Nick Kilgore

New look at life on a familiar street

PWJW_Indy Reviews, Stage , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

By John Lyle Belden

Meridian (from Merriam-Webster) a great circle on the surface of the earth passing through the poles; a representation of such a circle or half circle numbered for longitude

Meridian (in Indianapolis) the central north-south street marking “00” address for the city; it helps, with major east-west streets, to make an easy grid for getting around.

It appears that award-winning New York playwright Lucy Thurber has incorporated both concepts into the new play, “The Meridian Cafe,” commissioned by American Lives Theatre and performing its world premiere at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre. With a sense for human connection that transcends East Coast or Hoosier culture, she gives us a night in the lives of people in a central familiar location, marking a place along their lives’ journey.

Director (and ALT artistic director) Chris Saunders agreed when I told him the setting feels like Indy’s South Meridian Street. It’s a working-class neighborhood with a small all-night diner (memories of Peppy Grill were expressed afterward). James (Ian Cruz) runs the café with the sort of Serenity Prayer wisdom that comes from being 10 years sober. His cook, Nicky (Joshua Short), has ambitions of becoming a professional chef. A frequent customer, so to speak, is Candace (Lynne Perkins), a local unhoused woman who is mentally frayed and largely unafraid. The coffee has endless refills.

A young woman, Sara (Morgan Morton), enters visibly upset. There are hints of a man, her husband who now wants a divorce, arriving as well. But the next person coming in the door is Luke (Matt Kraft), a young man who asks to speak with Nicky.

The two men grew up as friends in this neighborhood, but Luke’s substance abuse estranged them and landed him in prison. Now out and professing a year of sobriety, Luke asks for a job. After sizing him up briefly, James puts him to work.

Finally, Billy (Allen Sledge), Sara’s husband, arrives. While trying to talk to her he sees Luke and suddenly remembers meeting him. Confused, Luke retreats to the kitchen.

The situation gets more complicated as we learn that one thing Sara and Billy have in common (likely a catalyst for their struggling marriage) is that they both were fighting same-sex attractions in the Christian community of their small home town. She’s still struggling, while he – a professional theatre artist – feels he no longer can.

Through conversations, some held during smoke breaks outside, and an incident when Sara’s evangelical impulses upset Candace, we see various tensions rise and break. They won’t “sing Kumbaya,” but Billy does favor us with a Broadway number.

This being a fascinating character study taking place over a single night, we get a good impression of each of these personalities, though everyone is largely a cypher, as would be the case to us as strangers observing from our corner of the diner.  Cruz makes James the captain of this ship, leading with calm resolve and stern when it’s called for. His relationship with Candace suggests a history and empathy with her life struggles.

In Perkins’ crafting of the character, Candace would be worthy of a play of her own (which we would love to see). She reflects aspects we too often see on this city’s streets, but without caricature or eliciting pity. There are plenty of hearty laughs in this show, but none at her expense.

Kraft employes his full comedy-to-drama range here. Luke’s apparent sincerity and lack of duplicity now collide with awareness of an addict’s easy lies and the fact he had been literally blackout drunk a year earlier. Given this single window to assess him, he is both likable and unreliable.

Sara is one mixed-up character, and fortunately Morton is brilliant at handling such roles. She has a lot to work through, and we see part of that process here. Billy is on a different point on a similar character arc, forced to reckon with a couple of assumptions about what’s best him and his wife, as well as the factors that brought him to this moment. All this Sledge ably manages, and sings beautifully as well.

Short takes on Nicky’s “young man from the ‘hood makes good” character with earnest good humor, especially in his concern for Luke tempered by the sting of past betrayal. Still, compared to the others, this role feels thin.

As Wendy told me when we discussed this play afterward, “this left me wanting more,” is both praise and critique. Perhaps a few more aspects of character in some roles would help, and the fairly short run time can take on additional moments without feeling padded. On the other hand, what more do we get to know of the strangers in a spellbinding conversation overheard in the next restaurant booth?

Regardless, I could see Thurber taking a production of this to success Off-Broadway (frankly, given her CV, this could be a possibility). Thus, we who saw it at the Phoenix can share the brag of seeing it first.

Nicely evocative set design with cleverly transparent outer walls is by Nick Kilgore. Tristen Durham is assistant director, and Lucy Yahr is stage manager.

An excellent snapshot of Midwest life that looks kindly into its shadows, visit “The Meridian Cafe” through Nov. 8 at 705 N. Illinois St. (a block from Meridian) in downtown Indianapolis. Get info and tickets at phoenixtheatre.org or americanlivestheatre.org.

P.S. It’s interesting to me that one of the great offbeat literary minds of the 20th and 21st Century are each named “Thurber,” but I see no indication that Lucy is related to James (writer of numerous works, including “Walter Mitty”). If anyone is aware of a link, let us know.

P.P.S. Yes, I know The Peppy (which we miss!) was in Fountain Square and on 10th Street; I didn’t want to make a misleading comparison to any actual spot on Meridian.

Lessons impact more than students in ALT drama

PWJW_Indy Reviews, Stage , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

By John Lyle Belden

Home Economics education was a normal part of growing up female in America for most of the 20th century. Colleges took it a step further with degree programs and entire departments so that ambitious ladies could get socially acceptable careers in fields like foods and nutrition or education, or to just become more knowledgeable housewives.

In “Borrowed Babies,” the drama by Jennifer Blackmer presented by American Lives Theatre, an enterprising professor at an Indiana college creates an innovation within that system.

In 1952, Judy London (Jen Johansen) starts her “Home Management House” where four senior Home Ec majors will reside while taking on practical projects in aspects such as cooking and sewing. For them to better understand infant care, Mrs. London has arranged for an actual one-month-old from the local Children’s Home, who will live with them throughout the semester.

In 1982, the program has been inactive for over a decade and the House, where Mrs. London still has her office, is about to be demolished by the University to make way for new construction. Assisted by distracted student Shelly (Rachel Ivie), they are packing up accumulated paperwork and records when a 30-year-old woman (Lauren Briggeman) arrives, insisting on speaking with the professor. Wendy, they discover, has been here before.

On a singular stage set, designed by Nick Kilgore, we witness both eras. Bridget Haight’s direction, lighting design by Paully Crumpacker, and the skill of the cast – especially Johansen – make the story’s constant flow between these periods natural and easy to follow.

In the ‘50s, we get to know the four students: Vera (Hannah Luciani) is an honor student, eager to please. Louise (Carmia Imani) is ambitious, her eye on both a career and a certain young man, though she is regarded as the group’s worst cook. Betty (Dorian Underwood) is bright and upbeat with dreams of making it in the New York art scene. Bernie (Sarah Powell), daughter of a former “Rosie the Riveter” and an overbearing father, enjoys fixing things – however, she resists helping to care for the baby, as she doesn’t plan to have one of her own.

Julie Dixon plays Mrs. Rose McGuinness, a social worker with the Children’s Home.

Blackmer, a Professor of Theatre at Ball State University in Muncie, based this play on a past program of “practice houses” there. Having this grounded in a real mid-century experiment, done with the best intentions but a more ends-justify-means standard of ethics typical at the time, makes this drama even more fascinating. It also gives a glimpse into the lives of women college students who must reconcile unlimited potential with limited opportunities.

In addition, this production gives us the pleasure of seeing two of Indy’s best actors, Johansen and Briggeman, go toe-to-toe in a battle of wills. Those playing students also get moments to shine, especially Powell in her deeply conflicted role.

Class is in session, with lessons that ask hard but important questions. “Borrowed Babies” runs through Feb. 22 at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre, 705 N. Illinois St. in downtown Indianapolis. For tickets, go to phoenixtheatre.org.

Catalyst creates outstanding ‘Streetcar’

PWJW_Indy Reviews, Stage , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

By Wendy Carson and John Lyle Belden

With all of the winter weather we are having, it is satisfying to have Catalyst Repertory bring us a steamy trip to 1950s New Orleans with its imaginative production of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

The first clue to the uniqueness of the show is the inventive set design of Nick Kilgore. He has basically cut apart the walls and rooms of an apartment house to make them easily flow into each other without losing each location’s identity. The actors enter, exit, and perform within the full 360 degrees of set as well as multiple levels available to them. With the size of the stage, you might think this is incredibly cramped, but it never feels claustrophobic. In fact, the layout causes a rare intimacy to occur between the troupe and audience, seated “in the round,” which makes the whole a more enjoyable evening. A couple of pieces – a bedroom vanity, a nearby bar piano – even extend into the audience space naturally. The concessions bar for patrons at intermission is even part of the set, suggesting a piece of nearby Bourbon Street.

For those unfamiliar with the tale: Fading Southern belle Blanche DuBois (Sara Castillo Dandurand) turns up on the shabby doorstep of her younger sister, Stella (Anna Himes) and Stella’s husband Stanley Kowalski (Ian McCabe). Blanche lives in a world of delusion she consistently concocts to keep her from realizing that she is desperate, alone, old, and without any other place to go. After months of living with her disdain and lying, Stanley is determined to send her packing.

This description, of course, doesn’t do justice to the genius of Williams’ drama, and in the practiced hands of director Casey Ross – herself an artisan of plot and dialogue – narrative richness and tension as thick as Louisiana humidity imbues the play from start to finish.  

Dandurand transforms into Blanche, wearing her pride like a fading flower, masking dysfunction with flirtatious charm so well it fools everyone – except Stanley. For his part, McCabe ably puts on Kowalski’s working-man swagger. He is devoted to Stella, but has issues (to put it mildly), complete with a low-simmering rage fed by a lifetime of being called a Pollack, among other things. Perhaps the fact he has to present a public mask helps him detect Blanche’s. The two circle each other throughout, like a pampered cat and a mangy dog, claws out, fangs in their smiles. Himes is also wonderful as a Stella who sees the good in Stanley, is eagerly the yin to his yang, and tries to be at peace with the fact her debutante days may be gone forever.

Making a stunning dramatic debut is Brian DeHeer as Mitch Mitchell, Stanley’s bowling and poker buddy who knew him since their WWII service together. Feeling lonely as he tends to his ailing mother, Mitch starts falling for Blanche – it won’t be a soft landing. 

In excellent support are Audrey Stonerock and Matt Kraft as neighbors Eunice and Steve Hubbell, as well as Tom Alvarez as poker buddy Pablo, Mitchell Wray as a boy who comes around, and Viviana Quinones as a local flower-seller. Alvarez’s partner in Magic Thread Cabaret (a co-producer), Dustin Klein, tickles the ivories at the corner piano, with old tunes and his new compositions to underscore the action. At the club microphone is the exquisite voice of Courtney Wiggins. David Mosedale and Wendy Brown complete the cast, mainly in the final scene.

For either those new to “Streetcar,” or Williams fanatics looking for something fresh, we cannot recommend this production enough. There are adult themes and herbal cigarettes (though perhaps the first-ever Ross-directed play without an F-bomb), yet if you can take the heat, you won’t regret the experience of this scorching masterpiece.

Performances run Fridays through Sundays, through March 19 at the IndyFringe Basile Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair, Indianapolis. For tickets, go to IndyFringe.org.