play

KidsPlay gets the “facts” on legendary tale

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By John Lyle Belden

When your happily ever after isn’t going so well, or otherwise you’re at your cottage during the day, you tune into what’s happening on the Fairy Tale Network. And in the spirit of those non-magical folk who obsess over celebrity and true crime stories, you get the eyewitness accounts of Real Talk with Fairy Tale Legends.

This is the set of “The Snow White Variety Show,” by Brian Taylore, presented by KidsPlay Inc., the Greenfield-based program for young performers in grades 3-8. Directed by founder Christine Schaefer and Amy Studabaker, with choreography by Frances Hull and stage-managed by Blair Connelly and Ethan Stearns, once again we get a fairly polished and professional production, giving us a glimpse of real budding talent mixed in with youthful exuberance, giving a show that you don’t have to be related to one of the cast to enjoy.

Our Announcer (Anthony Stunda) introduces “Real Talk…”, hosted by Heidi Perbole (Ellie Stearns), who is eager to get the Grimm truth about Snow White. Seven dwarves are on hand to tell what really happened – not the seven you’ve heard of, we get Wordy (Nora Smith), Rowdy (Reid Connors), Nerdy (Charles Wallace), Weepy (Aria Studabaker), Creepy (Everett Sumpter), Howdy (Alexandria Ellis), and Bob (Asher Ortman). As is routine with “true crime” TV, all the scenes are presented on stage by reenactors, giving us characters including Snow’s parents (Kayte Reasoner and Ben Erwin), the Evil Queen (Chloe Elkins), The Huntsman (Jack Joyner), the Magic Mirror (Audra Speicher), and Snow White herself (Reese Weitekamp). As each dwarf relates a part of the story, in his or her own quirky way, the “actors” perform it in the same manner – Wordy’s bits are verbose, for instance, while Howdy’s has a cowboy flavor.

Even mythical folk have to pay the bills, so the broadcast is peppered with commercials for things like the Big Bad Wolf’s (Carter Pipkin) house-flipping business, Rumpelstiltskin’s (Nora Jeter) gold investments, or Cinder-sella (Kyndall Watkins) offering you a great price on a new or used carriage (deals end at midnight). KidsPlay has posters by these “advertisers” for auction in the theater lobby.

This enchanted set also has appearances by Tanner Pipkin, Elliott Holms, Molly Wallace, Amelia Melby, Sawyer Erwin, Addalyn Torres, Abilene Kaucher, Spencer Pipkin, Essie Ortman, and Josie McConnell, in various roles.

A funny and charming fresh take on a familiar story, with twists you may not expect, performances are this weekend only, Nov. 10-12 at H.J. Ricks Centre for the Arts, 122 W. Main St. (US 40) in downtown Greenfield. Tickets are still only $5 each. See info and pictures by searching “KidsPlay” on Facebook.

OnyxFest: Babe

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OnyxFest is Indy’s first and only theater festival dedicated to the stories of Black playwrights. These one-act celebrations of Black life and culture are presented by IndyFringe and the Africana Repertory Theatre of IUPUI. After an initial weekend at the IndyFringe Theatre, upcoming performances are Friday through Sunday, Nov. 10-12, at historic Crispus Attucks High School, in the Auditorium at 1140 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street, Indianapolis. For information and tickets, visit OnyxFest.com.

By Wendy Carson

Delores Thornton brings us the story of her mother’s life and arduous journey from Georgia to Indiana in search of a better life and freedom from the racial oppression of the South.

We first meet Babe (Leondra Radford) at the forming of a new mental health support group in the year 2000. The therapist, Dr. Davis (Chris Sears), has assembled clients who all have different issues, but have personalities that complement each other.

They include a young alcoholic wrestling with moving on with her life (Kim McMurray); a former drug addict who still gambles (Gene Howard); and Babe, of course, who has been experiencing migraines and nightmares. Thornton plays an older woman who suffers from anxiety, especially when driving.

On her own with Dr. Davis, Babe participates in several sessions of hypnosis – despite the warnings from the voices of her friends and family, neatly channeled by the spirit of her old friend Octavia (Dr. Cheryl Talley-Black, who also provides some beautiful spiritual songs that cover the scene changes).

As the show progresses – with memories from 1989, through the decades, back as far as 1922 – we are given glimpses of the traumas Babe experienced and insight into how her brain coped with this knowledge for all of these years.

Director Trease Sears does a great job of keeping each character true to their story as well as having the unenviable task of directing the author of the work itself. The play is a searing indictment of the mental toll Jim Crow and the Civil Rights struggle took on so many. Thornton hopes that this will also encourage a more open attitude among Black communities to seek help when needed.

OnyxFest: Tigone

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OnyxFest is Indy’s first and only theater festival dedicated to the stories of Black playwrights. These one-act celebrations of Black life and culture are presented by IndyFringe and the Africana Repertory Theatre of IUPUI. After an initial weekend at the IndyFringe Theatre, upcoming performances are Friday through Sunday, Nov. 10-12, at historic Crispus Attucks High School, in the Auditorium at 1140 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street, Indianapolis. For information and tickets, visit OnyxFest.com.

By John Lyle Belden

As one might guess, the name of the title character of “Tigone,” by Levi Frazier Jr., is a reference to the mythical princess in Sophocles’ play “Antigone” (part of a trilogy with “Oedipus Rex”). That character met a tragic end while trying to act justly. In Frazier’s play, Tigonie (Michelle E. Mitchell) also seeks justice.

On a pleasant day in Memphis, a local church Bishop (Lawrence Blackwell) is relaxing on a park bench when an attractive young woman walks by with two coffees. One of them is just the way he likes it, but the significance of the coincidence doesn’t dawn on him until they are well into their conversation.

As their discussion continues and intensifies, we learn more about her, and more about him. They share a connection, and it is so much more troublesome than you would guess.

Mitchell and Blackwell (who also directs) keep the tension taut and the portrayals believable, riveting us to the bitter end.  

How much can one leave in the past? What can be forgiven? And even if one repents, what about accountability? The exploration into these questions builds to a conclusion that would have impressed the old Greek playwright.

OnyxFest: Right Behind You

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OnyxFest is Indy’s first and only theater festival dedicated to the stories of Black playwrights. These one-act celebrations of Black life and culture are presented by IndyFringe and the Africana Repertory Theatre of IUPUI. After an initial weekend at the IndyFringe Theatre, upcoming performances are Friday through Sunday, Nov. 10-12, at historic Crispus Attucks High School, in the Auditorium at 1140 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street, Indianapolis. For information and tickets, visit OnyxFest.com.

By Wendy Carson

Even though it was just three years ago, the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic are becoming fuzzier in our memories. Playwright D.L. Patrick returns us there with a look at family dynamics that ring true no matter the source.

The family Matriarch (Faye Holmes) lies in her hospital bed wondering where her daughter is, the one who, as the ambulance took her away, promised to be “Right Behind You.” Days pass, and as she slips into a coma, her consciousness gets up to look around. Family eventually visit, offering frustrated apologies for the delay, but their stays are brief due to Covid protocols. However, it is more than the virus keeping one daughter away.

In conversations and flashbacks, we see how each family member deals with both this crisis and past issues. Performed by the ensemble of Beverly Harney, LaToya Jay, Kaitlynn Nailon, Alicia Sims, and Tamara Taylor, we see the issues of multigenerational living and how caring for one another can be as much a burden as a joy – yet it all gets thrown into perspective when it’s possible Mom may never wake up.

Director Megan Simonton does an excellent job of keeping the personalities of these proud women from overshadowing each other while also keeping the interpersonal family dynamics exceedingly true-to-life.

Go see “Right Behind You,” then consider visiting Grandma – maybe bring a jigsaw puzzle.

Bard Fest presents heavy ‘Hedda’

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By John Lyle Belden

Trigger warning: Suicide.

Now that I’ve given that necessary note, I can delve into why – if you feel up to it – you should see the Indy Bard Fest production of Henrik Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler,” adapted by Jon Robin Baitz, directed by Chris Saunders at Arts for Lawrence’s Theater at the Fort.

For those, like me, who may have read Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” in school but are not aware of this work, another example of his bold realistic look at society in late 19th century Norway, Gabler is a headstrong woman whose beauty attracts men while her icy demeanor keeps them at bay: the original “mean girl.” The daughter of an army General, she is also accustomed to a certain standard of living.

The play opens with Hedda (Morgan Morton) returning from her long honeymoon after marrying the academic George Tesman (Joe Wagner), an uber-nerd who spent most of those months in tedious research. It becomes evident that she has married him mostly for his potential status once his scholarly works are published, and takes his puppy-like devotion as her due. She enjoys being rude to George’s aunt Julia (Susan Hill) and indifferent to the servant Berta (Carrie Reiberg) in this big house that George can barely afford.

The Tesmans aren’t the only ones back in town. Eilert Lovborg (Matt Kraft), who had been a hopeless alcoholic as well as Hedda’s old flame, has turned up sober with a popular book that rivals the one George is still working on. Aided by Thea (Anna Himes), whom Hedda used to bully in their school days, he also composed an even better follow-up – the only manuscript copy of which is in his bag. However, a boys’ night out with George and the unscrupulous Judge Brack (Clay Mabbitt) sets in motion events with tragic consequences, aided by Hedda’s machinations.

Though the play predates Freud’s works, it shows Ibsen’s keen perception of various neurotic types – which our cast ably take on. Kraft’s Lovborg is the restless genius bohemian; Wagner’s detail-obsessed yet socially oblivious George appears to be on the autistic spectrum; Himes’ Thea is desperate to rise above her fears, and at the very least redirect her people-pleasing impulses to someone more appreciative than the distant husband she left to be with Eilert; Mabbitt’s Brack is the classic sleazy womanizer and party hound with a position he can use over others.

But most fascinating, of course, is our title character. Hedda’s narcissistic aspects are obvious, but she also has a unique perspective on life, honor, and the way things should be that lead her to an even more untenable position. Morton has all her stone glances and manic moments down perfectly, keeping her fascinating enough to not let us be completely put off by her brusque demeanor.

This brilliant examination of a fateful 48 hours in the lives of people filled with pride and potential has one more weekend, Friday through Sunday, Nov. 10-12, at Theater at the Fort, 8920 Otis Ave., Lawrence. Get info at indybardfest.com, tickets at artsforlawrence.org.

Suspense in our world beyond time and space

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By John Lyle Belden

We all remember the bizarre feeling of the day/month/season/year that was 2020. By March the world was shutting down, and even late into summer, fall and “virtual” holidays everyone was sorting out this new “normal” that echoes to this day.

Joe and his stepdaughter Abby (Bill Simmons and Paige Elisse) come home from a day at the zoo. They will not leave the house again for a long time. Waiting for them on the porch is a large wooden box.

What could be in this unexpected delivery? Perhaps a book, one that explains the world. Upon opening, they find there is a book, but it has no words, and a doll – that has no face. 

This sets up the drama in “The Body,” presented by the Phoenix Theatre, which playwright Steve Moulds said is inspired by the off-kilter reality of “The Twilight Zone.”

To be honest, it would have helped put the Covid era in perspective if we had a visit from Rod Serling. For most of us, day to day life wasn’t as much about the deadly virus as it was getting through with so many unknowns of how our lives, relationships, and jobs would continue, contrasted with seeing the same four walls around you, and the same faces in the room.

Joe is haunted by something that has nothing to do with the pandemic, a deep personal loss from which he, or his new family, has yet to recover. As Abby becomes “the Detective,” working the puzzle of the book’s illustrations, and the doll suddenly finds a name, fragile reality cracks around the man who just wanted to be a good father. 

Simmons, an excellent stage veteran and acting teacher, wears this role like a comfortable sweater, and as his unease grows, we feel it with him. Elisse embodies the nine-ish girl with all the sass, impatience, and sweetness that keeps it believable. 

As for the story itself, under the direction of Phoenix Christel DeHaan Artistic Director Constance Macy, with excellent mood-setting soundscapes by Mike Lamirand and lighting by Michael Jackson, Moulds’ plot unspools with appropriate tension, keeping us all engaged at the edge of our seats. 

Because it can elicit a strong response, perhaps a trigger warning is in order. I don’t want to give spoilers, but I can think of friends with close family tragedies whom I would not advise seeing this play. If you have concerns, please ask the Phoenix staff when ordering tickets.

Performances run through Nov. 19 on the Livia and Steve Russell main stage at the Phoenix, 705 N. Illinois St., downtown Indianapolis. Get info and tickets at phoenixtheatre.org.  

Bard Fest tackles tragedy of ‘Medea’

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By John Lyle Belden

“I am a woman of misfortune.”

This understatement is given by the mythical woman Medea, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, but seen as a barbarian as she is from land distant from Greece. She forsook that place and betrayed her father, the King, to aid the Greek hero Jason in stealing the Golden Fleece and traveling to his home to be his wife and bear his children.

But willful Jason opts to take up with another woman, Glauce, daughter of the Corinthian King Creon, who will give his kids greater legitimacy. Medea does not take this well. Creon’s solution? Order Medea into exile, not an easy task for a woman without a country.

In the tragic play “Medea” by Euripides, these are her desperate times. In turn, her desperate measures are legendary.

Bard Fest presents a translation by Ruby Blondell in which Medea (Laura Gellin) is joined by a chorus of women through the ages (Liz Carrier, Cassidy Dueker, Kitty Compton, Hannah Embree) to amplify her woes and pleas. Jason (Darin Richart) is just a man doing what he thinks is best, puzzled that she can’t see things his way while discarding her perspective as barbarian thinking. Guy Grubbs plays the kings who are Medea’s doom and hope. Her children are played by Allie Stacy and Ellie Richart. Amalia Howard and Andrea Haskett complete the cast. Natalie Fischer directs.

If you know the dire deeds that Medea does, watch to understand why. If you don’t know, brace yourself (serious trigger warning!), and strive to understand. Gellin gives an unflinching performance, powerful throughout. Darin Richart makes plain Jason’s motivations, in today’s light visible as aspects of controlling narcissism, betrayed in his cry at the climax of what has been done to him, a character left alive.  

This brilliant staging of the celebrated tragedy has three more performances, Friday through Sunday, Oct. 27-29 on the Basile main stage of the IndyFringe Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair, Indianapolis. Get tickets at indybardfest.com or indyfringe.org.

Bardfest’s ‘Bold’ move pays off

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By John Lyle Belden

In its present form, Indy Bard Fest’s annual festival goes beyond works by William Shakespeare to include notable stage classics and works that could be considered “Shakespeare adjacent.” In this latter mode, we become exposed to playwrights whose works we might not otherwise see.

“A Bold Stroke for a Husband,” is a 1783 comedy by English writer Hannah Cowley (not obscure in her own day, her hits included “The Belle’s Stratagem”) who liked to include commentary on the difficulties of women in European society. The title (wordplay on that of a similar work of the era) refers not to abusive men, rowing, or a brain seizure, but of women who execute brave maneuvers in order to gain or keep the men of their fancy.

Two main plots run through this play, set in late 1700s Madrid, Spain. Don Carlos (Trent K. Hawthorne-Richards), who left his wife Victoria (Tailynn Downing) and their children to have an affair with Donna Laura (Hannah Elizabeth Boswell), learns his lover has tricked him out of the deed to the estate that had been in his wife’s name. Devious Laura refuses to sign it back, dumping him for another gentleman.

In other events, Victoria’s cousin, Olivia (Wilhelmina Dreyer) has her father Don Caesar (Angela Dill) insisting she commit to a suitor immediately to avoid old-maid status and eventually give him an heir. The gentlemen arrive, first Don Garcia (Katie Brownlee), then Don Vincentio (Jordan Paul Wolf), who are verbally dispatched by Olivia with the aid of her saucy maid Minetta (Rowan Apple-Knotts).

Though, in our closest link to the Bard, we see the lady as a “shrew” to rival Shakespeare’s Kate, Olivia secretly pines for a different man, Don Julio (Ryan James Moskalick), whom she toys with in another way.

Don Caesar, meanwhile, calls his own bluff in that he’d marry the neighbor’s young daughter and send Olivia to a convent if no son-in-law was secured. This is distressing to Marcella (Cass Knowling), the teen in question, as the law and customs of the time would allow for it – but Caesar comes to his senses and insists the girl only pretend their engagement to spur Olivia to action.

Speaking of tricks, Laura’s latest obsession is Florio, actually the desperate Victoria in disguise! A bit of subterfuge with the valet, Gaspar (Tracy Herring), should help to put things right.

This ribald piece of 18th-century feminism is entertaining, funny, and fairly easy to follow. Cross-gender and transgender casting aid the topsy-turvy atmosphere, accented with beautiful costuming by Sue Kuenhold, sharply directed by Max McCreary in the intimate atmosphere of Shelton Auditorium.

The men are buffoonish, but in an appropriately genteel way. Moskalick gets to play the one dude with sense – thus a worthy match for beautifully bold Dreyer as Olivia – though he gets fooled a bit as well. Hawthorne-Richards presents Carlos as downright pathetic, making Downing’s Victoria all the more noble in rescuing him as well as their fortune. Other women get plenty to flex their acting chops, whether as villain (Boswell) or trickster (Apple-Knotts, Knowling, Herring).

Strike boldly for the venue at the southwest corner of the Butler University campus, 1000 W. 42nd St., Indianapolis, for performances this Friday through Sunday (Oct. 27-29). Get info and tickets at indybardfest.com.

CCP stages locally penned inspiring comedy

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By Wendy Carson

Things are not going well for Nikki. She postponed her wedding, moved out of her fiancé’s  apartment, dropped the majority of her law clients, and rented a new place of her own which may or may not be haunted. Add to this an obsessive landlord, a clingy fiancé, and a very grumpy police officer and you have the makings for this tender and rollicking play, “aMUSEd,” presented by Camel Community Players. 

The script, by local playwright Megan Ann Jacobs, was originally presented as part of 2019’s DivaFest. She has since expanded the story and enriched each character involved.  

Sebastian (Joe Wagner), the current Muse of Comedy, has tried to avoid serious entanglements with his past “instruments,” but made a single exception for novelist Anita (Wendy Brown) and stays with her to the very end. Even for an immortal, losing someone close scars you deeply.  

Enter Nikki (Ameetha Widdershins), who knows this pain all too well herself. She rented the amazing and affordable apartment where Anita had died, and Sebastian is wallowing in pity. Sparks fly, as they move from standoff to compromise. His lack of a corporeal body makes for some great slapstick humor and mistaken identities involving Nikki’s fiancé, Ryan (Malcolm Marshall), landlord Tyler (Austin Uebelhor), and Officer Bridges (Ahnn Christopher). Plus, Anita makes a post-death appearance or two herself. 

Director Kelly Keller does a great job balancing the zany humor with the touching glimpses of the pain both lead characters must work through.  

The whole cast is a delight to behold and thoroughly immersed in the story. In fact, at our performance, a small scuffle within the show rolled nearly into the audience. Widdershins manages to be both soft and prickly as the moment demands. Marshall, who only recently made his community stage debut, shows steady improvement in taking on a meaty role. Wagner, looking like a mid-level executive (which he sorta is for the gods), has fun being as much trickster as inspiration. Uebelhor is a hoot and nearly steals his every scene. Christopher and Brown give their moments the right touch, as well.   

John and I both loved the show when we originally saw it, and I really like this more fully fleshed-out version, nicely paced and never feeling padded. It lovingly brings all of the characters to a just and happy ending.

Performances are Friday through Sunday at The Switch Theatre, 10029 E. 126th St., Suite D, Fishers. For info and tickets, see carmelplayers.org.

Kids face difficult climb in Mathews play

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By John Lyle Belden

Once again, author and former journalist Garret Mathews draws from the deep well of his upbringing to bring us the new play, “No Hope Rope,” based on people and experiences in his high school in the 1960s in rural western Virginia coal-mining country.

Uber-nerds Rayburt (Max Gallagher) and Titus (Christian Perez) have only each other as they are popular with no one else in Dungannon High School. Rayburt is fascinated with words; Titus is fascinated with everything math, tech, and space – he was STEM long before that became a thing. Rayburt gets by, by laying low. Titus prefers to obnoxiously live in his own world, constantly consulting his imaginary computer and giving loud updates to NASA. One thing they share, though, is a lack of upper-body strength. This presents a problem in their senior year as it is announced by the principal, persuaded by football Coach Alexander, that all boys must complete the 40-foot rope climb to graduate.

For our young subjects, that rope in the corner of the gym may as well be 40 miles high.

Rayburt feels doomed, but Titus has a plan. The school weight room is open to all students, not just the athletes, and if they can learn to lift The Heavy Objects, they might be able to lift themselves up before the school year ends. On their first day, as Titus addresses the issues of cool nicknames and proper grunting, they encounter the quarterback of the State Champion Roughnecks, Charley Alexander (Austin Helm), prize son of “Coach Daddy” who is likely assured a scholarship with a Michigan college.

In this funny and heartwarming G-rated look at teen life in the Heartland, we see this is about more than climbing a length of rope. Climbing hand over hand to the top is easy for some, but not for many when the coal mine is a long way down. For the women, maybe they’ll marry the man who becomes foreman or works above ground. Rayburt wants out, likely to a career in journalism, but he feels the gravity. Titus sees his escape as a pathway to the stars. Charley is content working on small engines or his “funnies” – inspired by the comics on the Ed Sullivan show – but his choices bear the weight of family and community expectations. Our young actors embody the characters perfectly, hinting at bright futures themselves.

Mathews, who supplies the adult intercom voices, says the characters are based on himself and people he knew – he can name the know-it-alls he lovingly mashed up to make Titus – but especially for those of us who know rural America (I like to think of the culture of Mathews’ stories as “Hoosier adjacent”) we can all relate.

Aaron Henze gladly directs this production, hoping that works like this (and Mathews works like “Jubilee in the Rear View Mirror” and “Opening Hank Williams”) find a wider audience. As we post this, there is still time to catch “No Hope Rope” at the District Theatre, 627 Massachusetts Ave., Indianapolis, today at 2 and 7 p.m., or tomorrow at 4 p.m. (Oct. 14-15). Get tickets at indydistricttheatre.org.