I'm pleased to say that the Wilhelmis are safe at home after their successful trip to Louisville. Here are the last few shows they saw at the Humana Festival!
Brink!
by Lydia R Diamond, Kristoffer Diaz, Greg Kotis, Debrorah Zoe Laufer, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb & Deborah Stein
directed by Sean Daniels
This show, written specifically for the 2008-2009 Acting Apprentice Company, proved itself hilarious. It showcased the acting talent of the Apprentice company with an anthology of sketches based around the 'Rites of Passages' theme. While silly and rambunctious, the show was also thought-provoking, touching on many creative & insightful observations on today's 'Rites of Passage', from a Jewish neu-extistentialist (Anna Kull) receiving her modern Bat Mitzfah (Today I Am a Woman, by Laufer) to a struggling father (Jacob Wilhelmi) who decides & declares (with his magnificent voice and questionable mustache!) to revolt against the current financial fiasco (American Dream by Kotis). Along with scenes current with today's news, there were also creative scenes from the past, such as Evolution by Laufer, where a family of fish argue about their 'different' child (Allison Moy) with land-bound urges. Alison Clayton plays up the evolution-fish's sister to a note-worthy hilariousness. Another scene, Instructions to my Future Life Partner… by Debrorah Stein, has a convincing Matthew Baldiga meandering through his future last wishes with great enthusiasm recalling the emotional surge of life I personally find parallel with listening to Radiohead's Videotape or Animal Collective's Flesh Canoe). Also standing out from the crowd, Anne Veal, who collectively plays her many parts with a subtle richness that balances perfectly with the chaos often ensuing elsewhere on stage. Her part as the Jewish mother in Laufer's Today I Am a Woman brought a refreshing humor through naturalism, catching the nuances of the polite mother at a party. Recognizable scenes from everyday life & running scenes that we come back to again and again keep the material intriguing & cohesive even at its fast running pace. A particularly entertaining insight was the plethora of theatre-insider jokes, a plus with this festival. The Apprentice Company and the playwrights involved pull this show off as a whole, successfully & impressively. Yet another recommended show at the Actors Theatre of Louisville's 33rd Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays!
The Hard Weather Boating Party
by Naomi Wallace
directed by Jo Bonney
The play starts off cool, mysterious, dangerous & intriguing. The cast of three drop hints and pieces of a puzzle to come. As it draws you in, however, abstract thoughts & puzzling choices get laced into the plot, becoming more dominant as the show rolls along. Finally, an epic, puzzling ending suddenly surprises everyone at the end for better or worse. Intriguing, but somewhat unpolished, this show is a weaker production at the Actors Theatre of Louisville's 33rd Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays!
Slasher
by Allison Moore
directed by Josh Hecht
With a behind-the-scenes of a low-fi, low budget B rated slasher film in a small town, this show captures humor and slasher-esque horror with all the scantily clad women, bathtubs of blood and, horror upon horrors, Churchies! We enjoyed this show, the light-hearted sequential production of the festival. I enjoyed Lucas Papaelias' slack-jawed approach to his Slasher-enthusiast character. Mark Setlock, a possible familiar face in Portland if you saw Portland Center Stage's Fully Committed, also commanded attention with his performance calling the likeness of John Malkovich. The many characters of Christy McIntosh also stood out for being vastly different in all areas but the level of humor brought to the show. Definitely a shiner of a show at the Actors Theatre of Louisville's 33rd Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays!
Ten-Minute Plays
1) On the Porch One Crisp Morning
by Alex Dremann
directed by Sean Daniels
2) 3:59am: a Drag Race for Two Actors
by Marco Ramirez
directed by Amy Attaway
3) Roanoke
by Matt Schatz
directed by Steven Rahe
These 3 Ten-Minute Plays were a fun little ride, each packing a punch in its limited time. While showcasing the the short scripts, it also gave another angle of depth into the acting abilities of the few members of Actors Theatre of Louisville's Apprentice Company. In On the Porch… it was interesting to find Nancy Noto again wrapped up in assassin attempts. 3:59am… certainly found a somber tone with Daniel reyes & Matthew Baldiga, and the threesome wrapped up with Roanoke a silly mockery of the land of failed actors, aka, Historic Reenactments at the Roanoke Colony Living Museum. Although short as a whole, this provided a breather from the fast pace of the festival, and clearly exists as a favorite with long time festival goers.
Under Construction
by Charles L Mee
directed by Anne Bogart
created & performed by Siti Company
http://www.siti.org/
The title is the theme, which is explored throughly & still left wide open for interpretation. Siti Company performs Mee's show Under Construction, which is the third piece in a future collection of four, although I'm pretty sure they are meant to stand alone. Regardless, this show certainly does work alone, as that's how i saw it and that's how I loved it. Avant Garde, Artsy-Fartsy, and yet full of comprehendible moments. Often in piece like this, it seems too much is random and not enough thought has been given to the underlying purpose or rhythm. This show is certainly crazy, on the edge, sometimes trying, but there were still a great many moments, elements & strains that really gave it weight & purpose. And since this paragraph is sounding a little like fluuf itself at this point, I'll stop and say this is definite recommendation at the Actors Theatre of Louisville's 33rd Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays! (even though it's over by now. ahem.)
…and that wraps it up for the Humana Festival! Sorry to be recommending shows after the fact, but keep an eye out for those scripts, and we better see you there next year for the Actors Theatre of Louisville's 34th Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays! This is the HGttT field team, signing off!
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