Connecticut Arts Connections

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Elizabeth Williamson

Hartford Stage Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak has announced the selection of Elizabeth Williamson as the company's Senior Dramaturg and Director of New Play Development. Williamson served the past four years as Associate Artistic Director and Literary Manager for Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake City, where she founded and ran the theatre's New Play Initiative

In other news, Jill Adams has been elected to serve as the new president of the theatrer's Board of Directors.

The Mark Twain House and Museum presents a screening of the blaxploitation film Cleopatra Jones, a movie about a tough female black James Bond who takes on the drug merchants in her neighborhood On Wednesday, August 22,.

The 1973 film tells the story of Jones (Tamara Dobson), who is a model, but only to provide her cover story.  In reality she's a United States Special Agent specializing in drug trafficking in both the United States and abroad.  She burns down an evil drug lord's poppy field in Turkey, and the dealer -- known as "Mommy" (Shelley Winters) -- swears to get revenge on Jones, hiring the corrupt cop Officer Purdy to help.  Jones heads back to L.A. to continue to take down Mommy's drug business, and eventually Mommy herself.

Cleopatra Jones will be shown at The Mark Twain House & Museum on Wednesday, August 22, at 7:00 p.m.  Admission is $5.00 (free for Mark Twain House & Museum members).

Hartford Stage presents Hedda Gabler, the season opener of the Tony Award-winning theatre's 49th season, on stage from Aug. 30 through Sept. 23. Opening Night will be at 8 pm Friday, Sept. 7.

Roxanna Hope, who played Caroline Cushing in Frost/Nixon on Broadway, stars as Hedda Gabler. Also cast are John Patrick Hayden, Sam Redford, Sara Topham, Thomas Jay Ryan. Kandis Chappell and Anne O'Sullivan.

Jennifer Tarver, the award-winning Canadian director, who is closely associated with The Goodman Theatre in Chicago and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, will helm the Jon Robin Baitz adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's masterpiece.

Fairfield University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts opens its 2012-2013 signature lecture series, Open VISIONS Forum, with legendary broadcast journalist and co-editor of 60 Minutes Leslie Stahl at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, September 19, 2012. The award-wining journalist’s lecture is entitled “Inside 60 Minutes.” Following Leslie Stahl’s presentation, there will be an informal conversation and discussion with Professor Philip Eliasoph, OVF moderator, and Dr. James Simon, a former Associated Press reporter who created the journalism program at Fairfield University. Single tickets are $45. Moffly Media is the exclusive magazine sponsor for the 2012-13 Open VISIONS Forum series.

Palace Theater Tickets Go on Sale Aug. 9

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West Side Story. Photo courtesy of the Palace.

From magic acts to Broadway musicals, the Palace Theater’s 2012-2013 season has something in store for everyone. Tickets for West Side Story, as well as Spencer’s Theatre of Illusion and Woodbury Ballet Theatre’s “Dracula” and “The Nutcracker” go on sale Thursday, Aug. 9 at 10 am.

Tickets can be purchased by phone at 203-346-2000, online at www.palacetheaterct.org or in person at the Box Office at 100 East Main St. Waterbury. Summer box office hours are Monday through Thursday, 10 am to 3 pm; closed Friday through Sunday until Sept. 4, when it returns to its regular hours of operation. Before Aug. 9 Palace E-PASS members have the opportunity to purchase tickets in prime seating locations before the general public. An E-PASS membership is valid on all Palace shows that occur for between now and June 30, 2013.

Tickets for the following performances go on sale to the general public on Aug. 9:

Woodbury Ballet Theatre presents DRACULA
Saturday, October 20 – 8pm
A ballet based on Bram Stokers chilling story of good, evil, romance, seduction and sacrifice with a deliciously dangerous musical score that will have audiences biting for more.
Tickets: $48/ $38/$28

SPENCER’S THEATRE OF ILLUSIONS
Friday, October 26 – 7pm
Magic these days is about spectacle, drama, danger, and personality, and Kevin and Cindy Spencer are the masters of this new magic theatre. The Spencers have been named “Performing Arts Entertainers of the Year” for a staggering six consecutive years, and were recently named by their peers as “International Magicians of the Year” joining the ranks of Copperfield, Penn & Teller, and Criss Angel.
Tickets: $50/ $25

WEST SIDE STORY
Saturday, November 24 – 2pm & 8pm
Sunday, November 25 – 1pm & 6:30pm
From the first note to the final breath, West Side Story soars as the greatest love story of all time. This revival, based on Tony Award-winner Arthur Laurents' Broadway direction, remains as powerful and poignant as ever, featuring the classics "Tonight," "America," and "Somewhere."Sponsored by Webster Bank.
Tickets: $69/ $59/ $49

Woodbury Ballet Theatre presents THE NUTCRACKER
Saturday, December 15 – 4pm
Enjoy a family holiday tradition where sugar plums and gumdrops dance, flowers waltz and snowflakes leap across the stage weaving a splendid tale of a little girl’s dream of first love.
Tickets: $48/ $38/$28

Theater Review: Carousel -- Goodspeed

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 James Snyder and Teal Wicks. Photo by Diane Sobolewski

Colorful Backdrop, Soothing Music Soften a Harsh Story
By Lauren Yarger
Looking at Michael Schweikardt's beautifully painted New England Town, the soft pastels and late-19th century costumes by Alejo Vietti and hearing Rodgers and Hammerstein's moving score (the able Michale O'Flaherty music directs), you might be tempted to think that Carousel is a good place to be.

The unhappy characters living in the seafaring community in the production getting a run at the Goodspeed Opera House would disagree with you, however. Billy Bigelow (James Snyder) does a lot of drinking and gambling while working as a barker for the carousel run by the manipulative Mrs. Mullin (Deanne Lorette) who lusts after him. Julie (Teal Wicks) drudges away at the mill with best friend, Carrie (Jenn Gambatese), while dreaming of a better life.

When Billy and Julie meet it's love -- or some kind of overpowering attraction -- at first site and they get married. Both lose their jobs and they move in with Julie's Aunt Nettie (Anne Kanengeiser) who runs a hotel. Carrie marries fisherman Enoch Snow (Jeff Kready) who dreams of expanding his business, and she helps out struggling Julie who stays with Billy, even when he hits her. Billy has a sudden jolt of responsibility when he discovers that Julie is expecting a baby and plans for the future (Snyder ably executes the famous soliloquy).

His scheme to provide for his family isn't too smart, however. He and thug/friend Jigger (Tally Sessions) stalk Julie's former boss, David Bascombe (Jonathan Rayson), to rob him on his way to make a $3,000 deposit at the bank. The plan doesn't go off as expected and Billie kills himself to escape capture. He is transported to a kind of purgatory where a heavenly Starkeeper (Ronn Carroll) gives him a chance to see how Julie and his daughter, Louise (Eloise Kropp), now a teen, are doing down on earth.

It's a bummer of a story -- especially with the wife singing Hammerstein lyrics about how you have to stay with your man even if he's beating you.

Common sense may tell you
That the ending will be sad,
And now's the time to break and run away.
But what's the use of wond'ring
If the ending will be sad?
He's your feller and you love him,
There's nothing more to say.
Something made him the way that he is,
Whether he's false or true,
And something gave him the things that are his,
One of those things is you, so
When he wants your kisses,
You will give them to the lad,
And anywhere he leads you, you will walk.
And anytime he needs you,
You'll go running there like mad.
You're his girl and he's your feller,
And all the rest is talk.

Is that supposed to define love? And was Billy's stabbing himself to escape arrest and leaving his wife and child to fend for themselves an act of love in return? Not by any definition I care to embrace. Eventually, the story focuses on forgiveness and not taking love for granted, but as is the case with many of Hammerstein's musical books, I want to get out a red pen and rewrite (this script is based on Ferenc Molnar's 1909 play Lilliom, adapted into English by Benjamin F. Glazer).
Carousel followed Rodgers and Hammerstein's success with the brighter Oklahoma ,but it feels darker and sadder in mood like Showboat, Hammerstein's earlier collaboration with Jerome Kern, which ironically also features a character named Julie left by her husband.

Goodspeed Director Rob Ruggiero's production of the classic, like the ups and downs experienced while riding a carousel horse (the carousel is wonderfully recreated for the prologue on the restrictive Goodspeed stage), has moments of delight and some disappointments. Let's start with the good stuff:

• Supporting actors never looked so good. Gambatese (always excellent) is the embodiment of fun, kindness and hope (and this show needs them!) as the young girl in love with Enoch, enchantingly portrayed by Kready. Everyone in the audience wants to marry him (despite the herring smell that lingers on him) and we're all delighted to see his success and growing family (that littlest kid -- Ethan Pancoast the night I attended -- in the little Cracker Jack outfit is too adorable). Both deliver beautiful vocals on songs like "Mr. Snow," "Geraniums in the Winder." and "when the Children Are Asleep." Also a sheer delight is Carroll in dual roles as the Starkeeper and as Doctor Sheldon. He's the only one who has the Maine accent down right. You'll Never Hear a Better "You'll Never Walk Alone" than the one sung by terrific mezzo Kanengeiser 
• The painted set -- gorgeous, beautifully lighted by John Lasiter. Costumes -- lovely.
• The choreography of the ballet scene featuring Kropp is a ballet itself. Choreographer Parker Esse adds to original dances by Agnes DeMille to combine storytelling, character development and sexual frustration (though I would lose three male dancers representing carousel horses who show up on the beach to snort at Louise -- it is too creepy and Equus-esque.)

Now for some of the downs:

• After the initial vision of the carousel, the action is very slow-moving through the first part of Act One. In fact, there are a number of awkward pauses -- some filled by applause by an audience uncertain of whether a song has finished. The much shorter second half moves at a more brisk pace, but folks did leave at intermission (the show clocks in at two hours and 45 minutes with one intermission).
• There isn't much chemistry between Snyder and Wicks. Perhaps a new coupling will bring different sparks. Wicks departs to join the road tour of Jekyll & Hyde and will be replaced in the role by Erin Davie, who played Guenevere in Carousel's 2009 production of Camelot.
• Snyder needs some vocal coaching -- first to control the levels of his nice-sounding baritone, and second to prevent strain. He struggled to hit notes in the reprise of "If I Loved You" toward the end of the second act.

Carousel has been extended through Sept. 29. For tickets and performance schedule call 860-873-8668 or visit www.goodspeed.org.

Westport's Season a 'Celebration of Laughter'

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Mark Lamos. Photo:Bruce Plotkin

Westport Country Playhouse Artistic Director Mark Lamos has anounced “a celebration of laughter” with the 2013 season.

The 2013 season will begin with the first major revival in decades of playwright A.R. Gurney’s The Dining Room, directed by Lamos, April 30 – May 18, 2013. A witty and heartfelt story of the American family and its vanishing traditions, it is set in the most singular of rooms, where people gather, meals are eaten, conversations begin, and generations converge.

The season’s second production, playing June 11 – 29, 2013, will be a rare American classic comedy, The Show-Off by George Kelly, a funny, surprising, and moving story of a family in upheaval when their youngest daughter becomes engaged to a brash loudmouth. Nicholas Martin will helm the production.

Loot, an outrageous romp by the master of British farce Joe Orton, will run July 16 – Aug. 3, 2013, directed by David Kennedy, Playhouse associate artistic director. On the trail of stolen money hidden by bumbling bank robbers, Loot is a wickedly funny send-up of larcenous, lascivious behavior among the English middle classes.

The Playhouse’s second world premiere in as many seasons, Oblivion by Carly Mensch, writer for the award-winning television series “Weeds,” is a touching and funny—and very modern—tale of parents, children, and the gulf that sometimes exists between them. The new play, commissioned by Playwrights Horizons and developed by Steppenwolf Theatre Company, will run Aug. 20 – Sept. 7, 2013.

Rounding out the season, October 8 – 26, 2013, is John Murray and Allen Boretz’s Room Service. Directed by Lamos, the madcap American farce is about a producer and his ragtag bunch of actors who try to raise money for a Broadway show as they scramble to evade their hotel bill. The play was adapted into a 1938 movie with the Marx Brothers and Lucille Ball.

For more information or tickets,: 203-227-4177, toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, in person, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport; omline www.westportplayhouse.org.

Theater Review: Tryst -- TheaterWorks

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Andrea Maulella and Mark Shanahan. Photo:Lanny Nagler

Tryst is a Taut Thriller That Teaseswith Tension, Twists
By Lauren Yarger
When dowdy, painfully shy Adelaide Pinchin (Andrea Maulella) meets dashing,smooth-talking, George Love (Mark Shanahan) it's love at first sight -- forhim! Or is it? All is not what it seems in Karoline Leach's play Tryst,a taut, brooding, romance thriller full of creepy twists and turns that makeyou squirm and keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what will happennext and whether two very sad people can find happiness together. 

Earning her living as a milliner, Adelaide, the embodiment of low selfesteem, keeps herself busy in the back room with other shop girls deemedunsuitable to attend to customers out front (one has bad teeth, another a badleg). At home, she is a dutiful daughter, trying to please her parents. Shecreates hats that are, from tip to brim, exactly the opposite image of herself.They are beautiful, adorned with lace, ribbons, feathers and bows, but Adelaidewon't even glance at her image in the mirror when she tries them. They provide acrowning condemnation of unattractiveness dressed in plain garb (costumes aredesigned by Thomas Charles LeGalley). Her only pleasure comes from the pretty broachher aunt left her and dreams of maybe one day using an accompanying 50-poundinheritance to start her own hat shop or to travel to Venice. 

One day, when Adelaide ventures out to place a hat in the shop’s frontwindow, she catches George's eye and he begins a whirlwind pursuit of theastonished woman. She quickly falls for the charming man. He tells her he is amilitary attaché who has traveled the world and lives on a small allowancegiven to him by an elderly aunt who forbids him to marry. Quickly declaring alove that can't be quelled, he convinces Adelaide to leave behind the drudgery ofwork and home and run away with him. She grabs a bag -- and her bankbook, atthe request of her “temporarily embarrassed” suitor – so they can elope.  

Michael Schweikardt's set nicely changes from the shop with a backdrop ofmuted paintings depicting 1910 London to a boarding house where the couple plansto spend their wedding night. Martin E. Vreeland's excellent lighting along withmusic underscoring dialogue and bridging scenes enhances the mood (Johnna Doty,sound design).

The honeymoon is over quickly, however, as traumatized Adelaide reveals thetormented past that has led to her shame and self-loathing. Conman George puts asidehis oft-used routine of “scam ’em, love ’em and leave ’em” and agrees to playcards instead of claiming his marital rights, but some of his behavior arousessuspicion in Adelaide about his real motivation for their union. A game of catand mouse ensues with each trying to out maneuver the other while trying toavoid the snare of a real love that could trap them, but heal the broken dreamsand betrayal they have endured. 

Joe Brancato expertly directs the tension and uses placement of thecharacters to visualize emotions. At first meeting, George observes Adelaidefrom afar like a stalker, then moves in for the attack. Her response is to backaway -- physically and repeatedly. At one point Brancato has her toe-to-toewith George, but bending backwards form the waist. It's a wonderful depictionof the conflicted emotions she feels as she is unsure of whether or not she cantrust him. When Adelaide unexpectedly sees through her husband and dominatesthe scene, she towers over a George curled up on the floor. When the characterstry to gain the upper hand with each other, they circle each other like hunterssizing up prey. Brancato also puts the actors in the house from time to time tomake the experience more personal.

It's storytelling at its best, done through solid performance from bothactors and visual execution of what the characters feel. It’s also the resultof practice making perfect. Brancato, Shanahan and Maulella have collaboratedon Tryst before – two years ago atOff-Broadway’s Irish Rep and in 2008 at Westport Country Playhouse (Maulella’sperformance won her the Connecticut Critics Circle award for OutstandingActress in a Play).    

The audience gets involved too – gasping at unexpected and shocking plottwists. I won’t give any of them away, but I can report that after the showseveral audience members were joking that the theater ought to post warningsigns for anyone with a heart condition. (Real signs do warn that the playcontains nudity).

The psychological thriller, which replaced Neil LaBute’sReasons to Be Pretty on the originalschedule, concludes the 2011-2012 season for TheaterWorks, which currently is seekingan artistic director to replace Steve Campo who stepped down in June formedical reasons. Meanwhile, associate Rob Ruggiero serves as interim artisticdirector.

Tryst runs through Sept. 9 at City Arts on Pearl, 233 Pearl St., Hartford. Performances are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays at 7:30 pm; Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm with weekend matinees at 2:30 pm. There will be a free matinee for college students and faculty Saturday, Aug. 18 at 2:30 pm. Tickets are $17 (student rush); $50 (general admission); $63 (center reserved). Call (860) 527-7838 or visit www.theaterworkshartford.org.