Playhouse opens script reading of Rinear's Merry Gentlemen to community

by Jenni Morin

A Christmas Carol is a holiday classic revived each year in theatres across the world to remind audiences to pay less attention to the ever-increasing commercialization of the season and more to the joy of yuletide togetherness.

Local playwright Sheila Rinear has paid homage to the timeless tale with her in-progress work, Merry Gentlemen. Back in June, Rinear had the opportunity to have the script read by some of San Antonio’s finest actors in the Cellar Theater at The Playhouse. Playhouse CEO Asia Ciaravino felt bringing the community into the project would allow audiences to become invested in the creative process.

While the script development process usually takes place behind the scenes, out of the public eye, it’s extremely helpful for the writer to hear the script read aloud, see audience reactions and get immediate feedback before the words are set. “The audience response tells me so much, as well as the actors’ readings,” Rinear explains. In terms of investing in the project, audiences can feel some ownership in offering feedback and see the script grow over several revisions and possibly through to production.

Both the audience and actors were not shy in offering edits to the script after the June reading. Rinear took each into consideration for the next revision, which will be read by the same group of actors, with a couple stand-ins, on Sunday, August 10 at 2 p.m. in the Cellar Theater.

The play begins with Tim limping around, cleaning the apartment and taking care of his recently retired father. As a historian, Ben is constantly occupied with the past and the making of things, so Tim always took care of running the household while Ben was busy at work. Tim often speaks to his deceased mother, Isabelle, who was killed 13 years earlier in a car accident. As his only confidant and friend, Isabelle must find a replacement to look after Tim and Ben when she soon moves on.

Enter Miss Marley, assistant principal at Cratchett High School where Tim is failing all his classes despite having always been a star student. In an attempt to involve Ben more in the troubled teen’s life, Miss Marley takes him to the run down mall where Tim works and where Ben and Isabelle first met and fell in love. Iggy and Fu-Cha, two teens from the high school tease Tim, among other things, while Fred, the mall manager and cousin of Ben’s, tries to run off the “varmints.” After Tim confronts his father about not taking over the fatherly duties even after retiring, Ben finds ways to spend more time with his son and connect with him with help from the whole cast of characters.

Despite some rather adamant suggestions to make the script dark and twisty and spotlight the three specters from Dickens’ version, Rinear’s rendition stays true to her original intention: “It’s not a new adaptation,” she explains. “I wanted it to be a whole new story that would sound familiar.”

There are no rattling chains, but each incarnation of the “ghosts” are present in the script. Audiences will recognize the names alluding to various characters and some not-so-obvious, very clever nuances that add depth. The action, as one might expect, takes place around the holiday season, but the main character’s isolating obsession is far from money. “The story stands on its own, but there are enough elements from the original incorporated where audiences will recognize it,” Rinear says.

One element she’s still struggling with integrating is Scrooge’s signature phrase, “Bah, Humbug!” While staying in South Jersey between readings, Rinear often walked the beach shouting different possibilities to replace the iconic idiom, but to no avail. She jokes about offering a door prize at the upcoming reading for anyone who can come up with a fitting expression.

Some of the biggest revisions that came out of the first reading included beefing up the roles of the main characters. Isabelle received an added sense of urgency. After hearing the reading of Ben, she looked harder at him to give him more range. She wanted both Ben and Tim to be more wounded so they could help each other heal together.

After the second reading on Sunday, there is a staged reading planned for December when audiences will get to see the script with more action and closer to completion. There are no plans for a full-fledged production, yet, but Rinear hopes if audiences receive it well in December, a local theatre might elect to add it to its season for next year.

The reading of Merry Gentlemen takes place on Sunday, August 10 at 2 p.m. in the Cellar Theater and is open to the public, no tickets required.

LORCA: An Intense Look at His Life & Works

by Jenni Morin

There is one more chance to catch Teatro Faralito artist José Rubén De León perform the English version of his one-man show, LORCA, presented by Matari Café Teatro at their Starcrest studio at 8 p.m. on Saturday, May 17.  The Spanish version of the performance will run Saturdays at 8 p.m. June 21 through July 12.

Written and performed by De León, LORCA covers the life and works of one of the most significant writers of the 20th century, Spanish poet and dramatist Federico García Lorca. The Spanish Civil War serves as a political background for the play, which introduces audiences to García Lorca’s prose, poetry, theater, and songs, as well as people who played significant roles at different stages of his life. LORCA is set on a definitive moment in the writer's life, the day of his arrest prior to his assassination on August 19, 1936 by anti-Republican rebels. His books were destroyed and works banned for almost twenty years.

"One of the reasons he became a target is because the Catholic priests disliked his plays," says De León. "They considered them immoral and an attack on traditional values. The priests claimed his work was dangerously subversive."

As one of San Antonio's most talented artists and performers, De León presents this work with a signature intensity worthy of its namesake. "The play ends with Lorca on his knees trying desperately to remember a simple prayer his mother taught him when he was a child," De Leon explains. "But his time is up, Franco's soldiers are coming up the stairs to arrest him. He will be taken to an olive grove and shot three times in the ass because he was a homosexual."

"Lorca's life was as remarkable as his work," says De León. "He was not only a poet and playwright, but also a pianist, artist, actor, and lecturer."

De León's works are a source of beauty and tragedy, celebration and mourning as audiences discover the depths of the characters he portrays.


LORCA plays Saturday, May 17 at 8 p.m. in English and Saturdays at 8 p.m. June 21 through July 12 in Spanish at 11950 Starcrest Dr., Suite 210. Call 410-499-0922 for reservations and more information. There is a suggested donation of $10 for the performance.

Dead Man's Cell Phone Needs Upgrade

by Jenni Morin

It’s not news that the very technology meant to connect the world causes further isolation and an undeniable dependence. Sarah Ruhl’s award-winning play, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, is a study of just how pervasive the issue has become—and it was written seven years ago. Amidst both mundane and surprisingly intimate interactions are glimmers of existentialist philosophy and what seems to be a changing definition of life, death and love. This interesting, slightly dark comedy runs at The Playhouse Cellar Theater through June 1.

Jean is withdrawn, trudging through life without the one piece of technology that can confirm her relationship to the world around her. As a cell phone incessantly rings, breaking her solitude in a café, she suddenly becomes connected—not just to Gordon, the deceased owner of the phone, but to all of his family and acquaintances, and by extension, the world. As she speaks to Gordon’s business associates and meets his mistress, his wife Hermia, his brother Dwight and his mother Mrs. Gottlieb, Jean feels inclined to make them feel loved and connected to Gordon after his passing. Just as conversations are transmitted over the air, Jean pulls stories from thin air about the perfect person she imagines Gordon to be. In the end, it’s more about love than it is about technology, but it’s the connections with people and even places that make this piece intriguing and apropos.

Sarah Fisch captures the awkward character of Jean, albeit a bit flatly and subdued in the beginning. Kathy Couser accurately portrayed the icy, frail matriarch, Mrs. Gottlieb. As the Other Woman, Marisa Varela stole the scene in transition with a seductive smoking session. E.J. Roberts was one of the most consistent actors on stage as he played Dwight, Gordon’s younger, less charismatic brother. Meredith Alvarez played Hermia, Gordon’s wife, with confidence and a bluntness perfectly suited to her. Matthew Byron Cassi played the title character of Gordon flawlessly, spouting insights from beyond the grave with an unrepentant calmness indicative of Ruhl’s overall tone for the play.

Director Andrew Thornton effectively highlighted these insightful monologues and shimmering gems in the script. He also carved out space for those ironic and comedic moments, keeping the audience engaged.

Sarah Martin’s set was minimalist yet intricate at the same time with hidden compartments and a wall of small compartments reminiscent of an old mailroom awaiting messages. But it was Kaitlin Muse’s lighting design that brought it to life unexpectedly and spectacularly. Unfortunately for a play dependent on the sound of a cell phone ringing, the quality and execution of the sound effects were not up to par. However, the music chosen for the scene transitions was superbly fitting for the tone of the play.
Some of the costuming choices seemed outdated in the era of cell phones. A little more thought should have gone into Jean’s costuming where something more flattering would have benefited the actress and better complimented the dialogue. This might have made it easier to overlook the regrettable dismissal of the other characters’ description of Jean’s character, which is quite symbolic in the script.
The production as a whole felt slightly awkward when this type of fantasy-realism requires a certain crispness in execution to overcome its quirkiness and absurdity. Ruhl’s script is an important theatre piece, even if it is a little peculiar and difficult to pull off.

If for no other reason, this production is worth the trip for the philosophical points it raises about love, connections, technology, death and human existence. Dead Man’s Cell Phone is a thought-provoking play meant to spark a discussion. When cell phones are off and the lights go down, anything could happen—even a connection.


Dead Man’s Cell Phone runs at The Playhouse’s Cellar Theater through June 1 with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and on Sundays at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. For more information and to reserve tickets, visit theplayhousesa.org.

Private Lives: Resurgence of Wit

by Jenni Morin

If done well, Noel Coward’s Private Lives is so much more than a 1930s British comedy of stereotypical verbose stiffs. Classic Theatre’s production of Private Lives, showing now through May 25, is a wonderful tribute to Coward’s work, showcasing the depths of the script and what a good company can do with it.

Private Lives runs through May 25.

When Elyot Chase and Amanda Prynne are honeymooning with their new spouses, Sybil and Victor, they least expect to see their exes of five years. After three years of marriage, they couldn’t take the verbal and physical abuse from one another, but as they reunite, Elyot and Amanda can’t help but feel that familiar passion. They run away together, leaving their new spouses behind, only to find fighting to be as inevitable and alluring as their love for one another.

Anna Gangai is truly the star of this production. Not only does she own the character of Amanda Prynne, she brings out the best in her castmates. She is a force with precise comedic timing and contagious unceasing energy, carrying the play with vigor through the final scene. Wade Young truly becomes Elyot Chase when he’s joined onstage by Gangai, which makes sense given Elyot’s unconscious uneasiness with his new wife. Young and Gangai are paired perfectly as they’ve mastered the art of insults and unrelenting passion. Christina Casella takes on the wistful Sybil Chase with grace and soft fluid movements and delightful facial expressions and reactions not to be missed. Like Casella, Guy Schaafs embodies the expected masculine, reserved Victor Prynne. They make another couple a joy to watch bicker and slap each other silly. As Louise the maid, Linda Ford brings comedic relief to tense awkward scenes between the couples.

On the surface, Private Lives is simply a comedy of manners satirizing the lives of wealthy British aristocrats in the early 20th century. But it’s also a tragedy of sorts—where two people so desperately in love bring out the worst in one another, creating a world where they can neither live with or without the other. Part of what makes the script an enduring classic lies in the references to expectations of gender roles, marriage and morality. As the new spouses voice their preferences of what suites a woman or a man, they also dig up marital roles and a rigid morality unbefitting Amanda and Elyot.

Director Tim Hedgepeth does an amazing job bringing out the subtle sadness Coward buried in the script. Amanda and Elyot’s love/hate relationship makes for wild mood swings and few serious moments as the characters bounce from giddiness to hatred, which could be difficult to present if not fully invested in the brazen repartee. Relying entirely on the dialogue for humor can make the characters seem stiff, but Hedgepeth infused the production with movement. Playing with over dramatic gestures to accompany the outrageous quips allowed the characters to rise above any haughtiness that usually bogs down British comedies.

The Classic’s production value seems to be rising as Rick Malone continues to masterfully mix sound and Tim Francis sprinkles subdued colors and textures to set the scene with his lighting. Allan S. Ross designed a spectacle of a set with a grand transition at intermission and exquisite attention to detail and decoration. His ode to art deco with arches, metallics and bold colors brings home the 1930s setting. As usual, Diane Malone’s costumes add to the considerable detailing of the production.

In this day and age of soaring divorce rates, disconnectedness, questionable social etiquette and abbreviated phrases, Coward’s comedy is a celebration of language and a seemingly dying wit associated with intelligent insult. This production shows great respect for setting and detail, subtlety and keenly executed ludicrous banter. Classic Theatre reintroduces Coward’s Private Lives to San Antonio audiences with an impeccably talented cast and much appreciated tenacity.


Private Lives will run at Classic Theatre’s through May 25, 2014 with performances at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. on Sundays. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.theclassictheatre.org.

Death of a Salesman or the American Dream

by Jenni Morin

With the American dream comes a stark opposing reality, which is so well illustrated in the American classic Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. This 1949 play, now in production by the Classic Theatre through February 23, continues to be relevant generation after generation with an abundance of themes that hit close to home, perhaps even more so for this generation than the last.

As Willy Loman returns home from an exhausting sales trip, his family is confronted with his unstable state. A little lost and perhaps unwilling to make of themselves what their parents hoped, Biff and Happy grow concerned about their father while their mother Linda scolds them for not offering to help the man who gave everything so they could be something. Willy drifts between the present and the past, talking to the ghosts of what has been and desperately clinging to intangible promises of a hopeful future. After 35 years as a salesman, he still struggles to pay his bills, but insists success hinges on being well liked. In contemplating his death, he imagines a funeral packed with buyers and salesman as proof of the heroic successful persona he’s created to cope with his failure.

Classic Theatre’s Death of a Salesman boasts a star-studded cast of San Antonio’s finest talent. At the helm is Alan S. Ross as Willy Loman whose performance is near flawless, allowing every twist and turn of his conscience to wrench the audience along. Following suit, Terri Pena Ross as Linda exudes motherly guilt and wifely tenderness as she ferociously defends her husband to her sons. Anthony Ciaravino as Biff sculpts his character’s arc while having a noticeable effect on the audience as they sweat and squirm along with him in a moment of truth and fall pin-drop silent at the crest of the play’s final crescendo. As Happy, Jared Stephens helps move the action along, always offering a jolt of energy to kickstart the next scene.
Uncle Ben, played by David Rinear, felt like an apparition throughout, playing on Willy’s idolatry for him. Byrd Bonner’s performance as Charley was out of sync with the nuanced performances of the rest of the cast. As Charley’s son Bernard, however, Kenneth Lopez remained consistent from flashback to present as the voice of reason and the poster boy for success. The supporting characters and cast held their own, adding to the overall production.

From transitions to overlapping dialogue, Jim Mammarella’s direction was superb. The scene changes were seamlessly choreographed and beautifully underscored by Rick Malone’s impeccable sound design reminiscent of American classic film noir. The soundtrack even spoke to the memory of Willy’s father by featuring the flute. While the lighting design was relatively straightforward, the use of shadow, particularly in the opening scene, was extremely effective. Ronald L. Watson’s set design and Diane Malone’s costume design rounded out this acutely detailed production with touches seemingly as simple as flowered wallpaper in Willy’s bedroom to Linda’s hair bow.

Death of a Salesman in this day and age manifests itself like a commentary on parenting and how it influences a child’s future success. Willy appears to have the perfect life until one solitary moment prompts Willy’s slow unraveling and Biff’s string of failed jobs. Biff ultimately blames his father for blowing him full of hot air so he could never take orders from anyone. His torture is the reality that the phony dreams Willy has for him don’t match up with the person he is and Willy refuses to accept it or himself. With so many stories today about the current generation entering the workforce not being prepared mentally or emotionally for the challenge and impending failure that comes with a job, Biff’s plight is certainly identifiable. Willy, on the other hand, finds empathy for not understanding why his sons didn’t become successful when he did and said all he knew to raise his sons right. Even Linda is baffled by her sons’ detachment and unwillingness to help their father in his time of need. From the education system to social media to entitlement and affluenza, it’s diffucult to place blame, but Willy’s story helps to strip away the modern excuses and rest only on the question of who controls the future.

Miller’s play positions the American dream as largely unfulfilled or unattainable. Willy works his entire life to pay for a house no one lives in and to provide for his sons so they can do better than he could, yet his personal faults and shortcomings seem to hinder the realization of this dream. His seesaw of hopefulness and hopelessness mirrors today’s uncertain future of the American dream and those looking to secure it. This award-winning play challenges our definition of personal success and what, if anything, are we working toward.


Death of a Salesman will run at Classic Theatre’s new venue, the Blackbox Theatre at the Woodlawn, through February 23, 2014 with performances at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. on Sundays. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.theclassictheatre.org.

Venus in Fur: Pelts and Power Play

by Jenni Morin

Ever since Leopold von Sacher-Masoch penned his 1870 novel Venus in Furs, his name has been synonymous with masochism and the fascinating subculture practicing sexual dominance and subjugation. Perhaps for further probing, playwright David Ives deconstructed Sacher-Masoch’s work in his 2010 play Venus in Fur, an undeniably ferocious and tantalizing battle of the sexes, now showing at The Playhouse’s Cellar Theater through February 9.

Ives brilliantly uses the play within a play technique to dissect Sacher-Masoch’s story of Severin von Kusiemski and Wanda von Dunajew. As playwright and director Thomas Novachek prepares to leave after a day of disappointing and mindless auditions for the female lead, Vanda Jordan arrives and convinces him to read with her for her audition, despite exhibiting all the unfavorable and aggravating characteristics of the flighty actresses before her. Throughout the audition, Vanda reveals she has more knowledge of the play and its inspiration than she originally let on while simultaneously making her identity more ambiguous. Roles are reversed and the line between the characters’ reality and that of Thomas’ play begin to blur as they succumb to a sultry power play.

Michael Holley as Thomas and Kacey Griffin as Vanda in The Playhouse's Venus in Fur. Photo by Siggi Ragnar.

Director John O’Neill expertly uses space, tone and subtlety to allow this metatheatrical piece to unfold. The dialogue is treated as an intricate dance with mirrors where the characters reflect the roles they’ve adopted and then reflect each other, all along dropping nearly imperceptible clues and feverish anticipation to the inevitable ending. Both Michael Holley as Thomas and Kacey Griffin as Vanda command the stage in their dual roles. Just as a dominant needs a submissive to be complete, these two complement and provoke each other for a titillating and humorous performance. Holley and Griffin maneuver the play’s twists and turns with unbridled boldness.

The set, designed by Abigail Entsminger, is a fitting canvas for Kaitlin Muse’s slow seductive lighting transitions. The evocative hues rise up Wanda’s neck as if mimicking the character blushing, then reality washes over Thomas and Vanda with a florescent imitation just as they approach a point of no return. Combined with Pat Smith’s seemingly coincidental, yet poignant sound effects and Sophia Bolles’ impeccable costuming, the design elements brought the production full circle with great intuition. The Playhouse’s production of Venus in Fur is a rapturous dramatic comedy full of innuendo, insight and seduction.

Thomas and Vanda improvise a scene between Kusiemski and Venus. Photo by Siggi Ragnar.

Ives uses the characters in the play to preemptively reject the anthropological and sociological commentary about S&M and sexual relations altogether. They even broach the issues themselves as Thomas argues for love and binding passion and Vanda insists his script is sexist and a man’s submission is an inherent trick, taking advantage of woman’s fragility. Ives is not looking to make a statement about feminism, gender roles, or even sex, but he does drill other themes of human nature through repetition. He challenges “professed principles” by urging people to admit their nature or change it and insists people have the capacity for freedom by being more easily extricable. With so many parallels between Thomas’ script and the audition dynamic, it stands to reason Ives draws parallels between his characters and the very nature of actors, then extends those parallels beyond the stage, putting a mirror up to the audience. In the end, Ives leaves a few definitive pieces of the play to drive it home: the women of The Bacchae ripping Pentheus to shreds, the biblical quote “And the Lord hath smitten him and delivered him into a woman’s hands,” and finally, Vanda’s line, “You can’t have Venus in Fur without Venus.”


Venus in Fur will run at The Playhouse’s Cellar Theater through February 9, 2014 with performances at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays; and 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Sundays. This production contains strong language and adult themes. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit theplayhousesa.org.

The Mountaintop: MLK the man

by Jenni Morin

At 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. The day before, Dr. King attended a rally for sanitation workers on strike and delivered his “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” speech, the namesake for Katori Hall’s 2009 play The Mountaintop now playing through February 9 at the Little Carver Civic Center Theatre presented by The Renaissance Guild and The Carver Community Cultural Center.

The Mountaintop is a fictional account of the civil rights leader’s last night on the eve of his assassination. As King (Kevin Majors) awaits a pack of Pall Mall cigarettes to be delivered by fellow activist Ralph Abernathy, he meets Camae (Jessica Mitchell), a maid who brings him coffee and news about his fate. While a storm rages outside his motel room, King checks for wire-tapping and recording devices, making sure each boom of thunder hasn’t left a gunshot wound in his chest. He attempts to cope with his paranoia, but his 60-year-old heart in his 39-year-old body can hardly take the stress. Luckily, Camae is there to remind him, and the audience, of the great man’s humanity and humility with a large dose of saucy, at times seductive, humor. She flirts and cusses and brings out his tendencies uncharacteristic of a preacher.

Kevin Majors takes on the role of King with respect and reverie. He easily transitions from King the preacher/performer with affected speech, to King the man who is smooth talking around women like Camae. Jessica Mitchell brings life to Camae as a steady force. Despite some trouble with the script’s poor grammar vernacular in the beginning, she grew more confident alongside her character. Her excellent comedic timing and priceless expressions kept Majors and the audience on their toes. Majors and Mitchell’s on stage chemistry is undeniable as they feed off of one another’s energy. Even as realism begins its progression to the mystical, the consistency of their acting makes the shift almost imperceptible, keeping the audience engaged throughout the 90-minute piece.

The production features a set true to the actual room 306 where King often stayed at the Lorraine Motel while archived recorded speeches set the tone. The sound design is well devised and executed and accompanied by appropriate lighting. The closing sequence of historical video and photos underscored by a beat poetry like chant of activist events and people serves as a powerful call to action as “the baton passes on.”

The script unearths the eerie foreshadowing that insinuates King knew and was prepared for his assassination, while tackling a nearly crippling fear of its inevitability. Before leaving for Memphis, he gave his wife artificial flowers to last longer while he was away and his speech, which opens the play, detailed how he was not afraid of any man and may not reach the promised land with his followers. Conspiracy aside, Hall’s play reintroduces King as a man, a mortal, with weaknesses and failures.

As we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, The Mountaintop reminds us of the man behind the movement. Although he was only human, he spoke for those without a voice and peacefully affected change. The Mountaintop takes King from his pedestal and puts him among the people, so we may realize we’re not so different after all and we can make a stand and just maybe pass the baton.


The Mountaintop will run at The Little Carver Civic Center Theatre through February 9, 2014 with performances at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 4 p.m. on Sundays. This production contains strong language and the use of herbal cigarettes. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.therenaissanceguild.org.