Four plays in one week a pleasurable challenge

By Burt Saidel

Who needs to travel from Dayton to attend a theater festival?  My loyal readers will remind me that the week of Sept. 17 I was in Niagara on the Lake attending the Shaw Theatre Festival.  Returning home, I was faced with our own festival that suffers little in comparison with the famous Canadian model.

During the past week, I attended Amadeus at Dayton Playhouse, Snapshots at the Human Race, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Schuster and The Skin of our Teeth at Wright State Theatre.  If you add the Theatre Guild’s excellent production of The Constant Wife attended the week prior to the Shaw, we have quite a panoply of fine plays at our doorstep.

Do the local plays pale in comparison with the others?  Not really.  In fact, each of the hometown experiences had a specialness marking it as memorable and very satisfying.

The only problem is how to cover four fine plays in one column.  “Ay, there’s the rub!”

My comments will have to be short hoping to give credit where due and to incite enthusiasm for our own theatrical riches.
Amadeus

Dayton Playhouse mounted Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus.  Directed by multi-talented Adam Leigh, it was played on a spectacular set designed by Chris Harmon.  The fanciful history of Mozart’s struggle with the establishment in Vienna, personified by composer Antonio Salieri, is a dramatic challenge for any company. This Amadeus was completely remarkable.

The cast, led by sterling performances of Alex Carmichal as Salieri, Michael Wadham as the l’enfant terrible Mozart and Amy Brooks as Mozart’s irrepressible wife Constanze, made the most of every opportunity to deliver a clear and engaging experience.

We were amazed at the flow and focus of the play.  The most minor character made his part essential and important.  Even the protracted demise of Mozart was delivered with clarity and heartfelt feeling.  The historical illusions felt timely and essential.
A world premiere is a unique opportunity. The Human Race mounted such a world premiere – at least it was the world premiere of this version of Stephen Schwartz’ Snapshots.  Schwartz is the creator of such hits as Godspell, Pippin, Children of Eden and Wicked.  His special theatrical élan highlights real music, well mixed with the customary patter-songs imparting warmth and meaning to each musical.
Snapshots

For Snapshots, Schwartz and his collaborators recycled the songs of previous successes.  Rather than a “revue” of his works, the songs were given new lyrics, making them fit into the heartfelt chronicle with fresh appeal.

The story is the history of a love affair and marriage covering 30 years and the gradual demise of the love which sparked it.  The protagonists, Susan and Dan, had plenty of help in telling their story.  There were, in fact, three Susans and three Dans, all working hard to recreate and remember what love was like and what love could be like.

The cast sparkled with enthusiasm and layer upon layer of talent.  All except resident actor Scott Hunt were in their Human Race debut.  As the ur-Susan and Dan, lovely Kristy Cates and handsome-hunk Jay Montgomery quickly established the agon and essence of the tale.

The play was set, actually and symbolically, in an attic filled with memorabilia.  It explored memories and actualities, with the help of the alter-personae at various stages of their lives, making the love story vibrate.

Among the detritus of their lives, the couple rediscovers their love and the very spark which set it aglow as children.  The audience felt bathed in that glow thanks to fine acting and singing.  The alter-egos, Denise Devlin, Scott Hunt, Stefanie Morse
and Michael Montgomery are each such special talents.  They became an ensemble delivering the very essence of great theater.

Kristy Cates has a compelling voice.  When she began to sing, her considerable beauty actually increased before our eyes. Denise Devlin bubbles with irrepressible cuteness.  Stefanie Morse, Jay Montgomery and Scott Hunt could switch seamlessly from playful to serious.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

The next evening was spent at the Schuster.  The Victoria Broadway Series brought the touring company of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels to Dayton for a short but energetic run.

I expected little but was completely taken in by the rollicking comedy.  The cast had none of the attributes of a tired touring company.  They delivered their songs and comedy with zest.  Led by Jamie Jackson, Doug Thompson and Jenny Gulley, they presented us with scoundrels not so rotten, but loveable.

Gone were the rock-songs completely drowned out by a rock band.  In their place was scene after scene of funny, well timed, situations enhanced by a handsome ensemble with a gazillion costume changes.

The Skin of our Teeth

The final play of the week, the complex opus of theater great Thornton Wilder is The Skin of our Teeth.  The play attempts, and delivers, the entire history of the human race within adventures of a family, the Antrobuses.  Mom and Dad Antrobus are thinly disguised Adam and Eve, Noah and Mrs. Noah, and the rebuilders of the human race after a nuclear holocaust.

The cleverness of the play never loses sight of the depth of the struggle of humanity grasping onto its planet with its very nails.  Director Stuart McDowell used so many theatrical artifices to advance and clarify the meaning.

The play, and our world, belongs to the women.  Three splendid and beautiful young women took us where we were meant to go.  They kept us involved to the level of our ability as audience and as members of the human race.

Jasmine Batchelor as Sabina, the conscience of the play, and Danika Haffenden, as the newscaster/chorus were marvelous in their interpretations both broad and subtle.  Both are sophomores in their Festival Playhouse debuts.

Senior Shelby Garret has given us superb memories in such roles as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and in Grease.  She is a stunning beauty who delivers her character’s persona with clarity and depth of feeling.  As Mrs. Antrobus, she proved that our world belongs to the women behind the men.  It is difficult to be dowdy and gorgeous at the same time but Shelby did it!

You will only be able to see Snapshots and Skin of our Teeth until Oct. 7.  Half a Festival is better than none.

Opera lecture series at Patterson Homestead

The Opera Guild of Dayton’s adult lecture series “Ear For Opera” will begin at 7 p.m. at the Patterson Homestead, 1815 Brown St. in Dayton. The series takes place on six consecutive Tuesday evenings. The program topics cover interesting information about the operas scheduled for Dayton Opera’s 2007-08 season, and about opera in general.

This week will be presented:

October 2 - “The Met: Larger Than Life Size”
Eric Street, concert pianist and UD faculty member, gives an introduction to the Metropolitan Opera series of 10 live telecasts to take place on Saturdays at the Regal Cinemas at Fairfield Commons.

October 9 - “Don Giovanni: Grand Opera Buffa”  
Charles Larkowski, WSU music professor, speaks on the genre of opera buffa as portrayed by Mozart in this popular opera.

Cost of the series is $10 per program for adults,  $5 for students and $40 for the series. For tickets or information call 439-7756 or 836-5760.

OHS alumnus/artist reception slated Oct. 5

Sample of Tom Newbold's X-ray art.

There is an unseen world just millimeters below the surface that most of us never see.  Through the use of x-rays we see a totally new world only hinted at on the surface.

While many people think of x-rays as black and white images used to diagnose disease or hunt for bombs in our luggage at the airport, now through the pioneering efforts of Dr. X, we see them as works of art.

Dr. X Presents - Just Below the Surface – X-Ray Art, an art exhibit by OHS alumnus Tom Newbold, will kick off with an Opening Reception Party on Friday, Oct. 5, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Meet the artist “Dr. X” a.k.a. Dr. Tom Newbold The reception will be held at the Sigra Gallery (just a few blocks from Newport on the  Levee), 205 Fairfield Ave. Bellevue, KY 41073. (859) 291-1278.  Champagne and snacks will be served.

Newbold has been making x-ray art for close to fifteen years and has done many shows for places like the Contemporary Art Center, York Street Cafe & Art Gallery, The Bennett Gallery in Bangor, Maine and The Mary Gerhart Gallery in New York City.  His works are sometimes mounted on medical or handmade lightboxes, framed photographs or installation pieces.

Newbold grew up in Oakwood and now lives in Highland Heights, Kentucky and works as a professor at the University of CIncinnati in the Division of Professional Practice.

Directions: From Cincinnati. Take I-471 South. Take first exit – Route 8. At traffic light Route 8, Fairfield Avenue, Turn Right. Go a few blocks and it will be on your left. Sigra Gallery, 205 Fairfield Ave., Bellevue, Kentucky (859) 291-1278. Park on the street. The Gallery is several blocks East of Newport on the Levee.

The show will run for approximately one month, through the end of October.

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October 2, 2007
Volume 16, No. 40

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