Roy Berko - Page 29

As the capacity audience was settling in on opening night of Groundworks Dance Theatre's summer concert in Cain Park's Alma Theatre, there was a loud electronic sound stage right. As the eyes shifted in its direction, a lawn mower was pushed on stage. This was followed by a series of other sounds and actions of everyday occurrences including playing golf, sunbathing, and living in suburbia.

Local theatres each tend to have a niche audience based on the venue's play selection. Dobama leans toward intellectual contemporary which are having their local premiers. convergence-continuum tilts toward off-beat writers and plots, many with homosexual themes. Cleveland Public Theatre thrives on a diet of creative, often devised theater offerings. Beck Center for the Arts is noted as the place for family offerings and scripts that appeal to the more conservative tastes of its older patrons (e.g., 'Mary Poppins,' 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'She Loves Me.')

Liz Duffy Adams, whose play, 'The Reckless Ruthless Brutal Charge Of It, or The Train Play' is now on stage at convergence continuum is noted for being an American abstract writer. The word 'abstract' may be the key to confronting 'The Train Play.'

As I sat shaking my head in disbelief of what I was seeing and hearing on the Blank Canvas Theatre stage, those around me were howling with uncontrollable laughter. What I was seeing was ridiculous, unbelievable, and basically poorly performed. I'm not sure what was making my audience-mates laugh so hard, but I heard one of the young ladies behind me confide that she had just wet her pants and then I got sprayed by a shower of beer that came forth from her companion's nose as he exploded in laughter.

The story goes that in 1970, while attending college in Pittsburgh, John-Michael Tebelak went to church on Easter Sunday. A theology student before he decided he wanted to be a theatrical director, he found the service to be devoid of feeling.

What do 'West Side Story,' 'Gypsy,' 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,' 'Company,' 'Follies,' 'Sweeney Todd' 'Sunday in the Park with George,' and 'Into the Woods,' all have in common? Yes, they are shows which have music written by Steven Sondheim.

In her book, 'Dress Codes: of three girlhoods-my mother's, my father's and mine,' Noelle Howey writes, 'I have a dad who is a woman much like me, but with better legs. And when he was still male, I had a dad possibly like yours: sullen, sporadically hostile, frequently vacant. I had a dad who became a woman in order to be nice.' Noelle goes on to say, 'I have a family that survived a life in the closet . . . a traditional family . . . that would probably be the right wing's worst nightmare.'

2015 Summer Cleveland Theater Calendar

ALWAYS...PATSY CLINE, now on stage at Actors' Summit, is a well formed musical review in which a Patsy Cline-imitator wails away Cline's signature songs, including 'Walkin' After Midnight,' 'I Fall to Pieces,' 'She's Got You,' 'Anytime,' 'Stupid Cupid,' 'Lovesick Blues, 'Faded Love,' and 'Crazy.' The songs are interspersed with comments by a Cline fan and Cline, 'herself.'

On the surface, Horton Foote's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, THE YOUNG MAN FROM ATLANTA, now in production at Beck Center, tells the tale of the Kidders (Will and Lily Dale), a Houston, Texas couple who, in 1950, take different paths in coping with the death of Bill, their only son.

About fifteen years ago, an African American student on a Semester at Sea around the world educational cruise jumped overboard. The ship was sailing toward the Suez Canal, with Africa on the port side. The ship turned in the Gulf of Suez, and miraculously found the college student. The young man, after arriving back, stated that he had jumped overboard because he 'wanted to touch the water, that touched the land from which his forefathers were taken into slavery. He wanted to be reunited with his history.'

New York is about 500 miles from Cleveland. Several times a year I wander forth to see the bright lights of Broadway and venture into some theatres. This spring, during a period of a rash of show openings, I had the chance to see some excellent offerings.

Steve Yockey's WOLVES: AN URBAN FABLE, now on stage at convergence-continuum, centers on three people, Ben and Jack, ex-lovers who still live in the same apartment, and Wolf, a trick that Jack picks up one night at a bar.

At the end of each year, the Cleveland Critics Circle meets to select the winners of that year's performance awards as well as to deal with matters of importance to area theatres. At the session which brought to a close the 2014 season, I mentioned that Fran Heller, who was a member of CCC at the time, had proposed several years ago that the group nominate the Cleveland Play House for The Regional Tony Award. It had been agreed that the timing was probably not right as CPH was adjusting to its new home in the PlayhouseSquare area and a new Artistic Director was coming on board.

Cleveland Heights School Board member, Eric Coble, has an inside track on understanding the way schools work. In his play, FAIRFIELD, he starts with the premise of an elementary school whose motto is, 'Peace. Love. Respect for all.' And then asks, 'What could possibly go wrong?'

In BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO, Cleveland Heights native Rajiv Joseph's, surreal dark play, ghosts roam the streets of Baghdad in 2003. Ghosts of soldiers, citizens, zoo animals, a son of the former ruler of the country. These ghosts are part of the vivid display of the madness of war, and what it means to be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Tracy Letts, the author of SUPERIOR DONUTS, now on stage at Dobama, is an accomplished playwright, actor, and screenwriter. He was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for his play AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY. He won a Tony Award for his portrayal of George in the recent Broadway revival of WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?. He wrote screen adaptations for his plays: BUG and KILLER JOE, as well as AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY and has been nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards for his portrayal of Andrew Lockhart in Showtime's HOMELAND.

What are the feelings of a husband and wife when they want to conceive a child, but can't? What are the ramifications for that childless family when they are given the opportunity to adopt the 'perfect' child? What is it like when that family becomes aware that their child is autistic? How do parents cope with a child who screams when he becomes frustrated and doesn't have the words to express his needs or habitually follows a pattern over and over, such as reading the same book again and again, or can't socialize with others? What emotionally happens to that family when that child disappears?