Two musicals received five awards, Camelot by 2nd Star Productions and Ragtime by Kensington Arts Theatre. Two plays received four awards, The Pillowman by Silver Spring Stage and Red by the Elden Street Players. Kensington Arts Theatre received the most awards, a total of seven for their productions of Ragtime and Next to Normal. Colonial Players was the only theater company to receive awards for three separate productions, 1776, Shipwrecked and Trying.

• 2nd Star Productions
• Aldersgate Church Community Theatre
• The Alliance Theatre
• The Arlington Players
• Capital City Players of DC
• Bowie Community Theatre
• Castaways Repertory Theatre
• Taking Flight Theatre Company
• Chevy Chase Players
• Colonial Players of Annapolis
• Damascus Theatre Company
• Dominion Stage
• Elden Street Players
• Fauquier Community Theatre
• Greenbelt Arts Center
• Hard Bargain Players
• Kensington Arts Theatre
• Laurel Mill Playhouse
• Little Theatre of Alexandria
• McLean Community Players
• Montgomery Playhouse
• Port City Playhouse
• Port Tobacco Players
• Prince George’s Little Theatre
• Prince William Little Theatre
• Providence Players of Fairfax
• Reston Community Players
• Rockville Little Theatre
• Rockville Musical Theatre
• St. Mark’s Players
• Silver Spring Stage
• Tantallon Community Players
• Vienna Theatre Company

Winners for outstanding technical achievements.

Outstanding Set Design in a Musical (TIE)

• Jared Davis, Avenue Q, Dominion Stage
• Jane B. Wingard, Camelot, 2nd Star Productions

Outstanding Set Design in a Play

• John Downing and Bill Glikbarg, Twentieth Century, Little Theatre of Alexandria

Outstanding Set Construction in a Musical

• Hector Lorenzini, Avenue Q, Dominion Stage

Outstanding Set Construction in a Play

• Richard Gilpin and Zachary Ball, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Port Tobacco Players

Outstanding Set Painting in a Musical

• Jane B. Wingard, Camelot, 2nd Star Productions

Outstanding Set Painting in a Play

• Mary Speed and Brian Garrison, Red, Elden Street Players

Outstanding Set Decoration and Set Dressing in a Musical

• Jane B. Wingard and Gail Bagaria, Camelot, 2nd Star Productions

Outstanding Set Decoration and Set Dressing in a Play

• Paul Hennesy and Mike Mattheisen, Is He Dead?, Providence Players of Fairfax

Outstanding Properties in a Musical

• Joanne D. Wilson, Camelot, 2nd Star Productions

Outstanding Properties in a Play

• Susan d. Garvey, Red, Elden Street Players

Outstanding Lighting Design in a Musical

• Tommy Scott, Fiddler on the Roof, Port Tobacco Players

Outstanding Lighting Design in a Play

• Ken and Patti Crowley, 33 Variations, Little Theatre of Alexandria

Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical

• Kevin DeMine, Avenue Q, Dominion Stage

Outstanding Sound Design in a Play

• Sean Doyle, Shiloh Rules, Port City Playhouse

Outstanding Costume Design in a Musical

• Linda Swann, Camelot, 2nd Star Productions

Outstanding Costume Design in a Play

• Mary Wakefield, The Tempest, Rockville Little Theatre

Outstanding Makeup Design in a Musical

• Shemika Berry, The Wiz, Tantallon Community Players

Outstanding Makeup Design in a Play

• Sally Cusenza, The Pillowman, Silver Spring Stage

Outstanding Hair Design in a Musical

• Beverly Hill van Joolen, 1776, Colonial Players of Annapolis

Outstanding Hair Design in a Play

• Rachel Royall, Life with Father, Aldersgate Churtch Community Theatre

Outstanding Special Effects

• Joshua McKerrow, Kat McKerrow, Maya Wilcox, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Laurel Mill Playhouse

Winners for outstanding performances by an actor or actress.

Outstanding cameo in a musical

• Lydia Kivrak as ‘Grandma Tzeitel’, Fiddler on the Roof, Port Tobacco Players

Outstanding cameo in a play

• Jeffrey Gangwisch as ‘James’, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Laurel Mill Playhouse

Outstanding featured actress in a musical

• Eben K. Logan as ‘Sarah’, Ragtime, Kensington Arts Theatre

Outstanding featured actor in a musical

• Ryan Burke as ‘Dan’, Next to Normal, Kensington Arts Theatre

Outstanding featured actress in a play

• Christina Enoch Kemmerer as ‘Player #1’, Shipwrecked, Colonial Players of Annapolis

Outstanding featured actor in a play (TIE)

• Chris Daileader as ‘Michal’, The Pillowman, Silver Spring Stage
• Robert Tucker as ‘Player #2’, Shipwrecked, Colonial Players of Annapolis

Outstanding lead actress in a musical

• Emily Zickler as ‘Diana’, Next to Normal, Kensington Arts Theatre

Outstanding lead actor in a musical

• Sayne-Kharyi Lewis as ‘Colehouse Walker’, Ragtime, Kensington Arts Theatre

Outstanding lead actress in a play (TIE)

• Karen Grim as ‘Sarah Schorr’, Trying, Colonial Players of Annapolis
• Mary-Anne Sullivan as ‘Dr. Katherine Brandt’, 33 Variations, Reston Community Players

Outstanding lead actor in a play

• Chad W. Fornwalt as ‘Katurian’, The Pillowman, Silver Spring Stage

Winners for outstanding achievement in overall production.

Outstanding Stage Combat Choreography

• William T. Fleming, The Pillowman, Silver Spring Stage

Outstanding Choreography

• Darnell Morris and Eben K. Logan, Ragtime, Kensington Arts Theatre

Outstanding Music Direction

• Mayumi B. Griffie, Ragtime, Kensington Arts Theatre

Outstanding Direction of a Musical

• Evan Hoffmann, Caroline or Change, Elden Street Players

Outstanding Direction of a Play

• Gloria DuGan, Red, Elden Street Players

Outstanding Musical

• Ragtime, Kensington Arts Theatre

Outstanding Play

• Red, Elden Street Players

Wins sorted by theatre and show.

2nd Star Productions

• Camelot
  • Outstanding Costume Design in a Musical, Linda Swann
  • Outstanding Properties in a Musical, Joanne D. Wilson
  • Outstanding Set Decoration in a Musical, Jane B. Wingard and Gail Bagaria
  • Outstanding Set Design in a Musical, Jane B. Wingard
  • Outstanding Set Painting in a Musical, Jane B. Wingard

Aldersgate Church Community Theatre

• Life with Father
  • Outstanding Hair Design in a Play, Rachel Royall

Colonial Players

• 1776
  • Outstanding Hair Design in a Musical, Beverly Hill van Joolen
• Shipwrecked
  • Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play, Robert Tucker as “Player #2”
  • Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play, Christina Enoch Kremmerer as “Player #1”
• Trying
  • Outstanding Lead Actress in a Play, Karen Grim as “Sarah Schorr”

Dominion Stage

• Avenue Q
  • Outstanding Set Construction in a Musical, Hector Lorenzini
  • Outstanding Set Design in a Musical, Jared Davis
  • Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical, Kevin DeMine

Elden Street Players

• Caroline or Change
  • Outstanding Direction of a Musical, Evan Hoffmann
• Red
  • Outstanding Direction of a Play, Gloria DuGan
  • Outstanding Play
  • Outstanding Properties in a Play, Susan d. Garvey
  • Outstanding Set Painting in a Play, Mary Speed

Kensington Arts Theatre

• Next to Normal
  • Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical, Ryan Burke as “Dan”
  • Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical, Emily Zickler as “Diana”
• Ragtime
  • Outstanding Choreography, Darnell Morris & Eben K. Logan
  • Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical, Eben K. Logan as “Sarah”
  • Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical, Sayne-Kharyi Lewis as “Colehouse Walker”
  • Outstanding Music Direction, Mayumi B. Griffie
  • Outstanding Musical

Laurel Mill Playhouse

• The Lieutenant of Inishmore
  • Outstanding Cameo in a Play, Jeffrey Gangwisch as “James”
  • Outstanding Special Effects, Joshua McKerrow et al

Little Theatre Of Alexandria

• 33 Variations
  • Outstanding Light Design in a Play, Ken & Patti Crowley
• Twentieth Century
  • Outstanding Set Design in a Play, John Downing & Bill Glikbarg

Port City Playhouse

• Shiloh Rules
  • Outstanding Sound Design in a Play, Sean Doyle

Port Tobacco Players

• Brighton Beach Memoirs
  • Outstanding Set Construction in a Play, Richard Gilpin & Zachary Ball
• Fiddler on the Roof
  • Outstanding Cameo in a Musical, Lydia Kivrak as “Grandma Tzeitel”
  • Outstanding Light Design in a Musical, Tommy Scott

Providence Players

• Is He Dead?
  • Outstanding Set Decoration in a Play, Paul Hennesy & Mike Mattheisen

Reston Community Players

• 33 Variations
  • Outstanding Lead Actress in a Play, Mary-Anne Sullivan as “Dr. Katherine Brandt”

Rockville Little Theatre

• The Tempest
  • Outstanding Costume Design in a Play, Mary Wakefield

Silver Spring Stage

• The Pillowman
  • Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play, Chris Daileader as “Michal”
  • Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play, Chad W. Fornwalt as “Katurian”
  • Outstanding Makeup Design in a Play, Sally Cusenza
  • Outstanding Stage Combat Choreography, William T. Fleming

Tantallon Community Theatre

• The Wiz
  • Outstanding Makeup Design in a Musical, Shemika Berry

Is He Dead?, a comedy by Mark Twain as adapted by David Ives, takes a comical look at what happens to an artist who is worth more dead than alive. It is true that the sales of Millet’s paintings go through the roof, but so does the comedy and mayhem when his “widow” has to continue the charade in order to keep the sales up and his creditors away. Though a little uneven and dragging in some spots with some technical problems, this look into a 19th century farce was at times, quite comical.

Patrick David gave a strong performance as both Jean Francois-Millet and the Widow Daisy Tillou. David’s timing and energy are always on the mark. His sidekick crew: Craig Geoffrion as Agamemnon ‘Chicago’ Buckner, Thane Tuttle as Hans ‘Dutchy’ Von Bismarck and Christopher Schwartz as Phelim O’Shaughnessy all showed powerful emotions that were quite over the top, but carried the comedic performance so that it was enjoyed by everyone. The three created slapstick timing bringing much laughter from the audience. Larry Craven as dastardly villain Bastien was excellent. He was entirely believable, and could be imagined tying a damsel to a set of train tracks. The cast successfully created an air of overacting and over-reacting to their contrived situations.

The lighting was a bit slow, but as the second weekend approaches and the first weekend jitters (and exhaustion?) melt away, the timing should much improve. Set Designer Raedun de Alba created a beautiful set. In Act 1 she used a rather drab, yet detailed studio apartment to create an air of poverty. All that changed in Act 2, with bright colors and attention to detail making a much cheerier setting. The many doors allowed for the farcical antics to be used to the fullest. Costume designer Robbie Snow made great use of color in her costumes, which were period appropriate.

Though at times confusing with characters hurrying through a scene, the Providence Players of Fairfax made positive use of a detailed set and situations to take a funny look at farce in the mid 19th century.

Director’s Note

So Mark Twain wrote a play. Who knew? It seems that the Providence Players are among the very first (at least, in this region) to discover Is He Dead?, but I guarantee we won’t be the last.

It was never performed in Twain’s own time, which saddened him. Perhaps because it was based on a wild version of the great Barbizon painter, Jean Francis-Millet-almost contemporary of Twain’s and it was too soon to monkey with a genius’ reputation. Or perhaps it wasn’t what was expected of Mark Twain, so it was overlooked as a play, since his ardent followers had come to expect satiric prose. The show was rediscovered by a Twain scholar, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, who found the manuscript in the archives at the University of California at Berkeley in 2003. Soon thereafter, the witty playwright David Ives adapted the play; then it was off to Broadway!

In Mr. Ives’ words, “In a larger sense you might say that Twain provided plot, I provided the subplots, he the set-ups and I the pay-offs.” He went on…”In everything I did as an adapter, I took my job not to replace Twain but to complete his work, to do the original what he himself would have done had he had 97 more years to think about it a few more plays under his belt. He turned out to be a superb collaborator. Except for the cigars, we got along just fine.”

It has been an honor to embellish the words of these two great writers with a magnificent cast of comedians, a set decorated with minute attention to verisimilitude in terms of the times and the paintings of Jean Francois-Millet, and (hopefully) the sounds of your laughter. Please sit back and enjoy! Oh – and tell your friends. Cheers!

Beth Hughes-Brown, Director

Cast

• Agamemnon Buckner “Chicago”: Craig Geoffrion
• Hans Von Bismarck “Dutchy”: Thane Tuttle
• Papa Leroux: John Barclay Burns
• Marie Leroux: Liz Mykietyn
• Cecile Leroux: Danine Welsh
• Jean-Francois Millet: Patrick David
• Widow Daisy Tillou: Patrick David
• Bastien Andre: Larry Craven
• Madame Bathilde: Barbara Gertzog
• Madame Caron: Susan Kaplan
• Phelim O’Shaughnessy: Christopher Schwartz
• M. Thorpe: Donna Naybor
• C. Riviere: Betsy Hansen
• Charlie: Cheryl Sinsabaugh
• The King of France: Robbie Snow
• The Sultan of Turkey: Amanda Snow
• The Emperor of Russia: Nick Snow

Production Team

• Director: Beth Hughes-Brown
• Assistant Director: Elizabeth Stone
• Producer: Smitty Connolly
• Stage Manager: Beth Harrison
• Stage Crew: Charlotte Gertzog, Paul hennesy, Mike Mattheisen, Lauren Sullivan, Janet Shadel
• Technical Director: Chip Gertzog
• Lighting Design: Chip Gertzog
• Sound Design: Jimmy Gertzog
• Technical Crew: Mario Font, Charlotte Gertzog, Michael Sinsabaugh, Bobby Welsh, Elise Welsh
• Set Design: Raedun de Alba
• Set Construction: Chip Gertzog, Mike Mattheisen, David Schwartz
• Set Construction Crew: John Barclay Burns, Sara Bennett, Chris Bonner, John Coscia, Jason Damaso, Raedun de Alba, Patrick David, Melissa Dunlap, Chip Gertzog, Jimmy Gertzog, Beth Harrison, Paul Hennesy, Beth Hughes-Brown, Douglas Huttar, Mike Mattheisen, Will McLeod, Michael Sinsabaugh, Carl Schwartz, David Schwartz, Lauren Sullivan, Danine Welsh, Elise Welsh, Beth Whitehead, David Whitehead
• Set Decoration: Paul Hennesy, Mike Mattheisen
• Original Paintings: Paul Hennesy
• Set Painting Design: Paul Hennesy, Mike Mattheisen
• Set Painting Crew: Sara Bennett, Raedun de Alba, Melissa Dunlap, Chip Gertzog, Paul Hennesy, Beth Hughes-Brown, Mike Mattheisen, Lauren Sullivan, Danine Welsh, Elise Welsh, Beth Whitehead
• Costume Design: Robbie Snow
• Makeup Design: Katie Brown
• Makeup and Hair Assistants: Alma Amaya, Beth Hughes-Brown, Beth Harrison, Amanda Snow, Robbie Snow
• Properties: Andra Whitt
• Prompter: Lauren Sullivan
• House Management: Mike Daze
• Playbill: Ellen Burns
• Playbill Advertising: Jayne Victor, John Coscia, David Whitehead
• Photography: Chop Gertzog
• Publicity: Chip Gertzog

Disclaimer: Providence Players provided two complimentary media tickets to ShowBizRadio for this review.

Donald Margulies has a gift for writing realistic dialogue. His Dinner with Friends feels like one is eavesdropping on two actual couples – Tom and Beth, whose relationship is falling apart, and Gabe and Karen, who take this surprising news hard and personally. Providence Players of Fairfax has produced an enjoyable version of Dinner with Friends, although it doesn’t quite match the naturalism of Margulies’ script. Nonetheless, the design team and actors have brought enough care and energy to the task at hand to ensure that audiences will enjoy the meal.

The strengths of director Tina Thronson’s production are many. Raedun de Alba’s set design is deceptively complicated. Although each setting is simple on its own, there at least six different locations, and de Alba has managed to make each one detailed and realistic. The kitchens and bedrooms especially are perfectly decorated by Susan Kaplan & Sue Winfield, who also provided the many food-related props. Thronson makes excellent use of the environment, moving her actors around the stage in a wholly authentic way. Jimmy Gertzog’s lighting design further transports the audience with careful, individualized choices for each setting.

Thronson has assembled a quartet of appealing actors who bring animation and intensity to their roles and are especially adept at portraying the chemistry and history of each of their relationships. Each of the actors have definite moments where they shine: David P. Whitehead and Melissa Dunlap as Gabe and Karen have a sweetly teasing rapport with one another, finishing each other’s sentences and communicating by touch and glances. Their fixation on analyzing every meal is a true highlight of the evening. Michael Donahue as Tom is excellent in his first scene with his estranged wife, Beth, as he navigates the familiar terrain of Beth’s emotions with care and strategy. Jayne L. Victor, who plays Beth, is perhaps the strongest of the four in constructing a believable, heartbreaking, and yet still funny, character.

Because these four actors must carry the whole show, they and Thronson have the hefty challenge of maintaining pace, creating character arcs, and avoiding the feeling of repetition. Here is where the show runs into a bit of difficulty. While the first act gallops along, the second act gets a bit bogged down, especially in two static scenes on a patio and in a bar, which could have used more imagination in the staging and atmosphere. Additionally, the actors tend to push a bit too hard throughout the evening, going overboard on the comedy and exaggerating their reactions. For example, Whitehead and Dunlap had repeated and large reactions to the supposed perfect state of their union, intimating secrets or a disaster in the making, that proved unfounded and unsupported by the play’s end. Thronson would have better served the play by guiding the actors to subtlety and nuance, which would have enabled them to present more fully formed and less caricatured roles. Conversely, Thronson and costume designer Robbie Snow (whose work in the rest of the play is admirable) also missed an opportunity where broader humor would have actually have been welcome by choosing not to provide radically different looks for the flashback scene.

Margulies’ play requires quiet, real-life exchanges, with the humor coming from the familiar and from the details of the characters. Thronson’s production relies too much on broad, presentational acting and, therefore, lacks the feeling that the audience has quietly removed the fourth wall and is spying on the life within. Rather than an intimate Dinner With Friends, this production, while entertaining and possessing many successful aspects, feels more like a convention banquet, although with better food.

Director’s Note

According to the great Leo Tolstoy “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Good Victorian that he was, Tolstoy required hundreds of pages to tell his stories of love, marriage, and the end of love. Contemporary playwright David Margulies, the author of Dinner with Friends, tells this story in seventy-two pages. I admit-I was first drawn to this play for the seventy two pages. However, at closer reading, I realized that this play is a little gem.

To quote one of its characters: “The thing is, you never know what couples are like when they’re alone; you never do.”

In this insightful piece, Margulies introduces us to two couples. Over the span of the play we observe their bond with each other and with their dearest friends. With an extraordinary “ear,” he writes dialogue that will resonate with any modern audience. In the end, the beauty of this play is that it really makes us think. It reveals some profound truths about the nature of courtship, marriage, alienation, and the sometimes overwhelming challenge of maintaining the most important relationships in one’s life.

I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed directing it.

Tina Thronson, Director

Cast

• Gabe: David Whitehead
• Karen: Melissa Dunlap
• Beth: Jayne L. Victor
• Tom: Michael Donahue

Production Team

• Director: Tina Thronson
• Producer: Chip Gertzog
• Stage Manager: Mike Mattheisen
• Stage Crew: Chip Gertzog, Nick Harrison, Robbie Snow, Andra Whitt, Lauren SullivanTechnical Technical Director: Jimmy Gertoz
• Technical Crew: Sarah Mournighan, Michael Sinsabaugh, Audrey Suarez
• Set Design: Raedun de Alba
• Set Construction: John Coscia
• Set Construction Crew: John Coscia, Tom Coscia, Gerardo de Alba, Raedun de Alba, Michael Donahue, Joe Garguilo, Chip Gertzog, Jimmy Gertzog, Kevin Harnisch, Beth Harrison, Nick Harrison, Susan Kaplan, Mike Mattheisen, Elizabeth Pfeifer, Gordon Pfeifer, Michael Sinsabaugh, Robbie Snow, Tina Thronson, David Whitehead, Sue Winfield
• Set Decoration: Susan Kaplan & Sue Winfield
• Set Painting: Sue Winfield
• Costume Design: Robbie Snow
• Hair and Makeup Design: Beth Harrison
• Properties: Susan Kaplan & Sue Winfield
• House Management: Mike Daze
• Playbill: Ellen Burns
• Playbill Advertising: Jayne Victor, John Coscia, David Whitehead
• Photography: Chip Gertzog
• Publicity: Chip Gertzog

Disclaimer: Providence Players provided two complimentary media tickets to ShowBizRadio for this review.

Fifteen companies received awards this year. The Arlington Players‘ production of A Little Night Music received the most awards of the musicals, with five, including Outstanding Musical. Fauquier Community Theatre received four awards for Into the Woods, as did Kensington Arts Theatre for Sunday in the Park with George. Providence Players received the most awards, with two plays (Side Man and You Can’t Take it With You) each receiving four awards. The Colonial Players production Going to St. Ives received three awards, including Outstanding Play. Fifteen companies received awards this year.

ShowBizRadio followed the ceremony live, the archive is available.

Winners for outstanding technical achievement

• Outstanding Costume Design in a Musical: Eleanor Dicks, Sunday in the Park with George, Kensington Arts Theatre
• Outstanding Costume Design in a Play: Robbie Snow, You Can’t Take It With You, Providence Players of Fairfax
• Outstanding Hair Design in a Musical: Bette Williams, A Little Night Music, The Arlington Players
• Outstanding Hair Design in a Play: Beth Harrison, You Can’t Take It With You, Providence Players of Fairfax
• Outstanding Lighting Design in a Musical: Kevin Boyce, Night of the Living Dead, The Musical, Kensington Arts Theatre
• Outstanding Lighting Design in a Play: Chip Gertzog, Side Man, Providence Players of Fairfax
• Outstanding Makeup Design in a Musical: Tim Kirk, Into the Woods, Fauquier Community Theatre
• Outstanding Makeup Design in a Play: Beth Harrison, You Can’t Take It With You, Providence Players of Fairfax
• Outstanding Properties in a Musical: Richard Perryman & Peter Fakoury, Into the Woods, Fauquier Community Theatre
• Outstanding Properties in a Play: Susan Kaplan, Side Man, Providence Players of Fairfax
• Outstanding Set Construction in a Musical: Ryan Mudd, The Sound of Music, Port Tobacco Players
• Outstanding Set Construction in a Play: John Downing, Heaven Can Wait, Little Theatre of Alexandria
• Outstanding Set Decoration and Set Dressing in a Musical: Tim Kirk, Into the Woods, Fauquier Community Theatre
• Outstanding Set Decoration and Set Dressing in a Play: Lisa Church & Chip Gertzog, You Can’t Take It With You, Providence Players of Fairfax
• Outstanding Set Design in a Musical: John Merritt, Ryan Mudd, Ben Simpson, The Sound of Music, Port Tobacco Players
• Outstanding Set Design in a Play: Raedun Knutsen & Chip Gertzog, Side Man, Providence Players of Fairfax
• Outstanding Set Painting in a Musical: Nancy Daugherty, Into the Woods, Fauquier Community Theatre
• Outstanding Set Painting in a Play: Jane B. Wingard, Bloody Murder, 2nd Star Productions
• Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical: Kevin Garrett, Sunday in the Park with George, Kensington Arts Theatre
• Outstanding Sound Design in a Play: Jimmy Gertzog & Chip Gertzog, Side Man, Providence Players of Fairfax
• Outstanding Special Effects: Jordan Rose & Doe B. Kim, Sunday in the Park with George, Kensington Arts Theatre

Winners for outstanding performance by an actor or actress

• Outstanding cameo in a musical (TIE): Chrissy Barnett Miller as “Jolene Oakes”, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Damascus Theatre Company AND Brenda Parker as “Church Soloist”, The Color Purple, Tantallon Community Players
• Outstanding cameo in a play: Mark Yeager as “Beverly Weston”, August Osage County, Reston Community Players
• Outstanding featured actress in a musical: Annie Coffman as “Anne Egerman”, A Little Night Music, The Arlington Players
• Outstanding featured actor in a musical: Stephen Deininger as “Tateh”, Ragtime, Laurel Mill Playhouse
• Outstanding featured actress in a play: Gayle Nichols-Grimes as “Vernadette Simms”, The Dixie Swim Club, Port City Playhouse
• Outstanding featured actor in a play: John Shackelford as “Max Levene”, Heaven Can Wait, Little Theatre of Alexandria
• Outstanding lead actress in a musical: Jennifer Lyons Pagnard as “Mrs. Lovett”, Sweeney Todd, Little Theatre of Alexandria
• Outstanding lead actor in a musical: Fred Nelson as “Tevye”, Fiddler on the Roof, 2nd Star Productions
• Outstanding lead actress in a play: Lolita-Marie as “May N’Kame”, Going to St. Ives, Colonial Players of Annapolis
• Outstanding lead actor in a play: Matt Baughman as “Charlie Gordon”, Flowers for Algernon, Elden Street Players

Winners for outstanding achievement in overall production

• Outstanding Stage Combat Choreography: Carl Brandt Long, Deathtrap, McLean Community Players
• Outstanding Choreography: Taurean Maray Barber, The Color Purple, Tantallon Community Players
• Outstanding Music Direction: John-Michael d’Haviland, A Little Night Music, The Arlington Players
• Outstanding Direction of a Musical (TIE): Christopher Dykton, A Little Night Music, The Arlington Players AND Craig Petinatti, Sunday in the Park with George, Kensington Arts Theatre
• Outstanding Direction of a Play: Edd Miller, Going to St. Ives, Colonial Players of Annapolis
• Outstanding Musical: A Little Night Music, The Arlington Players
• Outstanding Play: Going to St. Ives, Colonial Players of Annapolis

Winners sorted by theatre and show

2nd Star Productions

• Bloody Murder
  • Outstanding Set Painting in a Play, Jane B. Wingard
• Fiddler on the Roof
  • Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical, Fred Nelson as “Tevye”

Arlington Players

• A Little Night Music
  • Outstanding Direction of a Musical, Christopher Dykton
  • Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical, Annie Coffman as “Anne Egerman”
  • Outstanding Hair Design in a Musical, Bette Williams
  • Outstanding Music Direction, John-Michael d’Haviland
  • Outstanding Musical

Colonial Players

• Going to St. Ives
  • Outstanding Direction of a Play, Edd Miller
  • Outstanding Lead Actress in a Play, Lolita-Marie as “May N’Kame”
  • Outstanding Play

Damascus Theatre Company

• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
  • Outstanding Cameo in a Musical, Chrissy Barnett Miller as “Jolene Oakes”

Elden Street Players

• Flowers for Algernon
  • Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play, Matt Baughman as “Charlie Gordon”

Fauquier Community Theatre

• Into the Woods
  • Outstanding Makeup Design in a Musical, Tim Kirk
  • Outstanding Properties in a Musical, Richard Perryman & Peter Fakoury
  • Outstanding Set Decoration in a Musical, Tim Kirk
  • Outstanding Set Painting in a Musical, Nancy Daugherty

Kensington Arts Theatre

• Night of the Living Dead, The Musical
  • Outstanding Light Design in a Musical, Kevin Boyce
• Sunday in the Park with George
  • Outstanding Costume Design in a Musical, Eleanor Dicks
  • Outstanding Direction of a Musical, Craig Pettinati
  • Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical, Kevin Garrett
  • Outstanding Special Effects, Jordan Rose & Doe B. Kim

Laurel Mill Playhouse

• Ragtime
  • Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical, Stephen Deininger as “Tateh”

Little Theatre Of Alexandria

• Heaven Can Wait
  • Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play, John Shackelford as “Max Levene”
  • Outstanding Set Construction in a Play, John Downing
• Sweeney Todd
  • Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical, Jennifer Lyons Pagnard as “Mrs. Lovett”

McLean Community Players

• Deathtrap
  • Outstanding Stage Combat Choreography, Carl Brandt Long

Port City Playhouse

• The Dixie Swim Club
  • Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play, Gayle Nichols-Grimes as “Vernadette Simms”

Port Tobacco Players

• The Sound of Music
  • Outstanding Set Construction in a Musical, Ryan Mudd
  • Outstanding Set Design in a Musical, John Merritt, Ryan Mudd, Ben Simpson

Providence Players

• Side Man
  • Outstanding Light Design in a Play, Chip Gertzog
  • Outstanding Properties in a Play, Susan Kaplan
  • Outstanding Set Design in a Play, Raedun Knutsen & Chip Gertzog
  • Outstanding Sound Design in a Play, Jimmy Gertzog & Chip Gertzog
• You Can’t Take it With You
  • Outstanding Costume Design in a Play, Robbie Snow
  • Outstanding Hair Design in a Play, Beth Harrison
  • Outstanding Makeup Design in a Play, Beth Harrison
  • Outstanding Set Decoration in a Play, Lisa Church & Chip Gertzog

Reston Community Players

• August Osage County
  • Outstanding Cameo in a Play, Mark Yeager as “Beverly Weston”

Tantallon Community Theatre

• The Color Purple
  • Outstanding Cameo in a Musical, Brenda Parker as “Church Soloist”
  • Outstanding Choreography, Taurean Maray Barber

At a time of year overflowing with seemingly endless performances of holiday warhorses, the really good news about The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, now being presented by the Providence Players at the James Lee Community Center in Falls Church, is that it is not A Christmas Carol, The Nutcracker, or It’s a Wonderful Life. Adapted by Barbara Robinson from her popular 1971 children’s book, the play imagines a humdrum church Christmas pageant being at first threatened, and then deepened, by the participation of six raucous siblings from the wrong side of the tracks.

The cultural and class contexts are important. The world of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is that of 1950s-1960s middle-American mainline Protestantism (a world in which I lived as a child and teenager and regard with considerable nostalgia). It was a comfortable place untroubled by creeping secularism or evangelical entrepreneurship. As the great sociologist of religion Peter Berger wrote, “Mainline Protestantism has always been in a symbiotic relationship with the middle-class culture, which is to a large extent its own historical product…and that continues to be its social context. In the 1950s mainline Protestant churches reflected the middle-class culture and constituted a sort of social establishment within it. Put sociologically, the principal function of these churches was to legitimate the middle-class culture of America, to certify that the latter was indeed ‘OK.'” It was the world, as Berger put it, of the “Protestant smile…of ingenuous niceness [that was] a sacrament of American civility.” The changes in the world since that time leave the story feeling somewhat dated 40+ years after its writing.

We see the events of the play through the eyes of the prototypically nice Bradley family (reminiscent of sitcom families of the Ozzie and Harriet era), particularly from the viewpoint of middle-school aged Beth (Hazel Thurston), who narrates. Thurston delivers her lines with confidence and, at times, flavors her narration with a dash of ironic detachment. As her father, Bobby Welsh radiates warmth and sincerity as he changes from a reluctant attendee at the pageant to someone able to articulate its meaning. As Grace, her thoroughly competent, unflappable mother (albeit one who seems not to have read Betty Friedan), Stephanie Hearn manages to organize the pageant and keep it from disaster. The fourth member of the family, younger brother Charlie (Brendan Dure), comes off as a bright, natural kid who is a good deal more than just perky.

The conflict in Act I comes from the six Herdman kids. They are lower class — on welfare, in fact — and do not conform to the norms of middle-class culture, such as attending mainline Protestant churches or behaving properly in school. They easily intimidate their more respectable peers. They show up for the pageant in the belief that there will be abundant free snacks. Grace’s task is to get them to take the story told in the pageant seriously, thus somewhat assimilating them into the mainline Protestant/middle-class program, while allowing them creative space to inject their own energy and insights into the proceedings. The ever kind and resourceful Grace succeeds.

Of the Herdmans, the most impressive is Jody Lynn Parker as Imogene, the older sister in the group. Parker’s experience shows in the evening’s strongest dramatic moment, in which Imogene wordlessly transforms into her pageant character of Mary. As the feisty Gladys, who conceives the Angel of the Lord as a comic book hero, Kyleigh Friel has energy to burn, though her diction blurs at times.

Meritorious mention should be made of several supporting performances. As Max, who narrates the Act II Christmas pageant, Ethan Phillips displays what, for a 6th grader, is a well-developed radio voice. Julie Bratton, as Mrs. Armstrong, is the most notable of a group of caricatured gossipy church ladies. Jennifer Owens does a good mean girl turn as Alice Wendleken, disgruntled at being displaced by Imogene in the Mary role in the pageant. The angel choir blessedly remains on pitch through several Christmas carols. As for the quintet of baby angels, what can one say except that they are too cute for words?

The structure of the play is a bit odd. Act I is largely organized as a series of blackout sketches, while Act II devolves into, well, a Christmas pageant, thereby losing some dramatic steam. Through it all, director Beth Whitehead keeps her large cast well-organized and the pace quick. The quality of technical side of the production is high. Brian O’Connor’s set consists of several smoothly sliding panels that part to provide extra playing space (for example, for Mrs. Armstrong’s hospital room) or act as a screen for photos of characters or settings (for example, of a classic 50s/60s Protestant church and its basement). Jen Grottle’s lighting design is efficient and cleanly executed.

Spike Lee and others have used the term “magical Negro” to criticize films in which an African-American character of superior wisdom, earthiness, or, in some cases, supernatural powers is used as a device for the spiritual enlightenment or redemption of white characters. (For an interesting discussion of the concept, see blackcommentator.com.) Well-known examples include Sidney Poitier in “The Defiant Ones,” Morgan Freeman in “Bruce Almighty,” Will Smith in “The Legend of Bagger Vance,” Michael Duncan in “The Green Mile,” and Whoopi Goldberg in “Ghost.”

In a light comic way, focused on class, not race, the Herdmans (members of the common herd?) perform a somewhat analogous function in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. They do not exist so much for themselves as to serve the spiritual improvement of the middle-class church members. At the play’s conclusion, the Bradley family is as nice as ever but, thanks to the Herdmans’ intervention, their appreciation of the true meaning of the pageant is enhanced. Even the church biddies admit that there was something special about this year’s pageant that, indeed, made it the best ever. Meanwhile, the Herdmans, having made the pageant more meaningful for everyone else, conveniently disappear, not even staying for the cast party. The middle-class world can go its way, better for, but not having to contend further with, their disruptive influence, let alone needing to address their day-to-day poverty.

With a cast involving so many children, a nearly capacity crowd full of proud family members basked in every moment, applauding following many of the short blackout scenes. Besides being a very enjoyable show for performers and audience, the production had a serious purpose, as half the net proceeds from the production plus the concession revenue are being donated to The Young Hearts, a local cancer charity.

The Cast

• Father (Bob Bradley): Bobby Welsh
• Mother (Grace Bradley): Stephanie Hearne
• Beth Bradley: Hazel Thurston
• Charlie Bradley: Brendan Dure
• Ralph Herdman: Blake Phillips
• Imogene Herdman: Jody Lynn Parker
• Leroy Herdman: Ryan Clark
• Claude Herdman: Diego Pedulla-Smith
• Ollie Herdman: Jay Swallow
• Gladys Herdman: Kyleigh Friel
• Alice Wendleken: Jennifer Owens
• Mrs. Armstrong: Julie Bratton
• Mrs. (Irma) Slocum: Libbey Eads
• Mrs. McCarthy: Nanci Pedulla
• Max: Ethan Phillips
• Elmer Hopkins: Adam Ashley
• Hobie: Elias Cato
• David: Bryce Neuhauser
• Janet/Angel Choir: Elise Welsh
• Beverly/Angel Choir: Lily Bernero
• Doris/Angel Choir: Nicole Owens
• Firefighter: Michael Donahue
• Firefighter: Julie Bratton
• Reverend Hopkins: Michael Ehrlich, Mike McLaughlin, Dave Schwartz (different dates)
• Baby Angels: Erika Friel, Leah Hearne, Katie Jaynes, Matilda Lee, & Juliet Phillips

Production Team

• Director: Beth Whitehead
• Co-Producers: Prince McLaughlin & David Whitehead
• Technical Director: Brian O’Connor
• Technical Crew: Chris Burruss, Jesse Kane, Bron Pedulla-Smith & Andy Shin
• Stage Manager: Mike Donahue
• Assistant Stage Manager: Danine Welsh
• Set Design & Construction: Brian O’Connor
• Set Construction Crew: John Coscia, Patrick David, Laura Dunn, Melissa
• Febbo, Sara Febbo, Andrew Garling, Chip Gertzog, Jesse Kane, Ann
• Mattheisen, Mike Mattheisen, Mike McLaughlin, Prince McLaughlin, David
• Schwartz, Bron Pedulla-Smith, Steve Smith, Dale Wells, Beth Whitehead
• & David Whitehead
• Set Decoration: Brian O’Connor
• Photos & Sound Recordings: Chip Gertzog
• Light Design: Jen Grottle
• Props: Susan Devine, Anne Marie Nasto & Donna Naybor
• Costumes: Susan Kaplan & Lisa Church
• Costume Assistant and Crew: Dane-Marie Pedulla-Smith
• House and Box Office Management: Mike Daze and Beverly Baughman
• Playbill Design: Ellen Burns
• Playbill Advertising: Jayne Victor & David Whitehead
• Publicity: Chip Gertzog

Disclaimer: Providence Players provided two complimentary media tickets to ShowBizRadio for this review.

Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman’s You Can’t Take It With You presents a charmingly relatable struggle between the warmhearted, yet eccentric Sycamore family, and the wealthy, but far less animated Kirbys. At the center of the families’ failed attempts to relate to one another, is the transcendent romance shared by Alice Sycamore and Tony Kirby. It was fun to observe playful criticism of everyday American gripes, such as work, taxes, and an “overzealous” government in the play, but what made the production particularly fun to watch was the collective weight of its characters, each playing a role in first ostracizing the rigid Kirbys, and then winning them over.

A popular run in community theater circuits, You Can’t Take It With You was chosen by the Providence Players of Fairfax (PPF) as the opening production for their 15th season, and marked a return to the company’s first and only production during their 1998 inaugural year. The cast seemed to possess a level of comfort and continuity in their roles, with several leads having been a part of the 1998 performance. With few exceptions, the cast brought great energy to each scene and elicited laughter at the right moments throughout the evening. A vibrant and intricately detailed set further enhanced my impressions of PPF’s strong début.

The First Act began by introducing Penny Sycamore, a middle-aged woman with a multitude of odd hobbies, but little real talent. Mrs. Sycamore’s role was played by Sarah Evans Bennett, who succeeded in conveying Sycamore’s aloofness and pleasure in pinning the stuffy Kirbys in uncomfortable moments throughout the play. Bennett displayed a noticeable comfort level with the role, having played Mrs. Sycamore previously in PPF’s 1998 production.

Next we met Penny’s live-in adult daughter, Essie Carmichael. The first thing I noticed about Carmichael’s character, played by Andra Whitt, was her striking resemblance to actress Kristen Schaal (who plays “Hazel Whassername” in 30 Rock, and “Mel” in Flight of the Conchords). Not only is the appearance of the two uncanny, but Whitt seemed to effectively channel Schaal’s awkward and ditsy humor, perfect for the role of Essie Carmichael, who is as clueless as her mother in her lack of artistic talent which she painfully attempts to manifest in dance.

The romantic relationship between Alice Sycamore and Tony Kirby, played by Katie Brown and Christopher Schwartz, respectively, featured two characters with strong individual performances, but there seemed to be something slightly missing in the chemistry between the two. Perhaps augmented by the fact that Sycamore sought to end their engagement at several points out of fear their families couldn’t coexist, their love just didn’t seem overly tenable.

Mr. Kirby, a Wall Street businessman and father of Alice Sycamore’s suitor in the play, was well cast, with Patrick David taking up the role. David succeeded especially in presenting Mr. Kirby as someone with depth and humor, although dominated by propriety and business sense. This capturing of a rather nuanced personality becomes important when Kirby ultimately relents from his stubbornness and stifled behavior.

Apart from the cast, which included a number of other prominent roles, the stage crew more than held their own in making this production a successful début for PPF’s 15th season.

During an interview earlier this week, Director Chip Gertzog said to look forward to a great set. I was excited to see what they would do to recreate the home of Martin Vanderhof, referred to by all members of the Sycamore family as “Grandpa.” Set Designer John Coscia — who also performed admirably as Martin Vanderhof in the play — not only creatively portrayed a 1930’s home, but in the home’s crowded array of furniture and “knick-knacks,” served to mirror the color and variety of the various members of the Sycamore family who made the house a backdrop for their wide-ranging behavior.

Director’s Note

My gosh, was it really fifteen years ago that this community theater adventure we call The Providence Players started, on an elementary school gym stage, with a production of You Can’t Take it With you? I can still hear the very first time John Coscia pronounced, “Well, sir, you should have been there.” Forty theater productions, and fifteen years later, it is an honor to be directing such a wonderful cast in such a fabulous play to open our 15th Anniversary Season!

As the Vanderhoff/Sycamore household, the PPF home, for me, has been an endless source of inspiration, creativity, acceptance, growth, and, above all else, enduring friendship and love. Where else, but in this home, could a complete theater neophyte learn, experiment,and grow so very much in such a supportive environment? Fifteen yers ago, I found myself on stage, scared to death, playing Ed Carmichael in this play, my twelve yer old son in the audience. Where else, but in this theater home, fifteen years later, could you experience directing that same young man, fresh off his own successful directorial début (Side Man last winter), in the same role? “You know if this keeps up, I want to live to be a hundred and fifty.”

You Can’t Take it With You is truly a theatrical feast. It is hilarious in its farcical humor, touching in its love story and in its enduring themes, poignant in its satire (and surprisingly relevant today, more than 75 years after it first appeared in theaters) and ingenious in its writing and construction. No wonder it garnered the Pulitzer Prize for Kaufman and Hart and no wonder it is a permanent fixture on American stages. This play is a delight to mount and all of us in the Providence Players family hope you will enjoy it as much as we have enjoyed bringing it to you!

Like DePinna and the milk man before him in the play, one day, 15 years ago, I just showed up at a meeting of what was to become Providence Players and just stayed….and as you watch tonight’s performance I trust you will see why…and I hope you will stay too…”Going to be a nice crowd.”

Chip Gertzog, Director

Photo Gallery

Photos by Chip Gertzog

Cast

• Penny Sycamore: Sara Evans Bennett
• Essie Carmichael: Andra Whitt
• Rheba: Elizabeth Pfeifer
• Paul Sycamore: Mike Daze
• Mr. DePinna: Joe Gargiulo
• Ed Carmichael: Jimmy Gertzog
• Donald: Bill Vanderclute
• Martin Vanderhoff (Grandpa) John Coscia
• Alice Sycamore: Katie Brown
• Mr. Henderson: Harry Kantrovich
• Tony Kirby: Christopher Schwartz
• Boris Kolenkhov: Craig Geoffrion
• Gay Wellington: Beth Hughes Brown
• Mrs. Kirby: Susan Kaplan
• Mr. Kirby: Patrick David
• G-Man 1: Mike Donohue
• Duchess Olga Katrina: Tina Hodge Thronson

Production Team

• Director: Chip Gertzog
• Producer: Janet Bartelmay
• Stage Manager: Danine Welsh
• Asst Stage Manager: Mike Donohue
• Stage Crew: Raedun Knutsen, Emma Pfeifer
• Technical Director: Sarah Mournighan
• Lighting Design: Sarah Mournighan, Chip Gertzog
• Sound Design: Chip Gertzog, Barbara Gertzog
• Technical Crew: Cathy Moscowitz
• Set Design: John Coscia
• Set Construction: John Coscia
• Set Construction Crew: Janet Bartelmay, John Coscia, Joe Gargiulo, Andrew Garling, Chip Gertzog, Jimmy Gertzog, David James, Harry Kantrovich, Saul Kaplan, Raedun Knutsen, Mike Mattheisen, Cathy Moskowitz, Elizabeth Pfeifer, Emma Pfeifer, Gordon Pfeifer, Dave Schwartz, Audrey Suarez, Tina Thronson, Bobby Welsh, Danine Welsh, Elise Welsh, Sue Winfield
• Set Decoration: Lisa Church, Chip Gertzog
• Set Painting/Wall Paper: Chip Gertzog, Lisa Church, Craig Geoffrion
• Costume Design: Robbie Snow
• Hair and Makeup Design: Beth Harrison
• Properties: Chip Gertzog
• Special Effects: Chip Gertzog
• House Management: Mike Daze, Mike Mattheisen, Matt Ames, Sue Winfield
• Playbill: Ellen Burns
• Playbill Advertising: Jayne Victor, John Coscia, David Whitehead
• Photographers: Chip Gertzog, Emma Pfeifer
• Publicity: Chip Gertzog

Disclaimer: Providence Players provided two complimentary media tickets to ShowBizRadio for this review.

Providence Players ‘return to their roots’ with season debut

Harkening back to their début performance, the Providence Players of Fairfax (PPF) open their 15th anniversary season with You Can’t Take It With You, a Pulitzer-winning comedy that fosters an appreciation for the eccentricities of family life. The production opened Friday, October 19th, and runs through Saturday November 3rd.

The company first performed You Can’t Take It With You 15 years ago, when the Providence Players were a fledgling group of local elementary school parents, seeking a creative way to raise funds for their elementary school PTA.

Chip Gertzog, director of this year’s show, played Ed Carmichael — the eccentric son-in-law of Paul and Penny Sycamore — in the 1998 production. Gertzog’s son, Jimmy, reprises the role for this year’s run of the comedy.

I had a chance to speak with Gertzog about his experience of 15 years in community theater, coming full circle with a return of You Can’t Take It With You, and the benefit of bringing spaghetti on stage.

SBR: You decided to open your 15th season with a repeat of the production You Can’t Take It With You, which PP first performed in 1998. Why the repeat?

CG: This is the first time we’ve ever remounted a play that we had previously done. We thought it was sort of fitting for our 15th anniversary to go back to the beginning and see what we could do. We have many theater-goers that have been following us from the very beginning and it will be a treat for them to see what we can do with the same play 15 years later.

SBR: You were in that first performance 15 years ago, playing the part of Ed Carmichael, right? And that was without much theater experience up to that point?

CG: That was absolutely my first time ever in live theater. As a kid in high school and college I did some radio broadcasting. I actually got involved in the effort at the beginning to learn some technical theater. I had done light shows for rock bands when I was a kid. Unfortunately at the time we didn’t have enough men to fill the male roles, so I got drafted into acting. I was absolutely scared to death.

SBR: Now your son is reprising the role this year, with you directing?

CG: Yes. My 26-year-old son [Jimmy] is now in that same role. And that’s a pretty cool experience. He’s been involved with the Providence Players since the very beginning. He’s a Board member, he’s directed some of the plays, he’s done a lot of technical direction. And he’s a pretty darn good little actor.

SBR: You mentioned that PP operates with a unique twist on community theater and with a “fairly significant sense of civic engagement?” What do you mean by that?

CG: We like to say we’re a big tent. There’s room for first-timers, novices, and experienced theater people alike. The fundamental approach is building community through theater. We’ve been successful, I think, in reaching a certain level of artistic excellence, but it’s really about creating an experience that’s welcoming for a full range of talents.

SBR: How much has the production value changed over the years, beginning with your first performance 15 years ago?

CG: We got better and better with each and every show we did. Once we arrived at our theater home, at James Lee Community Center, the value increased tremendously. There are many fine theater companies in the Washington area, and many do tremendous work with their set design. I don’t think our sets are second to any in the Washington area. In Saturday, Sunday, Monday, which is an Italian farce, one of the more interesting things we did is we cooked spaghetti sauce on stage and when the audience entered the theater to first take their seats they were greeted by the wonderful smell of onions and garlic cooking. We try to give people a holistic sense experience whenever possible.

SBR: What can you tell us about the cast? Any notable newcomers?

CG: We have Harry Kantrovich, he’s playing Mr. Henderson. This is his début performance with the PP. We have several others who are in their second performance.

SBR: Which other shows in the upcoming season do we have to look forward to?

CG: We try whenever possible to do a holiday show. This year we are doing The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. We are co-producing that play with The Young Hearts, which is a group of young people extraordinarily successful in raising money to find cures for blood cancer. In the spring, we have Dinner With Friends, which is a 2000 Pulitzer Prize winning drama. Our final show of the season is one that you haven’t seen often on the community theater circuit. It’s a farce called Is He Dead? It was written by Mark Twain and was his only play. We selected each of our plays with an eye at doing something special and kind of different that you don’t really see that often.

Anthony Shaffer’s Sleuth is one of those plays whose skill and attraction is grounded in its acting. If the casting is not top rate, the show becomes a two and a half hour wordy slog in uncomfortable chairs. Providence Players are presenting a good…not great…but good and solid Sleuth for two more performances.

The set is extraordinary. The entire play takes place in Andrew Wyke’s (Mike Donahue) manor house in rural England. Wyke is confronting his wife’s lover, Milo Tindle (Derek Bradley) and has devised a sneaky plan to let Milo keep his wife in return for colluding in a jewelry robbery in order to commit insurance and tax fraud. England, in 1970, was suffering from the economic malaise of 35 years of a socialist style governmental system absurdly combined with the anachronistic aristocratic schemes of diverting wealth and land into the ruling classes, thus requiring Andrew to contemplate his ruffled collar crime.

Or, maybe not. In the first act it is difficult to determine if Andrew is angry at Milo for stealing his wife….or for being Jewish. Might Andrew be less insulted if his Marguerite ran off with a good old-fashioned Church of Englander? The set up for the situations here twist and turn and there are too many spoilers here to continue on……

Donahue is a manic, scenery-chewing Andrew bouncing and climbing about the house and devising crime games for the principals to play. Bradley plays Milo as off put by Andrew but goes along with the games because he needs money and wants Marguerite. Donahue is too zany and Bradley is not zany enough, but they do all right here. It’s just them and that gorgeous set (Set Designer Patrick David).

Director Beth Hughes-Brown keeps the energy up and the action moving as we try to divine just what is going on in this play. There are good special effects and loud gunshots that wildly fracture any audience complacency. The show closes in two more performances and it is a worthwhile evening out.

Your reviewer’s Very Smart Prince is a member of Providence Players and he appeared in its production of Auntie Mame.

Director’s Note

It’s an honor to be entrusted with directing a play as masterful as Sleuth. It’s also an honor to have actors of the caliber of Mike and Derek ( and the rest) dedicate so very much of their time and energy on this show (because Sleuth can’t even be attempted without an overwhelming commitment on the part of the actors). The set, set painting, props, costumes, makeup, and special effects are huge labors of love, and we’ve been gifted with extraordinary talents in all arenas-both technical and artistic.

Choosing to mount Sleuth is risky because so many audience members are familiar with at least one version of it, and many have an opinion as to how it should look/feel/sound. However, as with other masterful scripts, it is so rich with the joy and love Mr. Shaffer clearly felt for his characters. In fact, Andrew was patterned in many ways after one of his closest friends, one Stephen Sondheim. It is also redolent with turns of phrase that illustrate Mr. Shaffer’s love of the English language-brilliantly tailored to Andrew, the laconic pretentious wordsmith, Milo, the erstwhile young head-over-heels in love travel agent, and Inspector Doppler, the bumbling (or is he) County Constable. It is a juicy, delicious masterpiece, and I have had a wonderful time plumbing its depths with the ingenious cast and crew of Providence Players’ production of Sleuth.

Photo Gallery

Derek Bradley as Milo Tindle and Mike Donahue as Andrew Wyke	Mike Donahue as Andrew Wyke and Frank Gilles as Inspector Doppler
Mike Donahue as Andrew Wyke and Derek Bradley as Milo Tindle	Mike Donahue as Andrew Wyke
Mike Donahue takes the stage as Andrew Wyke	Derek Bradley as Milo Tindle

Photos by Chip Gertzog

Cast

• Andrew Wyke: Mike Donahue
• Milo Tindle: Derek Bradley
• Inspector Doppler: Frank Gilles
• Detective Sergeant Tarrant: Michael McGinty
• Police Constable Higgs: Raymond Janer

Production Crew

• Director: Beth Hughes-Brown
• Producer: Cindy Paska
• Technical Director: Chip Gertzog
• Stage Manager: Beth Harrison
• Set Design: Patrick David
• Lighting Design: Chip Gertzog
• Sound Design: Chip Gertzog, Adonis Godneaux
• Costumes: Beth Whitehead
• Properties: Robbie Snow, Cathy Moscowitz, Michael Daze
• Set Decoration: Chelsea Megli, Jimmy Gertzog
• Hair/Makeup: Katie Brown, George Smith

Disclaimer: Providence Players provided two complimentary media tickets to ShowBizRadio for this review.

The jazzmen of Warren Leight’s 1999 Tony-winning play, Side Man, have come to see themselves as the last, dying remnant of a music to which their lives have been passionately, even obsessively, committed. Gene Glimmer, who has played with the likes of Benny Goodman and Frank Sinatra, is reduced, once rock has replaced jazz as the leading popular music, to playing for a Lawrence Welk-like band and finally to gigs in a nearly empty bar.

Gene is fully alive only when playing his trumpet, and he is terminally clueless and emotionally disconnected from the people around him. John Coscia plays Gene with a shambling physicality and quiet, almost unvarying voice that convey his lifelong disengagement, seemingly his only defense against a world with which he cannot cope. There is little difference in affect, in Coscia’s characterization, between having difficulty in finding a parking space and witnessing the disintegration of his wife, Terry.

Probably only someone with Gene’s well-honed talent for obliviousness could stand being in the same house with Terry for more than a day. As played by Andra Whitt, Terry begins as a foul-mouthed but remarkably naïve young woman who evolves into a screaming harridan with a tenuous grip on sanity even when she is sober, which occurs less and less frequently as she ages. Whitt plays the role with a rasping voice and mysterious accent that emphasize how hard Terry is to bear. Her physicality embodies Terry’s brittleness and deterioration.

Ari Post plays Clifford, the Glimmers’ son, a Tom Wingfield-like figure who narrates the play and comments on its characters, and who ultimately needs to leave family behind to find his own way. From the time he was a child, Clifford has had to be the responsible adult in the house, taking care of his hapless parents. The grown Clifford looks at the world and his parents with wry detachment, being “fine” – as he has always had to be in the chaos around him – but not finding a way to be happy. From the top of the show, in which Clifford haltingly gestures a number of times before be begins telling his story (a fine choice concerning a character whose journey is about finding his own voice), Post displays a nice sense of timing in his character’s lines and reactions.

The supporting trio of Al (David James), Ziggy (Craig Geffrion), and Jonesy (Bobby Welsh), as befits jazz players, have a strong ensemble among themselves and with Gene. It is clear from the interaction of this quartet of friends and colleagues that their decades-long relationship is the only real human contact any of them have, wives and families being peripheral. Only other players know the joy and frustrations they share, and there is genuine safety and support and companionship among them. Christina Thronson, as Patsy, an oft-married waitress in the lounge where the four frequently gather and play, adds a welcome note of warmth and compassion to the proceedings.

The well-designed and executed set is divided into playing areas representing the lounge (including a colorful neon sign) and the Glimmers’ apartment, with moveable set pieces used to represent the musicians’ locker room, a police station, etc. Large gray representations of apartment buildings, in angular perspective, loom over rest of the set, helping to establish the play’s emotional tone. Particularly in the more episodic second act, there are some slow scene transitions as flats and set dressings are moved on and off the stage.

At times, the lighting transitions between scenes in different areas of the stage are incomplete or late, leaving actors (especially Post) in cold spots. There is a nice effect of a trumpeter silhouetted against a framed scrim to close the show.

Given that this is a show about people who play jazz, the sound design is important. Fortunately, the musical selections are well-chosen, though they sometimes sound a bit too good. For example, a key moment in the show comes when the jazzmen listen on a portable tape player to a bootleg cassette, dubbed from an old wire recording, of a famous trumpeter’s last performance. The sound over the theater speakers is substantially more hi-fi than the likely scratchy, thin sound one would hear in these circumstances. I wish the characters in this scene had been given more time to linger over the sound they love, so that the audience could better absorb their moment of bliss.

One of the many delights of listening to WAMU’s “Hot Jazz Saturday Night” is Rob Bamberger’s encyclopedic knowledge of the artists on records from the 1920s-1950s era of jazz and big band performance. He gives due credit, by name, not just to the stars but to the many ensemble players who supported them. At least for three hours every Saturday, the real-life equivalents of Gene, Al, Ziggy, and Jonesy are not forgotten men, and their music is not forgotten music.

Director’s Note

There are far more points to make and people to thank here than I will have time for, so I will just jot down a couple of thoughts to share with you as you join us at the James Lee Center.

As a company and as a cast, we talked long and hard about whether this play was within our reach and about how audiences would receive it. On one hand, it has some fairly raw material: emotional highs and extreme lows, mental illness, drug use. On the other hand, Warren Leight’s play is incredibly beautiful in its cadence and in the relationships that unfold: a poignant example of what simple words on a page can convey to those who perform them and, hopefully, to those who watch them performed. It took me until very recently to realize what makes this play challenging to stage and challenging for the heart. And that is how very real these people feel, coming to us from Clifford’s memories. While I use the word raw, it is not the coarse language, not the familial tensions, not Terry’s mental collapse, and not Jonesy’s addictions that makes this play tough. It is how we can never fully love nor entirely hate the people in them, despite it all. They live, as most of us do, in a middle ground. They love, and they make mistakes. They make themselves laugh and those who watch them too. There are passions; there are also demons. This is what drew me in originally, why we as a group are excited to share this play with you

We decided to highlight as much as possible the story of Jazz, brought to life by the people who live the art form – an often peculiar brand of living as it were. Al and Patsy, Ziggy, Jonesy, the Glimmers, they all found their home in Jazz and lived hard, passionate lives through it. Something special drew these people in and kept them in. That’s what Clifford wants to leave the audience with, wants to leave you with in the end. Jazz as an art form went from popular clubs and ballrooms to the nooks and crannies of America in a matter of decades. I am indebted to many people in this production, but I have the play itself to thank for uncovering a new love of my own in the music.

This was my first go-around directing a full length play, and the experience has been more than rewarding, because not only did I get to work with a talented cast and driven technical crew – I got to work closely with friends and family. We had a chance to bond, thinking through this play. That meant a lot to me. To my cast: the show is yours. Have fun out there.

Photo Gallery

Craig Geoffrion as Ziggy, David James as Al, John Coscia as Gene, Andra Whitt as Terry, and Bobby Welsh as Jonesy	Andra Whitt as Terry, Ari Post as Clifford and Bobby Welsh as Jonesy
John Coscia as Gene Glimmer and Ari Post as his son Clifford	Bobby Welsh as Jonesy, Craig Geoffrion as Ziggy, Tina Thronson as Patsy, Andra Whitt as Terry, John Coscia as Gene, and David James as Al
Tina Thronson as Patsy with Andra Whitt as Terry	Andra Whitt as Terry, John Coscia as Gene, and Craig Geoffrion as Ziggy
David James as Al, Craig Geoffrion as Ziggy, John Coscia as Gene, Bobby Welsh as Jonesy and Ari Post as Clifford	Ari Post as Clifford Glimmer and John Coscia as Gene Glimmer

Photos by Chip Gertzog

The Cast

• Clifford Glimmer: Ari Post
• Terry Glimmer: Andra Whitt
• Patsy: Christina Thronson
• Gene Glimmer: John Coscia
• Al: David James
• Ziggy: Craig Geoffrion
• Jonesy: Bobby Welsh

Production Team

• Director: Jimmy Gertzog
• Assistant Director: Chelsey Megli
• Producer: Jayne L. Victor
• Technical Director: Chip Gertzog
• Lighting Design: Chip Gertzog
• Sound Design: Jimmy Gertzog, Chip Gertzog
• Technical Crew: Catherine Moskowitz, Sara Mournighan
• Stage Manager: Mike Donahue
• Stage Crew: Chelsey Megli, Gareth Mussen,
• Set Design: Raedun Knutsen, Chip Gertzog
• Set Construction: Chip Gertzog, John Coscia, Jimmy Gertzog, Raedun Knutsen
• Set Construction Crew: Derek Bradley, Beth Brown, Katie Brown, Tim Brown, John Coscia, Tom Coscia, Nelly Dacic, Patrick David, Meredith Delaware, Mike Donahue, Joe Gargiulo, Craig Geoffrion, Chip Gertzog, Jimmy Gertzog, Leta Hall, Jason Hamrick, Kevin Harnisch, Beth Harrison, Tania Hossain, Douglas Huttar, David James, Raedun Knutsen, Will McLeod, Chelsey Megli, Catherine Moskowitz, Sarah Mournighan, Brian O’Connor, Date Pernia, Chris Schwartz, Devin Shields, Betsy Spots, Audrey Suarez, Tina Thronson, Jayne L. Victor, Bobby Welsh, Elise Welsh, John White, and Andra Whitt
• Set Decoration: Kathy White
• Costume Design: Christian D. Faulkner
• Hair and Makeup Design: Beth Harrison
• Properties: Susan Kaplan
• House and Box Office Management: Mike Daze
• Playbill Design: Ellen Burns
• Playbill Advertising: Jayne L. Victor, David Whitehead
• Photographer: Chip Gertzog, Devin Shields
• Publicity: Chip Gertzog

Disclaimer: Providence Players provided two complimentary media tickets to ShowBizRadio for this review.

• Auntie Mame, October 2011 Schedule Auditions
• It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, December 2011 Schedule
• Side Man, March – April 2012 Schedule
• Sleuth, May – June 2012 Schedule

Schedule is subject to change due to performance rights conflicts or other issues. Specific dates of performances and auditions are yet to be announced.