Best of the best
MICHAEL SMITH World Entertainment Writer, 09/08/2002
"The Impossible Marriage," starring Mary Forester (left) and Dru Martin, was one of the best productions of this year's theater season. Martin was also one of the best supporting actresses. JOHN CLANTON/ Tulsa World
Rich theater season offers a galaxy of shining stars
The 2001-2002 local community theater season offered a little bit of everything, including intense dramas, Christmas musicals, absurdist farces, a one-man show, a one-woman show and shows that were impossible to categorize.
There were classic offerings from William Shakespeare, Noel Coward and Samuel Beckett, but the majority of the more than 40 productions that the Tulsa World viewed and reviewed this year were modern works.
There were many memorable moments from this season, which opened with American Theater Company's production of "Taming of the Shrew" in late August 2001 and closed with Theater Club's "The Laramie Project" in June, both of which were among the year's best plays.
We won't soon forget being served a toast of "ectoplasmic glop" (which tastes a lot like vanilla pudding) at Midwestern Theater Troupe's "Warm, Delicious Play," an audacious play/fable/mystery, set behind the scenes at a flea circus and filled with enough freaks to make Tod Browning proud.
There was the Theater Tulsa set for Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing," with everything bone-colored: the furniture, the bookcases, the books themselves, the stereo, an album jacket, the album inside it, the drinks they served.
The ensemble power of Theater Club's "The Laramie Project"; Michelle Gaines-Cullom's commanding singing voice as the lead in Theater North's "Mahalia"; the wildly successful "24-Hour Play Festival," which asked participants to create and improvise plays on the fly. All were remarkable.
Along with the hits were a few misses -- March, April and May were full of underwhelming productions -- but the season ended on a high note and was followed by one of the strongest Summerstage play festivals ever. Had these productions fallen within the normal 10-month theater season, several performances would have made this "Best of ..." list, along with three of the shows: American Theater Company's "Honky Tonk Angels," Theater Tulsa's "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," and Theater Pops' "Book of Days."
Among the plays that were presented during the 2001-2002 season, the following were the best that we saw in community theater last year. They are listed in alphabetical order; they were are all winners.
Best play
"The Beauty Queen of Leenane"
(Heller Theater, September 2001) A 70-year-old woman and her 40-year-old daughter live a cranky, co-dependent existence in a shabby cottage in present-day Ireland until the daughter meets a man, and then all hell breaks loose in Martin McDonagh's Tony Award-winning play. Scott Heberling directed Missy Childs and Annette Rosenheck to a pair of electric performances in this duel of wills, which was engaging, terrifying and able to find humor in the creepiest of corners.
"Blithe Spirit"
(Theater Tulsa, November 2001) In the hands of director Ken Spence and an outstanding cast with impeccable comedic timing, Noel Coward's classic British drawing room comedy seemed as fresh as when the playwright wrote his tale of manners and mystics 60 years ago.
"Collected Stories"
(Heller Theater, April 2002) So whose life is it anyway? That's what teacher and short story writer Ruth Steiner wonders when her protege and confidant publishes a work loosely based on a long-ago tryst the instructor had with a famed author. Steiner sees it as a theft of her life's story; the former student sees it as an homage. We saw it as great theater, with Cyndi Vetter and Kristin Harding going toe-to-toe in playwright Donald Margulies' work. This show and "Beauty Queen" were remarkable events of live theater in Heller's small space -- crisp bundles of intensity that left audiences uncomfortable, thrilled and questioning their own values.
"Endgame"
(Theater Club, February 2002) What does it all mean? Samuel Beckett's characters grasp at this and some of the other "great questions" in their apocalyptic setting, and theatergoers likely wondered what it all meant while trying to interpret the playwright's ambiguous classic. But this polished production by director Scott Heberling was a small gem, as well as further confirmation of the value of Theater Club, producing a work that no other local company is likely to approach.
"Impossible Marriage"
(OKRep!, November 2001) This farce about a pair of Savannah sisters -- one about to marry a famous writer twice her age, the other enormously pregnant and determined to disrupt the nuptials -- certainly has Beth Henley's distinct, slightly off-kilter Southern voice. Under the direction of J. Scott Chinn, this dancing dialogue and outrageous phrasing made for beautiful music from an exceptional cast.
(Theater Club, June 2002) In this tale of a New York theater troupe traveling to Wyoming to conduct interviews and look for answers in the shadow of gay student Matthew Shepard's murder, director Vern Stefanic used the ensemble effort of the season to weave an amazing tapestry of voices together. The result was a stunning three-hour epic that provided great insight into what's beneath the surface of Anywhere, USA.
"O' I Got Somethin' T'say Alright"
(American Theater Company, February 2002) A flawless performance of storytelling, in the form of songs, poems, black folk tales and other works by the master, Tyrone Wilkerson, who showed his amazing range to those who only knew him as the Ghost of Christmas Present in ATC's annual production of "A Christmas Carol."
"The Real Thing"
(Theater Tulsa, February 2002) A smart, sexy adaptation of Tom Stoppard's brilliantly humorous and painful play about love, infidelity and the modern marriage. Director Vern Stefanic delivers one of the season's most well-rounded productions, a standout of acting, design and costuming.
"The Taming of the Shrew"
(American Theater Company, August 2001) The battle of the sexes was a vicious and comic clash of wills in director Dan McGeehan's delightful adaptation of Shakespeare's comic masterpiece. Fantastic performances, wonderful chemistry and reasonable temperatures made this production on the front lawn of the Philbrook Museum of Art a crowning achievement.
"Twelfth Night"
(TRT "the Rep", June 2002) TRT's Free Shakespeare in the Park is always a fun summer event, and this year's production of the Bard's classic case of mistaken identities and Elizabethan goofiness was the company's best production yet. A triumph of acting and music and a joy for all the men, women, children and dogs in attendance. Here's to hoping the troupe returns for a fifth edition.
Best actress
Rebeca Nesbitt Bones,
"The Taming of the Shrew"
Missy Childs,
"The Beauty Queen of Leenane"
Kristin Harding,
"Collected Stories"
Annette Rosenheck,
"Side Man"
Cyndi Vetter,
"Collected Stories"
It was a wonderful year for local actresses, and this was the toughest category to whittle down to five performances.
Nesbitt Bones returned to the local stage and triumphed as the shrewish Katharina, ranging from true ferocity to vulnerability as a subservient wife. Heller Theater offered the remaining four performances, including the blazingly bitter portrayal of an alcoholic wife of a jazz musician by Rosenheck, who was also among the best last year (Heller's "Beast of Burden").
Childs, who is often seen in supporting roles with several local companies, stepped up and turned in a fiery performance as a lonely woman who gives as good as she gets from her spiteful old hag of a mother.
In the two-woman drama of "Collected Stories," Vetter kvetches and captures the spirit, pride and pain of the wounded teacher, while Harding makes an impressive transformation from giddy ingenue to polished writer, commanding the stage and displaying the gamut of human emotions.
Best actor
Tom Berenson,
"Miracle on 34th Street"
Don Miller,
"Lend Me a Tenor"
Greg Roach,
"The Taming of the Shrew"
David Virili,
"Blithe Spirit"
Tyrone Wilkerson,
"O' I Got Somethin' T'say Alright"
All familiar names here, as five of Tulsa's most gifted actors graced local stages this past season. Berenson, with a delightful twinkle in his eye, convinced everyone that he was Kris Kringle in Theater Tulsa's take on the Valentine Davies story.
The marvelous Miller landed in five different productions, showing amazing range. His physical comedy and exasperation in Theater Tulsa's night-at-the-opera farce wins out. Roach made his Petruchio a carefree joy, a boisterous, quick-witted boor who laughed off adversity with a smirk, mugged for the audience and enjoyed life to the fullest.
Virili was perfect as the sophisticated man of letters who's just this side of a cad as he works to please two wives. Wilkerson, who repeats on this list from last year (ATC's "Driving Miss Daisy"), held audiences spellbound in his one-man show, which proved that this talented man and Tulsa Public Schools instructor could teach life lessons to young and old alike.
Best supporting actress
Gerry Goins,
"Blithe Spirit"
Dru Martin,
"Impossible Marriage"
Barbara Murn,
"Over the River and Through the Woods"
Annette Rosenheck,
"The Laramie Project"
Jan Simpson,
"Blithe Spirit"
Madame Arcati is one of those special roles of live theater, and Simpson clearly relished the part, dramatically diving into trances, scolding the spirit world and chewing up scenery. And yet, Gerry Goins was also excellent and wonderfully expressive in her much smaller but very important role as the maid at the country estate.
From a talented ensemble cast, Martin stood out as Kandall Kingsley, a perfect example of the Old South's tragic sensibilities as her daughters fight and foul up a wedding.
Murn was funny, warm, believably animated and perfectly cast as the Italian grandmother of a young man leaving his roots behind in ATC's family comedy. Rosenheck earns a second mention this year, as she shined brightest among the "Laramie Project" women, especially with her portrayal of the police officer who fears she's been infected by HIV.
Best supporting actor
Greg Boyd,
"Miracle on 34th Street"
Richard Gray,
"Butterfingers Angel ..."
Greg Herrmann,
"The Laramie Project"
Larry Latham,
"The Laramie Project"
Jeff Murrin,
"The Beauty Queen of Leenane"
"The Laramie Project" cast was so solid, like actors on a dramatic mission, but there were standouts. Herrmann was on this list last year (for "Marvin's Room"), and he's back following bravura work in multiple "Laramie" roles, taking on accents and brilliantly portraying the bicyclist who found Matthew Shepard. Latham also tackles several roles with gusto, and he's never better than as the doctor who breaks down on national TV relating information to the public from Shepard's parents.
Boyd presents the most hilariously outrageous performance of the year as the store psychologist devoted to exposing Kris Kringle as a fraud. Gray is magnificently frustrated and lost in Bethlehem as the husband of a woman delivering a child that's not his in TRT's comic Christmas twist, "The Butterfingers Angel, Mary and Joseph, Herod the Nut and the Slaughter of 12 Hit Carols in a Pear Tree."
Murrin also repeats on this list (last year in "Picasso at the Lapin Agile") with a riotous performance as a dim bulb brother who alternates between zoning out in front of a TV and violent outbursts.