Zachariah Stonerock

IndyFringe: Something funny going on

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This is part of the annual Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, a/k/a IndyFringe 2026, held Aug. 13-23 in venues around downtown Massachusetts Ave. Information at indyfringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden with Wendy Carson

Reviews of: “All You Can Eat,” by American Lives Theatre; “Boy Meets Musical,” by Matt Day; “Breakneck Midsummer Night’s Dream,” by Timothy Mooney Repertory Co.; “The Matt Kraft Comedy Hour,” by Matt Kraft (and friends); “The Phantom of Diopra, IL,” by Diopra Arts Theatre; “Scouts’ Honor,” by Defiance Comedy; “Unalived & Lowkey Forgotten,” by Betty Rage.  

At IndyFringe, the sure-fire ticket sellers are the shows that make us laugh – sometimes at things we can’t believe we’re finding funny. From Shakespeare to new works, IndyFringe 2026 had quite the selection. Speaking of which:

All You Can Eat

American Lives Theatre gets into the act again with a one-act by Christopher Wittman, directed by Jacob David Lang, set in the first decade of the 2000s at a restaurant of a buffet pizza chain near a shopping mall on Black Friday.

Jaded workers Michelle and Luke (Evangeline Bouw and Dakota Reed), with upbeat young Crissy (Cara Wilson) – who just scored a new iPod Nano – are preparing for what will likely be a hellish shift, made worse by the idealistic new guy, Brandon (Henry Mumaw) being late. Manager Jerri (Zarah Shejule) puts on a brave face, has a sign made saying “No Black Friday Deals” (the buffet is already five bucks), and prepares for the worst (i.e. the customers).

This workplace comedy is an entertaining look at the pains of working fast food, seeking purpose in such employment, the ordeal of a trial-by-fire first day on the job, and the odd but genuine camaraderie these crew members share. Adding to this flavor, while Luke is out on an errand, Reed returns as various interesting and often frustrating customers, including the dreaded “Buffet Killer.”

It’s also a bit of nostalgia (the iPod Nano was introduced 20 years ago) to back when Black Friday and shopping malls were more of a thing, as well as the pizzeria we’ll call “DiDi’s.”  

This ALT production was a world premiere for Hoosier playwright Wittman. We could definitely go back for another slice.

Boy Meets Musical

(Review by Wendy Carson)

Note that you do not have to be familiar with the source material to enjoy this show, but you will miss out on a few of the inside jokes.

We begin with Jess (Elizabeth Enderle) watching TV when the announcement of a freak storm is approaching the area. She turns on her favorite show, “Boy Meets World” to watch.

It’s the start of Corey’s (Edgar Tisdale) senior year. He and the gang, Topanga (Kathleen Cicero) and Shawn (Sean Stroup) are looking forward to no longer having to deal with his big brother, Eric (Ryan Powell) and hopefully avoiding interactions with bullies Joey the Rat (Chase Cornelius) & Frankie the Enforcer (Josh Gregory). However, it seems that there is no escaping Mr. Feeney (Preston Dildine).

Suddenly, there is a strange flash of lightning and our main characters, as well as a few other sitcom stars (Morgan Roof and Zachary Adkins), are transported to the current time and place. They enlist Jess’s help to find out what happened and get them back to where they belong.

Presented by Player 2 Productions, with book, music, and lyrics by Matt Day, this show is a madcap look at our past, present and future as well as a hilarious send-up of all the typical TGIF tropes many grew up with.

Breakneck Midsummer Night’s Dream

The irony of Tim Mooney’s “Breakneck” Shakespeare shows is that while these hours-long plays each get reduced to just under an hour (per Fringe festival requirements), for the audience the Bard’s work gets surprisingly expanded. We come to understand more about the plays than what is given by the staging and dialogue. With historical epics, it’s like an entertaining college lecture.

Mooney, like the play’s trickster, throws a curve in the formula with his “Breakneck Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Most noticeably the Tim Mooney Repertory Theatre is not just himself solo, but joined by a cast of Fringe all-stars from across the U.S. This includes local actor Matt Anderson, with Chris Bruzzini, Schmoo Cutlip, Maggie Killian, and Beth Byrd-Lonski as Puck.

We get a bit of commentary, spread among the company. However, the play largely speaks for itself. As is done when “Midsummer” is tightly cast, actors reappear as parts of the three character subsets: the noble Athenians, the Faerie court, and the humble Mechanicals rehearsing a play for the first group, while trespassing on the second. The result is bright, funny and entertaining. It’s edited not only to fit time, but also to enhance clarity so that even a first-timer to this comedy gets the full effect.

Compared to other Breakneck works, though, for those of us familiar with the material there is little additional value. It’s like a nice Reader’s Digest Condensed Shakespeare play. I feel there are aspects that could use some context – like why Athens (perhaps for Greek-inspired magic folk?); what would contemporary (1600s) audiences have understood that we don’t; and what’s the deal with “Pyramus & Thisbe” anyway?

Find the wide array of Mooney’s entertainments, from Shakespeare to famous speeches to his original tragicomedy, “Man Cave,” at timmooneyrep.com.

The Matt Kraft Comedy Hour

Local actor Matt Kraft is brilliant in dramatic roles, which could help explain his sharply wicked sense of humor. He has crafted it into an absurd weapon of mass hilarity in “The Matt Kraft Comedy Hour,” his follow-up to past Fringe entries, “Doctors of Sketch Comedy” and comic fantasia “Somebody That I Used to Know.”

Joined by co-conspirator TJ O’Neil, with Anna Himes, Audrey Stonerock , Morgan Morton, and Zachariah Stonerock, Kraft crafts scenes that are both bizarre and side-splitting. He manages to make televised golf commentary less boring, promote devotion to reading a best-seller, give a candy bar gravitas, send up pretentiously precise restaurant menus (“this is why I don’t come to Carmel”), and inquire why Mr. Jones isn’t teaching his class – all in the worst and most (find more synonyms for funny) way!

To top it off, there is what looks like a sort of long-form improv gone hilariously mad: the Oscar-worthy “Scorsese’s Pride & Prejudice.” (Rated R, of course.)

We’re big on hyperbole and talking stuff up here at PWJW, but everyone we talked to – including fellow Fringe funny-man Jason Adams, who said he wants to produce a full-length “SP&P” – agreed in comparing this to renowned professional comedy sketch shows like Kids in the Hall, Mr. Show, Tim & Eric, The State, and In Living Color. Looking locally, I found the situation set-ups much like the short plays of Mark Harvey Levine, but with a lot more adult language.

Matt Kraft must do more of this. He simply must. Please encourage him.

The Phantom of Diopra, IL

Full disclosure: Wendy and I consider Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” to be the most overrated musical ever. However, whether you agree or are a rabid fan of “The Music of the Night,” you would love “The Phantom of Diopra, IL: A Parody.”

Presented by Jordan McQuiston with Elizabeth Enderle, Jackson Lee, Abby White, Anna Meyer, Kelsie Uselman, Chris Enderle, and Aleesia McQuiston, they bring the horror story from an old French novel to a small-town opera house in Illinois. Everyone seems clueless as to how to stop a mysterious masked man’s reign of terror – or clueless, full stop, except for our diva whom the Phantom covets.

We find the limits of love, obsesson, Stockholm syndrome, and the use of copyright works in a parody. For instance, did you know you can sing the alphabet to the ALW score? Also, what happens when you don’t have the budget for the “Masquerade” scene. And it’s not just all for laughs, there is some seriously good singing in this show, as well.

Looking over McQuiston’s body of work, we note he is big on making these serious shows funnier while still entertaining. Add Diopra, IL, to that map.

Scouts’ Honor

(Review by Wendy Carson)

Defiance Comedy has raided the cookies jar and given us a sweet look into the ins and outs of scouting and cookies sales with a healthy sprinkling of courtroom drama added in.

New scout in town Lacy (Hannah Embree) is on trial for various offenses but insists she is not guilty of any of them. As each of her troop members is called to the stand, we see the various situations that have brought them to this point.

Previous Troop Leader, Mindy (Amy Reader) tells of how she brought stories of all the fancy rewards her previous troop regularly had, which led to her being stripped of her title and Lacy taking it. Veronica (Samantha J. Lewis) tells of the horrible Saturday they had to spend in Mr. Gary’s – you can call him Glen (Clay Mabbitt) – sales seminar. Nestor Clamslammer (Amy Reader), of the Irvington Clamslammers, tells of how he was threatened and kidnapped by Lacy and Debbie (John Kern) for non-payment of his cookie debt. Janice (Kelsey VanVoorst) would just rather be hugging everyone. Meanwhile, Troop Mom (Devan O’Malia Mathais) is so fiercely driven by her money-hungry ways, that her intentions are more suspect than Lacy’s.

Add to this craziness Emily Bohannon as the vindictive Prosecutor, John Kern as the inept Defense Attorney, Clay Mabbitt as the very loud Bailiff and Rob Johnansen as Judge Honeysuckle, who must somehow oversee this craziness, and you have the perfect recipe for a hilarious Fringe Show.

Unalived & Lowkey Forgotten

When Betty Rage Productions goes for laughs, it’s always one heck of a show. For this one, put “Arsenic and Old Lace,” “Grey Gardens,” “Ghost Hunters” shows, and the famous Joan Crawford/Bette Davis rivalry all in a blender, and cover it with an almost-popular podcast.

What we get is “Unalived & Lowkey Forgotten,” the name of a young woman’s pod about people who were once famous but are now merely dead. She has come across the Folly Theatre, where old frenemies Margo and Dottie died in a fire during their run of “Arsenic: The Musical” years ago. They still hang around, of course, keeping the orphan handyman who lives there (the only one who can see them) busy. With the help of some puppets and the magic words “I remember it like it was yesterday,” we learn the whole sad (yet funny) tragic story.

You can tell Callie Burk-Hartz and friends had fun with this one. We get a goofy multiple murder mystery, ghost story, and tale of personal and professional redemption, all served with some (memories of) L.S. Ayres Tea Room chicken velvet soup.

This ranks as Callie’s second-biggest accomplishment of the month – the first being Festival Director of the whole darn Fringe.

Ankh gets ‘Reckless’ in a good way

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By John Lyle Belden

Indianapolis sees constant production of theatre arts by groups tied not to a place as much to ideas and creative vision. This includes – among others – No Exit, Catalyst Repertory, Q Artistry, Summit Performance, NAATC, Southbank Theatre Company, Theatre Unchained, American Lives Theatre, 4th Wall, Clerical Error Productions, Betty Rage, Cryptid Entertainment, and Defiance Comedy.

Ankh Productions deserves to be in that conversation.

Having moved on from the sadly now-closed Storefront Theatre, their neon elephant shines for the moment in the Bates-Hendricks neighborhood south of downtown Indy with Ankh’s production of “Non-Traditional Reckless Relations,” a collection of short plays by Jamaal McCray, at Lincoln Lane Coffee Co.

McCray is joined by Ankh co-founder Chandra Lynch, Zachariah Stonerock, and Anna Himes in pieces that explore with raw emotion, wild humor, and entertaining absurdity, how we relate to one another through unusual stress.

It’s too simplistic to compare this to known properties like Marx Brothers, Monty Python, SNL, or In Living Color, yet the same root is under the surface, back to the smiling Greek masks and tall tales around ancient fires. McCray says the title refers to his efforts not to slip into “traditions of mediocrity,” to take stagecraft and “strip(ed) it down to its raw essence.” As Lynch puts it in a Facebook post, “Just the art; pure, alive, unfiltered.”

High artistic goals, indeed. In “NTRR,” we see them making the climb.

This show was written by McCray as the third in a trilogy that started with “Love You Reckless,” last seen in April 2022. (He is still working on Part Two, he said.)

The foursome start with a piece heavy with avant-garde metaphor – confronting directionality, personal preferences, political groupthink, light, and more – which grabs our attention, elicits laughter while provoking thought, and gets us ready to expect practically anything.

This is followed by the next playlet, where Stonerock reads a breakup letter while using the toilet.

Yes, things get a bit crude, with R-rated language at points, but no nudity or sim-sex, so it’s okay for teens and up.

The bare-bones aesthetic, in part from low-budget necessity, concentrates our attention on the actors while employing a few simple props. A chain wrench finds an amazing array of uses.

The humor is never far from far deeper context. Exploring raw emotion and toxicity in relationships gets somehow easier when you’re battling a giant pigeon or stuck on a small boat in shallow water. When you need to fix something, at some point you’re not really talking about the thing before you that you’re repairing.

McCray, Lynch, Stonerock, and Himes all give excellent performances and interact well throughout, showing commitment to the concept and vision.

So, even if you are not planning your lover’s murder, or negotiating with the trash collector, you’ll still find plenty to relate to, and even enjoy, in these “Non-Traditional Reckless Relations.” Performances are Friday through Sunday at 516 Lincoln Street (corner of Lincoln and East Street), Indianapolis. (Note that coffee service will have closed earlier in the afternoon.)

For information and tickets, visit ankhproductions.org.

For Frosty Die-Hards who Actually Love Wonderful Xmas Stories

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By John Lyle Belden

As we proceed into December, it’s time we put aside our worries over politics and international strife to consider truly important questions, such as:

  • Is “Die Hard” a Christmas movie – I mean, it absolutely is, right?
  • Does “Prancer” still count?
  • And, can we get ever get enough Jimmy Stewart?

Explore these vital issues with folks who clearly have issues – in “A Very Phoenix Xmas: It’s a Wonderful Die Hard Life Story Actually,” directed and curated by Claire Wilcher. It’s like the beloved performer and intimacy expert worked on an in-depth project on holiday television and cinema, but she took one of those Siberian Santa mushrooms (see the show for context).

Our up-for-anything cast of Matthew Altman, Paige Neely, Devan Mathias, Zachariah Stonerock, and Kelsey Van Voorst take on a series of skits by Wilcher, Jeff Clawson, Steve Moulds, Zack Neiditch, KT Peterson, Mookie Harris, Steven Korbar, Bennett Ayres, and the return of Mark Harvey Levine’s “A Requiem for Shermy,” one of the best tributes to the Peanuts Christmas Special. In video bits between scenes, Wilcher joins in on some classic holiday movie moments.

This show gets a little spooky at times, a lot funny throughout, and just one degree from Kevin Bacon. We’ve seen Mathias and Van Voorst deliver the silly before, and they are at the top of their game here, as well as charming Neely and ever-fabulous Altman; meanwhile Stonerock excels at Pythonesque straight-man delivery, as well as the task of doing likely the most imitated-for-laughs voice in Hollywood history.

Looks like the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre’s holiday tradition is here to stay (through Dec. 22) and in good hands. It’s on the mainstage at 705 N. Illinois St., downtown Indianapolis; get tickets at phoenixtheatre.org.

‘Bat in the Wind’ flutters back

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By John Lyle Belden

Write what you know. That’s the universal advice to writers, and some, like novelist Stephen King, turn the muse inward and pen stories about those who pen stories. As a longtime friend (though not as long as some) of playwright Casey Ross, I have seen her blinking cursor return – between indulgences in the silly or geeky – to the shadows of memory and the recrafting of friends made and lost into characters who are new, yet familiar.

She may even agree that the King reference is apt, as he and she both know that it is within the mind where true monsters lie. Bringing those beasties out into the light seemed to be one of the goals of the “Gallery” trilogy she introduced at IndyFringe almost two decades ago. From the start, she presented flawed people with flawed relationships in a way that reminds us that those aspects are baked into the hardware of humanity, not something to be blithely resolved in the third act.

With her most personal work, she lays bare the struggles of a playwright striving to understand their own art in “Bat in the Wind,” which has returned to the IndyFringe Theatre, this time on the more intimate Indy Eleven stage. Last August’s premiere during the 2023 IndyFringe Festival featured a script that was carefully trimmed down to Fringe-show length (under an hour). The updated Catalyst Repertory production, directed by Zachariah Stonerock and clocking in at about an hour and a half (no intermission), is restored, not padded out. Nothing feels extra, and motivations and conversations even gain clarity.

Matt Craft returns as Taylor, a 26-year-old writer who has found himself single, near broke, and suddenly without electricity. This on top of the fact that the prose that should be a brilliant play about the human condition just sits there lifeless on his laptop screen. But before he can attempt to remedy that, he must go next door to his duplex neighbor, Randy (Dane Rogers), a slovenly older man who appears to care about nothing but sustaining his alcoholism. The first thing he says at any conversation is a slurred, “You’re not mad at me, are you?” – in case there was something bad he said or did during a blackout.

The play is subtitled, “A Recent Study on Depression and Addiction,” which at first glance is a reference to poor Randy. However, it’s easy to sniff out your own kind, and in his more lucid moments, he reminds Taylor (and us) that our frustrated wordsmith is an addict as well – and he’s got it bad.

Like a drunk bargaining with his demons, Taylor thinks he has a way of getting his literary high with no danger of personal pain. To write about what he knows, creative folk, he makes the characters in his play photographers, not writers. (This puzzles Randy, but in this writer’s opinion it’s a tactic of distance, the creator always on the safe side of the camera, apart from any action or drama. I note this parenthetically in case Casey tells me I got it wrong.)

Taylor prides himself on being a keen observer, using parts of those he watches to bring truth to his fictional scenes. Randy calls him on treating people like musical instruments, “not everyone likes to be played!” This humbling moment passes, though, and Taylor makes a fragile promise to his “interesting” neighbor. But like a bottle or needle, the muse calls.

All this, in what is technically a dark comedy. Ross’s penchant for dialogue that feels natural yet has every phrase weighted with meaning also generates a surprising number of laughs. Rogers’ no-nonsense deadpan delivery helps immensely, with the real-life absurdity of dealing with someone who’s blotto without comic buffoonery. Randal Leach may be a drunk, but he must be respected.

Craft finds himself the butt of laughter just as often. His constant striving wins our sympathy, despite the fact that he’s morose and manic (the pot and occasional hits of coke don’t help) like someone perpetually treading water, unaware and in fear of how deep in he is. His months-long experience with the role fits him like a second skin.

I must note that, as those with low means tend to indulge in affordable vices, there is a large amount of smoking of lit stage cigarettes in this show. The language – true to Ms. Ross’s style – is as salty as ever.

Also, the ending feels like it lends itself to an unrevealed epilogue, or even a third act. Consider that part being after the lights go up and you are left sitting with your thoughts. Perhaps it’s when you return to see Catalyst’s remounting of “Gallery” this summer. Maybe it’s when you finally sit down to write your next masterpiece, the blinking cursor beckoning like an old habit.

“Bat in the Wind (Or a Recent Study on Depression & Addiction)” has performances March 8-10 and 15-17 at 719 E. St. Clair, Indianapolis. Get tickets at indyfringe.org, more info at catalystrepertory.org or the company Facebook page.

Play based on Hank Williams’ final ‘tour’

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By John Lyle Belden

Playwright and retired journalist Garret Matthews incorporates aspects of people he has known and interviewed into his plays. In his latest, “Opening Hank,” he includes the story of someone more familiar to most of us.

On New Years Day 1953, country music legend Hank Williams Sr. rode his Cadillac into eternity. In a body weakened by a hard life that included alcohol and painkillers (mainly to deal with chronic back pain), his heart gave out on the way to a Jan. 1 concert in Ohio, discovered dead in the backseat in Oak Hill, West Virginia. This necessitated another ride, in a hearse from there back home to Montgomery, Alabama.

On that route, in Mathews’ play, is the town of Bluefield, where you can get gas, car repairs, and “a free Coky-Cola with a fill-up” at the West Main Esso. Willie T. McClanahan (Taylor Cox), a savant with car engines but largely seen as a kind but simple soul otherwise, barely notices the news on WHIS radio as he challenges himself at checkers, but his second-shift manager Steve Tatum (Zachariah Stonerock) has heard and is not taking it well. Williams’ music and songs inspired him to take up writing for the first time since his horrific experiences in World War II a decade earlier.

A nicely dressed gentleman, Hiram Ledbetter (David Mosedale, who also directs) enters what he declares to be the “gasoline emporium” not seeking fuel but rest, and offering a proposition. He pilots Williams’ transport, and while he finds a meal and a nap elsewhere in town, he says, he would leave the coffin at the service station for safekeeping and in exchange for a fee, Steve could then charge the townspeople to get their last look at the hillbilly music superstar.

Having a dread fear of the trappings of death, Willie is sent away, leaving Steve, who takes up the undertaker’s offer, but for his own reasons.

While fictional, this story contains characters, events and anecdotes based on actual stories Mathews reported, and we get an excellent refresher on Hank Williams’ life, struggles and music, with several songs featured before and during the play. There is much heart and humor, with moments of dire drama. We get a feel for the brotherly relationship between Willie and Steve long before we learn their connection, as well as how they are essential to each other’s wellbeing. Cox and Stonerock have a natural chemistry, borne of talent as well as working together before. Mosedale cuts an interesting character himself, with hints of the Devil-in-a-suit archetype but with Southern charm and a grudging bit of good conscience. Ol’ Hank is a bit stiff in that box, but does sound good on the old radio.

In a post-show talk, Mathews and the cast give hearty thanks to stage manager Aaron Henze for his contributions, so we will as well.

Remaining performances are today and tomorrow (Nov. 19-20) as I post this, at the Cat, 254 Veterans Way in downtown Carmel. Get info and tickets at thecat.biz.

Bard Fest: Humor and History with ‘King John’

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This is part of Indy Bard Fest 2022, the annual Indianapolis area Shakespeare Festival. For information and tickets, visit indybardfest.com.

By John Lyle Belden

When most of us last saw or even thought of King John of England, he was still a Prince, frustrated with the antics of Robin Hood.

However, while Robin is legendary, there was a real John. Those taxes the Merry Men resented were a literal king’s ransom to rescue King Richard the Lionheart, his Crusading brother, and once John did ascend to the crown himself, his big achievement was getting badgered by the nobility to sign the Magna Carta. It didn’t help his reputation that he lost most of England’s lands in modern France, and that with historians he is overshadowed by one of the most awesome women of Medieval Europe, his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Can even William Shakespeare rehabilitate the image of this man? His “The Life and Death of King John” reads more like a complex cautionary tale with its twists of fate, as well as digs at the expense of France and the Catholic Church to keep Elizabethan audiences happy.

Now it is in the gentle hands of local director Doug Powers, who brings the Indy Bard Fest production of “King John” to The Shelton Auditorium at Butler University. His handling of the text brings out the humor in this history play, borne of the constant shifts between belligerence and brokered peace. The flow of the plot goes like: We’re at war! Now we’re not! We’re at war again! We’re… where were we…? There’s a dry, almost Pythonesque feel to some of the scenes, eliciting several chuckles from the audience.

Excellent casting helps: Zachary Stonerock gives John a sense of purpose, edged with frustration and notoriously quick temper. He strives to be a good ruler, while his mouth writes checks his army can’t cash. Gari Williams gives Queen Eleanor the regal bearing she held to her last days, her counsel helping keep John on task. Kevin Caraher portrays Philip of France as a monarch weary of war, but not relenting until his son Louis the Dauphin (Cael Savidge) and Duke Arthur (Max Gallagher), who has a claim to England’s throne, get their due. Star turns in supporting roles include Sabrina Duprey, who finds herself little more than a pawn in this game as Princess Blanche of Spain; Tony Armstrong as Hubert, a faithful servant with an impossible choice; and the brilliant Matt Anderson, first as a citizen of a besieged city who offers a crucial compromise, and later as Cardinal Pandulph, who acts with the Pope’s authority to excommunicate King John.

The top performances here are by Georgeanna Smith Wade in two fiery mother roles – most notably railing at all the politicking and half-measures keeping young Arthur from the throne – and by Taylor Cox as Philip “The Bastard” Faulconbridge, illegitimate son of John’s brother Richard, named a Knight in the King’s forces. Cox exudes a brash confidence that seems unearned at first, growing throughout as his role makes him both provocateur and chorus, giving many a sly aside or clever commentary to us watching.

Once again, Bard Fest has served up a Shakespeare work we don’t often see and makes it entertain and even enlightening when compared to the fickle nature of modern statecraft. Remaining performances are Friday through Sunday, Oct. 14-16 at the Shelton, 1000 W. 42nd Street, on the grounds Butler shares with Christian Theological Seminary.

IndyFringe: Sweet Dreams, Pillowman

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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

Monique (Audrey Stonerock) is literally a hot mess. Her apartment is a wreck, her hygiene is questionable at best, her cat has run away in disgust and her only companions are a trio of singing rats (Chelsea Mullen, Carrie Powell, and Maria Meschi). Is it any wonder she has begun talking to the pile of pillows and blankets next to her?

She has also started to imagine hearing a strange male voice from somewhere. Is it the rats playing a trick on her or something more sinister?

When she discovers that there is indeed a Pillowman (voiced and puppetted by Zachariah Stonerock), she is frightened at first, but then begins to deal with this manifestation. As is often the case, her visitor is here to help her work through the issues that have brought her to this place in her life.

In “Sweet Dreams, Pillowman*,” presented by American Lives Theatre, many hard truths are explored, but catharsis (and oranges) win out in the end.

Personally, I feel that J. E. Hibbard’s script makes a perfect Fringe show. The characters are interesting, the story is charming, it lulls you into a false sense of whimsy and then hits your emotional buttons (without going overboard).

Experience the sweetness 7:15 p.m. Friday and noon Saturday, Aug. 26-27, on the Indy Eleven stage at the IndyFringe Theatre.

(*This play has nothing to do with the much-darker drama “The Pillowman” by Martin McDonagh; though if you do find a production of that one, be sure to check it out.)

Coach forced to grapple with past in new drama

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By Wendy Carson

Is it possible to redeem a bully and show him the devastating impact he had on others? This question is at the heart of Bennett Ayres’ new play, “Lanista,” brought to you by Catalyst Repertory, directed by Zachariah Stonerock.

First of all, I would like to say that I adore this show. I have not instantly fallen in love with a script like this since I first saw the Phoenix’s production of “The Pillowman.” I honestly can’t help but tell you that you MUST see this show. It is touching, infuriating, yet also cathartic to behold. 

The title of the piece comes from the ancient Roman term meaning a trainer of gladiators. This is how Coach Bill Harrison (Mark Goetzinger) sees himself. He is a molder of high school wrestling champions, a legend throughout the state for his impressive record. However, one of his past students, Joel Beemer (Jamaal McCray) has become his elder-care provider, and is taking the opportunity to show this man just how much he damaged the psyches of his athletes. 

Beemer begins by subtly making Harrison’s family think he is becoming more and more senile. He then begins to subject Coach to the rigors of training, as well as verbal abuse, that he inflicted upon his students. When Harrison tells his daughter Kim (Michelle Wafford) about these occurrences, she sees his stories as further proof of dementia, and besides, this is the first caregiver Coach hasn’t run off. At one point, Beemer feels he may have gone too far, but as the teenager Anna (Olivia Mayer) he regularly visits in Juvenile Detention tells him: When you go for a bully, you have to give them all you’ve got. 

Goetzinger is sheer perfection as the stoic Coach who sees nothing wrong with the way he treated his players – he was just doing his job. McCray shows us every bit of his range as the “caregiver” who appears to be carrying out vengeance on the man partially responsible for the mess his life is today, but don’t forget, Beemer also worked as a teacher. Wafford ably portrays the daughter who has more than enough on her plate, glad to let another handle her dad’s situation. Adam Crowe has a charming cameo as a police officer honored to meet the legendary Coach whose students he once wrestled against. Recent Ball State grad Mayer does an excellent job as the enigmatic bad girl who is in juvie for taking part in a car theft, and has no desire to change her ways. 

Will the former wrestler show the Coach that he was not who he thought he was all these years? Will he realize his methods produced champions but destroyed lives? How does Anna fit into all this? See the show to find out; performances of this World Premiere run Thursday through Sunday (July 7-10) at the IndyFringe Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair, Indianapolis. Get tickets at indyfringe.org.

Quiet play has a lot to say

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By John Lyle Belden

The stage is so serene, as the actors silently enter one by one, you don’t want to make a noise in the audience, either.

To the delight of American Lives Theatre director Chris Saunders, the rule of silence in this retreat setting of “Small Mouth Sounds” by Bess Wohl, seems to permeate the room, as he presents, in his words, “What if you met a stranger and didn’t have the words to immediately assume everything about them?”

Jan (Kevin Caraher), a nicely dressed older man, calmly takes his seat. Ned (Zacharia Stonerock), wide eyes under his stocking cap, comes in looking unsure of himself. When Rodney (Lukas Felix Schooler), whose manner can’t help but project the fact he is a Yoga master, comes in and takes off his sandals, Ned immediately sheds his shoes and from then on, we have an assumed rule in this meeting space. The no-talking rule is also taken for granted, so it is jarring to hear married(?) couple Joan (Nathalie Cruz) and Judy (Jenni White) enter, bickering. But they get the hint, and soon the voice of the Teacher (Ben Rose) fills the space, exotically sounding like an English-speaking African man.

Teacher opens with a cryptic story of talking frogs; warns that the participants will not necessarily encounter him, or even Enlightenment, but “yourselves;” and gives the rules, which include that aside from a structured Q&A with him once a day, no one is to speak. During this, our last camper, Alicia (Morgan Morton) enters; the fact that she missed an important rule will come back on them later in the play.

Through our mind’s eye and the laying out of mats, the stage also becomes their cabin floor, as we get further impressions of these men and women, and the first lack-of-language barrier issue as Jan and Alicia were, it seems, assigned the same space.

Early on in this journey, the campers are instructed to each write their “intention” on a slip of paper, a source of friction when one accidentally reads another’s. As the drama builds, so does the humor, both drawing interesting and startling exchanges and moments from their self-enforced mime-hood.

Note that this play does include brief nudity, forbidden incense, and illicit use of Fritos. We also get Ned’s “life story,” as he accidentally asks the character’s most profound question. We also get a sense of deep loss – past, present, and future – each participant is working through. Even Rodney, acting blithely like a sort of yogic tourist, comes into some hard lessons.

At some point, practically every rule of the retreat is broken, which even brings Teacher – dealing with off-campus issues and finding Enlightenment via cold medicine – to his own self-reckoning.

Performances are sublime. Schooler uses his real-world yoga knowledge to good effect. Stonerock ably gives us a man struggling with his own identity, in more than the philosophical sense. Morton gives us someone about whom we learn so little yet feel for so much. We read volumes between the lines with White and Cruz – the former as a cancer survivor, and the latter recovering in her own way. And I don’t want to say too much about Caraher, but the revelation of his character sticks with you pleasantly.

Now that I’m outside that space, I feel free to speak up: See “Small Mouth Sounds,” in remaining performances Friday through Sunday, Dec. 10-12, at the District Theatre, 627 Massachusetts Ave., downtown Indianapolis. Info and tickets at americanlivestheatre.org.

Bard Fest: Scott edit does ‘Measure for Measure’ justice

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By John Lyle Belden

“Measure for Measure” is classified by Shakespeare scholars as one of the Bard’s “problem plays,” fitting not quite into the comedies (though using many of the familiar devices) yet not quite a tragedy, as it doesn’t end with someone dying on stage. In adapting the drama for Bard Fest, director Paige Scott lets us know the true “problem” is injustice and misogyny.

In a mythically modern Venice, the Duke (David Mosedale) notes that many laws, especially dealing with vices, have gone unenforced for years. In a bizarre experiment, he charges pious Angelo (Zachariah Stonerock) with taking charge of the Duchy and its ordinances while away on a journey. However, he doubles back, and disguised as a priest, observes how justice is meted out. 

Things get serious quickly, as Claudio (Bradford Riley) is arrested for fornication with now-pregnant Juliette (Brittany Magee) and Angelo coldly sentences the man to death. But when the condemned man’s sister, novice nun Isabella (Morgan Morton) goes to plead for his life, Angelo agrees to do so only in exchange for the woman’s virginity. Appalled, but desperate, Isabella finds herself torn between bad options. Fortunately, a kindly priest offers a solution.

We also have a sense of Angelo’s character in the way he treats his loyal assistant Escalus (Miranda Nehrig), who takes her bruises against the glass ceiling with grin-and-bear-it frustration. 

Magee also plays sex-worker Mistress Overdone, as well as Angelo’s nearly-forgotten fiance Marianna. Further good performances from Aaron Henze as Lucio – a good friend to Claudio, but a flair for exaggeration is his undoing – and Daryl Hollonquest Jr. as Pompey, a “bawd” barely a step ahead of dogged constable Elbow (Tracy Herring).

Stonerock plays his calculating villany chillingly straight, his contemporary suit and tie reminding us that not much has changed in the last 400 years with men in charge. Morton bristles as a woman in a conflict she should never have to endure, finding her Churchly authority useless, cheapened to a powerful man’s fetish. 

There is humor and an imperfect happy ending, but Scott’s skillful edit leaves us appropriately unsettled, focused on three women bravely looking for their fair “measure.” 

This stunning, conversation-starting production has performances Friday through Sunday, Oct. 29-31, at IndyFringe Basile Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair, Indianapolis. Info and tickets at indybardfest.com.