Scot Greenwell

Indy Shakes’ ‘Errors’ succeeds

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By John Lyle Belden

If one is to genuinely have fun with a work by William Shakespeare, it’s hard to go wrong with “The Comedy of Errors.”

This early work by the Bard is chock full of the kind of confusions that are universal hallmarks of comedy to this day. Therefore – and “wherefore” – Indy Shakes adapted it for their summer outdoor production at Taggart Memorial Amphitheatre in Riverside Park, directed by Rob and Jen Johansen, serious actors who are no strangers to getting goofy on stage.

Taking it perhaps a step further than even crowd-pleaser Shakespeare (who was known to hire clowns), the play also includes members of (and “games” by) Act a Foo Improv Crew, featuring Daniel A. Martin.

The setting is Daytona Beach in 1984. Because reasons to start the plot, interlopers from Venice Beach are not allowed on pain of death. Caught by the police (Martin), Egeon, Merchant of Venice (Zack Neiditch), must either give up 1,000 coins or his head. In a bid for mercy, he tells the ruling Duke (Joshua Owens) his story:

He and his wife had identical twin boys, meanwhile an impoverished woman had such twins of her own, which they took on as companions and servants to their own sons. Later, during a sea voyage, a Tempest split the boat, leaving each parent alone with one each of the pairs of boys. In the process of his long search for his wife, Egeon lost track of his son Antipholous (Andrew Martin) and servant Dromio (Hannah Boswell) in Boca Raton, and thought they may be in Daytona. 

You see where this is going. Conveniently also in Daytona Beach are an Antipholus (Carlos Medina Maldonado) and manservant Dromio (Kelsey VanVoorst). Our young master has a household complete with wife Adriana (Alicia Sims), her sister Luciana (Kelli Thomas), and kitchen maid Luce (Cynthia Collins), who is sweet on Daytona’s Dromio. And remember, thanks to the magic of wearing the same outfit (just go with it), the Antipholuses and Dromios look exactly alike.

It doesn’t take long for this play to live up to its title, with hilarious criss-cross encounters between characters and intrigues that involve others including Ennis Adams as an impatient merchant and Scot Greenwell as Angelo the goldsmith. The gags also take advantage of improvised moments, 80’s and Florida references, and Shakespearean in-jokes like crying “Wherefore art thou, Dromio?!”

Finally, after a botched exorcism and Scooby-Doo-esque chase scenes, sanity is restored by order of the Duke with the aid of a local Abbess (Lynne Perkins).

While this comedy does involve a fairly simple plot for Shakespeare (fine by me, to be honest), I couldn’t help but notice a greater emphasis in the poetic dialogue, of its rhythm and rhyme. Indy Shakes artistic director Ryan Artzberger says this is indicative of Shakespeare exploring the use of verse in his early works, employing rhyming couplets to deliver the punchlines – alongside his famous puns and inuendo.

Performances are first-rate throughout the cast. Martin makes a major contribution with his minor role. I’ve seen Maldonado excel wherever he’s cast – from serious stuff to kids’ shows – and he naturally knocks it out of the park here. Edges of drama here and there, such as Greenwell’s nervousness with Angelo on the hook for a lot of money (a gold chain being on the neck of the wrong Antipholus) or Sims and Thomas as sisters feeling they are being played for fools, enhance the comic stakes for greater hilarity. Boswell and VanVoorst thrive in the absurdity.

Pardon my burying the lead here, but admission to this outdoor spectacle is free! Indy Shakes does need patrons to register their tickets for their headcount, and for a price, VIP tables are available. Remaining performances are Thursday through Saturday evenings, July 31-Aug. 2. For information and to register, visit indyshakes.com.

IndyShakes: ‘Caesar’ as seen by CNN or C-SPAN

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By John Lyle Belden

Julius Caesar. If you didn’t sleep through World History or Western Civ in high school or college, you are familiar with his name and his brief reign over the Roman Empire. Thanks mainly to the tragic play by William Shakespeare, his fate is forever part of popular culture – especially in mid-March, when the man becomes a meme on your smartphone.

What if those early 21st century devices were available in the 1st century BC? In the common practice of adapting the Bard to different eras, Indy Shakes and Zach & Zack present Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” in a tech-savvy Rome complete with 24-hour social media and news cycle. In the big black box of the Basile stage of the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre, we get a multimedia blitz of projected talking heads, Tweets on X, and smartphone video streams, with our players front and center enacting the familiar story with the freshness of breaking news. Diverse casting of race and gender, along with modern dress with hints of official robes, help make ancient times feel like today.

Quick refresher: The death of fellow leader Pompey left Caesar (Andy Ahrens) the sole Consul over the Roman Republic. This worries the Senate, who easily surmise that the man will overtake them as a tyrannical dictator. In Shakespeare’s telling, Cassius (Scot Greenwell), who was close to Caesar and feels him both too ambitious and too weak (the stigma of his epilepsy) persuades Brutus (Jen Johansen), another beloved of Caesar, to join a conspiracy to assassinate their Emperor. Despite signs and warnings, Caesar enters the Senate on March 15 and is slaughtered by his countrymen. Antony (Kelly Mills) plays along with the killers, but when given a chance to address Caesar’s funeral, stirs the people of Rome to action.

Other roles include Morgan Morton as Brutus’s spouse Portia, as well as Cinna the Poet; Carlos Medina Maldonado as Cinna the conspirator and others; Chandra Lynch, Daniel Martin and Immanuel Umoren as conspirators Decius Brutus, Trebonius, and Casca; Kelli Thomas as Brutus’s servant Lucius; Tiffany Gilliam as Caesar’s wife, Calpurnia; and Jacob Barnes as the Soothsayer, and later Octavius Caesar (who will eventually become Emperor Augustus).

From top to bottom, the cast have solid resumes and consistently display their dramatic talents throughout. It is in this adaptation, though, that Johansen’s Brutus stands out, doggedly facing both inner and outer conflict, reluctantly justifying extreme acts, then standing up to the consequences. Ahrens plays Caesar as having noble intentions but too driven to see how his larger-than-life personality could inspire his doom. In today’s U.S. Senate, Greenwell’s Cassius would be that devious deal-maker who would go to any length to advance his agenda, a Ted Cruz with knives. Mills’s Antony manages to come off as the rare honest politician, rising to the occasion like our memory of JFK, or Obama at his inauguration. Zack Neiditch is director, with sound and video design by Zach Rosing. Excellent costumes are by Tony Sirk with Caitlin Davey.

Still, the whole of this production is greater than the sum of its well-executed parts, going beyond just putting old speech in a new setting. In a time when tragic events, including wars, unrest, and celebrities performing to ever-present cameras are constantly on our television, computer and phone screens, this makes historical events feel even more “real” than any attempt to tell the story in its own time.

Two weekends remain of “Julius Caesar,” through May 19, at 705 N. Illinois St., downtown Indianapolis. Get information and tickets at indyshakes.com or phoenixtheatre.org.

NAATC mounts top quality ‘Black Bottom’

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By John Lyle Belden

Decades after its local premiere at the old Phoenix Theatre, August Wilson’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” returns on the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Center main stage, presented by Naptown African American Theatre Collective, directed by Edan Evans.

The one play of Wilson’s “Century Cycle” not taking place in Pittsburgh, the setting is a Chicago recording studio in 1927, where the “Mother of the Blues” is set to record some hits before heading back South. Note that while the events are the playwright’s conjecture, inspired by an old recording, Gertrude “Ma” Rainey (1886-1939) was very real and larger than life.

First to arrive to check the set-up are the studio manager Sturtevant (Patrick Vaughn) and Rainey’s manager Irvin (Scot Greenwell). Soon the musicians arrive: pianist Toledo (Bryan Ball), Cutler (Ben Rose) with his trombone, Slow Drag (John Singleton) with his stand-up bass, and young trumpet player Levee (Xavier Jones), who has ambitions of starting his own band eventually. While they wait for Ma, we get to know them as they rehearse. They’re no-nonsense and used to doing it “Ma’s way,” except for Levee, who even has his own arrangement of the title song.

Finally, Rainey (Alicia Sims) does arrive, accompanied by her nervous nephew Sylvester (Jy’ierre Jones), companion Dussie Mae (Selena Jackson), and a policeman (Doug Powers) whom Irvin has to pacify to ensure the recording session continues. Little else will go smoothly this day, while it is made plain that while this is Sturtevant’s studio, Ma Rainey is in charge.

Much of this play focuses on the men in the band, which was wise of Wilson as keeping such a force of nature as Ma at center stage throughout would have essentially made this a one-woman show. If there is a fiercer adjective than “fierce,” that’s what describes Sims’s performance. By this point a veteran performer and recording artist, Ma knows her worth, is hair-trigger aware of disrespect (especially by white folks), and thus absolutely no one to trifle with. Her sense of Roaring Twenties sexual liberation is unabashed, from her fondling of Dussie Mae to turning the Black Bottom (a dance that at the time rivaled the Charleston in popularity) into a double entendre.

Those playing the band smoothly embody individual quirks. Ball has Toledo wax philosophical in a conversational manner that still gives him the last word. Rose, in his cool Cab Calloway haircut as Cutler, plays it loose, going along to get along, but draws the line when you mock his faith. Singleton also takes it easy as fun-loving Slow Drag (the name gets explained). Xavier Jones plays Levee in all his complexity: brash and bold, yet naive; quick to smile or to anger; boyish looks on a man who has, we discover, dealt with unspeakable pain.

Also notable is Jy’ierre Jones’s portrayal of Sylvester, pushing through nerves and a stutter to give Ma what she needs in one of her most celebrated recordings.

Vaughn’s Sturtevant comes across as a subtle villain, all business and white privilege without overt bad intentions. Though no doubt dealing with “colored” clientele harshly or indifferently has a racial element, his successors throughout recording history will shortchange musicians of all backgrounds. As for our beleaguered white manager Irvin, Greenwell plays him not spineless, but flexible, constantly working the thin line that sets the talent and the money men worlds apart.

Splendid split stage design is by Fei with scenic design by Cole Wilgus and Ky Brooke. Kayla Hill is stage manager.

Witness this speculative look at a great moment in American music history. “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” runs through March 24 at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Center, 705 N. Illinois St., downtown Indianapolis. Tickets at phoenixtheatre.org, or naatcinc.org.

ALT: Big issues in small-town meeting

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By Wendy Carson

Small town politics is much more important than it appears. As we see in “The Minutes,” by Tracy Letts, a lot can happen in a single meeting, and missing it could change your whole standing within the community itself.

Such is the plight of Mr. Peel (Josh Ramsey), who missed last week’s City Council meeting to attend to his dying mom. He knows something major occurred from overhearing the others talk but only discovers it resulted in the removal of Mr. Carp (Charles Goad) from the council.

His queries to Mayor Superba (Stephen Roger Kitts II) and clerk Ms. Johnson (Susannah Quinn) get him nowhere. However, Mr. Hanratty (Scot Greenwell) is willing to help him shed a little light on the matter in return for support towards his proposal.

The council is filled with a plethora of quirky characters. Mr. Blake (Ian Cruz) is a paranoid schemer who is overly confident of the success of his bill regardless of its practicality. Mr. Breeding (Raymond Kester) is “The Weathervane” of the town but has no desire to make waves of his own. Ms. Innes (Suzanne Fleenor) has some good points to make but buries them inside a tangle of poetry and nonsense that annoys even the most even-tempered in the room. Mr. Oldfield (Len Mozzi), who served on the council the longest, has a tendency to ramble and forget things. Mr. Assalone (Tristan Ross) is “The Junkyard Dog” of the group and made even more imposing by his brother being Town Sheriff. Finally, Ms. Metz (Paige Scott), while physically present, pops so many pills that we have no idea where her mind actually is.

With the Big Cherry Heritage Festival rapidly approaching and its planning the most important thing that the Council actually does, Mr. Peel finds the unexplained absence of last week’s minutes – as well as where Mr. Carp is – to be of far greater import.

Directed by Chris Saunders for American Lives Theatre, this comic drama shows Letts’ ability to connect with and in a relatable manner reflect the personalities of small-town America. While there is much hilarity within these scenes, there is an equal amount of reality as to the inner workings of city government.

The talent level of the cast is spectacular and under Saunders’ steady hand, none of them overshadow each other and perform as a well-oiled machine.

So, who is the real hero of The Battle of Mackie Creek? What is more important, truth or the status quo? Why is the town named Big Cherry? These questions and much, much more will be answered (mostly) at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre, 705 N. Illinois St., Indianapolis, through Feb. 11. For tickets and information, visit phoenixtheatre.org or americanlivestheatre.org.