FLORIDA
With 16 new presentations from 14 playwrights, the Miami-based City Theatre's fifth-annual Summer Shorts Festival (June 2-July 2) offers an uneven but pleasantly diverting theatregoing experience.
Since the festival's inception in 1996 under the leadership of founders and co-producers Susan Westfall and Stephanie Norman, its budget has soared from a modest $51,000 to nearly $400,000 this season. An instant hit with audiences, Summer Shorts has spawned a sequel (Winter Shorts) and has played to nearly 90% capacity (more than 6,000 admissions last season).
More than 400 entries are being staged at the University of Miami's Jerry Herman Ring Theatre. Diversity and a broad spectrum of artistic styles dominate this season's selections, which include works by such playwrights as Tina Howe, Rich Orloff, Staci Swedeen, and Leslie Ayvazian.
Among the most satisfying efforts are Swedeen's "The Pennysaver," about a wildly dysfunctional family's futile attempt to sell a bed. The script delivers both madly inventive situations and a series of outstanding punch lines. Another favorite was "Coitus Hate-Us," by Hillary Rollins, a quirky, sweetly observed comedy about two desperately embittered, unconnected singles, which boasts engaging characters and pockets of originality.
The two most satisfyingly embroidered dramas were "Prior Self," by Leigh Fortson, and "The Big Dance," by James Brady. "Prior Self," the kind of work that creeps up on you, develops into an extremely touching portrait of a lonely middle-aged woman's attempt to break away from her overwhelming feelings of isolation and loneliness. "The Big Dance," in which a college basketball coach attempts to lure a blue-chip recruit away from his more prestigious rival, is a work without shattering revelations or lofty dramatic peaks, but with a quiet, formidable power.
Among this season's disappointments were Leigh Fortson's "The Break-Up, Shake-Up," an innocuous effort in which two teenage girls talk on the phone about the precarious complexities of breaking up; and Paul B. Cohen's "The Ultimate Fan," a cloying low comedy about two fans obsessed with the competing space adventurers of Star Trek and The Phantom Menace.
Two selections from Louisville's Humana Festival also made the cut: "Arabian Nights," by David Ives, and "The Divine Fallacy," by Tina Howe.
As always, the direction and ensemble acting were first-rate throughout, with City company members convincingly portraying six or seven roles each-many of those roles in a single evening.
George Capewell
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UPSTATE NEW YORK
It isn't very often that a famous film and television star comes knocking at your door, asking to be allowed to use your stage. But that's about what happened in Syracuse, N.Y., this spring. Actor Sam Waterston of TV's "Law & Order" was scouting for appropriate space to do a show away from the hurly-burly of commercial theatre when he visited Syracuse Stage. Traveling with his longtime friend and associate theatre director Kent Paul, Waterston bowled over the Stages' officials. He secured permission to mount O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night during the break time between the winter season's end and the beginning of summer.
According to Paul, the much-admired Waterston periodically likes to go back to his roots in classic American professional theatre, to do a show with a regional theatre company. This has been a bonus for Syracuse Stage, which opened the production on June 15 to a packed house.
Waterston plays the key role of family patriarch James Tyrone (modeled on O'Neill's own father-a star in his time), while acclaimed actress Elizabeth Franz (Broadway's Death of a Salesman) portrays Mary Tyrone. Waterston's real-life son James is the younger Tyrone son, Edmund-a character based on Eugene O'Neill himself; John Slattery (TV's Sex and the City) is older son Jamie; and Kim Gatewood, a recent graduate of Syracuse University, plays the maid, Cathleen.
Rehearsals began in early May; performances continue through Sun., July 2. Paul, who directed the show, revealed that interest in the production has been high. "Attendance has been close to capacity," he reported in a recent interview. "We've found the community very receptive to the production." Journey certainly has been generously funded locally. "In a brief span of time we acquired 20 pledges of $5,000 each from local citizens to guarantee against a possible $100,000 loss. This is very strong support from a comparatively small Upstate community," stressed Paul. Meanwhile tickets have been selling at almost full capacity for the entire run.
Eleanor Koblenz
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THE HAMPTONS
Sag Harbor's Bay Street Theatre just opened Jon Robin Baitz's new version of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. Running June 21 through July 9, it's a joint production with Massachusetts' Williamstown Theatre Festival. The cast includes Kate Burton, Michael Emerson, Katie Finneran, and Harris Yulin.
Love, Janis, a new musical about Janis Joplin-conceived, adapted, and directed by Randal Myler (It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues)-plays July 19 through Aug. 6. On nights when its main stage is dark, Bay Street presents readings, cabaret, and other theatre-related events. On July 3 there's a reading of James Kirkwood's Legends, with female impersonators Lypsinka (John Epperson) and Sinthea Starr (Joel Vig). Tovah Feldshuh's one-woman show Tallulah Tonight! comes in July 24.
The John Drew Theater at Guild Hall, East Hampton, has The Last, The Very Last...Butterfly on June 23-25, a performance piece by Manhattan's Pushcart Players based on writings of children imprisoned in the Terezin Concentration Camp. (Most were later killed at Auschwitz.) A cabaret series starts on June 30/July 1 with Betty Buckley, then Andrea Marcovicci (July 7/8), Karen Akers (July 15), and Jane Olivor (July 29). Manhattan's Blue Heron Theater Company presents staged readings on Mondays: Fanny and Walt, by Jewel Seehaur-Fisher (July 10); We Are Your Sisters, by Julia Murphy (July 24); and Shakespeare's As You Like It (July 31). Lee Davis' popular "American Musical Theater Salutes...," co-produced with Patricia Watt, celebrates No"l Coward on July 16 and Arthur Laurents on July 30.
Pazer Productions' Playwrights' Theatre of East Hampton presents staged readings of new plays: Born To Be Queen, by Marsha Lee Sheiness (directed by Robert Kalfin, starring Gwendolyn Lewis), July 7-8; Turning Points, by Elsa Rael (directed by Edie Cowan, with Marilyn Rockafellow), July 14-15; Fellow Traveler, by John Herman Shaner (directed by Trish Sandberg), July 28-29, and Homesick, by Tamar Cole, Aug. 4-5. Producer Mitzi Pazer often needs actors: (631) 324-5373.
Montauk Theatre Productions brings in Mimi Scott's The Dressing Room, June 29-July 2. Melba LaRose, Jr.'s A Builder of Dreams will be workshopped from July 5-8 and July 12-15. The Off-Broadway musical Always...Patsy Cline, by Ted Swindley, comes in July 18-23, 25-30, and Aug. 1-6. Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center has touring shows in July (Ethel Merman's Broadway, Stand-up Opera, and Pump Boys and Dinettes).
Jan Silver
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PHILADELPHIA
No Philadelphia show is more fun than Private Eyes, Steven Dietz's mind-bender presented by 1812 Productions on the Arden Theatre Company's Arcadia Stage (June 1-25). Co-Artistic Directors Jennifer Childs and Peter Pryor are joined by Dan Olmstead, Madi Distefano, and Drucie McDaniel in William Roudebush's witty, wild production.
Warren Leight's Side Man, proving as big a hit in Philadelphia as it was in New York, received a fine production from director James J. Christy and the Philadelphia Theatre Company (May 26-June 25), featuring Ian Merrill Peakes, David Chandler, and Janis Dardaris.
InterAct Theatre Company concluded its season with a discovery from its first New Play Showcase, Mary Fengar Gail's Drink Me (May 24-June 18). Directed by Whit MacLaughlin, this deliciously fun, nasty tale featured Joe Guzman as a London detective led to three mysterious sisters-played by Karen Krastel, Rebecca Hatcher Lisak, and Mary McCool-who might be witches.
MacLaughlin stayed busy after Drink Me opened, remounting Stupor in the basement performance space Smoke (June 4-20). Stupor was a hit at the Sept. '99 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, produced by MacLaughlin's company, New Paradise Laboratories. NPL follows this sensuous, eerie movement piece, based on Francisco Goya's "Los Caprichos" etchings, with The Fab Four Reach the Pearly Gates scheduled for the Philly Fringe Festival, Sept. 1-16.
Another welcome Fringe revival was Winners, Greg Giovanni's eerie, violent one-man piece about teenage murderer Sam Manzi, performed at the William Way Center, May 25-June 3.
Second Stage at the Adrienne remains busy, with Joe Sorrentino's An Evening with Frankenharry-six plays penned for actors Harry Philibosian and Frank X (June 3-25)-sharing the space with late-night show Couples, four one-acts directed by Henry Gleitman, featuring young actors Jessica Graham and Brandon Pizzola.
A lively musical trio concludes a busy spring: The Media Theatre's revival of Naughty Marietta (May 24-June 25), which included a new cast recording of Victor Herbert's dazzling score; the Walnut Street Theatre's glitzy La Cage aux Folles (May 16-July 2); and City Theater Company, of Wilmington, Delaware's intimate staging of Michael John LaChiusa's Hello Again (May 12-27), City's last show at OperaDelaware. In the fall, the company moves into the new Baby Grand Theatre, adjacent to the Grand Opera House.
Mark Cofta