Roy Berko - Page 23

Theater represents the era from which it comes! In 1859, when THE OCTOROON opened in New York, the United States was in racial chaos. The slaves of the South had been 'freed,' but, in reality, they weren't free from their years of enslavement. Yes, blacks, the only mass group of people who came to this country against their free will, were the center of much controversy.

Yes, in a period of two hours and twenty minutes, plus intermission, 44 plays whoosh across the Cleveland Public Theatre stage. During that time the audience is exposed to all of the United States of America's Presidents. Well, to be honest, there are 45 plays...one, based on the audience vote, an add-on vignette of a supposition about either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump's reign as the next President.

Len Jenkin, the author of LIKE I SAY, which he refers to as a 'sober-minded comedy,' is the recipient of three Obie Awards and received an Emmy nomination.

Caffe Cino, which was founded in 1958, is noted as the site that gave birth to off-off Broadway theatre. It was the invention of retired dancer Joe Cino, who offered a place to do inexpensive creative works in New York City and not have to conform to Equity rules. Cino bankrolled the adventure. The shows were staged on a make-shift small platform.

Annie Baker won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in drama for THE FLICK, a thoughtful drama concerning three employees of an art-house movie theatre.

The Cleveland area has been and is ripe with playwrights. Mike Geither, David Hansen, Margaret Lynch, Jonathan Wilhelm, Michael Oatman, Eric Schmiedl and Faye Sholiton are only a few of the present-day writers. Historically, Langston Hughes, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee were proud area playwrights. Probably no local scribe has been more prolific than Eric Coble.

THE WHIPPING MAN, which is now on stage at none too fragile theatre, is a tale set at the close of the Civil War in which Caleb DeLeon, a Confederate soldier returns to his Richmond, Virginia, palatial home, now a charred wreckage, to find his family missing and two former slaves, Simon and John, still there in spite of the their now being free men. Caleb is badly wounded. The former slaves take care of him. As the story unfolds, an examination of friendship, faith and the meaning of freedom are revealed as there is a probing of the question asked each year during the Passover Seder, 'Why is this night different from all other nights?'

MY FAIR LADY, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's award winning and universally praised musical, based on George Bernard Shaw's play, PYGMALION, centers on Eliza Doolittle, an uneducated Cockney flower girl who, in an attempt to 'become a proper lady,' takes lessons from professor Henry Higgins, a self-centered egotist.

Our nation is in the midst of a national election, and local theatres have responded with a series of plays that examine various foibles and stories of political intrigue. Ensemble is staging former County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones' THE BLOODLESS JUNGLE (September 15-October 2) about a rising idealistic political star running for a pivotal Congressional seat. The Musical Theater Project is featuring THE CRADLE WILL ROCK (September 21 & September 25), a play about Unionism with political undertones. Cleveland Public Theatre is presenting 44 PLAYS FOR 44 PRESIDENTS (October 6-29), which showcases the life and times of the 44 Presidents of the United States, featuring an all-female cast. And, Cleveland Play House just opened ALL THE WAY (September 17-October 9), a Tony-Award winning drama that examines the power of one person to transform a country.

Adorable eight-year-old girls are supposed to play with dolls, be obsessed with the color pink, and gossip about their friends on a smart phone. Right? Wrong, if you are Tina Denmark. She wants to be a theatrical star. Now! Not later, NOW! (foot stomp!) What will she do to get her dream?

As the lights come up on The Last Five Years, a musical by Jason Robert Brown, we find Catherine Hiatt (Neely Gevaart) sitting alone. She sings 'Still Hurting' in which she reveals the end of her five year marriage to Jamie.

Many people know Peter Lawson Jones as an attorney, business consultant and former Cuyahoga County Commissioner. Some even know that he is a member of SAG-AFTRA and Actor's Equity and has appeared in films and network television as well as numerous Northeast Ohio and Off-Broadway plays. What few probably know is that he is a published playwright. His newest work, The Bloodless Jungle is now in its world premiere at Ensemble Theatre.

In 1929 the country was plunged into a financial collapse. The result was a diminishment of funds for not only food and housing, but the collapse of the arts, including the film and theatre industries.

Bathsheba Doran, author of The Mystery of Love and Sex now on stage at Dobama Theatre, stated of the script, 'I had no plans for subject matter. I never do when I begin. As my play stormed out of me, unstoppable and violent, I was horrified. The experience was deeply unpleasant, emotionally. I was the most embarrassing of writers in the cafe where I worked: tears streamed down my face as I stabbed out the dialogue on my keyboard. I looked up once, just in time to see a nearby guy whisper amusedly to a girl: 'Whoa, she's really into it.'

SELFIES AT THE CLOWN MOTEL, Christopher Johnston's new play, in world premiere at convergence-continuum

When KINKY BOOTS played Playhouse Square in April of 2015, while still running on Broadway, it was a really good performance. The show is back again and, believe it or not, it's even better this time around.

Theater people are very superstitious. A light is placed center stage in many theatres, appropriately called the 'ghost light,' to scare off the demons which inhabit many performance places.

On November 22, 2014, twelve-year-old Tamir Rice was shot at close range by police officer Timothy Loehmann outside the Cudell Recreation Center on Cleveland's near west side. Tamir died the next day.