Laura: This is the ShowBizRadio review of Fables For The Tables, performed by the Natural Theatricals at the 219 Restaurant in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. We saw the performance on Sunday afternoon May 11, 2008.

Mike: Natural Theatricals presents song and story to accompany 219 Restaurant’s renowned Sunday brunch fare in the restaurant’s elegant 19th century Victorian setting. Join storyteller Paula Alprin, vocalist Alexandra Lajoux and percussionist Earl Richardson for an original program. All the songs and stories share a percussion motif. No cover charge, but you must have brunch to have access to the performance.

Laura: This was a rather arty show. Paula Alprin as the story teller was very enthusiastic as was Alexandra Lajoux, the vocalist. They put their heart and soul into it. It did take place at a restaurant so they did have some sound issues to work through.

Mike: I also enjoyed Earl Richardson, the percussionist. He had several different percussion instruments that he played to complement, as well as to supplement the stories. There were four songs and two stories told. The two stories were both told by Paula Alprin. The singing was done by Alexandra Lajoux. The thing I thought was interesting was where does a story become a fable? A fable is going to have a moral of some sort. The art in these different numbers come from whatever moral you can get out of it. In the first song, Drum Drama, the moral could be follow your heart and do what you want to do. The others were along the same lines. There were some pretty bad puns in a couple of the stories. The one that jumped at me was “the scene of the climb” in the Prince and The Piper.

Laura: So for a different theatrical experience, keep in mind the 219 Restaurant in Old Town Alexandria. They are having the Sunday Brunch and Fables For The Tables show through June 22nd. The performance starts at 2 PM and lasts about forty-five minutes.

Mike: And now, on with the show.

• May 8, Red vs. The Wolf and Shakespeare’s Clowns, Vpstart Crow, Manassas, Virginia
• May 9, Richard III, Tapestry Theatre, Alexandria, Virginia
• May 11, Fables for the Tables, Natural Theatricals, Alexandria, Virginia
• May 11, The Wiz, St. Mark’s Players , Washington DC

If you’d like us to review your show, please invite us. Obviously we can’t go to every show, so on those weekends with more performances than dates, we give preference to theaters that (1) advertise with us, (2) have invited us, (3) are performing a show we haven’t seen before, or (4) are at a theater we haven’t been to recently. Just send us an email or call us. If your show is opening later this year, it can’t hurt to invite us now!

Laura: This is the ShowBizRadio.net review of Natural Theatricals‘ production of Will You Know It’s Me? performed at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia. I saw the performance on Tuesday, October 16, 2007.

This was a really good show. It was a little edgy, but overall I enjoyed it. It was an art gallery where they displayed artists’ works and did custom framing.

Will You Know It’s Me? is an original work with book, music and lyrics by Paula Alprin. Musical direction and arrangement by James D. Watson and choreography by Tosia Anne Shall. A woman, alone in her little art gallery late at night, is accosted by a mysterious stranger who may or may not be from a small merchant town in medieval England. Blending song with oral storytelling and drama, Will You Know It’s Me? explores the collision of two strong wills who eventually find their common ground.

Tina, the shop owner, was played by Paula Alprin. She did a very good job. She was very emotional and put a lot of heart and soul into it. The “Mysterious Stranger” Margery, was played by Deborah Rinn Critzer. She also did a really good job. She had a lot of emotion. She could cry at the drop of a hat, which she did. The dialogue scenes between Tina and Margery were very good. They were deep. Tina got pretty angry at Margery and Margery got just as angry at some points in time. They really played together well.

The Course is composed of Andrew Vergara Retizos, Geneveive James, Laurie Geigel and Spencer Mickelson. They also did a good job. They had some really good dance numbers, and really good singing. The only downside was because there was a live orchestra. The conductor was James D. Watson who also put the music together. When more than one of the men would sing it kind of got lost in the guitar and the piano that was being played. That was one downer, but they all did a good job. They all looked like they were having a good time and really put their heart and soul into this musical. It was a little different, a little bit edgy, but it was an enjoyable evening. I think you will enjoy it and you will like the music.

And now, on with the show.

Photo Gallery

The members of The Course await the arrival of a mysterious stranger.	Derangement or visions? Tina is baffled by Margery’s behavior.
Strong wills and opposite world-views collide.	The foreign and the familiar vie for the upper hand.
The members of The Course enact the fable that Tina is writing.

Photos provided by Natural Theatricals.

Cast

• Margery: Deborah Rinn Critzer
• Tina: Paula Alprin
• “The Course”: Laurie Geigel, Genevieve James, Spencer Mickelson And Andrew Vergara Retizos

Orchestra

• Violin: Marcia Mcintyre
• Cello: Katie Chambers
• Guitar: Rob Weaver
• Bass: Marc Dion
• Keyboard: James D. Watson

Designers And Other Artists

• Set Designer: Todd F. Edwards
• Lighting Designer: Jason Cowperthwaite
• Costume Designer: Cat Martin
• Properties Designer: Theoni Panagopoulos
• Stage Manager: Maggie Clifton
• Assistant Stage Manager: Quentin Nash Sagers
• Lighting Technician: Denise Shrader
• Chief Scenic Artist: Jodi Lieburn
• Scenic Artist: Alex Gutierrez
• Gallery Artist: Melissa Tenney

Laura: And we saw Natural Theatricals‘ production of Jocasta performed at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia.

Mike: Jocasta was written by Phillip Freund. It is the story of a rich woman in the Caribbean islands who has a young lover who turns out to be her son. The son has just murdered his father. Of course nobody knows each other. It’s a soap opera. This is the third show in the Natural Theatrical’s season, all focusing on the story of Oedipus.

Laura: Of the three shows that Natural Theatricals has done this season, this last one, Jocasta, made the most sense. It brought up some interesting topics of discussion on the way home about race and place in society, and when different cultures collide. Some of the good and bad things that can happen because of it.

Mike: This was another deep thinking show. It did raise a lot of issues. But it was not really designed to be an enjoyable show. But it’s not a show to make you really be disturbed either. It didn’t quite know what to become. The show was three hours long which was a touch longer than it probably needed to be. There were two intermissions which were opportunities for breaks in there. The acting was uneven. Some of the people were really good and some were just adequate. There were also several characters at the beginning of the show that were on and off and that was it. They were only on stage for ten to fifteen minutes for the whole three hours.

Laura: The main character, Catherine, was played by Paula Alprin. She had a lot of powerful emotion that she conveyed to the audience when she discovered that her lover was also her son. She has given consistently strong performances throughout this season.

Mike: I thought her accent was a little hard to follow. There were several spots where I didn’t know what she was saying, as well as some of the other characters at times.

Laura: I kind of figured out what was going on by the context. There were some words, too, that I lost.

Mike: Catherine’s son, Yebe, was played by Cezar Remon. Unfortunately, I was not real impressed with that performance. For example, there was a big point made in the show that he had a limp because he had a childhood injury. Well, he lost that limp a lot or it just wasn’t pronounced enough to see it. It just kind of struck me as too simple a child. Partially because the character was only 19 years old. I felt like he could have had a little more emotion or a lot more emotion to the different things that were happening in the closing act.

Laura: And then the housekeeper, Cyrilla, played by Lolita-Marie did a really good job. She had a lot of emotion. She was very protective of Catherine and the other members of the household. She had a lot of emotion. She had a good scene when she was trying to reveal the story of the child that was supposedly born dead and then keep the secret that Catherine’s father wanted her to keep throughout all those years. I really liked her performance.

Mike: And then Catherine’s friend was Paul Pitou played by John Brennen. I like the character to a point, but he also really annoyed me. He was very much part of the status quo in the community. He could have affairs with black women, but a white woman could not have an affair with a black man. That just isn’t done. He wanted a reationship with Catherine and when she asked him for a favor he refused because it would look bad. He was very much into the gossip of the area of the neighborhood. The Paul character was a little stuffy. He did get a little more expressive near the end of the show, but upon finding the body of Catherine, he just kind of took it in stride. “Oh my gosh, she’s dead!”

Laura: The set of Jocosta was a simple set. It had enough objects so that you knew where it took place. I thought the lighting was also good.

Mike: In the first act there were four scenes. The first three scenes were different places. Those changes were a little rough. They had rotating platforms and some basic furniture that got moved around. It was a little distracting. It kind of hurt the flow a little bit. I wish they could have had different sections on the large stage area already set for those three scenes and then they could have simply removed the unneeded two scenes at the first intermission.

Laura: Jocasta is playing through November the 18th Wednesdays through Sundays at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria Virginia.

Mike: Once you’ve seen the show, please feel free to leave a comment about it here at ShowBizRadio.net.

Laura: And now, on with the show.

Photo Gallery

Vauclain and Yebe	Yebe and Gabou
Catherine and Cyrillia	Catherine and Pitou
Pitou and Catherine	Yebe and Cyrillia

Photos provided by Natural Theatricals.

Laura: Last night we saw the opening night performance of Natural Theatricals’ production of Phoenician Women, at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia.

Mike: Phoenician Women was written by Euripides, with this translation by Carl Mueller, directed by Bob Bartlett. This is the story of the sons of Oedipus. One has become the king of Thebes and the other, who is supposed to have his turn as king, is not getting his chance. He has gone out and has gotten an army. And he is marching on Thebes to get his kingship for the year. Of course the first brother is not going to have any of that, he wants to stay king. So Jocosta, their mother, tries to broker a peace between them. There is a short peace treaty. Unfortunately the peace that Jocosta tries to broker between the two brothers just can’t work because each brother refuses to budge from their views. At the end of the show you do have a classic greek tragedy with nearly everybody dying or being exiled ro not in better shape than they were when they started.

Laura: I wasn’t sure what to expect going into the performance last night. I was surprised. It was a really well done show, very character driven. It was easier to understand than I thought it would be. The plot was easy to follow. It was a very good show.

Mike: The first act, I thought was a little slow. They were giving a lot of background and a lot of talking. There isn’t a lot of action in this show. They talk about a lot of action, but everything is, “Well, there was a battle over here.” Then they talk about the battle. You’re not going to see any fighting. Even the last act’s battle scene between the brothers is told to us from someone who saw the battle telling it to Jocosta. That would have been fascinating if we could have been able to see the actual battle. But that wasn’t done. It was a little slow moving. The second act was definitely better than the first. Partially because you know what’s going on now. Unfortunately the second act did tend to go a little longer. The full set of scenes at the very end with Oedipus. That seemed to drag on a little bit. His sorrow and his decision with Antigone and what they were going to do. It felt like it went a little too long.

Laura: The role of Jocasta, who was Oedipus’s wife and mother was played by Cherie Weinert. She did a really good job. She had a really good stage presence, with a lot of emotion. You could see the emotion in her face over trying to help her two sons come to an agreement and not fight each other. A lot of the anguish in her face when things did not turn out he way she had hoped they would. I really liked her performance.

Mike: One performance I really liked was Kreon who was the brother of Jocasta. Kreon was played by John Tweel. He had a very impressive scene where he was told by the seer that his son, Menoikeus, would have to be sacrificed for the good of Thebes. That was a very impressive scene. He got very distraught over the news that he would have to sacrifice his son. He arranged to have Menoikeus sent elsewhere. Menoikeus said, “Ok.” Then, like a typical teenager disobeyed and said, “No, I’m going to sacrifice myself.” Later Kreon had a good scene when he carried in the body of Menoikeus.

Laura: The two sons, and brothers, of Oedipus were Polyneikes and Etokles. They were played by Trei Ramsey and Jason Nious. They did a really good job. It was an interesting contrast between the brothers. One of them had long hair. The other brother had no hair. I could see in the two of them the one brother wanting to make peace, to have his time as ruler over Thebes. The other brother wanting nothing to do with it since he had tasted what it was like to be king. He wasn’t willing to give it up. The scene between the two of them talking about, “Yeah, you’re my brother, but it ain’t gonna happen” I thought was a really well done and a very powerful scene.

Mike: The background sound in the show was very subtle and really quite well done. The sound was designed by Todd Edwards. It was using some sound effects and music based off of recordings by NASA of deep space. It was really nicely done and it definitely complimented the show, didn’t detract from it.

Laura: The set was simple. There were six blocks representing the walls of Thebes. They were nicely done. Other than the blocks, that was really it because again it was character driven. They talked about things and implied things, but didn’t show different sets.

Mike: We were expecting the costumes to be some variant of togas and that was a surprise. For the most part they used present day dress. Oedipus at the end was wearing a toga of some sort, but it worked for all the characters. The seer even used a modern day rubber tipped cane. But then when Oedipus came, he was wearing a toga. He also had a great makeup job to look blind. He had a tree branch as his cane. That was a very effective picture of him.

Laura: Phoenician Women is playing for the next three weeks, Thursday through Monday at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia.

Mike: Once you’ve seen the show, feel free to leave your thoughts about it here at ShowBizRadio.net. We’d also like to invite you to join our mailing list. That way you can stay informed about shows that are happening in the DC Metro area. Simply go to ShowBizRadio.net/subscribe/.

Laura: And now, on with the show.

Laura: Yesterday we saw the world premiere performance of Alice in Underwear performed by Natural Theatricals at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia.

Mike: Alice in Underwear was written by Paula Alprin. It’s the story of a Manhattan theater critic who is bitter and abusive. She manages to get a coveted exclusive interview. Once she gets there, however, she learns that thing aren’t quite what she expected.

Laura: I thought this was an enjoyable show. It was definitely very character driven. It did give you pause to think and talk about how what you do affects the lives of other people around you.

Mike: I thought this was a good show. Unfortunately though, I thought it was a little too short. It was only one act long, a total of about ninety minutes long, without an intermission. I think it could have been strengthened if there could have been an first act maybe showing the critic and how she does her job. Maybe interacting with her family or interacting with some of her co-workers or interacting with the people at the theaters that she works with. We kind of get thrown into it cold and learn all about her as she shows up for this interview. The representatives of Sue Z. are talking with her the whole time and that works out fine. I think it would have been more complete if we could have learned more about her before her interview.

Laura: The set was good. Because it was a character driven show, there wasn’t a lot of emphasis on the set which I think is fine. The four representatives of Sue Z. were all in black and white. Alison came in wearing blue.

Mike: Alison’s dress was a nice tourquoise. It was a strong contrast to the set itself which was a lots of black and white colors along with the costumes of the other characters. That was nice visually. There was also a really strong use of lighting.

Laura: The main character was Alison played by Paula Alprin. She gave a really strong performance. She had a lot of emotion on her face when she was talking to the other four representatives of Sue Z. You could tell in every fiber of her being that she was ticked and didn’t want to be there.

Mike: And there were four representatives of Sue Z. at the theater that Alison was meeting at: Chester was played by Colin H. Smith; Maude was played by Laura E. Quenzel; Rupert was played by Joshua Steinberg; Dorsey was played by Jennifer Reitz. They worked really well together. They were very manipulative as a whole. The four representatives of Sue Z. were also very good at getting Alison to dig down deep into herself and to expose her. That of course goes right into the title of Alice in Underwear. There is no real nudity or undressing that takes place other than mentally when Alison has to think about some things that she really doesn’t want to think through.

Paula Alprin (Alison), Jennifer Reitz (Dorsey), Joshua Steinberg (Rupert), Laura E. Quenzel (Maude), Colin H. Smith (Chester)

Laura: Paula Alprin was the author of Alice in Underwear as well as the main character. One scene towards the end of the play she had a long monologue that she did really well.

Mike: Alice in Underwear is playing through July 30th at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia. It’s playing on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at eight PM. And Saturdays and Sundays at 2 PM.

Laura: This play has a lot of deep meanings in it so once you’ve seen this show feel free to leave a comment on our website at ShowBizRadio.net.

Mike: And now, on with the show.