Teresa Rodrick - Page 2

As always the opening night of a show is very exciting. Seeing the folks you know in the audience, saying hello to your seat neighbors, and getting a sneak peek see the portions of the set that Idaho Shakespeare Festival allows you to see before the show begins. I try to not do any research on a play I am going to see before I see it. Especially if I do not know anything about it yet. I like to give the theatre a chance to explain to me what will happen on their own terms.

Chaotic Acts of Theatre (CAT) has done it again. They are becoming quite deft at putting together a parody of an geek genre with countless nods to other fandoms in a short period of time. This show was WHOLLY BRIEF! BATMAN: THIS IS THE PARODY THIS CITY DESERVES and was presented in partnership with the Ada Community Library in celebration of the 75th anniversary of Batman.

This year is special because an alum of the program is also, the current director. Whitney Ulman has directed a fun show. HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL Jr. is a very upbeat show and you can tell the youths in the show were having fun.

From what I have been able to gather, Encore Theatre Etc puts on their own version of 'Shakespeare In the Park' over at the Brandt Center at NNU in Nampa. This year their Shakespeare of choice was MACBETH.

An anthology is a collection of stories with a connecting theme-subject, period, style, etc. They usually allow the reader to sample a wide variety of writing styles without committing to a novel. In that vein, Edgar Lee Masters' SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY, allows the audience to sample a variety of stories about the residents of Spoon River. These stories twist and tell the story of the town in a sort of diary form without committing to a central plot about a few characters like you would in a normal play. Add to that the addition of musicians on-stage who play guitar and banjo providing musical interludes for the actors, audiences are treated to a unique experience in a traditional theater setting.

LES MIS(ERABLE) is a musical that starts with a powerful song by the prisoners. The way that the director, Victoria Bussert began the production gave the impression that the story that you were about to hear was a remembrance of Jean Valjean's life. I think when that happens, sometimes you pay more attention so you won't miss something important.

SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS is one of my all time favorite movie musicals. It was the reason why I insisted on getting married in June. Needless to say, I was excited when I heard that Starlight Mountain Theatre was putting on a production of SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS.

I have seen a few different versions of AS YOU LIKE IT over the years. I think when watching Shakespeare it's gets easier and more enjoyable each time you see it, since you understand what is happening. However, I think this production does such a good job of telling the story through the actions they chose to go along with the dialogue, that someone who knew nothing about the story could tell you what it was about.

Daisy's Madhouse is producing THE LAST 5 YEARS, the musical about a relationship over a period of 5 years. The timeline is from beginning to end or from the end to the beginning. In this story, you hear about the relationship from each character's perspective. However, you hear the wife's story backwards (from breakup to their meeting) and the husband's forwards (from meeting to breakup).

Boise Little Theatre is at it again. The last show of their 66th season is another Ken Ludwig show (they opened the season with Ken Ludwig's Shakespeare in Hollywood), FOX ON THE FAIRWAY. This fun farce uses play on words more than physical comedy and so it is advertised as a "mature" comedy.

For this production of DEATHTRAP, you notice that it is a home. Maybe a summer or winter home, but definitely someone's house. The walls are covered from floor to ceiling with weaponry: guns, knives, swords. It reminded me of the museum at the Tower of London. The Scenic Designer is Russell Matheny.

I thought the students did a good job with their production. You could tell that the students enjoyed the characters they were playing and they had fun presenting a musical.

If you have children and you live in the Treasure Valley, you need to know about Treasure Valley Children's Theater (TVCT) and Treasure Valley Youth Theater (TVYT). These two programs were started by Autumn Kersey and they will keep the children in the valley entertained and entertaining.

This is a large cast show, there are 17 characters: 2 lawyers, 1 judge, a court reporter, 1 defendant, 2 accusers, and 10 witnesses. With so many people, you will definitely need to pay attention, you may even want to take notes. You don't want to make the wrong choice of Guilty, or Not Guilty.

Jeff Thompson as George and Elizabeth Greeley as Martha are vicious to each other and their guests, Nick and Honey (Bryan Romano and Erin Edwards). See what games they get up to and if Nick and Honey are able to win, or even survive.

Devising is loosely defined as the process of collaboratively creating a new work without a pre-existing script wherein the collaborators are also the performers.

After my experience with the story, I thought I knew the characters G(a)linda and Elphaba, however Kara Lindsay (G[a]linda) and Laurel Harris (Elphaba) have shown me new characters. Their singing and acting styles have put two new characters on stage that haven't been seen before. I would have been happy to have these two introduce the characters to me, as it was, I enjoyed them showing me another side of each character.

Idaho Arts Charter in Nampa (high school) invited me to come and review their show BLACK COMEDY by Peter Shaffer. If I do not know the play, I try not to walk in the door with expectation, however, with this title, I was thinking it was going to be a 'dark comedy'. I was pleasantly surprised that it was not.

This is an audience participation show. During the director's speech when she would asked the 'munchkins' (what the audience is referred to) if they would be willing to help a few shook their heads 'no'. It was so much fun to watch once the show started, all of the munchkins were almost hopping up to help even before characters asked.

Harvey. Good ol' Ha-Ha-Har-Harvey. Harvey may be one of the most beloved movies starring Jimmy Stewart. That movie was based on this play by Mary Chase. Wendy Koeppl directed this production at Boise Little Theater and it was a very sweet production.