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The University of Southern Indiana Theatre conjures a nostalgic vision of Norman Rockwell Americana with its latest production.
By Roger McBain, Evansville Courier & Press 2/20/9
A black and white question resonates warmth, humor, poetry and passion in the University of Southern Indiana Theatre’s production of “Master Harold and the Boys.”
A little eavesdropping goes a long way in William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.”
By Roger McBain, Evansville Courier & Press 4/18/9
The University of Southern Indiana Theatre conjures a nostalgic vision of Norman Rockwell Americana with its latest production.
Director Lenny Leibowitz's team of actors, designers and technicians offers up a warm, sometimes humorous and always nostalgic picture of an idealized, upper-middle class, Middle American family at the turn of the 20th century in this production of "Meet Me in St. Louis," a musical based on the 1944 MGM film starring Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien.
Opening with characters frozen in suspended action, like a genre painter's tableau, the production's debut performance moved with broad and delicate strokes to create a sweet, simple, 21/2-hour portrait of family life with the Smiths, an upwardly mobile St. Louis family swept up in the hoopla leading into the 1904 World's Fair, when their city would become "the center of the Earth."
Precocious little sisters stir mischief, older sisters pout and scheme to win proposals from hapless Ivy League suitors, a Princeton-bound brother plays the good sport, the father harrumphs about over prospects with his law firm and his unappreciative family and mother beams with devotion to her children and husband.
The saving grace to all this gosh and golly nostalgia comes in Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane's songbook for the show, performed with power and emotion in some cases, bouncy vivacity in others and uneven efforts in others, singing and dancing to Paige Scott's piano accompaniment.
Jasmine Ruckriegel shines as Esther, a high school junior who's set her cap for Jon Truitt, performed with matching power by Brandon Sears. Their attraction feels genuine and their longing and passion ring through "The Boy Next Door," "The Girl Next Door" and "Over the Bannister." And Ruckriegel's rendition of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" brims with poignancy and affection.
Rachel Schenk offers a saucy, spirited performance as Rose, the headstrong oldest sister trying to keep her beau, played by Jeremy Brailsford, interested by keeping him off guard. It comes through in her flouncy acting and in her ringing expressive vocals, especially in "A Raving Liar," her response to Brailsford's wooing in "A Raving Beauty."
And Meredith Woodard delivers an intense testament to wifely devotion in "You'll Hear a Bell."
Taylor McDaniel and Andrea Conkright offered a nice blend of mischievousness and cute as little sisters Agnes and Tuttie on Thursday. The ensemble performs well in most cases, but had trouble synchronizing its attack a couple of times.
Thomas "Tommy" Thompson's scenic design is simple, open, elegant and accommodating.
The Mallette Studio Theatre makes scene changes awkward exercises at times, with actors climbing over props and creating offstage noise with tight passages and loud doors.
By Roger McBain, Evansville Courier & Press 2/20/9
A black and white question resonates warmth, humor, poetry and passion in the University of Southern Indiana Theatre’s production of “Master Harold and the Boys.”
The lyricism of Athol Fugard’s script, the dynamic performances of director Elliot Wasserman’s three-member student cast and the intimacy and detail of scenic designer Thomas “Tommy” Thompson’s arena staging came together in a powerfully engaging, profoundly moving, 80-minute opening in the USI’s Mallette Studio Theatre.
The show played without intermission to an audience of about 60, Thursday.
Set in the apartheid of South Africa in 1950, Fugard’s play takes the audience into the Saint George’s Park Tea Room for what opens as an innocent time of teasing, laughing and ballroom dance practice for Willy and Sam, two black waiters killing time on a rainy afternoon.
The mood remains friendly when Hally, the 17-year-old son of the restaurant’s white owner, comes in from school to work on an essay and to reminisce and trade jibes with the two black employees who’ve been playmates, babysitters and friends to him throughout his young life, providing support and solace he’s never gotten from his father.
A storm cloud settles into over the tea room, however, after Hally learns that his drunkard father is coming home from a long stay in the hospital to wreak havoc on the boy’s life again.
His anger and frustration set the stage for the virulent, underlying racism Hally’s absorbed from his family and his society to erupt into the tea room, creating a situation that threatens to change his relationship with Sam and Willy forever.
Donald Thomas and Preston Harris-Dunlap strike a warm, teasing, brotherly chemistry as Sam and Willy, men who’ve spent their lives working, and sometimes living beside one another.
Thomas anchors the play with an easy assurance, playing Sam with a gentle, chuckling wisdom and a vibrant sense of wonder and optimism. He is essentially hopeful, for everything from Willy’s chances to succeed in the big ballroom competition coming to their area to the chance for people, politicians and nations to find a way to move beside one another like dancers, stepping and gliding in the same space without colliding.
Harris-Dunlap brings an adolescent stubbornness and innocence to the role of Willy, revealing a respect and admiration for Sam that shows even through his occasional testiness with his friend.
Joshua Smith effectively projects the confused allegiances of Hally, trying to reconcile his familial affection for Sam and Willy with the condescending cruelty of the racism he’s been taught by his family, his social class and his government’s embrace of racial apartheid.
Like Hally, this story crackles with cruel, mean streaks at the peak of the storm, but, like Sam, it never loses its hope for better weather ahead.
A little eavesdropping goes a long way in William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.”
Conspiracies to make matches, break betrothals and bring scoundrels to justice hang precariously and usually preposterously on intentionally and accidentally overheard scenes in this comedy, staged in the University of Southern Indiana’s Mallette Studio Theatre.
Playing to a full house of 92, the show opened Saturday as part of the Repertory Project, a collaborative effort between USI Theatre and New Harmony Theatre.
Director Lenny Leibowitz’s 19-member cast of students, community players and professionals (including himself in a quirky comic role) have staged the play as a lively, 21/2-hour garden party. Trees, shrubs, wreaths and bouquets on scenic designer Craig A. Young’s stage frame scenes, provide imaginative cover for hidden eavesdroppers and give characters something colorful to wave, hurl and thrash one another with.
The story is a mixed bouquet of elements, from the instantly-flowering romance between Claudio and Hero and the forced bloom of love between Beatrice and Benedick to the jealous designs of Don John, out to choke the plot in brambles and thistles.
The production’s blend of professional and student performers came through with an entertaining, in spots uneven, look at a Shakespearean favorite in Saturday’s opening, complete with bits of choreography and some traditional “Hey Nonny Nonny” vocals.
Eileen Ward, an Equity player who appeared in last summer’s “Crimes of the Heart,” was the brightest spot in the show, playing Beatrice with a smart, tart intelligence and a stubborn independence that radiated through every scene she appeared in.
Estes Tarver, another Equity player, provided a quieter, but equally confident counterpoint as Benedick, who, like Beatrice, reveals his feeling by protesting way too much against romance and marriage.
Amelia Dalto and Brandon Eck, both USI student players, reflected the youthful naivete of Hero and her suitor, Claudio. In a reverse take on the Elizabethan practice of putting male actors in women’s roles, USI player Rachel effectively conveyed the poisonous jealousy of Don John, but not his masculinity.
And Leibowitz provided a some bizarre comic interludes as Dogberry, playing the malapropping constable like Peter Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau in a Monty Python skit.
It all blended together in colorful arrangement of fresh and familiar elements brought together in a more intimate setting than audiences usually experience Shakespeare in.
