0013.Art Rocks: William Merritt Chase: 1849

Last Hurrah!

Brought a few of the Impatiens inside in a vase.  Moments away from a serious weather front going through.  Promises torrents of rain and very high winds and then tomorrow cool, and tomorrow night chilly---maybe even CHILL-ee.  The Impatiens are not made for such things.  They've had a spectacular summer of autumn.  It's time for the seasons to turn.

0012.Art Rocks: Katsuchika Hakusai: 1760

0011.Art Rocks: Johannes Vermeer: 1632

0010.Art Rocks: Alfred Sisley: 1839

Shakespeare Theatre Company: Everybody

Shakespeare Theatre Company has some very pricy real estate in the heart of DC.  The main stage is in the Sidney Harman Building that is directly across the street from the Verizon Center (home to the Wizards and Capitals, and site of endless events).  Today there was a Horse Show at the Center, streets blocked all around it, horse trailers parked three deep.  A block and half away is another theater called the Landsburg, that they also own.  While still large, the stage and auditorium is a smaller than the one at Sidney Harman.  With two venues, they have options when staging plays, and they also rent out the spaces, like today the larger Sidney Harman was being used by the Washington Ballet for some of their performances.  But on to the play of the day: "Everybody" by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

I didn't enjoy this one.  Feels like cutting to the chase is best, no surprise ended here.

Now, why I didn't enjoy it is apart from what the play is, or how it is presented.  The play is a modern take on the medieval morality play genre embodied in the oldest known English play called Everyman.  It is a story set to instruct the viewers on the futility of life on earth and the way in which to acquire an eternity in Heaven.  The narrator "God" goes to great length to explain this to us in the beginning.  His is a fix role, as is that of Death.  The 5 members of the ensemble start out as just Somebodies, but then a golden spinning ball basket like the ones used in bingo is brought out and one by one they reach in, withdraw a golden orb, and open it to discover which character they will be portraying in this particular production.  The five actors know all the roles.  They just don't know who they are going to be until this moment.  It's a gimmick for sure.  It's also a fascinating challenge for the actors.  By all the evidence presented, they are up to the challenge.  Today's fatefully chosen cast was so cohesive, that I would have thought they did this together all the time.  A huge billboard in the lobby records each performance's iteration, so you can see who has play who and when.  There is even a game of chance to predict this performances casting before the show begins and those to guess correctly can win a seat to a future performance.  All the intertwined gimmicks and Dame Fortuna must certainly be smiling on from somewhere, right?  The cast is compelling on many levels.  They represent a range of races, genders, non-binary, trans, sexualities, ages, heights, body types...  The casting is clearly another intention toward the idea of Everybody.

Once the principles are set they fall into 5 roles.  The lead is now Everybody, and death has come to claim them for God.  Not wanting to go the journey alone, Everybody asks for a companion.  Death agrees to give Everybody the opportunity to look, and each in turn, Everybody entreats Friendship, Kinship, Cousin, and Possessions.  But none will go.  Then enters Love and reluctantly Love agrees to both prep Everybody and go with Everybody.  Death then returns and along the way, Strength, Senses, Beauty, Feelings and Understanding show up, too.  Alas, as the going gets tough, they all save Understanding and Love abandon Everybody, too.  Throughout the play there is an acknowledgement of the audience and all the actors save God and Death begin their participation in the guise of audience members.

The sets are simple, the props the same.  The costumes all start out as street clothes and then evolve into something sort of cartoonish.  The sound was basic.  As a production it was fine.  The actors worked hard and gave good performances.  SO why didn't I like it?  For no good reason except that it bored me most of the time.  I concede that the playwright, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is certainly consider one the the finest new playwrights of our time.  He actually grew up in Takoma Park!   He's had one nomination for a Pulitzer Prize and is a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant recipient.  I fully acknowledge his genius in this play's rich historical and contemporary contextualization, it profound themes and its deeply demanding requirements upon the actors.  On all these levels, it's amazing.  Clearly, he's something special, and all I was, was bored.  I just couldn't get past being fascinated by all the intricacies to just enjoy the story-telling.  And for me, that was boring in short order.

Death (Nancy Robinette) being hounded by the Somebodies right after they learn that one of them is about to die (L-R: Alina Collins Maldonado, Ayana Workman, Kelli Simpkins, Elan Zafir, and Avi Roque.

In the performance I saw today: 

Alina Collins Maldonado received the lead role of Everybody.

Ayana Workman received the role of Friendship and was Everybody's first choice to go on the journey.

Kelli Simpkins received the role of Kinsman, and Elan Zafir the role of Cousin and they were the next two to face her pleas.

Avi Roque received the role of Possessions.  They were the third, and their role was particularly humorous.  Humor is a very important part of the play.  It is at times very funny.

 Death leading the Everybody to the afterlife.  This iteration was different from today's.

 Understanding (Yonatan Gebeyehu) in the foreground.

0009.Art Rocks: Roy Lichtenstein: 1923

0008.Art Rocks: Lee Krasner: 1908

Roast Pork, etc.

Dinner was Roast Pork Loin with a slow cooked Cabbage, Sauerkraut and RoTel "Hot" diced Tomatoes, and Saffron Rice.  I also had the joy of a companion who thinks I am a very good cook!

Blessed Romeo, my sweetest boy

Baltimore Center Stage: Thoughts of a Colored Man

Baltimore Center Stage is not a theatre that I have frequent- ed often. In truth, only one other time before.  It was almost a year ago when I saw "The King of the Yee's" there.  At the time, I didn't realize that there were two separate and impressive theatres within the large building.  Occupying an entire block, the whole thing is not just the BCS.  A church inhabits the far end of the complex, and you get the sense that it was probably there first.  Even entering the lobby, it's not a multi-floor grand theatrical space.  So when you enter the theater, you feel like, "Wow.  Nice."  What's more important; however, is that you leave the theater after the play and feel, "Wow.  Nice."  Today was certainly one of those days.

"Thoughts of a Colored Man" by Keenan Scott II is a world premiere production shared by Syracuse Stage in New York, and Baltimore Center Stage.  Set in Brooklyn (loosely), it is a series of vignettes and poems, that are tied together by the lives of seven Black men who embody a range of emotions.  From Passion to Depression, from Wisdom to Lust, with Happiness, Love, and Anger tossed in for the ride.  The author then allows the men opportunities in shifting ensembles and alone to express their emotion and thus walk the audience through a complex examination of the inner lives of Black men in America.  The journey comes with a wide range of topics.  Among the subjects are gentrification, homophobia, black on black social classism, exploitation of African American athletes, biracial dating, random acts of street violence, as well as, assumptions about intellect, aggression, misogyny, etc.

Now, you could easily see how this could become overwhelming, perhaps even cliche.  But it didn't.  From the utterance of the very first line, the actors created an experience of such devotion and authenticity, I never looked down.  In fact, I found myself on the verge of tears multiple times.  Every member of the cast was amazing.  Each brought something unique and indispensable to the stage.  If asked to choose a favorite, I could not.  If asked to, at least, identify the three who stood just a tip-toe above the others.... Oh my.  Tough.  Forrest McClendon as Depression, opened the show.  His energy and physicality were captivating.  Ryan Jamaal Swain as love, brought forth a genial kindness and sincerity that was endearing.  Brandon Dion Gregory as Passion, might have also been dubbed "earnestness".  His character was the venerable good guy, good heart, good intentions, a good place to rest when other emotions intensified.

The stage was dominated by a lifesize billboard.  One word, "Colored" remained there throughout the play.  A promise, an accusation, a provocation, according to the author's notes in the program, a little bit of each and more.  In some ways, it's an idea without a meaning, and idea that means too much.   Like the "thoughts" in the play, too much, not enough, swirling, whirling, like stars in the night sky; seeking meaning.  Meaning that is not spoon fed to you, but meaning you are asked to make from the ingredients so generously offered.  As a black woman sitting nearby observed to her friends, "Mmmm, we've just been to church."

Depression (Forrest McClendon) at work

Love (Ryan Jamaal Swain) and Lust (Reynaldo Piniella) checking out the ladies

 Wisdom (Jerome Preston Bates), Passion (Brandon Dion Gregory), Lust, Anger (Garrett Turner), and Love at the barber shop

Love with his latest true love (Ashley Pierre-Louis)

 Wisdom and Passion celebrating the arrival of the next generation

 Anger, Love, Depression and Lust waiting in line to buy the latest sneakers

In the end, only six were left standing

0007.Art Rocks: John Alexander: 1945

Seasons

Seasons poised to change.  The summer reign of the Impatiens is about to some to an abrupt end with the arrival of the first frost.  Waiting patiently in the wings, the first phalanx of troops from the army of the Pansies.  The hardly little lion-faced beauties that stand guard through the coldest months of the year.  I do love them so.

0006.Art Rocks: Pablo Picasso: 1881

0005.Art Rocks: Robert Rauschenberg: 1925

Naan Bread Pizza

0004.Art Rocks: Frits Thaulow: 1847

Prologue Theatre: "Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead"

Theatre is such an all-encompassing medium.  The DMV is home to lots of companies that run the gamut from well-established with multi-million dollar multi-stage complexes to shoestring-budgeted rent-out-whatever-space-is-available, passionate, scrappy, concept troops.  And as the saying goes, and everything in between.  Prologue theatre would appear to reside on the passionate, scrappy end of the spectrum.  I attended a matinee held in the upstairs portion of a retail building on 14th street that is ostensibly designed as a dance studio, but does work when reconfigured as a little theatre space, too.  There is a special energy and intimacy with such companies.  My ticket came with an educator's discount, was general admission like all the tickets and only cost me $20.  And to be honest, I've spent upwards of 5 times that much for half or less as dynamic experience in the end.

Fact, I was the third person to arrive.  Fact, the audience topped out at ten people.  Fact, one was a local theatre critic of some renown, one was a former board member for Keegan Theatre, one just had his musical "Light Years" debuted at Signature Theatre and is a founding member of the indie folk band "Eddie from Ohio", and from the pre-performance conversations all but myself and one other gentlemen were well acquainted with each other and had long histories in the DMV theatre scene.

As to the play, it could loosely be seen as the Peanuts gang all grown up and not behaving terribly well story, but that wouldn't do the complexities of the show justice, although the analogies are intentional and present throughout beginning with the tragic death of CB's (the protagonist's) dog, a beagle...who has contracted rabies and slaughtered his best friend (a little yellow bird) before being put down.   In this world "Lucy" (referred to only as Van's Sister) is in a nuthouse for setting another girl's (a little redheaded girl's) hair on fire during biology class as day after having an abortion.  Van (er, Linus VAN Pelt) is a pothead who had his blanket burned for being infested with pubic lice by his best friend's little sister, and then took the ashes and rolled them into a blunt and smoked it.  Matt (a.k.a Pig Pen) has become a sadistic, neat freak who's obsession with homophobia is the driving conflict of the tale.  Tricia and Marcy (a.k.a. Peppermint Patty and Marcy) are egocentric "valley" girls into alcohol abuse and casual sex.  CB discovers during his quest to answer the question "Is my dog in heaven?' that he is gay and in love with the piano prodigy, Beethoven.  A boy constantly attacked for being a fag even years after it has come to light that he was being sexually abused by his father.  Still with me?  We're not in Peanuts anymore, Toto!

SO what you have here is either a way too clever sack of cliches, or a very interesting take on contemporary teen identity and cultural angst.  I'll vote for the latter on the strength of two critical components.  One, kudos to the director, Jason Tamborini.  There was just too coordinated an ebb and flow of the ensemble's energy not to have been guided by a singular vision.  Two, the excellent cast. Even those members who initially struck me as ambiguous completely won me over by the end.  Conor Patrick Donahue as the villainous Matt was simultaneously horrifying and pathetic a combination that engendered empathy along with disdain.  To have a complex experience with a character in a play as the result of the actor's talent is the hallmark of talent.  Annie Ottati and Vanessa Chapoy as the hapless duo of Tricia and Marcy were simply delightful together.  As written, their BFF relationship twisted around chords of symbiosis and insecurity like actual siblings.  Tiziano D'Affuso in the role of Beethoven was the actual reason that I took a chance of this production at all.  He did not disappoint.  He has a talent for understanding the critical moment in a scene that is not just about delivering dialogue, but also encompasses every nuanced movement.  All that said, the star of this play was hands down Noah Schaefer as CB.  In real life, he is a teacher at The National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts.  I think I can safely say, his students are fortunate to have such a talented actor as their guide.  He took on the entire arc of the character's journey and created a steady trajectory of emotional engagement right up to his character's explosive climax followed by an intensely emotional and perfect contraction toward darkness.  Metaphorically, as a supernova must become a black hole, and literally, as the house lights faded away ending the play.

In writing this I also realized that dimes to donuts Noah is the son of the affore unnamed man who's musical premiered at Signature Theatre and who was lead guitarist of Eddie from Ohio...hmmm.  It would also explain why that man's wife was the first person to offer a standing ovation.  It was a gesture that I gladly joined in on.

The play is being presented through November 3rd.  I would suggest that this one move to the top of your "to see" list before it is too late.

The view of the stage from the seat I chose.

Noah Schaefer (CB) giving his opening monologue about his dog's demise.

Tiziano D'Affuso (Beethoven) alone in the music room playing the piano during lunch, while the other students: Jonathan E. Miot (Van), Conor Patrick Donahue (Matt), Annie Ottati (Tricia) and Vanessa Chapoy (Marcy) eat in the cafeteria.

Noah Schaefer (CB) and Beethoven in the music room.

CB and Beethoven in a moment of realization.

Van, CB's Little Sister (Sophie Schulman), CB, Tricia and Marcy in a group counseling session.

Recent Photography

Nocturne: Pre-dawn Dog Walk