Year: 2025

Fonseca touching on sensitive topics

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By John Lyle Belden

“Can I Touch it?” by Francisca Da Silveira is about Black women’s hair. It is about Black women. It is about a Black neighborhood facing change, and a Black family in the middle of it.

This comedy addresses, according to director Dena Toler, the many ways people of color are “touched,” personally and collectively. Counter to the old saying, “It’s a Black thing, you wouldn’t understand,” this is a theatrical opportunity to get past clumsy questions and listen to the answers we need to absorb.

A helpful bit of context: According to Boston.gov, the central neighborhood of Roxbury is “the heart of Black culture” in the city. However, the headline of the web page says, “We’re bringing this historic neighborhood into the 21st century.” – Who is “We”? – Keep this in mind when you see this show at Fonseca Theatre Company.  

Shay (Lanetta Chandler) is having trouble getting a loan to help sustain her wig and beauty supply shop on Dudley Square in Roxbury. She runs it with her sole employee, and cousin, Meeka (D’yshe Mansfield), who also has braiding skills. Shay’s daughter Ruth (Ronni Watts) is finishing high school and doesn’t want to settle for the local college, Northeastern University.

The issues with the loan seem to coincide with Patron Bank also having designs on Dudley Square for development with modern multi-level, multi-use buildings. Shay and her friend since childhood, Mark (Peter Scharbrough), are among locals meeting with the bank’s representative, Beth (Mansfield), who addresses them with a saccharine smile and thinly-veiled condescension.

Watts also plays Lili, a customer at Shay’s shop who also works at Patron; Scharbrogh is also Nicky, a barber in Somerville (just outside Boston) and friend of Meeka.

This heart of Black culture has a beat which rises up between scenes as the title question and others, such as “Is it expensive?” and “Does it hurt?” are considered one at a time.

“We live in the compromise,” Shay says, and Chandler gives her a weary optimism of one who has lived in that mode her whole life. Mansfield contributes much of the comedy in her portrayals of both eager and feisty Meeka and blonde bitch Beth. Watts gives us Ruth feeling caught between concern for her mother and worry for her future. Scharbrough, as all the white men in the cast, gives Mark and Nicky distinctive positive personalities. He also has a moment as an unhelpful loan officer.

It is fitting that with those in more than one role, much of the difference is reflected in the wigs worn. Watts truly looks like two different people as the girl Ruth with natural hair and the woman Lili with a long straight weave.

Credit, then, to Jeanne Bowling for costumes and props (including the hairpieces, I presume). Bernard Killian designed the stage with components that change from Shay’s shop to other locations as needed, aided by lighting by Ben Dobler. Ayshah Matthews is assistant director and Maggie Ward is stage manager, aided by Mad Brown.

Joshua Short makes an appearance as an online video influencer.  

Serious stuff with some laugh-out-loud moments and answers to bothersome questions – perhaps raising a few more – “Can I Touch It?” runs through March 30 at 2508 W. Michigan St., Indianapolis. Get tickets and info at fonsecatheatre.org.

Beautiful, fragile ‘Glass’ on IRT stage

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By Wendy Carson

Memory is a funny thing. It can make things seem much better, or worse, than they were without you even knowing. This discrepancy is fully acknowledged by our narrator, Tom Wingfield (played by Felipe Carrasco), in Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” at the Indiana Repertory Theatre.

This 1944 drama is the first theatrical instance of what is now known as a “memory play”. (A current example of the style would be the sitcom, “How I Met Your Mother.”) The point of view is how Tom (based to a degree on Williams himself) remembers these events. He gives us a glimpse of his home life in St. Louis with his overbearing mother Amanda (Julie Fishell) and slightly older sister Laura (Delaney Feener).

Tom is a dreamer who wishes to write poetry but dutifully slaves away at a shoe warehouse to support his family. Laura has been in ill health since her childhood; she also suffers from crushing anxiety, making it almost impossible for her to leave the house for any reason, let alone make friends. Amanda rightly worries about her daughter’s future as she notices Tom’s desire to experience adventures beyond what he sees at the movies every night.

Trying to inspire Laura, her mother drones on about her heyday as a debutante in Mississippi, fighting off the troves of “Gentleman Callers” with a stick. As things reach a boiling point, Amanda forces Tom to bring home a coworker to be a Gentleman Caller for Laura.

Enter Jim O’Connor (Sam Bell-Gurwitz), a former schoolmate who was destined for great things but fell far short. He shows ambition as he seeks to regain his “destiny.”

Director James Still does a beautiful job of making the tale resonate with the audience. While in true Tennessee Williams style, the story ends dismally, it also contains one of the most positive and beautiful scenes he has ever written, and Still keeps the dichotomy perfectly balanced.

Carrasco gives us an engaging narrator, despite his own warning of being unreliable. His Tom becomes wrapped up in the story with us, while his own personal agenda is overshadowed by a fateful evening’s events.

Feener brings to her essential role of Laura a sad sweetness with a degree of resignation to her life with her collection of delicate glass animals. She has a faint hope so impossible that it overwhelms her when it comes to her door, and will test her soul in the coming hour. Feener also has a visible difference that helps emphasize Laura’s feelings of separation from regular society.

Fishell gives Amanda a sort of bluster that thinly hides the fear that things will not work out the way she wishes. Bell-Gurwitz is loud in a more confident manner, yet his Gentleman Caller has experienced enough to yield some good advice.

See the fragile beauty that brought Tennessee Williams to Broadway on the intimate Janet Allen Upperstage of the IRT, 140 W. Washington St., in the heart of downtown Indianapolis, through April 6. Get tickets and info at irtlive.com.

Civic gets ‘Curious’ with story of mystery and maths

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By John Lyle Belden

One nice thing about the Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre production of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” (by Simon Stephens, based on the Mark Haddon novel) is that instead of a realistic looking dead dog in the middle of the stage, there is a chalk-outline style silhouette – with the garden fork stuck in it. Can’t avoid that detail as the dog, Wellington, is indeed dead.

But this play isn’t really about the dog.

The canine crime, however, is what starts Christopher Boone, a teenager in Swindon, England, who is definitely on the autism spectrum but specific diagnoses are not mentioned and irrelevant as long you understand he’s just different, to start writing his very detailed “book” on this curious incident, to aid in his investigation of the apparent murder.

So, what we see are the events of Christopher’s (Ozzy Heath) writing, also being the play that his teacher Siobhan (Jean Childers Arnold) encourages to make of it with the help of community actors (Lisa K. Anderson, Matt Anderson, Lukas Robinson, Rex Wolfley, Kennedy Morgan and Carrie Andrews Reiberg). It does appear that Christopher’s father Ed (Eric Reiberg) and mother Judy (Afton Shepard) play themselves, but that might just be us sharing his memories. Everything will add up, though, as Christopher is exceptionally good at “maths,” as the British call them.

The first act involves the quirky pursuit of justice for Wellington, which leads to a rather upsetting discovery. In the second, resolving a new mystery means taking on the most horrific challenge of Christopher’s life – the London Underground subways.

Jay Hemphill directs this production that helps deliver Christopher’s unique perspective through image projections and the other players acting as various characters, barriers, and at several moments, choreographed chaos. The neurodivergent think in straight lines and simple facts, but the world around us is mazes and metaphors.

Lebanon high schooler Heath does an excellent job of expressing that perspective, complete with a respectfully accurate presentation of the boy’s tics and quirks. Showing this person so honestly helps us to empathize and cheer him on.

Arnold’s Siobhan is that favorite teacher we either fondly remember or wish we had. She obviously understands working with students like Christopher and making him feel respected and, in this curious context, normal. Contrast this almost too good to be true character (perhaps because seen through the boy’s eyes) with his parents, neither of whom would be named Britian’s Mom or Dad of the Year.

Reiberg and Shepard each play their roles with a brutal honesty in which they see where they slipped up, finding themselves needing and willing to do the work to restore the most important and fragile thing in Christopher’s world – trust.

This story has lots of humor and persistence and compassion in a demonstration that seeing things through a different way of thinking can lead to amazing insights. And in the end, you will cheer the answer to an A-Levels maths problem!

Christopher doesn’t mind tight spaces, so we see “The Curious Incident” in The Studio Theater at the Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Carmel, through March 29. Get tickets at civictheatre.org or thecenterpresents.org.

NAATC ‘Stew’ – seeking comfort by making a meal

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By John Lyle Belden

Taking the obvious metaphor, the Pulitzer-finalist drama “Stew” by Zora Howard, presented by Naptown African American Theatre Collective at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre, is a blend of various ingredients.

It’s a story of memory, aging, change, loss, womanhood, and family, simmering in the perspective of working-class Black life in late 20th-century America. It’s multi-generational, set in the home of Mama Tucker (Vickie Daniel), with her daughters Lillian (Dominique Moon) and Nelly (Clarissa Todd) and Lillian’s children – a girl known as Lil’ Mama (Tracy Nakigozi) and the boy, Junior, who should be arriving from a friend’s house at any minute.

It’s that one day a year when folks get together at the local church and one thing that will be expected is Mama’s homemade stew. From the beginning of the day, a broken cup on the floor, everything seems to interfere with getting the food cooked on time. Lillian, visiting long-term (without her husband, who apparently won’t be coming after all) is trying too hard to help and frequently remarks on Mama’s health. Nelly, being 17, still lives there, but she has “a man” and a plan to get away; for now, though, she has endless chores garnished with maternal disapproval.  Lil’ Mama is at that middle-school age where every little thing is “sooo haaard” and her every answer is “I don’t knoooow,” but she’s still big Mama’s little girl, even when she lazily grabs the entirely wrong size cooking pot.

There are more than vegetables simmering in this house. Each one of these ladies has a secret. The least disruptive one is of Lil’ Mama auditioning for her school’s play, Shakespeare’s “Richard III.” This allows Mama to remind all that she was part of the church theatre league, and to recite the Bard’s expressions of a woman’s grief from memory.

Daniel, initially the understudy for Mama (Renee Lockett left due to illness), gives a commanding performance with the boldness of a woman knowing she has Jesus by her side and generations of strong Black women behind her. Ever maternal, she goes from scolding to tender and back in a heartbeat. This day’s changes and surprises test Mama’s resolve, sometimes severely, but we see her rising to nearly every challenge.

Moon gives us in Lillian the complexity of a woman dealing with a lot, including the state of her marriage and the lives of her children. Todd, on the other hand, portrays Nelly naively certain of how her life will play out, while knowing deep down it’s about to get a lot more complicated.

Nakagozi has mastered the art of playing an absolute brat – and not in a cute way, though she can be that as well. It’s apparent that Lil’ Mama largely can’t help being like this, and somewhere in all the frustration is a little girl who really does want to be good and helpful.

LaKesha Lorene directs, keeping “Stew’s” recipe at a low boil with plenty of humor and heart. She noted before our performance that a number of students in NAATC’s Education for All program worked on staff and crew for this production.

The struggles, laughter, shouts, and tears here are relatable to any of our families, though one aspect that will define this day, felt keenly by the Tuckers, is sadly too familiar. Come and savor what these women have to share. Performances of “Stew” run through March 30 at the Phoenix, 705 N. Illinois St., Indianapolis. Get tickets at phoenixtheatre.org or naatcinc.org.

While you’re at the show, order the new NAATC fundraiser cookbook!

A swingin’, showtune singin’ GHDT ‘Melange’

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By John Lyle Belden

If you are reading this before 3 p.m. Sunday, March 16 (I’m posting it only hours before), do consider heading over to Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre’s office and studio on Carmel’s Gradle Drive, in the big black box of The Florence, to see the latest collaboration of “Melange.” For the $20 ticket, you get 16 hit tunes sung by the fabulous Tim Hunt, along with the grace and energy of dancer Abigail Lessaris, during on-the-spot creation of art by painter Lily Kessler.

If, as most will, you read this late Sunday or after, read on to get the feel for this unique production that had excellent performances by other eclectic trios last year and should return in future months.

The concept is simple and challenging. Gregory Glade Hancock assembles a vocalist, a visual artist, and one of his company dancers for a weekend of three performances. The person singing and/or speaking arranges a one-hour program without collaborating with the others – they might not even meet until the first show date. So, for the dancer and artist the work is entirely improvised, drawing inspiration from everything in the moment. The results are each unique, coming together nicely due to the dedication and professionalism of the participants. The artwork is shown to the audience at the end – taking a photo of it is ok – and it is donated to GHDT and immediately auctioned.

Each vocal artist brings their own flair, naturally, and you may know Hunt from his recent “sweet” turn as Frank in Indy’s “Rocky Horror” – but he’s not doing that character here. He sings popular bits from other shows he’s done, ones he just liked the sound of, and one he would really like to do. He also displays his love for the songbook of Rat Pack-style jazz and Harry Connick, Jr., with a number of swinging and sentimental songs. He’ll also give us a little Don McLean (“Not that song,” he says before, “or that other one, either”). The delivery is pure joy; it would be worth the ticket and more if this were just his cabaret.

However, there is also Ms. Lessaris, an instructor and the assistant director for GHDT, and frequently a featured dancer in their shows. Her flowing modern and ballet style matched the beat leaving her glowing with energy (and sweat) and enjoying every minute. Styles ranged from gentle grace to the opportunity for a quick hillbilly jig. The songs having instrumental breaks even gave her “solos” to show off. One wouldn’t know there was no prior collaboration.

Abstract painter Kessler, an adjunct professor at Butler University and creator of “The Art of Living Yoga” book series, literally let the energy of the hour guide her into her work. The resulting in-balance beauty I’ll not elaborate on as today’s creation won’t necessarily be the same as it, however this original – her fastest work, she confessed – was worth more than its multiple bids.

See gregoryhancockdancetheatre.org for information on this and future performances, including the dance programs “Spring Equinox” on April 4-5 and “Summer Solstice” June 6-7, both at The Tarkington at the Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Carmel. The Academy at GHDT is at 329 Gradle Drive.

Agape: True story of youthful resistance to a cruel regime

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By John Lyle Belden

“We are your bad conscience” – from Leaflet 4 of The White Rose, summer 1942

Agape Theatre Company established itself as exploring the conjunction of faith and the theater arts, and with “Why We Must Die So Young,” adds one of the darkest moments in human history.

Written and directed by local playwright William Gebby, this drama tells the story of The White Rose, a resistance movement of students at the University of Munich, roughly from May 1942 to February 1943. This would be during the height of Nazi Germany’s power and territorial gains; Munich is in Bavaria, southern Germany, at the time deep within the Axis powers’ empire.

Agape shows are typically youth productions, however, this play has an appropriate mix of young artists and adults which maintains a realistic look, aside from apt costuming and the jarring presence of Nazi flags at the corners of the stage. Another important aspect is that from the beginning the audience is alerted to the fate of the White Rose members portrayed: all, save one, will be executed. This, in addition to expressions of faith by the characters, gives the drama the aura of a Passion Play. We know how it will end and must deal with that growing tension, yet a theme is the perseverance of the expressed ideal beyond death.  

Sophie Scholl (Sofy Vida), whose family members see Nazi ideology as antithetical to Christianity, departs from their home in Ulm (directly west of Munich, just over the Bavarian border) to join her brother Hans (Joshua Lehman) at the University. There they, along with schoolmates Traute Lafrenz (Megan Janning), Christoph Probst (Codie Monhollen), Alexander Schmorell (Joey Devine), and Willi Graf (Thor Hunter) attend the lectures of Prof. Kurt Huber (Robert K. Fimreite), who openly yet cleverly expresses his disdain for the current regime. Moved by his increasingly un-subtle calls to action, the young men and Sophie secretly make and distribute their first anti-Nazi leaflet.

Being Hans’s girlfriend, Traute is kept out of the loop – which she resents, as she quickly figured out what’s happening. She thus soon joins and adds a loose network of like-thinking friends in other cities. Huber, once he is informed who wrote the leaflets (and that it’s not a Gestapo trap), also joins the White Rose, authoring one of its most powerful messages.

Mac Williams and Agape founder Kathy Phipps play Hans and Sophie’s conscientious parents, with Julianna Britt as younger sister Inge. Hannah Schwitzer is Gisela, one of the kids’ friends in Ulm.

We also meet Chelsea Jackman as Prof. Huber’s wife Clara; assistant director Leslie Gebby as intellectual Frau Docktor Mertens; and Matthias Neidenberger, Candice Clorinda, Albert F. Lahrmann III, Nathan Rakes, Doug Rollison, and Ruth Bowen in other roles.

The story moves at a steady pace through numerous short scenes, the small underground movement progressing while its participants maintain near-impossible optimism, feeling at times fraught but carrying on aided by youthful recklessness. There is only slight lag in the transitions; I wonder if a future staging with a large three-side turntable of setpieces might improve the flow. We get not only the growth of the White Rose’s reach, but also the more persistent and desperate search by the authorities to shut it down. Our young agitators knew the risks, but that doesn’t reduce the impact of inevitable tragedy.

Vida is simply inspiring as Sophie, earnest and faithful. Lehman takes to his role like a committed soldier (which Hans also was) showing his bravery is not bluster. Monhollen gives all aspects of a complex character – Probst being concerned for both the safety of his wife and children, and the fate of his nation. Our father figures – boldly shown by Fimreite and Williams – are stalwarts as well, willing to stand up to unjust authority in a dangerous era.

Important history which could be seen as inspiration during current events, “Why We Must Die So Young: The story of the White Rose Resistance,” has three more dates, Friday through Sunday, March 14-16, at Arts for Lawrence’s Theater at the Fort, 8920 Otis Ave., northeast Indianapolis. Get tickets at artsforlawrence.org.

Betty Rage lets us in on a secret

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By John Lyle Belden

Betty Rage Productions presents the longest-running stage play, Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap,” in cooperation with The Scottish Rite Valley of Indianapolis, at Indianapolis Scottish Rite Cathedral, directed by the company’s original “Betty,” Callie Burk-Hartz.

The quirky whodunit opened in London in 1952, around when the play is set, and has been performed perpetually since (except for a break for Covid). For the second time in recent memory, this fun mystery plays in Indianapolis, with the hope that all who see it keep to the long-standing tradition to reveal to no one its secrets, including who “dun” it.

As the radio gives a bulletin about a brazen murder in London, near Paddington, Mollie and Giles Ralston (Hannah Embree and Charles Weimer) arrive to prepare Monkswell Manor for its guests. Married just a year, they have just acquired the old home located 30 miles outside the city and have just opened it as a rooming house. She seems wistful and hopeful, while he is stoic and matter-of-fact, still they share a subtle affection.

Just as a blizzard intensifies to confine everyone to the manor (naturally, this is a Christie story after all) we meet hyper and talkative aspiring architect Christopher Wren (named after the famous one, played by Matt Hartzburg); the “perfectly horrible” and never pleased Mrs. Boyle (Gigi Jennewein); easy-going retired soldier Major Metcalf (Mookie Harris); Miss Casewell (Michelle Wafford) whose trousers and attitude mark her as her own woman, brooding and secretive; and finally the expressive and wildly Italian-accented Mr. Paravacini (Lukas Schooler) who not only tells you up-front that you can’t trust a thing he says, he seems to delight in it. The latter is a surprise arrival, having (allegedly) stuck his car in a snowbank, forcing him to walk to this, the nearest house.

Speaking of surprises, local policeman Sergeant Trotter (Aaron Stillerman) suddenly arrives on skis to investigate how Monkswell and its occupants are apparently related to the murder mentioned above. “Three Blind Mice” is the theme of the goings-on, and when body number two is found, the plot intensifies in a quest for the identities of both the killer and the endangered third “mouse.”

Performances are excellent with steady accents. Each acts suspiciously in their own way, keeping fellow characters and the audience guessing. Hartzburg and especially Schooler have a blast with their hilarious over-the-top characters, as others on stage remark on their eccentricities to reassure us that neither is too intense for what the setting and story allow.

Liz Carrier is assistant director and Jamie Rich stage manager. The Scottish Rite provides, aside from the beautiful J. Robert Wortman Auditorium, a stage crew as well as set and props. This includes behind the stage’s central windows a scenic backdrop that dates back to the Cathedral’s first presentations in 1929 (which explains why it is kept as-is and not “snow” covered).

The play only has a single-weekend run, with remaining performances Saturday and Sunday, March 8-9, at 650 N. Meridian, downtown Indianapolis (big castle-like building, you can’t miss it). Promise not to tell, and come see who gets caught in “The Mousetrap.” Get tickets at bettyrageproductions.com.

Searching through old pages for family

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By John Lyle Belden

This is a play about a woman who committed to writing a play, based on her great-grandfather’s diary, which – when she made the proposal – she had barely read.

“The Berlin Diaries” by Andrea Stolowitz is presented by the Phoenix Theatre as part of a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere. Jennifer and Rob Johansen are listed as playing Andrea and Max (the patriarch diarist) but play all roles. Stolowitz constructed the narrative to always be in her (Andrea’s) point of view, which can be expressed by either actor as herself speaking or others talking to her, including Max’s words coming forward from 1939. Thanks to the skill of both veteran Equity performers, this is easier to follow that you’d think, and gives new perspective to talking things over with yourself.

The play is directed by Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre artistic director Constance Macy and Rabbi Brett Krichiver, who also understudy.

Andrea has a grant and an apartment in Berlin, Germany, to develop her dramatic work based on the diary kept within a family who seem to now be so few, and who hardly get along. In the 1930s, Max Conreich and various relatives lived in the city, but he managed to escape to New York before the Nazi regime closed in. Also, she discovers, other family made their way to Brazil, Jewish Palestine (now Israel), South Africa, Australia, Argentina, and elsewhere.

This journey of discovery is a unique perspective on stories of the Holocaust. The horrors of those lost in death camps is touched upon, yet there is also the loss of connectivity in the scattering of people to avoid those horrors. In Andrea’s family, the spirit of avoidance lingers to today’s generations.

Andrea’s hunt for “people lost like library books” through Skype calls, interviewing relatives, and volumes of old paperwork is engaging and fascinating. Especially in Jen and Rob’s hands, the play that Stolowitz set out on blind faith to make works beautifully.

As much a part of the show as the actors is the exceptional set designed by Zac Hunter, with a huge tree – a family tree, you could say – made with book-cover bark and book pages for leaves. The plight of Jews to always be on the move, as well as Andrea’s travels, are exemplified by the various suitcases employed as props and furniture, constantly rearranged throughout the show.

Fulfil Max’s wishes by engaging with “The Berlin Diaries,” through March 16 at 705 N. Illinois St., downtown Indianapolis. Get info and tickets at phoenixtheatre.org.

Footlite: ‘Change’ shines

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By John Lyle Belden

When you are the singular housekeeper working in the basement of a modest home, it can feel like your only friends are the new washer and dryer. The swish-swish of the laundry sings to you, a rhythm matched by the Motown backup singers on the radio.

This is the world of Caroline Thibodeaux in “Caroline, or Change,” presented by Footlite Musicals, directed by Bradley Alan Lowe. It is the Indiana premiere of this 2003 Broadway musical by Tony Kushner, with music by Jeanine Tesori, based on Kushner’s own childhood.

Caroline (Damaris Burgin), a Black single mother in Lake Charles, La., in 1963, is fortunate to have a job working for the Gellman family even though they can’t pay much. Their young son, Noah (Asher Ortman) has taken a liking to her, but mostly her companions are Washing Machine (Anya Andrews), Dryer (Markell Pipkins), and The Radio (Jada Radford, Nia Hughes and Vivian Husband). We also meet personifications of the Bus (Samuel McKanney) that brings her to this neighborhood and the Moon (Angela Manlove) that shines up above. But this is not “Beauty and the Beast” – the feeling is closer to “Driving Miss Daisy” but as a musical is almost entirely sung-through. Consider it like an opera for the domestic servant, with music that includes Gospel, R&B, and Jewish Klezmer refrains.

Noah has his own difficulties, as his mother died and his musician father Stuart (Phil Criswell) is remarried, to close family friend Rose (Emily Mae Gaddy), of which the boy does not approve. Also on hand are his Gellman grandparents (Dan Flahive and Gisele Dollinger).

Caroline rides the homeward bus with fellow domestic Dotty (Zarah Shejule). She shares her small home with daughters Emmie (Kaylee Johnson-Bradley), Jackie (Cairo Graves), and Jo (Praia Graves) – her son is with the Army in Vietnam.

Rose notices that, being a typically careless boy, Noah keeps leaving pocket change in his pants when they go into the laundry. She decides to teach him a lesson by announcing that whatever Caroline finds, she gets to keep. However, the boy then makes a point of leaving nickels, dimes, and quarters to see what happens. As for Caroline, the arrangement doesn’t feel right, but this small “raise” is making a big difference for her girls.

National events are naturally at the edge of this story. They are in a relatively quiet Southern city, but still hear news of JFK as well as the Civil Rights struggle elsewhere – also, the statue of a Confederate “hero” in the center of town has disappeared.

Things get more interesting with the Hannukah visit of Rose’s father. Mr. Stopnick (Graham Brinklow) is a liberal New Yorker who feels for what “Negroes” are going through, but wishes they would take a different approach than that of Martin Luther King Jr.

Performances are wonderful all around. Burgin is endearing yet tough as the title character. The limits of her pride are often tested as dealing with “change,” in any form, makes her stronger. Johnson-Bradley is fierce as Emmie, an impetuous youth finding her voice and place in the world she’s growing into. Ortman’s Noah is a likable kid who makes mistakes but means well, though he learns that not everything you say can be taken back.

The most complex role, next to Caroline, turns out to be Rose. Gaddy plays her as someone who realizes she is the “evil stepmother” in this tale and defies that by showing she does care in her own way. At first homesick for New York, she dedicates herself to the household and family she has chosen, including the boy she hopes one day with love her, and the proud Black woman she tries to understand.

Discover this unconventional look at some interesting people (and appliances). “Caroline, or Change” plays through March 16 at 1847 N. Alabama St., downtown Indianapolis. Get tickets at footlite.org.

‘Sensitive’ look at campus life

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By John Lyle Belden

“Sensitive Guys” by M.J. Kaufman, presented by Theatre Unchained at IF Theatre, has a vibe like a goofy Fringe-show version of a campus comedy. The laughs come easy as what appear to be feminist and dude-bro archetypes strive to say something important for both the audience and one another.

“What’s the trick to being a good guy?” one asks. It feels naïve, but for someone maybe 20 years old, expected to be an adult while his higher brain functions aren’t yet mature, this is a truly serious question. And circumstances will get quite serious.

Joe Wagner, with wide experience acting in comedy and drama, takes on direction of this comic drama, entrusting five “she” or “they” actors to play all characters including five young women in a sexual assault Survivor Support Group and the five members of the Men’s Peer Education Group at fictional Watson College – a small liberal institution of higher learning that loves to tout its “empowerment” of students.

While the college recites “core principles” that are little more than background noise, for our co-eds the theme is “transformation” – changing both themselves and the world around them for the better.

Anna Himes portrays the newcomers to each group. Will, who asks the question above, is a young man working on his empathy. As Leslie, she finds taking charge of her sexual experiences didn’t shield her from consent being taken from her. Adding to her sense of betrayal, the perpetrator is in the Peer Group.

Gayle Radwick is Katie in the women’s group, and Jordan of the men’s, who is in a relationship with Shanya Nicole as Tracey, the woman who happens to say something that bothers her male role, Tyler. Sheila Raghavendran is Amy with the women, Pete with the men. Monya Wolf is Diana with the women and Danny, the men’s group founder.

Shifts in wardrobe and stance, besides deepening the voice when a dude, make the character transitions easy to follow. Indulging in a bit of caricature also aids the comedy. Seeing gender as not just two aspects of humanity but also two versions of the same faces help unify their experiences as part of the same student body, all seeking guidance and needing a sense of safety.

While attending this college, don’t be surprised that you in the audience get a lesson as well. The facts that will be presented (aside from a fictional paragraph about Watson) will all sadly be true.

An entertaining satire with a healthy dose of awareness, take a seat with “Sensitive Guys,” March 7-9 and 13-15 on the IF Basile Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair St., Indianapolis. Get tickets at indyfringe.org, info at theatreunchained.org.