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Tuesday, June 30, 2009
'Live 4 Art Festival' Features Some Good Acting
By Barry Gaines
For the Journal
Through the end of August, three theater companies are performing in the “Live 4 Art Festival” at the Auxiliary Dog Theatre. The three entertainments provide variety and some fine acting.
First, members of Ka-HOOTZ have written “Any Night Live,” a sketch comedy show directed by Lou Clark, Becca Holmes and Lauren Myers. The cast performs a nonstop series of satirical skits and sketches. Naturally, some scenes work better than others; I particularly enjoyed an ongoing parody of “Family Feud.” Ka-HOOTZ has promised another episode designed for family audiences.
It is good to see Sol Arts back on the stage with Christopher Shinn's 1998 one-act play “Four,” directed by Blake Magnusson. This spare and disturbing play takes place on the Fourth of July and examines four characters.
June, played with touching tenderness by Teddy Jackson, is a 16-year-old boy who is anxious both to act out and to hide his homosexuality. Only online does he embrace his sexual identity, making a computer date with an older, African-American man, Joe, played with booming confidence by Preacher Riley.
Joe has a daughter, Abigayle (Danielle S. Fleming), who is staying with her emotionally shattered mother, Joe's wife, while he is out of town. Abigayle, bored and fearful of becoming like her mother, spends the evening with Dexter, a sensual Hispanic basketball player (Jesus Mayorga).
Both mixed couples find momentary relief in the fireworks of sex, but they all finally return to their confused double lives. The acting is strong, the dialogue realistic, and Tom Blackburn's background guitar music is effective.
Goodpasture Productions contributes a lively staging of “Art” by Yasmina Reza. “Art” premiered in Paris in 1995, went to London (English translation by Christopher Hampton), and then to Broadway. It received awards in each city. The Aux Dog production of “Art,” under the thoughtful direction of Christy Lopez, is the best of the group.
“Art” features three men who have been best friends for 15 years. Serge is a successful dermatologist who prides himself on being among the avant-garde in art appreciation. Marc, an aeronautical engineer, is equally proud of his iconographic rejection of modernism. Yvan, less successful financially and less opinionated, is the comic buffer between the other two men and smooths their rough edges.
The equilibrium of camaraderie is upset when Serge buys a white-on-white modern painting for $200,000 and Marc energetically derides it. The stage fairly crackles with thought-provoking discussions of art and friendship.
“Art” offers three meaty roles, and Ryan Jason Cook as Marc, Eli Browning as Serge, and Scott Bryan as Yvan all shine. Each has intense individual speeches, and together they talk over and around each other with anger, humor and insight.
“Live 4 Art Festival,” Auxiliary Dog Theatre, 3011 Monte Vista NE, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. through Aug. 30. Call 254-7716 or go to www.auxdog.org for schedules.
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