poetry

Poe’s ‘muse’ inspires new play

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By John Lyle Belden

For this year’s Halloween festivities in Irvington, local playwright Breanna Helms took on an intriguing question: What if the “Lenore” in Edgar Allan Poe’s poems was an actual woman? The result is the short play, “The Silent Muse,” presented by 4th Wall Players in late October, directed by Josh Gibson.

Poe published the poem “Lenore” in 1843, and more famously, “The Raven,” in which the dead Lenore is longed for, in 1845. They were carefully crafted literary works allegedly not inspired by any singular person, but that death came easily for many in the 19th century, including many of Edgar’s relatives, and soon his sickly young wife, Virginia.

In this alternate history, Poe as a young struggling writer (played by Jy’lerre Jones) is acquainted with sisters Lenore (Emma Gedig) and Annabelle (Alice Graves the first weekend, Helms during the second), as well as their Mother (Tracy Herring).

Asked his opinion by Annabelle, Edgar romantically likens her to a calm pond that has become a wild sea (a hint towards how she would inspire her own poem). To his surprise, he finds Lenore lurking in a hollow tree that she likes to climb. Calling her a wood nymph, he proceeds to flirt with her in earnest – she being the unmarried sister.  

Soon, however, Mother brings around Guy de Vere (Kyvaille Edge), a proper wealthy suitor for Lenore’s hand. Seeing her place in society as inevitable, she agrees to his proposal.

True to an Edgar Allan Poe story, the marriage is not happy and our ending is tragic. Still, Helms makes this story beautiful and engaging enough for us to believe these events could inspire a masterpiece. There are even a few hints at the poem dropped through the narrative. The script is a neatly-written half-hour, which I feel could be revised to Fringe length (45-50 minutes) with no obvious padding. (This is why I’m keeping to my usual policy of avoiding spoilers).

Performances brought the story to life nicely. Jones shows great energy and potential with his acting journey getting under way; his restless Edgar longs for love and a better life and chafes at being seen as not worthy of the social circle he lives in. Gedig gives us a gem with facets including the “nymph” with her aura of unruly magic; the dutiful daughter and wife; and a soul somehow aware of the shadow of her limited future.

Hopefully, we will see “The Silent Muse” return, and more creative work by Helms in the future.

For now, 4th Wall dives back into the gloom with Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights,” adapted and directed by Alan Keith, opening this weekend and running Nov. 7-16 at Backlot Makerspace and Venue (formerly Stage Door), 5235 Bonna Ave. Indianapolis (in historic Irvington).

Get info and tickets at 4thwallplayers.org.

GHDT finishes season strong; watch for more

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By John Lyle Belden

This evening (June 7) Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre concludes its 27th season with bold works for “Summer Solstice.”

According to my quick websearch, earth.com notes the Solstice (longest day of the year, coming in just two weeks) is celebrated by many spiritual traditions, important for “setting an intention” for the coming months. With this weekend’s program, Gregory Glade Hancock and his talented dancers show their continued willingness to expand the use of movement to communicate feelings and stories.

In the world-premiere of “Let It Be Known,” poet Bruce Ford delivers a long monologue of hip-hop style verse that speaks to struggle and aspiration that draws on his Black experience and hope for humanity. As he speaks, dancers Thomas Mason, Sophie Jones, Abigail Lessaris, Josie Moody, Cordelia Newton, Olivia Payton, and Audrey Springer reflect and illuminate his words. Together, they make the “music” that we feel – no background song is played or necessary. Ryan Koharchik’s exceptional (as always) lighting design comes into play here with precise use of spotlights.

Another premiere is “Journey to Freedom,” a series of dances evoking the pain of a nation’s people being invaded, occupied, and displaced, as well as their bravery to overcome. The focus is on Eastern Europe, which Hancock is personally familiar with, including recent travels. The pieces honor Latvia, where residents once kept a secret “national anthem;” Poland, once invaded on two fronts attempting to erase if from the map; and, Ukraine, where their struggle continues today. The movement is strong and evocative, to music ranging from traditional to contemporary, as well as sublime work by Polish composer Frederic Chopin (a beautiful solo by Moody). The principal dancers are joined by summer interns Nathalie Boyle, Gwynevere Deterding, Tasha Sterns-Clemons, and Izzy Wolf, with Academy of GHDT student Hazel Moore appearing as the “flower girl.”

After the intermission, the mood shifts from the very serious to the exceedingly strange with an abridged version of Hancock’s 2006 “Alice and Her Bizarre Adventures in Wonderland,” envisioning Lewis Carrol’s classic story through a warped punk-Goth lens – as if to wonder, what would frighten yet enthrall a young girl today? Springer is our title character, bringing us with her down the rabbit hole to meet a fascinating edging on nightmarish cast. Highlights include Payton as the Cheshire Cat, Mason as the Caterpillar, Lessaris as the Duchess, Newton as the Mouse, Moody as Queen of Hearts, and Jones as the Mock Turtle. All the dancers are in Wonderland, including students Moore, Fiadh Flynn, Penelope Lomax, Josie Steinmetz, and Megan Webb.

As for the dance sequences, Hancock said he was once asked, “if you choreograph this while awake, what are your nightmares like?” It says something about our tastes, I guess, but we were thrilled, with Wendy hoping to see the full show staged again someday.

What we know will happen is the upcoming 28th season. It kicks off with the “Fashion at the Florence” fundraiser on Sept. 13 at 329 Gradle Drive, Carmel. Dance programs feature the return of “The Casket Girls” in October, “Exodus” in March 2026 and “Antony and Cleopatra” the following June. There will also be “Melange” presentations of improvised dance and art with guest vocalists the weekends of Sept. 20 and Nov. 15, as well as March 14 and May 16, 2026.

For all the details – and tickets to today’s 5 p.m. performance at The Tarkington stage of the Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, if you see this right after it’s posted – visit gregoryhancockdancetheatre.org.  

The wisdom of ‘Wizer’

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By John Lyle Belden

“The Wizer of Odds,” written and directed by local playwright Gabrielle Patterson, stands apart from most adaptations of the classic “Wizard of Oz” story by L. Frank Baum, best known from the 1939 MGM film. Rather than try to directly recreate the plot and characters (like in “The Wiz”) this non-musical allegory takes familiar aspects of story, character, and theme to build something both familiar and fresh, timeless and modern.

We start out near Kansas where Camile (Kelly Boyd as our “Dorothy” character) longs for more than what she feels her cornfield town and living with her Gran (Patterson) can offer her. She also wishes to reconnect – or connect at all – with her mother Evelyne (Alicia Sims) who abandoned her as a baby to go live in New York City.

Camile sets out on a road trip for the Big Apple, bringing along best friends Tiny (Cara Wilson) and Stephanie (Ja’Taun Tiara). First, she says goodbye to long-time friend Thomas (Jericho Franke), whose confession of love does nothing to stop her.

On the road, car trouble brings the girls to the shop of Ray Tinman (Bryan Ball), a memorable encounter but Camile doesn’t think much of the man in the oil-stained clothes.

Finally in New York, Evelyn isn’t as welcoming a host as they had hoped. She cares little for reconnecting and just wants to take Camile and her friends out to the hottest club – The Flying Monkey. The evening gets off to a rough start as Camile feels the doorman Leon (Richard Bowman) isn’t aggressive enough in repelling the advances of an obnoxious man (Lamont Golder). At the club, we encounter the charismatic Oz (Chris Shields), who may be just what our heroine is looking for – but how wise is that choice?

Though not a musical, we get brilliant soliloquies in hip-hop poetry for nearly all characters to elaborate how they feel. The straw-colored man, the one who works with machines, and the presumed coward each state their case for how manhood and one’s value are not just what a person presumes, and are worth a better look.

In our three generations we get women who are each intriguing in their own way. Boyd as Camile is smart and likable, but has her gaze too far over the rainbow to see what is at hand, to her own peril. Patterson’s Gran, who also goes by Glinda, has a great deal of wisdom, enough to know she can’t force a willful girl to listen, and to be there with kindness when the lessons are learned. As for Sims as Evelyn, she is a study in dysfunction and self-centeredness – still, as Wendy pointed out, the sight of her “party” outfit may be worth the ticket price alone.

So many good performances in this show. Wilson presents a sweetly true companion (Patterson told me Tiny, like Steph, are analogous to the Munchkins, but I see faithful aspects of Toto too), while Tiara gives us that fashion-obsessed pal who will still drop that designer bag to join you in a fight. Ball easily radiates strength in his roles, and his Tin Man is sturdy. Shields, as Oz, smoothly gives us that outwardly noble man who can go from kissing your cheek to slapping it in a dark instant. Bowman – like the other men, playing more than one role – has the most contrast between his characters. His initial appearance cuts the line between funny and creepy so thin it’s barely visible; however, his lion roars with one of the bravest spoken passages. Franke is charming as Thomas, a man who (like his archetype) is smarter than he looks.  

An entertaining story salted with some hints and Easter eggs for traditional “Oz” fans, with that reliable lesson that there’s no place like home, “The Wizer of Odd” has two more weekends, April 4-6 and 11-13, at IF Theatre (home of IndyFringe), 719 E. St. Clair St., Indianapolis. Get tickets at indyfringe.org.

Words, dance and visual art flow into GHDT ‘Melange’

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By John Lyle Belden

On the weekend of January 11-12, Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre presented its fourth iteration of “Melange,” a largely-improvised blending of artistic disciplines by three individuals who had not only not rehearsed, but met one another on the first performance day. At the center is a performer who sings or speaks – the only element that is prepared – while a GHDT dancer interprets the goings-on in dance and a local artist captures an impression on a canvas.

Actor Jean Arnold was at the center of the space, delivering a program of spoken word, poetry and song. At the start she gave a rhythmic recitation of the folk song “The Unicorn” to set the mood of wonder and introspection with a touch of humor.

Compiled and arranged by Arnold, these pieces include a mother’s reflections on children, one she called “Fearless and Fierce,” a passage relating inner peace to world peace, one on “The Dancer,” and one “on Loving.”

The source material, she said, was literally all around us as the big box of a performance space – The Florence at the Academy at Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre – before its recent renovation had various quotes, sayings, poetry, and scripture passages of numerous faiths written below the floorboards and behind the wall surfaces, under the guidance of founder and artistic director Gregory Glade Hancock. Arnold had seen these, she said, and included some in her performance – quoting sources ranging from the Bible to Jimi Hendrix.

GHDT principal dancer Thomas James Mason was a flowing force that moved throughout the performance. He ranged from pure interpretation to moments of interplay with Arnold, when she would, with a mischievous grin, join him for a step or two. At moments, an old-time microphone stand would swirl in and out by Mason at her beckoning.

The dancer seeming to be all over the stage was captured in a number of dynamic poses by portraitist Robert Maurice Smith. In his drawing Saturday evening, Smith also captured Arnold’s energy, including, in a moment of late inspiration, the pages of the script binder that she occasionally held appearing to flow out to merge with Mason’s outstretched limbs. At the end of the performance, host (and GHDT assistant director) Abigail Lesaris auctioned the impromptu artwork with proceeds going to the dance company.  

“I am many things, but I am not quiet,” Arnold said smiling during the performance. Afterward, she noted this was unlike anything she had done on stage and enjoyed the challenge. “I wanted to leave people with something,” she said of her inspired approach.

As with the previous Melange productions, there was an almost polished feel to the unrehearsed proceedings, a confident reflection of artistic professionals. All present understood that this was, like all live theatre, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

As this posts, there is still today’s performance, 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 12, at The Florence, 329 Gradle Drive, Carmel. See gregoryhancockdancetheatre.org for details and tickets, as well as info on their next show, “Down on the Bayou,” three weekends, Feb. 8-23, at The Florence.

The Elf may not enjoy this, but you will

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By John Lyle Belden

For an Elf, labor at the Toy Workshop is like a factory job anywhere in the world, with lunch hour your one respite from the constant grind. Being in the desolate dark zone above the Arctic Circle, when one of your workers – who has issues, to say the least – requests to entertain the crew with a “celebration of truth and pure being” during the break, it’s a good idea to let him ramble his weird poetry or whatever.

But as we see reenacted at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Center, when “ProZack the Sad Elf” gets an unused storage room to put on his show, things get weirder than usual. Apparently, this year we get “The ProZack Holiday Musical (No, it’s not!)” starring Ben Asaykwee, Ben Asaykwee, Ben Asaykwee, Ben Asaykwee, Ben Asaykwee, Ben Asaykwee, and a demented Tree.

ProZack provides profound spoken verse with titles like “Nothingness,” and “Untitled.” Tinsel plays and sings holiday songs, even after he’s killed. Videographer Snowflake is up to some visual trickery. Tinkle tries to bring “levity” but has problems with his puppet, Mr. Tree, whose anger is growing, and growing. Meanwhile Glister, the industrial death metal Elf, has caught a worrying case of sentimentality.

With so much going wrong, ProZack has to frequently go backstage, where Snowflake also set up cameras. We see the elves interact and try to find their way through this madness that includes odd holiday movie references and the secret of what’s stored away in that “empty” room.

Not to mention the literal “Star” of the show…

With the help of multimedia and other effects, Asaykwee delivers a fun and surprisingly action-packed one-person show, masterfully juggling the various personae throughout the two-act “lunch hour.” There was much laughter, some finger-snapping (how you applaud poetry), and a bit of innuendo – so this is for humans of double-digit age (or relative equivalent for elves or other mythical beings).

“ProZack The Sad Elf,” also created, written, and directed by Asaykwee, runs through Dec. 23 on the Basile Theatre stage at the Phoenix, 705 N. Illinois St. in downtown Indianapolis. Get information and tickets at phoenixtheatre.org.

OnyxFest: Black is My Color

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This play is part of OnyxFest 2022, a production of Africana Repertory Theatre of IUPUI (ARTI) and IndyFringe, “Indy’s First and Only Theater Festival Dedicated to the Stories of Black Playwrights.” Initial performances were the weekend of Nov. 3-6 at the Basile Theatre in the IndyFringe building. The second weekend of performances are Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 10-12, at the IUPUI Campus Center Theater, 420 University Boulevard, Indianapolis. Recordings of performances will be available at ButlerArtsCenter.org. For more information, see OnyxFest.com.

By John Lyle Belden

In a bookstore and coffee shop called I Take It BLACK, two “sistahs” meet. The millennial (Paige Elisse) shares her personal frustrations with an older poet (Marlena Johnson), who shares the wisdom and verse of Mari Evans.

“Who’s that?!” the young woman asks. 

For many of us watching “Black is my Color,” by journalist and playwright Celeste Williams, this is sadly a common question. Evans, who resided in Indianapolis until her death in 2017, was a world-renowned poet, author, and activist. Today, a full-body portrait of her looks down on us from a wall on Massachusetts Ave., but she is not as widely and readily known as other people so honored around Indy. This play helps to introduce us to the woman in the mural.

“Who can be born Black and not exult!” The young reader is puzzled at this declaration. To reach understanding, we step back in time to a cluttered living room where Evans (Ellen Price Sayles Lane) grants a rare interview. She seems to both resent and welcome being considered a “troublemaker” – “I look at everything through a Black lens.”

As Evans speaks, “Who I am is who I was at (age) 5,” her young spirit (Amani Muhammad) appears. She and Elisse dance to accompany the poetry. Evans speaks fondly of the lost community around Indiana Avenue, and frankly about her adopted hometown – “The contradictions are more seething here in Indianapolis.”

Directed by TaMara E’lan G. and Manon Voice, this show is a much-needed lesson in local history, especially of the lives and perspective of African Americans, as well as an insight into a brilliant woman who lived among us, dedicating her life to Black – and therefore human – empowerment. Lane as Evans radiates both power and a generous spirit, holding no malice but accepting no compromise. Muhammad and Elisse are an artful chorus of movement, and Johnson happily gives us entry to this important figure’s world.

As this work develops through its performances, hopefully we will see more of “Black is My Color” at future events.

IndyFringe: Fret Knot

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This is part of IndyFringe 2022, Aug. 18-Sept. 4 (individual performance times vary) in downtown Indianapolis. Details and tickets at IndyFringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden

First, I must note that comparisons to the comedy duo Garfunkel and Oates are inevitable. Madeline Wilson and Lizzie Kaneicki do seem to have the same schtick, sharing the stage – Wilson with ukulele, Kaneicki with guitar – and perform hilarious songs about life and relationships, but does that other pair of funny women present their shared love of crochet, and literally get tied to and tangled up in their hobby as the show progresses? Afraid not, so “Fret Knot.”

No copycats here – Wilson (originally from Phoenix, according to Facebook) and Kaneicki (from West Virginia) joined forces in Chicago, and with friends perform comedy with music biweekly as “Hahaha Lalala”,* so they are quite capable of bringing the funny as their own entertaining act.

Taking them on their own terms – funny bits, singly or together, about odd taco runs, upset housecats, and all – includes some poetry and storytelling, engaging a range of both emotion and talent. We get the downside of summer birthdays, the peril of intrusive thoughts, and the comforting power of mathematics.

The yarn metaphor is literally all over the place – don’t get too caught up in it. But it does help give the show a “something different” Fringe-y vibe, and at one point the audience does help increase their entanglement.

Having blown in from the Windy City for one weekend, you can see and enjoy “Fret Knot” 8:45 p.m. today (as we post this) and 1:45 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 3-4, at the cabaret stage of the District Theatre.

For Chicago performances, they are presently at the Bughouse Theater.

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(*Find them on Instagram, Google search has a cacophony of unrelated “ha” and “la”s if you hunt there.)

IndyFringe: Type Cast

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This is part of IndyFringe 2022, Aug. 18-Sept. 4 (individual performance times vary) in downtown Indianapolis. Details and tickets at IndyFringe.org.

By Wendy Carson

The show, “Type Cast” by Steve Freeto, tells us it is improvised poetry, poetic improv, stand-up comedy, and maybe music. What it consisted of for me was some fantastic comedy from the special guests.

We started out with a nice performance from James Avery (Your Handsome Neighborhood SpiderJames), who aptly describes himself as looking like Harry Potter got slapped with puberty. His set was a delight and I greatly look forward to hearing more from him in the future.

Our second performer of the evening was Shannon. I didn’t get her last name, but I hope she won’t hate me for that (I do know she masquerades as Marie Antoinette occasionally, but you’ll have to ask her why). She was also a fresh comedic voice whom I also hope to see again soon.

Afterwards, we get to the main three performers of the group doing what they call “Sad White Boy Improv”. This portion of the show had a rotating guest poet from one of the other IndyFringe shows included.

Their goal is to take a suggested word from the audience and have one of them tell a story involving it. The other two members then enact scenes from the story, and the poet creates a poem involving the word. While this sounds typical, they were not prepared for our audience. We were told that traditional silly words were not to be used so we ended up hitting them with words they had to look up online to be able to use (example: petulant). Still, they did their best and the show overall was pretty funny.

Freeto, who studied at Second City in Chicago, is the founder of GoProv of Goshen, Ind. For more information, visit his site, goprov.org.

IndyFringe: Fly Blackbird Fly/Voices We Can’t Unhear

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This is part of IndyFringe 2022, Aug. 18-Sept. 4 (individual performance times vary) in downtown Indianapolis. Details and tickets at IndyFringe.org.

By Wendy Carson

“Fly Blackbird Fly/Voices We Can’t Unhear” begins by honoring those who are no longer with us. We then see the four actresses entering as children at play.

The group then comes together, giving us monologues about the physical changes of puberty as well as the rude and threatening attitudes of the boys around them to this change. Physical, mental, sexual, and social abuses are discussed, but also acknowledged as sad a part of growing up.

The ladies of the cast – Dedee Austin, Maya Mays, Rav’n Partee, and Latrice P Young – slide in and out of characters ranging in age from 7 to over 45 throughout the course of the show. They enchant us, persuade us, and challenge us not just to hear them but also to fully see them as the complex creatures they truly are.

The show, which Ms. Latrice defines as a “choreopoem,” is a mixture of poetry, scenes, music, and movement portraying the lives of these four females as they grow up into powerful and proud women. Just know that as you are never too old to see a rainbow, you should not leave this spectacle unseen.

Presented by Ms. Latrice, aka Distinctly Unique, with OnyxFest, performances are 9 p.m. Friday and 1:45 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26-27; and 5:15 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 3-4, at the IndyFringe Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair.

Let’s go to ‘Bed’

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By John Lyle Belden

“Bed Play,” by Shar Steiman, presented by Stagequest Indy, and directed by Ty Stover at the District Theatre, is a unique theatrical experience. But it also resonates with something universal in all of us.

To sum it up, I think of it as a Queer Epic Love Poem. I must give one caveat: mature language and content. There are an amazing number of ways to rhyme “uck” and other provocative words. So, consider it a hard “R” in movie terms. But, as one actor recently posted in social media, to simply say “it’s not for everyone” sells it short and gives an unduly negative impression. There is no nudity, aside from some glimpses of bum, and no sim-sex, as this show is not meant to shock, but to stimulate dialogue.

For 99 percent of romantic media, even in today’s accepting atmosphere, it is all cis-het boy meets cis-het girl. But if you truly feel that “love is love,” then celebrate in this performance when gay meets gay or trans meets trans.

We have four characters, played by Steiman, Lukas Schooler, Meghan Dinah, and Case Jacobus. Their personal relationship journeys go from hook-ups to partnerships. Four paths become two, but the lines cross, and each person has to reassess. At the center of it all is the one constant – the bed. Occupying center stage, it steadfastly supports our lovers as they flirt or fight, or just snuggle in each other’s warmth.

Steiman’s script is crazy amazing, the lyrics blazing, the same as I’m simulating in this stimulating paragraph, getting a laugh from the poets who know it takes real skill to fulfil this mission, done in the tradition of hip-hop and slam, constant rhymes in command, flow like Lin-Manuel Miranda, with uncensored, unfiltered expression, the impressions of confessions of love and sincereness and (actual quote) “the power of Queerness.”

Seriously, the versatile verses are a marvel unto themselves, as intriguing and probing as the relationships, and kept up throughout. At moments it is comparable to Eminem or Miranda, or even Shakespeare’s sonnets, but better to just say it’s Steiman’s brave genius at work. The co-stars give of themselves freely, taking on the words as though they composed them, and portraying honest affection, whether lusty, friendly, or feeling betrayed. The easy, natural manner in which they interact is also a credit to Intimacy Director Claire Wilcher (a local acting legend, recently trained and educated to aid in this manner).

Note the online program lists Ash Addams and Kelsey Van Voorst as alternate cast members.

Unless you really can’t deal with adults getting touchy-feely, accept the challenge of experiencing this unique “Bed Play,” through Sunday (July 8-10) at the District Theatre, 627 Massachusetts Ave., Indianapolis. Get tickets at Indydistricttheatre.org.