THEATER: Fat Pig

FAT PIG is currently playing on the Cabaret Stage at Millbrook Playhouse and the author, Neil LaBute, has a definite point to make.

Tiffany Green and Nicholas Wilder
Photo courtesy of Erika Courtney

Tom has met Helen and fallen in love. Tom’s co-workers, Carter and Jeanie, only see that Helen is a plus-size woman, not that she makes Tom happy.  In a world obsessed with being thin, the people at work go beyond being rude to being openly cruel to the new couple.

Thanks to the play being very well cast, this is a surprisingly good production. Three of the cast members are very familiar to us and it was great to see yet another side of their talents.

Tiffany Green was perfect as Helen. Tiffany has shown that she is able to sing, dance, direct, and act -- all exceptionally well. The role demanded the ability to show a combination of great self-confidence and vulnerability. Tiffany carried it all off with ease.

Nicholas Wilder played Tom so well that the ending of the play was right in character. This is a role that demands that the audience sees beneath the surface of a character. Watching Nicholas in his earlier roles this season made this performance even more impressive.

Again we saw a different side to Ali Kresch. Jeannie is a bit of a stretch for an actress; she goes from being needy to cruelly angry to being the one who may understand the relationship between Helen and Tom. I am beginning to believe that Ali can do it all.

Jeff Blim was a new face and his role as Carter was fresh, energetic, and convincingly cruel. He spoke for all of the people who judge on outward appearances and as a result had some brilliant lines.

The show has some very funny lines, but most of them make you shudder because we have heard them used to hurt people on the playground and in the workplace.

FAT PIG has a lot of reasons to recommend it; they are Tiffany Green, Nicholas Wilder, Ali Kresch, and Jeff Blim.

FAT PIG will run until August the 7th. It will be followed in the Cabaret with Ain’t Misbehaving. The Odd Couple opens on the Main Stage on August the 4th.

BOOK REVIEW: Anansi Boys

Bear with me. We are about to discuss a book by Neil Gaiman. Critics have used words like droll, original, and audacious to describe Gaiman’s work. I agree with all of that, plus, his plots defy summaries.

ANANSI BOYS is Fat Charlie’s story. Charlie Nancy is engaged to a young lady whose mother can not stand him, works for the worst boss imaginable, and is not fat. His life is about to change drastically.

Fat Charlie’s father had named him Fat twenty years ago and when Fat Charlie’s father named something it stuck. In fact Mr. Nancy had made a habit of doing things that were an embarrassment to his son over the years. Even his death was in many ways an embarrassment; he fell off a stage while singing at a karaoke night.

At the funeral, Fat Charlie learns that his father was actually the trickster god Anansi, the spider god. He also learns, to his surprise, that to summon the brother, that he knew nothing about, all he has to do is ask a spider.

The tall, good-looking stranger who appears on his doorstep is nothing like Fat Charlie; he is more like their father. Brother Spider is the very spirit of rebellion. He is able to turn reality to his own whims and he is determined to add some fun to Fat Charlie’s life. He adds a body in a secret safe, trips to other worlds, birds worthy of a Hitchcock film, magic, and a lost girlfriend. Then the plot gets out of control.

ANANSI BOYS takes the old trickster tales -- think Bre’r Rabbit and the Tar Baby - and adds some very modern twists. You will never see spiders in the same way.

Neil Gaiman may not be the author for everybody, but if you are willing to suspend you sense of reality, he is a fun author. As outrageous as his characters are, you still like them and want to see them turn out well. Sometimes it takes awhile to be aware of some serious comments hidden in his humor. Gaiman is a true original worthy to be compared to Douglas Adams and P. G. Wodehouse.

THEATER: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Marc de la Concha, Allyssa Schmitt,
Eleanor McCormick, and James David Larson.
Photos provided by Millbrook Playhouse.

THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE is currently playing at Millbrook Playhouse and it is full of talent. This is the second time this summer that I have seen ...SPELLING BEE... and I am not sure how I feel about the play itself, but I am positive about its ability to showcase talent.

The plot is simple; eleven middle school students have gathered to compete in a spelling bee. The audience gets a chance to get to know quite a bit about them as the contest progresses.

The unique thing about the play is that it depends on the cast to be able to improvise freely. In fact four of the “contestants” are randomly chosen from the audience, requiring the hostess of the Bee to use some very original biography material about them.

Many of the cast members have been regulars at Millbrook and it was fun to see a different side to some of them. Space does not allow for me to go into the details that they deserve.

Moderating the Bee were realtor Rona Lisa Perretti, played by Jamie Beth Weist, and Vice Principal Douglas Panch, played by Jon Erkert. The two of them were responsible for most of the ad libs required by the show.

The student contests were David Raposo, Allyssa Schmitt, James David Larson, Marc de la Concha, Stephanie Mieko Cohen, and Eleanor McCormick. If you think that you have seen any of this group before, wait until you see them in this show.

Marc de la Concha, Allyssa Schmitt,
Eleanor McCormick, and James David Larson.
Photos provided by Millbrook Playhouse.

Brandon Hanks had the fun job of not only playing Mitch Mahoney, the man doing community service, but several of the fathers.

The details that each actor brought to his role made each adolescent stand out. I am sure that much of the credit for the freshness of this production goes to Dax Valdes, the director and choreographer. The season is almost to an end so I should not be surprised what these people are capable of.

THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE will run until July 31st.  Following it on the Main Stage will be The Odd Couple. Fat Pig opened July 28th on the Cabaret Stage. The final show will be Ain’t Misbhavin’ in the Cabaret.

BOOK REVIEW: And A Child...

Local author, J. Kelly Poorman, has given us AND A CHILD..., a book with a very timely message. Much has been said and been written on bullying in our schools, but Mr. Poorman has written from a personal point of view.

Hank and Edwin meet when Hank steps in to save the new boy, Edwin, from being attacked by three of their classmates. Hank has been a victim in the past and, risking his own safety, stops the fight by telling the bullies that Edwin has serious martial arts skills-- much to Edwin’s surprise.

As the two boys become friends, they discover that they have more in common than they realized. Hank is being raised by two fathers and Edwin has two mothers. Their friendship helps them to have the courage to make a stand for all of the students who are considered outcasts: the heavy, the skinny, the nerds, the minorities, and the gay/ lesbians. They want the school to be a safe environment for all disenfranchised students.

They also learn about the prejudices against the elderly when they visit Edwin’s father and are responsible for the care of his elderly father. The boys return home to try to start a social group for students who are usually picked on in the halls and after school. It is indeed a case of “And a child will lead them”.

The message of the author is very clear. His characters are well drawn and he has enough of a plot to keep you reading. I did feel that Mr. Poorman deserves a better editor or proof reader. The small mistakes really bothered me. This is not the complete fault of Mr. Poorman, but he needs to be more aware of them to be taken seriously as an author.

Considering what one hears on the street today, the language of students in the book is far from vulgar, but parents may want to be aware that the gay/lesbian scene is part of the story.

J. Kelly Poorman is scheduled for a book signing at Barnes and Noble on the 13th of August from 1:00pm to 3:00pm. It would be a good time to learn of his other books, too.

PS. The “Books, Books, and Other Things You Don’t Need” sale will be July 23rd at 128 East Cherry Lane, behind the Undine parking lot. Stop in if only just to say hello.

THEATER: The Survivor

The State College Community Theatre opened THE SURVIVOR this week at Boal Barn. The time of the play is 1940 to 1943 and the place is the Warsaw Ghetto. A group of Jewish teenagers are living with the constant threat of death by the Nazis. They start by banding together to smuggle food into the Ghetto and end by forming the nucleus of the resistance movement.

Photos courtesy of Drew Frank
Meadow Lane Photography

Thanks to a cast that felt the desperate drama that these young people must have lived through, it was worth braving the heat to spend an evening at The Boal Barn Playhouse. I was amazed when I read how young this cast is. They captured a time and circumstances that, thankfully, they have not experienced.

Each member of the cast was surprisingly good, but special credit has to go to Jesse Tyler Moore who played Jacek, the survivor. His passion remained intense throughout the play climaxing with a powerful closing speech. The audience was utterly still at the end of the play, the best compliment an actor can receive.

Deb Gilmore as Jacek’s little sister, Hela, gets a chance to show growth in her character. Olivia Lusk and Kaitlyn Warner as Mala and Halina, the Jewish girls living out of the Ghetto and passing as Christians, showed how frustrating it is to live as someone you aren’t.

Photos courtesy of Drew Frank
Meadow Lane Photography

The brave rebels were played by Max Hults, Jeremy Edelstein, Joshua Miller-Day, and Michael O’Neill. Each man showed the acting talents of much more experienced actors. Again, the passion for their characters was very believable--and touching. Each actor had a moment to shine in his or her “death monologue”. These moments were particularly poignant.

At times, the only wrong note for me was the character of Rubenstein played by Rick Gilmore. Mr. Gilmore did a fine job, but I am not sure how much “comic relief” the show needed.

Chris Gallagher was Markowsky, the man who helped the Nazis to round up the Jews to the cattle cars. He was a good balance to show how far a man will go to protect his own family.

Photos courtesy of Drew Frank
Meadow Lane Photography

The sets by Nicki Duvall were well thought out; making it always clear if the action was in the Ghetto or the streets of Warsaw. All in all, the play was well done, from Anne Simon’s directing, to the important lighting design of Celine O. Graae and the costumes of Diane Twomley.

With some countries saying that they are going to stop teaching about the Holocaust for fear of offending someone and with the swastika still showing up, we need to be reminded of this time in history. It is dangerous to forget.


THE SURVIVOR will run until July the 31st. Into the Woods, the musical by Stephen Sondheim, will open on August the 9th.

EVENT: BOOK SALE!!!

PAT'S ANNUAL BOOK SALE

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The “Books, Books, and Other Things You Don’t Need” sale will be Saturday, July 23rd 

128 East Cherry Lane

behind the Undine parking lot and one block off Allegheny St.  

8:00AM - ??

Things included:  reviewed books, books, other books, many books, power and hand tools, sewing machine, household goods and more!

This is the same weekend as the JazzPA Festival.

Stop in if only just to say hello.