorn the walls. Richard Davis’ lighting design perfectly complements the changes in scene and mood prescribed by the playwright’s words and the actors’ clear-cut transitions. Colleen Garatoni’s costumes adroitly clothe each personality.

This is the first time that veteran Nashville actor Rachel Agee has directed a show; given the thoroughly enjoyable results of this production I strongly hope it’s just the first time. They’ve obviously heard what Szymkowicz says through his script, but in completely listening to each other the remarkable artists of Actors Bridge make this play a very vivid picture.

The World Over

Keith Bunin’s play was a 2002 smash at New York’s Playwrights Horizons starring Justin Kirk (before he was the ne’er-do-well Andy Botwin on TV’s “Weeds”). Throw pieces of William Shakespeare, Homer, John Milton, Jonathan Swift, William Goldman (thinking about the “The Princess Bride” in this instance) and others into a theatrical cocktail mixer and you get a frothy hero’s journey that often keeps you giggling while laughing at itself. The fact that director David Ian Lee has actually staged this production in a large sandbox – where better to play it? – is a clue before the show starts that a fun adventure lies ahead. (And speaking of “before the show starts,” there’s a really cool online game [click here] that Pipeline-Collective devised to publicize their production.)

It’s in the complete reception of Bunin’s scripting signals and Lee’s playful direction that Pipeline-Collective’s talented thespians create a heightened, and often hilarious, realism. (I interrupt this part of the review for an important announcement – the laugh-until-it-hurts costume that designer Allison Hearn placed on Garris Wimmer’s squawking sultan deserves a special note of praise. I’m still laughing at that mental image a week later.)

That doesn’t mean it’s all fun and games, though – at the heart of “The World Over” there’s a lifetime search by Adam (DéYonté Jenkins), who believes he’s the prince of an unseen kingdom. Jenkins poignantly plays a man beset by Job-like obstacles; his physicality in the role is impressive, as are the natural nuances of expression and gesture he brings to the part.

In addition to the wonderful performance by Jenkins there are the treats of multiple characterizations by Wimmer, Nikkita Staggs (particularly moving as Adam’s long-suffering love, Isobel), Meggan Utech, Jonah M. Jackson, Sarah Zanotti and David Torres-Fuentes. Local acting great Nan Gurley provides the eerie voice of a Gryphon you wouldn’t want to mess with (unless you’re a hero like Adam, of course).

If there’s any quibble about “The World Over,” it’s perhaps that in aging Adam well before we get to the conclusion of Act II Bunin’s story feels tired before the end is in sight. Thankfully Pipeline-Collective’s players are never tiring (though I bet they’re tuckered out from their high-energy performances); their active listening, which leads them to react in so many interesting ways to and with each other, happily draws us into the magical mirth of Bunin’s fantastical world and keeps us there until the house lights come up.

The Listening’s The Thing

In a famous passage from Act 5, Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” the Melancholy Dane advises that “the readiness is all.” That’s unquestionably great advice for many endeavors. If what goes into that readiness isn’t truthful, though, all the preparation in the world won’t make it acceptable to theatergoers. The truthful theatrical dialogue that comes from the active listening of creatives at The Destiny Theatre Experience, Actors Bridge Ensemble and Pipeline-Collective – between themselves and in concert with Nashville audiences – produces plays to our mutual benefit.

The Theatre Destiny Experience’s world premiere of “23/1” ended its run on Saturday; for more information on the company that started in 2007 click here to check out their Facebook page. Actors Bridge Ensemble’s run of “Kodachrome” ends today (Sunday); for more information on the company that was founded in 1995 click here to check out their website. Pipeline-Collective’s production of “The World Over” ended its run on Saturday; click here for the website of the company that began in 2016.

“Life is a pleasure. And pleasures, like life, are short.” – Jenny-Wanda Barkmann

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The quote above seems quite positive, and certainly harmless enough on the page by itself. It might be a simply sublime bit of insight if you didn’t know that the young woman who said it was an Aufseherinnen – a female guard in a Nazi concentration camp – known to prisoners as the “Beautiful Spectre.” She was hanged after World War II for her brutal treatment of camp inmates that included fatal beatings and the selection of women and children for the gas chambers at Stutthof SK-III near what is now Sztutowo, Poland. It’s not the words that matter, it’s the context in which those words were uttered (and of course, by whom).

The harrowing and evil context of the “Final Solution” frames a searing new drama written and directed by Kenley Smith called “Maidens.” This powerful play has been developed and given its artistically bountiful world premiere production at Darkhorse Theater by Tennessee Playwrights Studio. It may be set in the past, but as the playwright notes in the program, “…Fascism is here. It always has been, and it reveals itself when we allow a demagogue to stoke our fear and hatred. ‘Maidens,’ sadly, has become as current as it would have been in 1946.”

Smith, who relocated from Roanoke, Va., to the Music City in 2012, already has a well-earned reputation as a master of taut scripts with gripping stories that keep audiences talking long after the lights go up. I still have indelible memories of the terrific 2013 Playhouse Nashville production of his “Devil Sedan” (click here to read my review of that show). His own work is great, but no less impressive is his generosity and encouragement to other writers and artists in Nashville’s theater community. He is, as the old saying goes, “One of the angels that walks among us.”

That angel certainly knows how to write devils, including the sociopathic character of Jenny-Wanda Barkmann, played with terrifying matter-of-factness by the ever-wonderful Molly Breen. In “Maidens” he sees humanity in all its darkness and light and uses words like brushstrokes to paint a thought-provoking portrait.

The play opens to the strains of Sergei Prokofiev’s “Alexander Nevsky” cantata (which references another conflict between Russia and Germany). Following a haunting introduction to our story from a 10-year-old boy named Jozef Wojehowicz (played with a beautiful air of innocence by Abby West) we see Barkmann and her fellow defendants as sentencing approaches in a 1946 Polish-Soviet tribunal. All are sentenced to death, but only Barkmann seems unfazed by the verdict; after all, life is short…

We are taken to the cells where Barkmann and Elisabeth Becker (an ultimately shocking portrayal of seeming sweetness turned scarily sour by Megan Dianne DeWald) are next-door neighbors awaiting their fates. Becker is the oil and to Barkmann’s vinegar, but in one respect they are very much alike – they are both masterful manipulators. The difference there is that Barkmann uses blackmail while Becker uses flattery as their weapons of choice.

Caught both literally and figuratively between these two women is Wojehowicz’s grown-up brother Lech (in the sure hands of the compelling Andy Kanies), a prison guard assigned to the condemned former Stutthof guards.  He survived while the Germans were in charge and he plans to do the same with the Russians – “I had to live with it, so I did what I had to do. I did it then, and I do it now,” he says ruefully – and now he’s very defensive about the devil’s bargains he’s made in the name of survival.

Just as Smith’s script – aided by his excellent pacing as director – tears away at these character’s facades to reveal their individual truths the actors adroitly remove layer by layer until we see the awful toll hatred and fear take on people and nations. We achieve a revealing (though admittedly distressing) intimacy with the denizens of “Maidens” that’s as much about the actors’ talents and energies as it is about Smith’s storytelling gifts.

In addition to the fine acting of Breen, DeWald, Kanies and West there’s the extraordinary contribution of three players who speak volumes without uttering a single word. Tosha Marie Pendergrast, Preston Crowder and Becky Wahlstrom (Wahlstrom is also the show’s assistant director) as Figures 1, 2 and 3, respectively, convey multiple characters through movement and gestures with a minimum of added trappings – a woman’s scarf or a soldier’s “cover,” to give just two examples – while covered head-to-toe in black body stockings. Their exquisite expressiveness is mesmerizing.

The dialect work in “Maidens” is quite good, with DeWald and Nettie Kraft (German accents) as well as Kraft and Holly Shepherd Urbanowicz (Polish accents) deserving kudos for their coaching efforts. There may be nothing more distracting than bad accent work in a show; good accents complement other characterization components, so we suspend our disbelief more readily.

Sawyer Wallace’s stark and striking set design, complete with large cells for Barkmann and Becker, is also quite good, though in Darkhorse Theater’s black box those cells partially obstruct the sightlines for some audience members to the upstage platform where some pivotal playing occurs. Perhaps a thrust stage where that upstage action is moved downstage in front of those cells might possibly suit a future production.

Sound and video design (including some very disturbing but appropriate photo projections) by William Kyle Odum as well as Daniel DeVault’s lighting design set and maintain the right perspectives for this grim piece. Costume designer Colleen Garatoni captures the period from a fashion standpoint but also shows the effect of wartime life perfectly; clothes that once were fresh and colorful are now worn and faded. Makeup artist extraordinaire Shay Puffett works her cosmetic magic during the show to create visible scars on Barkmann following a violent scene (no spoilers here about that scene – go see it!). Maintaining the integrity of the prompt book (among I’m sure many other duties indispensable to this production) is stage manager Alexis LaVon.

The terrible cost of inhumanity is on intense and insightful display in “Maidens.” It’s not easy to watch, but of course it can’t be and shouldn’t be – it is, however, rewarding to audience members that take the journey with Tennessee Playwrights Studio. As Smith says on his web site, “I know that theatre can be fresh, provocative, incendiary, seditious, transgressive. It can be god—d interesting. That’s what I aspire to write.” Aspiration superbly accomplished once again, Mr. Smith.

Tennessee Playwrights Studio’s world premiere production of “Maidens” by Kenley Smith continues through July 13 at Darkhorse Theater (4610 Charlotte Ave.) Performances start at 7:30 PM today (Thursday, which is a Pay-What-You-Can performance), Friday and Saturday. The show runs about 90 minutes with no intermission; it contains profanity, sexuality and other adult content that makes it appropriate for mature audiences. Tickets ($15) for the remaining shows can be purchased online by clicking here.

(Thanks to TPS Marketing Intern Jacob Stenson)