Hurricane Sandy affected the rehearsals and opening dates for shows all around the region. At the Woodbridge campus of the Northern Virginia Community College, two evenings of tech week rehearsals were lost as final details were being worked out on their fall production of William Inge’s Bus Stop.

Theatre professor Eric Trumbull decided that the show must go on, but the group’s first two performances would now be previews with audience, and the opening performance would be Friday evening. We attended the first act of the Thursday matinée rehearsal. There were a few moments of magic in the performances, but actors were still getting comfortable working with a set and props. Some actors were a bit nervous on Thursday, apparently this was their début in front of an audience. It’s also interesting to note that most roles in the show have been double cast, creating an added level of difficulty as the cast won’t ever be the same way twice.

Technical aspects of the show were obviously still being worked on. This was most obvious in Cherie’s song, A Little Black Magic. Lighting effects on the singer and the set didn’t work at all, reinforcing that this performance was a rehearsal.

Dr. Trumbull said “I decided to schedule Thursday matinees in the hopes that some classes may incorporate the show into their curriculums.” If you’d like to support fledgling actors, please drop by the NVCC campus in Woodbridge next weekend.

Cast

• Elma Duckworth: Kayla Gasztoni, Stephanie Johnson
• Grace: Jasmine Clark, Iris Same, Lindsey Capuno
• Will Masters: Miguel Lopez, Lucretia Johnson
• Cherie: Ryane Hester, Jasmine Clark
• Dr. Gerald Lyman: Gustavo Monje
• Carl: Alex Ryder, Anthony Yowsa
• Virgil Blessing: Bryn Damisch
• Bo Decker: Benjamin Jablonowski

Crew

• Director: E. Trumbull
• Assistant Director: Alex Ryder
• Set Design: D. Falt
• Lighting Design: Wahd Evvyr
• Costume Design: Kayla Gasztonyi
• Tech Crew: Students in CST 136 (Theatre Workshop), CST 131 (Acting 1), Theatre Club

The Boat Never Leaves is an interactive mystery developed by the cast and crew of the Nova Woodbridge Theatre Group. The basic story concerned a group of people stranded on a deserted island for the reading of a will. There were the right amount of twists and turns that made you wonder what was going on. Because of the improvisational nature it will be interesting to see if the ending changes each night or stays the same.

However, the acting was a drawback to the performance. The actors did not develop their characters and appeared to simply play themselves onstage in front of an audience.

Iago Andko, the dead man’s business partner, was played by Andrew Roberds. He did pull off a Russian accent respectably throughout the show. There were a couple characters who tried to elicit some emotion other than annoyance. The slapsticking comedian Rebecca Times (Jasmine Bull) could not enter a room without falling over, knocking something over, or throwing up. It was funny the first few times, but then grew old. Diamond Castro as Josephine Helmsley cried believably with the right touch of over dramatization.

The set changes went quickly and smoothly. There was an ax used in several scenes, but unfortunately the actors didn’t respect the weight of the prop as the evening wore on, which made the gag less funny than it could have been. The show ended abruptly, with the audience unsure if the play had actually concluded completely.

This was an interesting script that needed more time for character development to make it a believable production.

Cast

• William Helmsley: Michael Green
• Savannah Helmsley: Jessie Barnett
• Iago Andko: Andrew Roberds
• Marque Helmsley: Josh Bryant
• Scarlett Manson: Rebecca Pfister
• Rebecca Times: Jasmine Bull
• Barnes: Brian Bardwell
• Thorton Helmsley, IV: Michael Green
• Josephine Helmsley: Diamond Castro

Crew

• Director: Ashlee Reynolds
• Technical Director: Brian Bardwell
• Consultant: E. Trumbell
• Lighting/Sound: Myron Rahynes

Disclaimer: NoVa Woodbridge Theatre Group provided a complimentary media ticket to ShowBizRadio for this review.

Arthur Miller’s All My Sons is an emotionally charged, heart-breaking story about a family torn apart by the twin vices of scandal and denial. Unfortunately, this production, directed by NVCC Theater Department’s E.W. Trumbull, was miserable. Acting, with only few exceptions, was rote at best. Visually the production was a mish-mash of modern and period. The set was incompatible with the production, and the lighting was insufficient to light the whole stage. All My Sons was a disappointment opening night and has a lot of room for improvement.

Overall impressions of this production pointed to one source: very weak direction. Backstage, the actors were noisy and chatty. Onstage, the actors looked and sounded uncomfortable. Blocking frequently took them to shadowed parts of the stage where their faces were hidden and acoustics were muffled. Natural build-up in the most intense scenes was tragically absent. Small body language that was difficult to see lent to the emotional stagnation of the show. The story took a long time to develop. Pacing was slow and dry. It seems as though the students were given a script and a few resources and told to “put on a play.”

The acting in this show was effectively abysmal. Lines were barely memorized and rarely delivered in character. Actors looked directly at the audience on several occasions. Dynamic was practically non-existent. No character relation was conveyed through vocal inflection or physical interaction. Instead, the stage was full of tree-people: actors who stood with arms crossed or hands at their sides.

It was fifteen minutes before the first genuine character entered and rescued the stage. Chris Keller, played by Clay Powell, was an emotional and dynamic character that had a lot of potential. While he is also guilty of emotional spikes without sufficient build-up, he was the saving grace of the leading cast of characters.

Another actor of note was Katy Chmura in the role of Sue Bayliss. Her part was quite small, but she demonstrated excellent pacing and characterization. Chmura’s grasp of her character’s motivations and personality were sterling, especially in the short scene she shared with Ann Deever (Ashleigh McPherson).

Costumes, designed by Dustin Schade, made some effort to be period, but only half succeeded since they were largely drawn from the actors’ closets. This saved on the costume budget, but made the production look too modern. On the other hand, the cowboy costume used for Bert, a eight year-old character played by a college student, was absolutely adorable.

There were three props in this show. One was a set of ivy-wrapped pewter cups with a matching ivy-wrapped pewter pitcher. These were tacky to the utmost. The concept was far too fantastical for a practical production like All My Sons. Another prop was an empty picnic basket. It was brought onstage, fidgeted with, and then left onstage for no apparent reason. The final prop was a letter which was the most effectively used prop in the entire production.

Upon first inspection, the set was actually quite pretty. It had some texture and was large enough to accommodate some fun action. It was aesthetically pleasing, and a “spillover effect” at the edge of the stage was distinctive. However, once the story was applied, the set made no sense. Instead of a small-town house with a yard, the action seemed to take place in a woodland clearing with a boulder and a couple tree stumps. This inconsistency coupled with weak use of set pieces demonstrates the failure of the principle of designing the stage according to the play.

Lights were insufficient for the size of the stage and location of the action. Splotchy illumination left gaping holes at center stage and stage right where a fair amount of acting took place. At other times, especially in act two, the lighting was too dark, making it hard to focus on the actors.

One sound effect was used to mimic a thunderstorm in the beginning of the production. The thunder effect was cut off and the result was a tacky beginning. Music was used to accentuate the emotion of the production. The primary selected piece was quite lovely and effectively captured the emotion of the script. However, the track changed at a pivotal point in the show and came off as hugely cheesy, effectively destroying the moment. It seems to me that it would have been better to maintain the continuity of the subtle drama rather than try and escalate it with a bad music track.

Theater, especially learning about theater, should be a fun experience. I suppose that if the cast and crew enjoyed “putting on a play” and learned something through it, then they should consider the show a success.

Cast

• Joe Keller: Butch Mahaney
• Kate Keller: Claire Veneziano
• Chris Keller: Clay Powell
• Ann Deever: Ashleigh McPherson
• George Deever: Daniel Jacobsen or Isaac Bennett
• Dr. Jim Bayliss: Nathan Johns
• Sue Bayliss: Katy Chmura
• Frank Lubey: Mike Burns
• Lydia Lubey: Ashley Champagne or Kimberly Morris
• Bert: Scott Morgan

Technical Staff

• Director: E.W. Trumbull
• Assistant to the Director: Joel Morris
• Stage Manager: Andrew Buning
• Assistant Stage Manager: Katy Chmura
• Lighting/Sound: Chris Young, Melissa Runyon
• Costumes: Dustin Schade
• Set Construction: Scott Markley, Joel Morris, Melissa Runyon, Dustin Schade, Mel Aubrey, Topaz Campbell, Cast and Crew
• Flyer: Melanie Mahaney

Disclaimer: NoVa Woodbridge Theatre Group provided two complimentary media tickets to ShowBizRadio for this review.

• All My Sons, November 2009
• Promises, Promises, April 2010

Schedule is subject to change due to performance rights conflicts or other issues.

Come Blow Your Horn is a Neil Simon’s first comedy. Alan and Buddy Baker have decided to leave their family’s waxed-fruit business and experience the good life. Alan is a ladies’ man, and his younger brother is a 21-year-old virgin. As the play progresses Alan falls in love with Connie, and when she leaves his life, he falls apart. While Alan mourns the loss of Connie, Buddy becomes a ladies’ man himself.

NWTG gave a performance that was a bit uneven, with some pacing issues, most notably between the two brothers. Alan, played by Clay Powell, and Buddy, played by Isaac Bennett, did not have a strong rapport and weren’t very believable as brothers. There were times when their dialog was slow and monotonous.

Jasmine Bull played Alan’s girlfriend Peggy Evans. Bull had a fairly convincing New York accent, which she pretty well maintained throughout the performance. Her sidelong glances and heightened sexuality made Buddy very uncomfortable while exciting Alan. Alan’s other girlfriend, Connie Dayton (played by Amanda Moore) had captured Alan’s heart and mind. Moore gave a solid performance that was perhaps a bit under dramatic. Her accent was difficult to place as well as maintain. Alan and Buddy’s traditional parents were very well cast. Henry Newman as the controlling father, and Becket Warren as the doting, emotional mother, created a very powerful couple that were overwhelming their sons with high expectations and little flexibility.

Jason Milton designed a pretty cool set of an apartment living room, with a nice view out the sole window. Set in the late 60’s with appropriately styled furniture, although there was one painting simply leaning against a wall on the floor for no clear reason. A nice effect was the unique pencil box that caused no small amount of frustration for Mrs. Baker. The sound and lighting effects for the show were designed by Christopher Young. One lighting effect that was a bit distracting was a light just above the apartment’s front door. The light was angled towards the audience, so it telegraphed whenever someone was about to appear to complicate the lives of the Baker brothers. Director Eric Trumbull double cast this production.

Come Blow Your Horn ran about two hours and forty-five minutes with two intermissions. It is playing for one more weekend, Thursday and Friday at 8 and Saturday at 2 PM at the Northern Virginia Community College, Woodbridge Campus, in Woodbridge, Virginia.

(Note: As proof of how small the theater world is, Laura and I both have taken classes from Dr. Trumbull, Mike worked with Chris Young on a production last summer, and Mike is being directed by Becket Warren in a scene for a directing class next month.)

Cast A

• Alan Baker: Clay Powell
• Peggy Evans: Jasmine Bull
• Buddy Baker: Isaac Bennett
• Mr. Baker: Henry Newman
• Connie Dayton: Amanda Moore
• Mrs. Baker: Becket Warren
• A Visitor: Alana Thomas

Cast B

• Alan Baker: Jason Milton
• Peggy Evans: Kimberly Young
• Buddy Baker: Jonathan Knox
• Mr. Baker: E. Trumbull
• Connie Dayton: Catherine Rotchford
• Mrs. Baker: Cassandra Newman
• A Visitor: Ashley Champagne

Crew

• Director: E. Trumbull
• Assistant to the Director: Amanda Moore
• Stage Design: Jason Milton
• Costume Coordinators: Jasmine Bull/Amanda Moore
• Lights/Sound: Christopher Young
• Stage Crew: Heather Alford, Emma Patterson, Kore Bono
• Props: Becket Warren/Amanda Moore
• Makeup: Salima Bown
• Stage Manager: M.J. Perez

Laura: This is the ShowBizRadio podcast for Tuesday, June 17, 2008.

Mike: We just wanted to share a little bit about the shows we are working on with the NoVa Woodbridge Theatre Group.

Laura: For the preshow play to be performed before the main attraction of Shakespeare Abridged, we started blocking last Tuesday so that has been a little interesting. We meet in a side room kind of behind the stage. We have started blocking and we are also all busy learning our lines.

Mike: For Shakespeare Abridged things are moving along quickly. We rehearse three or four nights a week. The set construction has started. I have learned how to do some cutting and drilling holes, and making the flats. We actually put up some of the walls yesterday. So the actors at tonight’s rehearsal will have an actual door to go through instead of just walking through the taped doorways they will have a wall they will actually have to go around. It will be interesting to see how they will have to adapt and adjust.

Laura: We are also working on gathering props together and costumes and accessories for both of the shows.

Mike: It is amazing how detailed it is. It seems to be a very simple play, but is very prop heavy. It is an improv play and you have to be ready for anything. I think the actors are getting closer to that. They have done the blocking and they will be off book this week. Then we will get to the point of having to speed up the actors and make it more natural so they can improv their way out of whatever happens.

The other thing I have done was to create a set of posters to help advertise this show. What I came up with was a series of posters. One poster will be released every week. The first one is simply a picture of William Shakespeare. The second one adds in fake glasses a mustache and beard as if he had been graffitied. The third week lists a little bit about what Shakespeare has done. The number of comedies, the number of tragedies and things like that. The final week is the actual poster with all of the details. The goal of the posters is to get people curious about what is going on with this show. It is easy when you put posters up, in this case at the NoVa Woodbridge Campus, that you see it once and forget about it. We only have four weeks until we open. By doing one a week people will get curious and maybe come out and see the show.

Laura: July 10th is the pay what you can preview night. Then the show opens on Friday July 11 and Saturday July 12 at 8 pm. There is a Sunday matinee on the 13 at 2 pm. Then Friday the 18 and Saturday the 19 at 8 pm. It will be at the Theatre at the NoVa Woodbridge Campus in Woodbridge, Virginia. (View the complete performance schedule.)

Mike: We’d love to have some of our ShowBizRadio site visitors come out and see the show.

Laura: And now, on with the show.

Laura: This evening we saw the final dress rehearsal of the Summer production of Noises Off performed by the NoVa Woodbridge Theatre Group at the Northern Virginia Community College Woodbridge Campus in Woodbridge, Virginia.

Mike: Noises Off is a farce by Michael Frayn. The show Noises Off focuses on the behind the scene happenings of the British play Nothing On. You get to see the final dress rehearsal, then a behind the scenes at an actual production of the show. It all goes down hill from there. The farce within the farce is really funny.

Laura: Mike and I got to attend the final dress rehearsal this evening. It was a very small audience. I think there were four of us. The kids looked like they were having a really good time. There were some stage issues and some line issues and things like that that I know will get worked out. Once they have a live audience I think the adrenalin will kick in and they’ll do a really good job. They had a lot of fun tonight. I enjoyed watching them.

Mike: One of the really good things about doing a show like Noises Off is you don’t know when they’re messing up. There’s so much in the script where the performers on stage are supposed to mess up, that when they did we weren’t quite sure if it was a mess up or not. The cast worked really hard tonight. Since the audience was so small we tried to laugh noticeably, but it sounded kind of fake. I hope that didn’t throw them off. I did have a good time watching the show.

Laura: Brooke Ashton was played by Christine Gahagan. In the play within a play, Nothing On, she was Vicki. She did a very good job. She just had a very nice presence on stage. She related to the other characters well. The second act which was the behind the scenes, she had big exuberant movements and things like that. It was just really funny to watch her.

Mike: Poppy Norton-Taylor, the Assistant Stage Manager, was played by Liz Long. She did a really good job. She was nervous about the times she had to be the understudy. The second act when we got to see the behind the scenes of the show Nothing On, she was at her stage manger table with the script so that she could follow what was going on for the cues. She had a little area set up there that would keep her calm. She had a snow globe which she would shake up when she got stressed. She had lots of little mannerisms. I really liked how she made that part her own and brought lots of small little mannerisms to the character of Poppy.

Laura: Belinda Blair was played by Tory Ritter. In the play within the play she was the wealthy Flavia Brent. She also did a very good job. She just had a wonderful time trying to keep everything together. She was sort of the informal stage manager, keeping everything running smoothly back stage. She also had the big sweeping gestures. She was tearing around stage in the second act trying to keep one of the other characters from going off and imbibing a little too much whiskey. Unfortunately she was not able to keep him from doing that. She had a really good time and I just really like watching her on stage.

Mike: The set for Noises Off was very challenging. The entire second act takes place backstage. During the first intermission the entire set needs to be rotated. After the Second Act the entire set needs to be rotated again so you can see the front of the stage. Another challenge is the theater at NoVa Woodbridge is extremely short, it’s only about nine feet tall. It’s not too deep, but that wasn’t a problem. It was more the height. The set calls for a two story set. They did manage to do that. The set was designed by Alejandro Matais, Brett Bartosavage, John Furry, and Tory Ritter. I think they did a pretty good job with the small space that is available at that theater.

Laura: There was a wide range of acting experience on the stage tonight. You had those actors that this was their first show as well as actors who had done multiple community theater roles. It was really interesting to see how everybody came together. It gelled well.

Mike: Noises Off is playing at the Northern Virginia Community College Woodbridge Campus. Opening on Friday night playing through Sunday the 22nd. Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sunday matinees at 2 pm.

Laura: The show was about two hours and fifteen minutes with two intermissions.

Mike: And now, on with the show.

Cast

• Dotty Otley (Mrs. Clackett): Janet Klayton
• Lloyd Dallas, The Director: Andre Wilson
• Garry LeJeune (Roger Templeman): Aaron Spicka
• Brooke Ashton (Vicki): Christine Gahagan
• Poppy Norton Taylor, Assistant Stage Manager: Liz Long
• Frederick Fellowes (Phillip Brent): Alejandro Matais
• Belinda Blair (Flavia Brent): Tory Ritter
• Tim Allgood, Company Stage Manager: Jessica Barnett
• Selsdon Mobray (Burglar) Michael Green

Crew

• Director: E.W. Trumbull
• Assistant Director: Sara Feinberg
• Costumes: Tory Ritter
• Props: Christine Gahagan
• Lights: John Furry
• Tech Crew: John Furry
• Set Design and Construction: Alejandro Matais, Brett Bartosavage, John Furry, Tory Ritter
• Scene Painting: Christine Gahagan, Tory Ritter

Laura: And Sunday afternoon we saw the NoVa Woodbridge Theatre Group‘s production of the Importance of Being Earnest in Woodbridge Virginia.

Mike: The Importance of Being Earnest is a play written by Oscar Wilde. It was written in the 1890’s and takes place in London. It revolves around John Worthing who says he has a brother living in London. He has to go visit him frequently. And when he’s in London, he visits him friend Algernon Moncrief who also has a friend living in the country who he goes to visit so he can get out of unpleasant social situations in the city. Of course they each fall in love with someone at the other place. It all comes to a head when they all end up together in the country. They all pretend they are someone by the name of “Earnest.”

Laura: I had a good time with this show this afternoon. I enjoyed watching everybody because everybody seemed to work well together. Many of the actors and actresses had performed in previous NoVa Woodbridge Theatre productions as well as local community theaters. I enjoyed how they all worked well together and seem to have a good time.

Mike: The show was pretty good. It is a comedy and the humor seemed to come across pretty well. It was kind of a small audience and so nobody was quite sure at the beginning if it was ok to laugh? Finally people just started laughing and that worked really well. You can kind of see that the laughter picked up the actors. If you go see this show, which we encourage you to do, make sure you laugh because it’s ok.

Laura: Algernon Moncrief, the aristocrat who would retire to the country to get away from the hectic city life was played by Jay Mahan. He did a really good job. He had a lot of expression. There was one kind of oops at the beginning of the play and he covered it, I thought really well and went right on.

Mike: The role of John Worthing, the rich gentleman from the country who made up the brother living in the city, Earnest, was played by Alejandro Matias. Matias did a pretty good job, although a few times he kind of stumbled and then it seemed like he got nervous a couple times and started speaking really quickly. This is one of his first roles he’s done on stage. Just with experience that will get a lot better.

Laura: And Lady Bracknell was played by Sallie Willows. She did a good job. She was definitely the uptight lady of the house who wanted her daughter to marry just the right person and wasn’t too sure about John Worthing. If he was good enough for her daughter or not. But I really like her performance a lot. Again a lot of expression.

Mike: Gwendolyn Fairfax, the daughter of Lady Bracknell was played by Magenta Brooks. She did a great job. She just had this presence on stage of just stateliness and, “I know what’s right.” It was really quite stunning to watch her on stage maneuvering and kind of twisting the guys and being manipulative a bit, but she did it nicely so you didn’t mind. And that was really good characterization that she gave that role.

Laura: And Cecily Cardew, the ward of John Worthing and the fiance of Algernon Moncrief was played by Michel Izquieta. She did a really nice job. She played the young eighteen year old girl and she played it really well. She had the starry eyes and the lovelorn look every time she looked at Algernon and she carried that really well. She was a lot of fun to watch.

Mike: Cicely’s Governess, Miss Prism, was played by Jamie Bartosavage Erdman. She did an ok job. There was one scene near the end when Lady Bracknell had called her in to have a meeting and Jamie’s face just hit the floor. It was like, “Oh no.” It was like Laura just mentioned to me the jig is up. She knew that she had ben caught and found out for something that had happened years ago. She did that scene really well.

Laura: And the reverend Canon Causable was played by Brett Bartosavage. He did a good job. This was a small role for him, but he played it well.

Mike: And the Butler Lane and the Butler Merriman were both played by Maurico Perez. He did a pretty good job. He had a few scenes where he had to take the blame for something that wasn’t his fault. He gave the best expressions of, “I know it’s not my fault, but I’ll say it’s my fault.” It was just a really a great expression that he gave to the master at that point.

Laura: There was a wide range of experience on this stage. From people that have done professional shows to several community theater shows for years. It’s a really good place to learn all parts of the theater. Not only the acting, but also the backstage, lights, sound, all that kind of stuff, too. It’s a really good place to get started in something like a community college like NoVa Woodbridge.

Mike: The set for the Importance of Being Earnest was very simple. It was a black backdrop around and then they had some chairs that they moved around for the different scenes. That was it. There were a few different set pieces that they would walk through and walk around, but it was very simple. One thing that kind of slowed the show down a little bit were the scene changes. There was no extra stage crew available. All the actors had to move the prop pieces on and off. That’s just a disadvantage of a small theater group, but it wasn’t like it broke the scene. It did slow things down just a little bit.

Laura: The Importance of Being Earnest is playing for one more weekend. Friday and Saturday at 8 PM and Sunday at 2 PM at the Northern Virginia Community College Campus in Woodbridge, Virginia.

Mike: And now, on with the show.

Laura: We saw the opening night performance of Nova Woodbridge Theatre Group‘s production of A Doll’s House.

Mike: A Doll’s House is a play written by Henrick Ibsen in 1879. It is considered to be his most famous play. A Doll’s House is a criticism of the traditional roles of men and women in a Victorian marriage. It was actually quite controversial when it first came out because it did not have the traditional happy ending. The story revolves around Nora Helmer who has taken out a loan under false pretenses. Her husband is a banker. He, of, course has very rigid views on the propriety of the household and the role of women and men in society. Nora gets blackmailed by an employee of her husband. She has to decide what to do and how he treats her and about this actual loan she has made. It’s a fascinating study about the roles of men and women.

Laura: I enjoyed watching A Doll’s House very much. The group at the Nova Woodbridge Theatre Group does good shows. I liked how everybody acted together. I enjoyed the scene actually towards the end of the play between the Helmers and their discussion of future events and that kind of thing. The second and third acts were much better. The first act seemed to run a bit long. I think everybody was kind of warming up and getting used to the audience because things were much better in the second and third acts.

Mike: This was a really good show. The first act was really slow, I hate to say. That’s just the way it is in all these character driven text heavy shows where you have to figure out who everybody is. The only way to do that is to talk about them. The show was, with two intermissions, a total of about two hours and forty minutes. The show started about twenty minutes late. Hopefully it will start on time in the future and you’ll be out of there in less than two and a half hours.

Laura: The role of Nora Helmer was played by McCall N. Farrell. I really liked her performance. She showed a lot of emotion, with a lot of nervousness, a lot of wanting to be the dutiful wife and mother. Not really knowing what her role was in the family. But she gave a good performance. I enjoyed watching the end, not wanting to give away the plot. But I enjoyed the scene at the end where she confronted her husband with some things that had been going on and their resolution to those problems.

Mike: And Nora’s husband, Torvald, was played by Brian Doyle. He did a good job, too. He really was a priggish little banker person. Laura was really annoyed at him at the first intermission. She was just kind of getting mad at me a little bit. We kind of teased each other about that. He did a really good job. I didn’t realize this until we got home and I was looking at the playbill more closely. Nora and Torvald were engaged in real life. So that was sweet, but they did a pretty good job together. They definitely, I don’t know if that’s from the acting or just being together in real life, but they were a nice married couple.

Laura: A friend of Nora Helmer was Christine Linde. She was played by Michel Izquieta. I liked her performance, she did a good job. She had a lot of emotion. She wanted to help her friend, but at the same time she wanted to do the right thing. She also had kind of a side plot going on her own with one of the other characters that they had a really good scene together when the past came to light a little bit. So I liked watching her and her emotions very much.

Mike: The family friend of the Helmer’s was Dr. Rank, played by Martin Brown. He was an older gentleman, a medical doctor. He was facing death on his own. In that society you didn’t share lot of intimate details of your life with others. It was very nice watching the scene with him talking with Nora about his physical problems. Watching his discomfort in sharing the details was quite effective. At the same time you could feel that he really was, to a point, regretting that he didn’t have a closer relationship with Norea and that he couldn’t because she was already married. That was a really well done scene.

Laura: I also really liked the set of A Doll’s House. It was one set, but it was situated in such a way that there were multiple entrances and exits.

Mike: One thing that was just kind of funny was the set was one of the best ones we’ve ever seen at the Nova Woodbridge Theatre Group. But one of the small touches they missed was there were no lamps in the room. Since in a few of the scenes they did carry in some oil lamps, it would have been nice if they had had a few scattered maybe on some of the tables. Even lit would have been really nice.

Laura: A Doll’s House is playing for the next two weekends. Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 and Sundays at 2 PM. I recommend you see this show because I really think you’ll enjoy it and it will give you a lot to talk about on the way home.

Mike: If you’ve seen the show feel free to leave comments about anything we may have left out about the thoughts about the show or if you’d like to say we were wrong on something this is your chance to do it. Just go to ShowBizRadio.net and enter a comment on our review.

Laura: We’d also like to invite you to join our free mailing list so that you can receive updates about information in the Northern Virginia, DC metro area. Just go to ShowBizRadio.net/Subscribe/.

Mike: And now, on with the show.

Laura: Tonight was opening night of the Nova Woodbridge Theatre Group‘s performance of The Pajama Game. Just so you know I performed with Dr. Eric Trumbull, or Doc as we called him, a few years ago in a couple of performances. So I knew some of the actors up here tonight.

Mike: The Pajama Game is a musical. It’s the story of the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory. The workers who make the pajamas want a 7 and 1/2 cent raise which the management does not want to give them. They have hired a new floor manager to keep everything running well. He falls in love with the head of the union. This causes a lot of trouble when the girls decide to slow down production to make a point. To find out what happens you need to go see The Pajama Game.

Laura: I liked it. They tried really hard. This was opening night so there were some glitches, but overall I think they did a good job.

Mike: It was a good show. The actors were nervous. The first act was pretty rough. There were some missed cues and they weren’t always sure when to start singing altogether, but the second act was much better. They settled down and realized the audience wasn’t going to eat them. They really pulled it together. So I think the rest of the run will be good.

Laura: I enjoyed Catherine “Babe” Williams played by Becca Harney. She had a nice stage voice and a good presence. Her voice carried. It looks like she has had some training. She carried her part well and her dance numbers were well done. Her reactions to her love interest, Sid, were very believable.

Mike: Sid Sorokin was played by Devon Pruden. This was his acting debut. He did pretty well. You could see he was nervous at the beginning, but by the end of show he pulled it together and did well. He was nervous, his voice broke during a couple of the songs. The second act went much better. He was warmed up and did a good job. He did a number with Babe Williams played by Becca Harney called “There once was a man.” That was really a good song. They had both warmed up and were pretty comfortable with each other. That was a nice number, I enjoyed that one a lot.

Laura: Another actress that I enjoyed was Mabel played by Michel Izquieta. She had a nice singing voice. She had a nice dance number with Brett Bartosavage who played Vernon Hines. They had a nice tap dance number together. Her singing voice carried well.

Mike: The technical parts of the show were rough. There were a few missed cues where the singers started then stopped or stood up and then sat back down. There were a few sound effects that were in the wrong place. A phone rang when there was supposed to be a knock at the door. The actors didn’t realize they should covered for the phone ringing, maybe by picking up the phone and saying,”No!!” and then hanging up the phone. The second act was much cleaner. They do need another spotlight. They only had one follow spotlight so it was awkward watching the singer, especially during the duets, because the spotlight would jump across the stage back and forth between the singers. That was distracting.

Laura: I enjoyed the costumes. They weren’t 1956, but they were not 2006 either. There were a lot of costume changes that they did well and quickly.

Mike: So that’s The Pajama Game performed by the Nova Woodbridge Theatre Group at the Northern Virginia Community College in Woodbridge, Virginia. They are playing for the next two weeks, Thursday thru Saturday at 7:30 PM. Admission is $5 at the door. So come on out and support this show. Also the soundtrack from the 1954 broadway version is playing on our online radio station. If you want to listen go to showbizradio.net/listen/.

Laura: And now, on with the show.