Theater Review: Water by the Spoonful -- Hartford Stage

Zabryna Guevara, Armando Riesco. Photo: T. Charles Erickson

Internet Meets Live Drama in Innovative, Insightful Premiere at Hartford Stage
By Lauren Yarger
Avatars appear as the users of an internet support forum for crack addicts sign on to chat, but the action doesn't take place in cyberspace. It unfolds on stage as Hartford Stage presents the world premiere of Quiara Alegria Hudes' moving play Water by the Spoonful.

Commissioned by the theater company, Water by the Spoonful is the first play to make it from the Aetna New Voices Fellowship to a fully staged production at Hartford Stage.

The lives of family members and complete strangers merge with their connection on the support site administered by Odessa Ortiz (Liza Colon-Zayas), user name Haikumom, who encourages the members with off-the-cuff haikus and support as they try to get and stay sober. Forum regulars are Chutes&Ladders (Ray Anthony Thomas), an IRS customer service rep whose habit lost him a relationship with his son, and Orangutan (Teresa Avia Lim), teaching English while searching for her roots in Japan.

They are joined by Fountainhead (Matthew Boston), a highly paid corporate executive who is in denial about his addiction while desperately trying to hide it from his wife. Chutes&Ladders isn't impressed, but finds it hard to confront reality himself: he resists reaching out to his son, or exploring the possibility of a real-life meeting with Orangutan.

Davis McCallum directs masterfully, having the characters on stage interacting, while visually communicating as though by instant message. They don't look directly at each other, and no real keyboards or computer screen are used. Their avatars (graphic pictures with their user names) are projected onto to a tile-motifed set that also houses Odessa's near-squalor house (Neil Patel, set and projection design). Skilled lighting (Russell H. Champa), sound design (Bray Poor), some John Coltrane with original music (J. Michael Friedman), costumes by Chloe Chapin and a few props do the rest to create the innovative presentation. All of the performances are first rate as well.

Besides the interaction online, events from the real lives of the characters play out too. Odessa, fighting her own addiction, is estranged from her son, Elliot, who was raised by her sister when his biological mother was unable to care for him. He tries to cope with his feeling of abandonment, especially in the face of Mami Ginny's impending death, while being haunted by his experiences in Iraq -- literally -- by a  ghost (Demosthenes Chrysan) who keeps saying something in Arabic.

Providing some comfort is Elliot's close relationship with his cousin, Yazmin (Zabryna Guevara),  an adjunct professor of music, who also loves Ginny for providing harmony in the Philadelphia family's dissonance.
Hudes (In the Heights) combines compelling characters, humor, insights and modern technology to ask questions about how we relate to each other and to provide a window into how real face-to-face relationships differ from those online and define who we are. The playwright definitely has the "I" part of IT down: this play is Interesting, Innovative, Imaginative, Intriguing, Insightful and Internet-savvy. OK, we'll throw in a  "T" for Terrific as well. It is the second part in a trilogy that began with Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue, a Pultizer-Prize finalist, which McCallum directed in New York.

Water by the Spoonful runs through Nov. 13 at Hartford Stage, 50 Church St., Hartford. Performances are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Sunday at 7:30 pm; Friday and Saturday at 8 pm; matinees Sundays and selected Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2. Tickets range from $23 to $69 and are available by calling 860-527-5151 or online at www.hartfordstage,org.

Storm Updates

Here's what you need to know about the state's theater and arts venues with regards to the snow storm and power outages. We will continue to add as we hear from the press representatives.

• Westport Country Playhouse cancelled the Saturday, Oct. 29 3 pm matinee performance of Twelfth Night, or What You Will due to storm delays on Metro-North which prevented actors travelling from NYC to arrive on time. Other performances over the weekend (Saturday evening and Sunday matinee) went on as scheduled. Ticket holders from the cancelled Saturday matinee may call the box office at 203-227-4177 to exchange for other performances continuing through Nov. 5. 
• The Bushnell is open for business after closing Sunday.  Ticketholders for Sunday’s cancelled performances of Jersey Boys should contact the box office at 860-987-5900 to reschedule.
• Goodspeed Musicals has power, clear parking lots and will be fully staffed for this week’s performances both at the Goodspeed Opera House (City of Angels, Wednesday through Sunday) and at The Norma Terris Theatre where performances of Hello! My Baby begin this Thursday night.
• TheaterWorks -- Theaterworks is up and running - all shows! I you missed a weekend performance, you may call the bo office at 860-527-7838 to reschedule.
• CT Rep's performance schedule for The Miser is uninterrupted by the storm.
• Music Theatre of Connecticut (MTC in Westport) did not lose power. Performance of Cabaret begin on schedule this Friday.
• The Mark Twain House & Museum is open for its normal hours (9:30-5:30 Monday through Saturday, 12:30-5:30 Sunday). The Murasaki Cafe is open Tuesday thrugh Saturday, 11:30 am to  3 pm. The Cabaret Lulu performance originally scheduled for Wednesday has been cancelled. The free Nook Farm Book Talks, Thursday at 5 pm with Dr. Eugene Leach on Lincoln's and Frederick Douglass' speeches, will go on as usual. So will The Mark Twain House & Museum Annual Fall Gala, Saturday at 6 pm. (For Gala information and tickets -- come in out of the cold, put on yer 10-gallon hat, and celebrate "How the West Was Fun!" --  call 860-280-3112).

Hole in the Wall presents four original one-act comedies in Jacques Lamarre Has Gone Too Far

The Hole in the Wall Theater, New Britain’s home for edgy and intriguing plays and musicals, takes on four world premiere one-act comedies by Connecticut playwright Jacques Lamarre.

Entitled Jacques Lamarre Has Gone Too Far, characters push beyond the boundaries of normal, everyday situations into some rather bad behavior. Inspired by John Waters, Saturday Night Live and the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, Jacques Lamarre Has Gone Too Far, the production, which is not suitable for younger viewers, runs Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm Nov. 18 through Dec. 10. There are Sunday Matinees at 2 Nov. 27 and Dec. 4.

In Jacques Lamarre Has Gone Too Far, the playwright looks at life in modern America and finds it a little stomach-churning. Four short plays make up the evening and each reflects our inability to maintain polite behavior. In Mignonette, directed by Bethany Sanderson, an encounter between two women in a dog park turns into a cat fight. In The Buck Stops Here, directed by Michael Daly, a frustrated housewife engages the services of an ad agency to give her husband a marketing makeover. In Cain DisAbeled, directed by Terri D’Arcangelo, a FarmVille fracas between brothers turns into a battle of biblical proportions. And in Jacques Lamarre Has Gone Too Far, directed by Kit Webb, the Disneyfied town of Celebration, FL gets turned on its Mickey Mouse ears when the title character moves in next door to a pack of Tea Party Patriots.

The production features a mix of Hole in the Wall veterans and new faces: Kathleen-Marie Clark, Terri D'Arcangelo, James DeMarco, Jillian Dion, Roy Donnelly, Joan DuQuette-Aresco, Devin Horner, Angie Joachim, Rebecca Meakin, Charles Merlis, Johnny Peifer and Matthew Skwiot.

Lamarre is the director of communications and special projects at The Mark Twain House and Museum, where he co-adapted an evening of R-Rated Twain at the Hole in the Wall in August 2011. For the museum, he also adapted Twain’s "The Diaries of Adam & Eve" for a one-night-only performance by Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker. He wrote the full-length comedy Gray Matters, which was performed by the Emerson Theater Collaborative at New York’s Midtown International Theatre Festival (nominated for five awards including Outstanding Playwriting). The production was subsequently remounted at the Mystic Arts Center and the Charter Oak Cultural Center.

As a co-writer for international drag chanteuse Varla Jean Merman, he has worked on eight shows.

Jacques Lamarre Has Gone Too Far runs at the Hole in the Wall Theater, 116 Main St., New Britain, Nov. 18, 19, 25, 26 and Dec. 2, 3, 9, 10 at 8 pm and Sundays Nov. 27 and Dec. 4 at 2 pm. The performance on Saturday Nov. 19 will be followed by classic Hole in the Wall festivities and a meet and greet with Lamarre. Tickets are $20 General Admission; $12 Students (with I.D.) and Seniors. To purchase tickets, visit www.hitw.org or call 860-229-3049 for reservations.

Theater Review: Belleville -- Yale

Maria Dizzia as Abby and Greg Keller as Zack. Photo: © 2011 Joan Marcus

Odd Tale Might Better Be Titled ‘Bewildering Ville’
By Lauren Yarger
Doctor Without Borders Zack (Greg Keller) and his yoga instructor/actress wife Abby (Maria Dizzia) seem like a typical, cozy American couple living in their Paris apartment, but theatergoers who really want any part of typical or cozy won’t find it in this world premiere of Belleville, by Amy Herzog, commissioned by Yale Rep. 

Herzog (After the Revolution) introduces interesting characters, well played by the talented Keller and Dizzia, but she never really takes them anywhere. The plot -- if it can be called that – is bizarre, always teasing that something sinister, or surprising is about to happen, but failing to deliver. There’s one scene that’s squirm-in-your-seat creepy, if not exactly comprehensible, and it never is fully explained either. All the questions we have about what this couple is really all about or what actually becomes of them are left unanswered. The play’s conclusion even is delivered totally in French by the couple’s Senegal-born landlord, Alioune (Glibert Owuor), and his wife, Amina (Pascale Armand). Even if you understand French, don't expect any resolution. 

Who really is the mysterious pot-smoking, porn-watching doctor and why is he behind in the rent? Why was his wife on antidepressant medication and why is she obsessed with talking to her father on the phone and taking baths? I know just a little but more about the answers than the guy in the audience who snored loudly for an hour and a half of the one-hour-and 45-minute play. “Bewildering,” rather than Belleville, the name of their northern Parisian neighborhood, might be a better title for this one.

Director Anne Kauffman doesn’t help by allowing multiple long gaps between dialogue and action. One stop in the action has the actors offstage for so long that audience members start chatting with each other, wondering whether someone has missed a cue, or whether an actor has lost his way after exiting one of several doors on Julia C. Lee’s nice set. Odd lighting (Nina Hyun Seung Lee, design) raises other questions, at times portending a sinister development (which doesn’t occur) and at other junctures, defining the passage of huge blocks of time in a blink. When we’re left trying to figure out what the plot by watching the lighting, however, something’s wrong with the story.

Belleville, featuring costumes by Mark Nagle and fight direction by Rick Sordelet and Jeff Barry,  runs through Nov. 12 at Yale Repertory Theatre, 1120 Chapel St. at York Street, New Haven. Tickets range from $20-$88 and are available at www.yalerep.org, by phone at 203-432-1234 and in person at the Box Office.

Adler, DeWitt Star in CT Rep Satire 'I'm Connecticut'

Jerry Adler (Grampa) and Joyce DeWitt (Polly). Photo: Gerry Goodstein

If you're from Connecticut - the joke is on you! Mike Reiss is a Peabody Award-winner, and four-time Emmy award-winning writer for "The Simpsons." He's also a Connecticut native and this time he's turned his sharp, satirical comic genius on his home state - and yours in I'm Connecticut, a story about a young man who grew up in Simsbury now living in New York City and searching for love.

Amid the anxieties of dating he begins to ask himself what a Nutmegger really is? If you've ever wondered about the identity of The Land of Steady Habits, be prepared for a hysterical surprise.

I’m Connecticut tells the story of a 30-something Connecticut native now living in New York trying to come to terms with his apparent lack of personality that he, and others, attribute to his upbringing in Simsbury.  This highly satirical comedy sets its sights squarely on all things Connecticut.  From the origins of our nickname, The Nutmeg State, to our town names that he observes all sound like the names of English butlers (Simsbury, Litchfield and Old Saybrook) Reiss turned his comic genius on his native state and created a 75-minute new piece of live theater.

Reiss has spent two decades writing for "The Simpsons."  In 2006, Mike received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Animation Writers Caucus.  He co-created the animated series "The Critic," featuring actor John Lovitz, and created Showtime’s hit cartoon "Queer Duck" (about a gay duck).   His other TV credits include "It’s Garry Shandling’s Show," "ALF," and "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson.

Reiss’ screenplay "My Life in Ruins" was made into a major motion picture in 2009 starring Nia Vardalos and Richard Dreyfuss.  He also co-wrote "The Simpsons Movie," "Horton Hears A Who!" and "Ice Age, Dawn of the Dinosaurs."  His caveman detective story "Cro-Magnon P.I." won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America.  He has published 14 children’s books, including the best-seller "How Murray Saved Christmas" and the award-winning "Late for School."  He also composes puzzles for NPR and Games Magazine.  He’s a former president of The Harvard Lampoon and editor of The National Lampoon.

Call 860-486-4226 for tickets or for more information and call or visit the box office for specific show dates and times because performance schedules vary and are subject to change.  Tickets available online at www.crt.uconn.edu.

Cavanaugh, Powers on Tap to Benefit Hartford Children's Theatre

For more information, call 860-249-7970 or visit www.hartfordchildrenstheatre.org.

Colleges To Compete in A Cappella Competition at Bijou Theatre in Bridgeport

The Bijou Blender is a Connecticut-wide collegiate a cappella competition that highlights the talent found at colleges and universities in our own back yard. For one night only, Saturday, Nov. 12, groups will battle it out for a grand prize of $1,000.

“Connecticut is home to over 50 collegiate a cappella groups, and as ensemble singing has begun to integrate itself into the media and pop culture with shows like "Glee," "The Glee Project" and "The Sing Off," we wanted to find a way to make a cappella easily accessible to the public”, said Derek
Adams, producer for the Bijou Theatre. “I have been an a cappella performer for five years now and wanted to created the Bijou Blender because watching a cappella on TV isn’t enough, you just need to experience it firsthand.”

The Judges - The world-touring a cappella quartet, Blue Jupiter, will be sitting at the judges table. Blue Jupiter first gained national fame as the voices of Oreo Cookie, singing the national Oreo radio
commercial since 2005. Since then, Blue Jupiter has headlined the Sands Casino in Macau, China, worked with famed producer and "American Idol" Judge Randy Jackson, sang with Livingston Taylor and performed on "Oprah" and VH1’s "Save the Music."

Groups - Groups in attendance include Out of the Blue (Yale), the Chordials and Notes Over Storrs (University of Connecticut), Too Good For Instruments ( Central Connecticut State University), L’Shir (University of Hartford), and the ConnChords and Co Co Beaux (Connecticut College).

The Bijou Blender takes place Saturday, Nov. 12 at 7 pm at the Bijou, 275 Fairfield Ave., Bridgeport. Tickets: $25 General Admission; $20 Students

Tickets can be purchased online at www.thebijoutheatre.com/events or email info@thebijoutheatre.com for more information.

Take in a Performance at the Kate

The Kate ( The Katharine Hepburn Clutural arts Center in Old Saybrook) has a plethora of performances in November. For tickets and more information, visit www.TheKate.org or call 877-503-1286.

Event: Met in HD: Don Giovanni Encore
Date: Tuesday, Nov. 1
Time: 1 pm
Price: $25

Event: Ellis Paul
Date: Friday, Nov. 4
Time: 8 pm
Price: $25

Event: Met in HD: Siegfried
Date: Saturday, Nov. 5
Time: noon
Price: $28
Event: Darden Smith
Date: Sunday, Nov. 6
Time: 7 pm
Price: $25

Event: 92 St Y: Andy Borowitz Presents the Funniest American Writers
Date: Wednesday, Nov. 9
Time: 7 pm
Price: $10

Event: CTFF Encore: The Green
Date: Thursday, Nov. 10
Times: 4, 7 and 9 pm
Price: $8

Event: Missoula Children's Theatre Presents The Secret Garden
Date: Saturday, Nov. 12
Time: 11am, 2 pm
Price: $14 Adults, $10 Children 12 & under

Event: Pure Prairie League
Date: Saturday, Nov. 12
Time: 8:00pm
Price: $47.50

Event: The Kate Classic Film: Adam’s Rib
Date: Thursday, Nov. 17
Time:2, 4 and 7 pm
Price: $8

Event: STCS: Shoreline Soup Kitchen Benefit
Date: Friday, Nov. 18
Time: 8:00pm
Price: $25

Event: Met in HD: Satyagraha
Date: Saturday, Nov. 19
Time: 1 pm
Price: $28

Event: J. Geils with Jeff Pitchell & Texas Flood
Date: Saturday, Nov. 19
Time: 8 pm
Price:$42/$36

Event: Met in HD: Satyagraha Encore
Date: Tuesday, Nov. 22
Time: 1 pm
Price: $25

Event: Celtic Tenors
Date: Friday, Nov. 25
Time: 8 pm
Price: $67
Event: Kevin Flynn
Date: Saturday, Nov. 26
Time: 8 pm
Price: $25

HSO Appoints Andrea Stalf as New President/CEO

Andrea Stalf. Photo: Leah Morgan

The Hartford Symphony Orchestra has appointed Andrea Stalf as president and chief executive officer.

Stalf will oversee administrative operations and fundraising, and will partner with the artistic leadership of new Music Director Carolyn Kuan. She replaces Kristen Phillips. Carrie Hammond has served as Interim CEO.

Stalf's 22-year career in corporate marketing and general management includes senior positions with Fortune 100 firms in insurance, telecommunications and consumer products.  Stalf moved to Hartford in 2007 when she accepted the position of vice president and chief marketing officer for the personal lines insurance business of Travelers.   She has an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana, and a master of science degree in environmental engineering from the University of Minnesota.  She earned an MBA in marketing from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.  Stalf and her husband, David Lampert, live in Avon with their sons Ben and Max. They are life-long music lovers and concertgoers; their sons are serious students of piano, guitar and clarinet.

“It’s a thrill and honor to work with Carolyn Kuan; she gives herself entirely to each performance,” Stalf said. “Carolyn is a visionary and right now the HSO is at the vanguard of orchestras with its rich heritage of artistic talent and dedication to community service.  I'm really excited to be a part of it and committed to its continuing success.”

Theater Review: The Motherf***ker with the Hat -- TheaterWorks

Royce Johnson, Ben Cole and Varín Ayala. Photo by Lanny Nagler

There's a Bleeping Good Play about Relationships, Loyalty Behind All of That Profanity
By Lauren Yarger
Stephen Adly Guiris' play, The Motherf**ker with the Hat, making its regional premiere at TheaterWorks in Hartford, is a marketing nightmare. How do you get the word out, when the title isn't something you can print or say on TV or radio? And how do you convince audiences that 90 minutes of  ear-blistering dialogue is worth sitting through?

Well, in New York, where the play was nominated for a best-play Tony last season, it helped that comedian Chris Rock was making his Broadway debut in the role of Ralph. Once audiences were in the door, they couldn't help but notice the better-than-average play as well as superb performances by Bobby Cannavale, Elizabeth Rodriguez and Yul Vázquez, all of whom received Tony nominations. Director Anna D. Shapiro was nominated as well.

Here in Hartford, it's worth the trip for the excellent, humorous play and a stellar performance turned in by Royce Johnson as Ralph. We get to see a little bit more of the TheaterWorks veteran (God of Carnage, Broke-ology) than we did of Rock in the role -- Director Tazewell Thompson has added a full nudity scene -- but we also get to see more of Ralph's character and a superior performance.

Ben Cole plays Jackie (the Cannavale role), recently paroled, who finds a job and looks forward to a 12-Step guided fresh start with his love, Puerto Rican spitfire Veronica (a terribly miscast Clea Alsip. She doesn't look or sound Puerto Rican, and doesn't pull off the spitfire part either). There's just one problem: Jackie discovers a hat left behind in the drab apartment (Donald Eastman, design) and accuses Veronica of being unfaithful with the hat-wearing motherf**ker who lives downstairs.

Fighting the urge to take a drink, and/or to shoot the motherf**ker, Jackie seeks guidance from his AA sponsor, Ralph, who doesn't approve of his being back with Veronica any way because she is a user. Ralph perhaps is not the greatest at giving relationship advice, however, as his wife, Victoria (Vanessa Wasche, apparently attempting some indiscernible accent) is preparing to leave him. Calmed down by his good friend, Jackie takes the gun to his cousin Julio (Varin Ayala) for safekeeping.

Before long, we discover that Ralph has been as rotten and uncaring a friend to Jackie as Jackie has been to the effeminate, body-building Julio over the years. Questions of love and loyalty arise on all fronts amidst a bunch of profanity and some very hip and biting humor. When all is said and done, Jackie, who doesn't appear to be the brightest bulb in the pack, might just see the light more than all of them. And there's just something to be said for a guy who can't help but love the woman he describes as a ball-crushing Godzilla.

Besides the odd casting of Veronica, Thompson also fails to rein in Ayala, whose portrayal is too over-the-top dramatically. When he goes "Van Dam" later in the play, some of the humor of that transformation is lost because he already has been supercharged. Yelling also is the technique of choice by most of the actors. Considering that our ears already are being blistered by the language, a more subtle approach to delivering the dialogue works better. Johnson, shines, though, and is natural in the skin of his character, revealing multi levels of sleaze as well as comedic ability as the play continues.

Special kudos go to the actors and crew who change props and furniture on the tiny stage with lightning speed between scenes.

The theater posts the following advisories: Full adult nudity; adult language; adult content; no one under the age of 16 will be admitted; no late seating. The Motherf**ker with the Hat runs through Dec. 4 at TheaterWorks, City on Pearl, 233 Pearl St., Hartford. Performances are
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays at 7:30 pm; Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm; Weekend Matinees at 2:30 pm. For information/seats call 860-527-7838; visit www.theaterworkshartford.org.