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Lysistrata On Line Review BroadwayWorld.com

- by Brent Englar

Officially, the latest production by the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company is called Lysistrata, but the show is actually a clever melding of two comedies by the Greek playwright Aristophanes. Only Act II resembles the Lysistrata typically seen in theaters—a wicked satire in which the eponymous heroine ends the Peloponnesian War by organizing a mass boycott of sex. Act I follows the plot of the lesser-known The Assemblywomen, about a group of Athenian women who take over their city’s government to establish a proto-socialist paradise in which all wealth is held in common and all sex is free (provided you first offer your services to someone old and ugly).

In his program notes, director-adapter Ian Gallanar explains that his goal in merging the comedies was “to expand the recognizable elements of plot and character while trimming much of the ritualistic aspects of the plays. It’s hard for rituals to have meaning if they are, in fact, no longer rituals for anyone.” To this end, he has replaced the traditional Greek choruses with a mixed bag of contemporary songs, both borrowed—the company grooves to Eurythmics, Aretha Franklin, and Barry White—and original. (The second act opens with an especially witty tune titled “The Greeks Didn’t Have An Intermission.”)

Combining The Assemblywomen with Lysistrata is an inspired choice—both plays feature charismatic women rallying to save Greece from the stupidity of their farting, fornicating, warmongering husbands. In Gallanar’s adaptation, the disgruntled housewife Lysistrata first leads a coup on Parliament; when the outbreak of war thwarts her plans to remake society, she devises a new stratagem: force peace by depriving men of the one thing they love more than fighting.

Considering the large cast of characters—a total of 14 actors and several puppets (including a towering, dreadlocked Dionysus) play nearly 30 roles—it is perhaps unsurprising that the production is sharpest in its quieter moments, when the performers have more opportunity to relate to each other and develop the humor beyond mere pratfalls and sight gags. With only three men in the cast, Gallanar must fill out the crowds and battle scenes with women in false moustaches; the game actresses hurry onstage and off, but inevitably someone drops her manly swagger or enters without her beard, and the final scenes have a sloppiness to them that I am unaccustomed to seeing in a CSC production. At times actors struggled to remember their lines, leaving me unsure whether certain bits were improvised or simply executed without confidence.

In contrast, the less crowded stretches of gossip and plotting consistently build to hilarity. Michele Massa plays Lysistrata as a natural leader whose no-nonsense brand of idealism is frustrated by weaker mortals on both sides of the gender line. Her banter with her husband (a commendably unselfconscious Scott Alan Small) and his buddies (Gregory Burgess and Frank Mancino, equally willing to make asses of themselves) bounces nimbly between Massa’s paeans to her matriarchal utopia and the men’s earthier fixation on what it will mean to their sex lives. (The ensuing “Shadow Orgy,” which features gyrating men and women and one unsuspecting sheep, provides an emphatic answer.)

Even funnier is the scene in which Lysistrata proposes her revolutionary boycott to her sex-loving countrywomen. Led by the lusty Calonice (Jenny Leopold), who spots something predictably off-color in Lysistrata’s “big” and “weighty” plans, the women vow to do whatever it takes to end the war … and they are horrified to learn this means abstinence. Particularly horrified is the voluptuous Lampito (Bridget Garwood), whose breasts, everyone agrees, are spectacular. Garwood’s characterization—think Marilyn Monroe, only breathier—is comic gold, and it’s a shame that Gallanar does not find more ways to incorporate her into the action.

The other women in the cast—including Elizabeth Darby, Nancy Flores, and Charlotte Moran, along with CSC company members Jennifer Crooks, Rebecca Ellis, and Lorraine Imwold (who also designed the puppets)—give uniformly solid performances, though none create characters as distinctive or memorable as Garwood’s Lampito. Shannon Listol and Santina Maiolatesi join with Garwood to lead the occasional music numbers, which include an opening “prayer” to Dionysus that morphs into a rap. The trio sings and dances skillfully, but the rap is uninspired and not funny enough for parody—it seems instead like an awkward attempt to make these ancient plays more contemporary and “relevant.” The same might be said about the puppets, who represent gods and demigods watching the action but crack jokes like amateur comedians.

These unnecessary bits of padding add perhaps fifteen minutes to the show’s running time and help push it over the two-hour mark—dangerous territory for a farcical comedy. A faster, tighter play would likely have been funnier.

Dan O’Brien’s set and lighting designs make efficient use of the long performance hall in Oliver’s Carriage House, where the CSC stages its winter productions, though a few too many speeches are shouted from high balconies. Costume designer Kristina Lambdin drapes the women in a colorful array of toga-like dresses; the men make do with drabber garments. Fight choreographer James Jager delivers a crisp, climactic battle between the valiant women and their pitiful male counterparts.

Lysistrata is playing at Oliver’s Carriage House, located at 5410 Leaf Treader Way in Columbia, on Thursday and Fridays at 8 P.M. and Saturdays at 2 P.M. and 8 P.M., through March 6. Tickets are $15-$30. For more information, go to www.chesapeakeshakespeare.com or call 866.811-4111. Groups of 10 or more should call 410-313-8874.

CityPaper Enjoys Lysistrata

Pussy Whipped

Women take over in Aristophanes' bawdy play

Michele Massa opens her mouth and closes her legs.

By Lee Gardner | Posted 3/3/2010

Lysistrata

By Aristophanes; Adapted by Ian Gallanar

Through March 6 at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company.

Shakespeare never dropped the f-bomb, and any cunnilingus references he may have made were smuggled in discretely among the iambs, which perhaps helps explain the stony faces on some of the more patrician-looking ticketholders at a recent performance of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company's Lysistrata. But Western culture doesn't get much higher--or lower--than Aristophanes' classic Greek comedy of sex and politics. If CSC's current production isn't a complete success, it does provide some laughs and a welcome reminder of why the play's still worth mounting, seeing, and thinking about several millennia later.

CSC's Lysistrata is, in fact, two Aristophanes plays in one, company artistic director Ian Gallanar having adapted and combined the title work with the less-renowned The Assemblywomen. After a comic prologue featuring history and shtick from enormous god and demigod puppets suspended from the balconies of Columbia's rustic Oliver's Carriage House, the women of Athens filter in one by one, wearing their husbands' clothes (in this case, overcoats and combat boots). Their leader, Lysistrata (Michele Massa), has hatched a plan: If the women dress as men and act like men (this involves fake beards and a lot of spitting and harrumphing and talking about their penises), they can infiltrate the patriarchal city assembly and sneak through a measure giving control of Athens to the women, who are better qualified to run things anyway.

The plan works, and Lysistrata enacts reforms that would terrify today's Right, with money, land, and food held in common and benefiting all equally. The distribution of sex is likewise liberalized, with men able to sleep with any pretty young thing they want--as long as they sleep with an older, plainer woman first. The men, led by Lysistrata's oafish husband Blepyrus (Scott Alan Small), are warming to this new regime when their ongoing war with Sparta calls them away. Act II picks up with Lysistrata's original plot, with another Lysistrata plan: convince the men to end their wars by withholding sex until they do. The women of Greece occupy the Acropolis and bar the men from entering there, or anywhere else. Extreme horniness and unhappiness ensues among both genders.

Audience members take their seats for the show to the sounds of Digital Underground's "The Humpty Dance" booming over the speakers, establishing both its pop-culture friendliness and the crotch-level baseline at which the evening operates. Small spends much of the first act squeezing out sound-effect flatulence, and a shadow-play orgy brings on intermission. Massa spends the first part of Act II brandishing a sizable sausage, and the male characters parade about with priapic balloon-animal phalli. Gallanar, who also directed, strips away many of the classical Greek trappings and forms in favor of air kisses, a classical rap, a Magic 8 Ball, and a rendition of "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves."

But, as the old saying goes, tragedy is easy, comedy is hard. There are laughs to be had here, especially courtesy the Greek women--Lorraine Imwold's Judy Holliday-esque delivery, Rebecca Ellis' timing of an especially effective anal-sex joke, Bridget Garwood's second-act impression of Scarlett Johansson with a lobotomy. Gregory Burgess, playing another of Athens' put-upon, id-ridden males, also has some fun with a recounted argument consisting of nothing but "fuck you"s. Yet overall, the show lacks the snap and polish that might help its jokes zing and its satire truly bite. Staged with minimal lighting on a long stretch of carpeted floor between two banks of seating and on the balconies on each end of the space, the show feels fragmented and loose, high energy but unfocused.

Lysistrata is a fascinating relic, nonetheless. It only took Western civilization the better part of 2,400 years to catch up to Aristophanes' understanding that women's sexual desires can be every bit as powerful (and absurd) as men's. As for an equitable society where all are provided for and an end to war, sexually enforced or otherwise, we're still waiting. And if nothing else, Lysistrata reaffirms the fact that people have always laughed at fart and dick jokes.

Lysistrata Review

Theater Review: A lighter look at 'Lysistrata'

Chesapeake Shakespeare gives its own sitcom polish to Greek farce

By Anthony Sclafani

Posted 2/25/10

(Enlarge) Michelle Massa leads a wives' revolt in "Lysistrata," continuing through March 6 at Oliver's Carriage House in Columbia. Co-starring in the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company adaptation is Scott Alan Small, left. (Photo by Teresa Castracane)

One reason the works of Shakespeare have aged so well is because they present three-dimensional characters whose motives seem borne of human nature. To contrast the Bard's great skill at crafting characters with those found in an ancient Greek farce like "Lysistrata," which opened last Friday at Oliver's Carriage House, is to note the advances in theatrical art over the centuries.

This new adaptation of "Lysistrata" by the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company lifts the basic structure from two separate Greek plays: "The Assemblywomen" and "Lysistrata." The first concerns a group of women who seize their town's political system. The second and more famous of the two looks at how the women persuade their men to stop fighting wars by threatening to withhold sex.

The sum of these plays, unfortunately, comes off as something less than the two parts because director and adapter Ian Gallanar tends to lean too heavily on stereotypes and forced slapstick gags.

The production opens promisingly with three mimed scenes evoking an array of classic Greek works, such as "Oedipus Rex," mostly using physical humor. Once the real action gets under way, however, that prevailing sense of visual wit and pithiness is quickly squandered.

We first meet Lysistrata (Michele Massa) as she instructs a group of women to dress up as men so that they can invade the governing assembly and vote themselves into power. "Does this beard make me look fat?" one of the women asks at one point.

Their intentions are reiterated when they break into an original song composed for the play, "We Are Men." This chanted composition mocks the habits of the male half of the species, which sets the satirical tone for the production.

Next we meet Lysistrata's husband, Blepyrus (Scott Alan Small), who awakes in the night alone. Without Lysistrata, it seems, Blepyrus is so helpless he has trouble figuring out how to go to the bathroom. His restroom issues extend into a 15-minute, sound effects-laden comedy sketch that goes on long past the point of tedium.

Small plays Blepyrus like Ed O'Neill played the doofus Al Bundy on TV's "Married With Children," but without any irony. Massa's Lysistrata, meanwhile, comes off as the type of shrill, humorless talking head you see on Sunday morning political television panels. Because both characters lack dimension, it's hard to invest much in their story.

Some of the supporting players do manage to imbue their roles with humanity. Most notable is Gregory Burgess, who plays Blepyrus' best friend, Chremes. Burgess's line readings have a resigned, realistic tone to them that help highlight some of the text's more serious concerns, so when he plays it funny, the juxtaposition is hilarious.

Similarly, Bridget Garwood got lots of laughs for her portrayal of the ditzy blonde Lampedo, for which she pushes the breathless Marilyn Monroe routine to the nth degree.

As the play unfolds, Lysistrata informs her husband that the roles of men and women will be changing and that he "won't be the provider for this family" any more. This gives the female ensemble a reason to launch into the 1985 Eurythmics-Aretha Franklin empowerment anthem "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves," which seems more silly than stirring, thanks to the overwrought choreography.

The good news for the male characters is that with the new laws they also get to share the women and indulge in orgies. That makes them happy, at least for a short while. The play's orgy scene and much of the dialogue is strictly adult rated, as the playbill warns.

Toward the end of the second act, the women conspire to deny all sexual favors to their men, and the double-entendres abound. At Friday's show, some in the audience seemed taken aback by the rawness of the language and risqué props.

Ultimately, the play sides with the prevailing sitcom bias against men as beastly, sex-crazed oafs incapable of doing even the most basic of tasks and in constant need of "mothering." That obscures "Lysistrata's" original message about men being warmongers. Dumbing-down the characters ultimately weakens the play's political statement, turning it more into an episode of "The Family Guy" or something closer to a Jud Apatow film.

The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company continues its production of "Lysistrata" through March 6 at Oliver's Carriage House, 5410 Leaf Treader Way in Columbia's Town Center. Show times are Thursdays-Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m. Admission is $25 general on Thursdays and Saturdays at 2 p.m., $30 on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Senior citizens are $22, with anyone 25 or younger $15. For more information, call 866-811-4111 or go to www.chesapeakeshakespeare.com.

CNN Covers Maryland Theater

Best of Maryland Theater 2009

Unlike the District of Columbia's tight knit theater community, Maryland's collection of theaters tend to be more scattered. Maybe it's a result of the rivalry between Baltimore and Washington (the one where Baltimore fights to keep up with DC while DC barely knows that Baltimore exists). Also, the rest of Maryland lacks a Helen Hayes Awards, or the Washington League of Theatres to link them together. Maryland doesn't have an organization that binds theaters together. Still, there is a collection of very strong theaters across the state and with the geography, most people can reach any of the major theaters with a not-too-long of a drive.

Here are my picks for the ten best stage productions of 2009 in the State of Maryland.

1. The Importance of Being Earnest- Centerstage

I believe it to be the best production of the season. Certainly the costume design and the scenic design were the best we've seen locally in some time. Centerstage regular Laurence O'Dwyer steals the show with his hilarious performance of Lady Bracknell. When Centerstage gets it right, they get it right. With this snappy production of the Wilde masterpiece, Irene Lewis and Centerstage get it right. I strongly believe that they (and Artistic Director Lewis)are at their strongest when they take on theater "chestnuts" like Importance of Being Earnest, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe, The Matchmaker and Arsenic & Old Lace. They brought new life to all of them. Their Earnest is smarter, funnier and snappier than the usual production you may have seen of Wilde's popular romp.

2. The Mystery of Irma Vep - Everyman Theater

Bruce Nelson seems to be everyone's favorite local actor- and for good reason. At his best, this actor is ridiculously good. On occasion, his performances are a bit too far of a stretch (his recent performance as Hamlet's King Claudius comes to mind). But, when he's in his comfort zone, he's terrific. In Irma Vep, he's funny, full of energy and extremely likable. In larger than life plays like The Mystery of Irma Vep, he shines. He is a man of a thousand faces in this well directed play. This production was a lesson for other theater companies in how to stage a campy, zany affair and do it sharply.

3. The Puppetmaster of Lodz- Performance Workshop Theater

This piece gets produced often in Baltimore by the Performance Workshop Theatre. Although the play might be better suited as a one act (the story gets a bit thin), the performance by Marc Horwitz is terrific. He does an outstanding job of recreating a difficult role- of the not- likable title character. This little theater group left their tiny theater in Federal Hill for the only slightly larger Baltimore Theater Project space. I hope they don't move it to a larger space- I think it is very suited to an intimate performance space. Look for its revival in a few years- and don't miss it.

4. Hysteria - Rep Stage

Rep Stage's strongest outing of the year. This production was a shining star from beginning to end. The area's steadiest theater company can play it a little too safe- not solely with their stagings but also with their choice of material. That's why it's fun to have them select some more risky material. If there was one production to see this year on this list it would have been this one. Not because it was the best, but because it was so unique. Bruce Nelson in another one of the best plays of the season- and largely because of another one of his excellent performances. His Salvador Dali wasn't so much Dali as an interesting invention, but it worked. It was fun to watch the whole way through.

5. Cyrano de Bergerac - Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

This production sort of ran under the radar. By the time I had even heard that it was being produced, it was closing weekend. It was imperfect, but its highlights were remarkable. How can you mount a production of Cyrano with a so-so performance in the leading role and still have the production be so glorious? Yet this production stays in my memory months later. Possibly it was the magnificent outdoor setting, the epic direction of the piece or the incredible visuals of the production. Regardless, it was one of the most exciting productions of the year. Shame about the uneven performances. An outstanding outdoor theatrical experience from Ellicott City's best kept secret.

6. The Cherry Orchard -Everyman Theatre

Baltimore's favorite theater company occasionally ventures into pre-modern theater and mostly it's not their forte. But this production of The Cherry Orchard was surprisingly fresh. Maybe it's because the play feels so modern. Deb Hazlett and Wll Love were particularly strong in this earnest production. Director Vincent Lancisi's played it very straight- and that was refreshing for this play that seems to attract directors who want to "fix" the play. Some of the younger actors prevented the production from soaring, but still - a strong outing from Baltimore's favorites.

7. Sweeney Todd- Toby's Dinner Theater

Cannibalism is not the first subject matter that comes to mind when thinking of dinner theater material, but here it is. Toby Orenstein shows her skill at mounting musicals that please audiences. It's great to see her when she takes on a more challenging piece like Sweeney Todd. And although the production was hardly groundbreaking in nature, Russell Sunday gave one of the strongest performances of the year. Lynne Sigler is awfully good too. I could never figure out why Sweeney has an American accent though.

8. Eurydice- Round House Theatre

An uneven production from Bethesda's Round House theatre yet there are enough interesting things in this production to make it a bright spot in the theater scene. Eurydice was one of the daughters of Apollo and married Orpheus and has been the subject of many works o art over the years. The latest is a post-modern fable of sorts. The strength is Sarah Ruhl's fascinating script and very strong performances by Jenna Sokolowski and Adriano Gatt. Clint Ramos' set is terrific, but the direction of the play seems inconstant and the play wavers from sublime to adolescent. Still, it's great to see daring work like this.

9. The Wild Duck- Single Carrot Theatre

This young company gets a lot of attention- and I'm not always sure why. They're hungry enough and they take risks and that's commendable(!), but they don't often do it successfully. Still I admire their energy and determination. Maybe it's that every other theater company in town is so...old- and the contrast is so apparent. On occasion I think their work shows hints of great things to come. Their production of The Wild Duck was their best. The cast is strong and the direction is capable and the storytelling aspects of the production are first-rate. Plus, how often do you get a chance to see The Wild Duck?

10. Spring Awakening- The Hippodrome

Not produced by a Maryland theater company, but I've included it anyway. It's a wonderful production. The ensemble was particularly strong. The plotline of Spring Awakening focuses on a group of adolescents from the generation fated to become the parents of the Nazis. Their lives are none-too-enjoyable, what with sexual oppression, suicide, teen pregnancy, abortion and parents raping their children. Hardly the subject matter for a conventional musical. Still, the production was enormously moving, the acting top notch and the music was highly original.

Best Theater News

Anne Cantler Fulwiler, saved the Theatre Project from extinction. Things looked awfully grim at the start of the year, but through perspiration, ingenuity and grit, Ms. Fulwiler was able to keep the doors open on this Baltimore arts landmark. We're the better-off for it. They say the recession is over. Let's hope so.

In addition to the theater companies whose shows are represented in the article, Maryland is home to a number of fine theater companies like the famous Olney Theater Center, Frederick's Maryland Ensemble Theater, summer theater Cockpit in Court in Eastern Baltimore County, Annapolis' Bay Theater and Hamden's Baltimore Shakespeare Festival and Mobtown Players as well as the 93 year old Vagabond Players.

Broadway World Covers CSC's Julius Caesar

A Haunting CAESAR at the Patapsco Ruins

- by Brent Englar

Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar contains so many famous speeches—most of them filled with weighty words such as Freedom, Justice, Honor—it is easy to forget how much action the play packs into its tight structure. Easy, that is, unless one has recently come from the Patapsco Female Institute Historic Park in Ellicott City, where the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company is staging the great tragedy around that venue’s “Haunted Ruins.” And I do mean around.

You see, in this production—as in last season’s acclaimed Macbeth—the audience moves with the actors. Waiting “outside” the theatre for the play to start, we are surrounded by costumed people cheering Caesar’s latest military triumph, and suddenly, wonderfully, we are part of the mob—a point reinforced by the hurried entrance of two Roman senators, who accost us for our unruliness as we jostle past. Later scenes unfold before a balcony, beneath a tent, in an open field; Marc Antony delivers his funeral oration for Caesar—whose bloody assassination by Brutus, Cassius, and the rest of the conspirators plays out in a coldly lit courtyard—upon a flight of stone steps framed by huge columns.

The cumulative effect—even accounting for the inevitable, awkward transitions that occur when several hundred people squeeze simultaneously through narrow corridors—is to create one of the most intimate, riveting theatrical experiences I have ever had. Director Frank B. Moorman has trimmed the text to a crisp two hours, yet nothing seems to have been lost; the psychological complexities of Caesar, Antony, Cassius, and especially Brutus—Shakespeare’s first tragic hero who turns inward, and a crucial step toward Hamlet—are coherent and vividly brought to life by the first-rate cast.

Scott Alan Small’s Brutus and Michael P. Sullivan’s Cassius cut the most imposing figures, whether clad in soldier’s garb or in top hats and ties. (Costume designer Karen Eske sets the play in an apparently Victorian universe—the actual effect is less incongruous than it sounds, and perhaps it makes the characters a bit more accessible than if they’d simply worn togas.) These are strong, physical men, whose barely restrained power seems always on the verge of breaking through the checks forged by civility and intellect. “Brutus and Caesar,” tempts Cassius, “what should be in that ‘Caesar’? / Why should that name be sounded more than yours?” Watching Small and Sullivan chafe under their perceived bonds, we cannot help but agree.

Few conspirators in history are more notorious than Brutus and Cassius—Dante places them with Judas Iscariot in the bottommost depth of his Inferno—yet Shakespeare’s play is most compelling as it gradually reveals the friendship that cements (and is cemented by) their conspiracy. Small and Sullivan are equally affecting in this light, particularly when set against the more obvious marriage of convenience that exists between Octavius, Caesar’s great-nephew (and the future emperor), and Antony, Caesar’s favorite. Octavius and Antony win the battle that concludes the play, but Brutus and Cassius win our sympathy … and possibly our admiration.

That said, Antony’s is easily the flashier role—when well delivered, his “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears …” is one of the most exhilarating speeches ever written. And when the time comes for him to mount those stairs and command our attention, Daniel Corey is sensational. One hopes in a few years the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company stages Antony and Cleopatra, so that Corey has an opportunity to complete the great warrior’s own tragic arc.

Kevin Costa’s smirking Casca stands out amongst the conspirators. Rebecca Ellis is poignant in her lone appearance as Brutus’s wife, Portia; in contrast, Bridget Garwood’s voice is somewhat overwhelmed by the outdoor space, limiting her effectiveness as Caesar’s wife, Calpurnia. The same might be said of James Jager’s Octavius. As for Caesar himself, Frank Mancino seems mostly puffed with hot air—though the effect is funny, Mancino never quite locates the mighty heart that still beats in the aging body.

Moorman and set and lighting designer Dan O’Brien make efficient and occasionally ingenious use of the space—the simple strobe effect that O’Brien creates for Caesar’s ghost is particularly chilling. Fight choreographers James Jager and Eric Lund stage a crisp battle of Philippi, though I can’t explain why properties designer Kristina Lambdin equipped some of the soldiers with swords and others with shovels.

Julius Caesar closes November 1^st. Don’t miss the chance to see it.

Julius Caesar is playing at Patapsco Female Institute Historic Park, located at 3691 Sarah’s Lane in Ellicott City, on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 6 PM, through November 1^st. Tickets are $25-$30 for adults, $22 for seniors, and $10 for students 21 and under. For more information, visit www.chesapeakeshakespeare.com or call 866-811-4111. Groups of 10 or more should call 410-313-8874.

Baltimore Sun's Music Critic Covers Julius Caesar

Plucky 'Caesar' troupe carries on in downpour

Chesapeake Shakespeare Company performs amid ruins of Patapsco Female Institute

Jose Guzman, left, and Scott Alan Small perform in Chesapeake Shakespeare Company's production of "Julius Caesar" amid the ruins of Ellicott City's Patapsco Female Institute. (Baltimore Sun / October 26, 2009)

By Tim Smith | tim.smith@baltsun.com

October 27, 2009

You've got to admire the mix of imagination and chutzpah behind the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, which last year tried out the concept of an outdoor production that includes nearly as much action on the part of the audience as the cast.

That first "Movable Shakespeare" venture, "Macbeth," has been followed this season by a "Julius Caesar" that spreads all over the cool ruins of Ellicott City's historic Patapsco Female Institute, where "the deep of night is crept upon [their] talk."

On Friday, the seep of rain crept in, too - poured in, even, as the last scenes were played on a grassy knoll. That gave a new twist to the line, "The storm is up and all is on the hazard." But the actors soldiered on gamely; so did the spectators. (Act 5 was condensed because of the weather.) In retrospect, the "ill beginning of the night" - the first, brief rainfall delayed the start of the play - could be viewed as one more portent in a play partly fueled by portentous signs.

The Ides of October didn't really dampen things too much. Given the intriguing surroundings and the overall spirit of the actors, it was pretty easy to overlook any unevenness of talent and simply go with the unusual flow.

Caesar's murder was carried out in an intimate room of the roofless structure, inches away from some of those watching. Mark Antony asked for the lending of ears while standing on the building's imposing front staircase as angry Roman countrymen mingled with the audience to shout out reactions; everyone then trudged up those steps and moved through spooky corridors as sounds of an uprising against the assassins filled the damp air.

Director Frank B. Moorman reveals a knack for effectively keeping the play in motion. The production gets a 19th-century look from the costumes by Karen Eske, neatly matching the environs - the Patapsco Female Institute opened in 1837.

Exterior scenes can't help but be tricky acoustically. On Friday, some things couldn't be heard clearly by those not standing, sitting or leaning up close. (Concern for audibility presumably accounted for the way almost all the lines were shouted, reducing possibilities for nuance.)

The most persuasive acting came from Scott Alan Small, who caught the intense convictions of Brutus; Michael P. Sullivan, who revealed similar passion as Cassius; and Daniel Corey, whose Mark Antony exuded an affecting blend of fear and courage. Sturdy contributions came from Dave Gamble (Decius Brutus) and Kevin Costa (Casca). Frank Mancino needed more authority and personality for the title role.

If a certain collegiate level of acting flavored the rest of the cast, the overall commitment of the participants carried the day - and the appropriately volatile night.

"Julius Caesar" will be performed at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Sunday at PFI Historic Park, 3691 Sarah's Lane, Ellicott City. Tickets are $10 to $30. Call 410-313-8874 or go to chesapeakeshakespeare.com.

Twelfth Night

Theater Review: 'Twelfth Night' is still tops among comic romps

By Anthony Sclafani

Posted 7/09/09

(Enlarge) Jenny Crooks, left, as Viola in her ruse as a man, gets a hearing by Lisa Hill-Corley in “Twelfth Night” by the Chesapeake Shakespeare Festival.

When William Shakespeare wanted to get serious, tragedies like "Macbeth" and "Hamlet" ensued. But when he was in a silly frame of mind, he could be unbelievably ridiculous, as evidenced by "Twelfth Night," being staged locally by the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company through July 19.

In "Twelfth Night," the Bard touches on all of his favorite comedy standbys. The play has twins, mistaken identity, and a pompous character or two who very much play the fool. There are even ill-fated love affairs — although rendered with a much lighter touch than in, say, "Romeo and Juliet."

The action in "Twelfth Night" kicks off with a woman named Viola (Jenny Crooks) washing ashore in a strange land after being shipwrecked. Viola needs a job and since women's lib won't happen for another few hundred years, she disguises herself as a man.

Sure enough, the ploy works, and Viola is soon working hard for the money of the debonair Duke Orsino (played by Michael Boynton). But the Duke doesn't have Viola doing any real kind of meaningful work; instead, she's dispatched to seek out Orsino's longtime crush, Olivia (Laura Rocklyn), and trying to help Orsino make a love connection.

You can pretty much guess that when Olivia sees Viola gussied up like a man, she gets an instant crush on her -- er, make that "him." Viola, meanwhile, is anguishing over her own secret crush on Orsino.

Director Jenny Leopold sets the action in the early 1960s, which might have you searching for an undercurrent of politics. But while some issues about women in the workplace are emphasized by Leopold and Kristina Lambdin's period costumes, what really seems to be brought out is how romantic relations between the sexes haven't really changed much, whatever the time period.

The play's subplot gets most of the attention, and for good reason. It concerns the classic Shakespearean character Malvolio, who serves as the head of Olivia's household.

This character has thrived through the ages as the prototype of virtually every pompous know-nothing who gets a rise out from audiences out of his complete, comical lack of self-awareness.

Dave Gamble gives the character a particularly compelling haughtiness, especially when he's forced to match wits with another one of Shakespeare's most inspired creations, the ridiculous Sir Toby Belch (played with Bill Murray-like deadpan wit by Jared Mercier).

The romantic complications are pushed further when the honorable Mr. Belch sends his boyish surrogate, Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Brandon Mitchell), to win over the sought-after Olivia.

"Twelfth Night" has become a favorite template for any madcap romp that gets people laughing simply because of the hectic pace of its silliness. Leopold siezes on the idea and has the various characters race on and off designer Heidi L. Castle-Smith's set as if to underscore the ridiculousness of the premise.

The only time the audience gets to catch its collective breath, it seems, is during Dan O'Brien's made-to-order songs, sung here with tongue-in-cheek earnestness by Steve Beall. Romance and song, the play seems to say, bring out both the pain and joy in life.

"Twelfth Night" by the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company continues through July 19 at the Patapsco Female Institute Historic Park, located at 3691 Sarah's Lane in Historic Ellicott City. Performance times are Fridays-Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 5 p.m.

Admission is $25 Fridays, $30 Saturdays-Sundays, with senior citizen tickets running $22-$27, and students under 22 just $15. Children under 18 are free with a paying adult. An extended version will be staged Friday, July 17. For information go to www.chesapeakeshakespeare.com, or call 866-811-4111 or 410-313-8874 for group sales.

Howward County Times Cover CSC

Thinking Outside the Bard

Outdoor theatre

By Anthony Sclafani

Posted 6/03/09

With 'Cyrano,' Shakespeare troupe hopes to win by a nose

Nearly every weekday, Ian Gallanar makes his way up the hills to the ruins of the old Patapsco Female Institute in historic Ellicott City. There, in the expansive outdoor setting, the long-time theater director is taking on his most challenging mission to date.

Along with some 30 actors and assorted technical crew, Gallanar is mounting his biggest production yet with the troupe he co-founded over half a decade ago. The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company revival of "Cyrano de Bergerac" opens Friday, June 5 and will be nothing if not ambitious.

"The thing is huge," laughs Gallanar, who also serves as the troupe's artistic director. "There are over 40 roles in this play. There are about 80 costumes, and they're all period costumes, so it's not like you can put a brown suit on somebody.

"It's five acts, and each act is set in a completely different location," continues this Laurel-based director. "So it's a big, gigantic piece. You can't just go to any theater and sayy, I think I'd like to do 'Cyrano de Bergerac!'"

Over the past few years the company has gone from an upstart troupe to being one of the most critically acclaimed purveyors of Shakepearean drama in the state. It has received several Greater Baltimore Theater Awards, and in 2007 was the only Maryland drama troupe invited to perform in the prestigious Shakespeare in Washington Festival.

For the first time, Gallanar and company have looked away from the troupe's namesake for their signature summer offering (although they have staged a non-Shakespearean title or two in winter months). This time, instead of sticking with the boy who brought them, they've strayed off into untested territory with an oversized antique by French one-hit wonder Edmond Rostand.

Is this the time to take artistic risks?

"You know why we're doing it?" asks Gallanar with a rhetorical flourish worthy of Cyrano himself. "Because we can."

And he's not kidding.

"We talked it over and we looked at our budget. And we looked at our audience and thought, since we're in our seventh season, it's time to introduce something besides Shakespeare."

That meant a stretch in more ways than one. Gallanar had to hire more actors. Washington-area stage veteran Frank B. Moorman, who plays the title role, had to enroll in fight choreography classes to navigate through the play's many swordfights and physical challenges. And marketing director Rebecca Ellis had to come up with a large prosthetic nose realistic enough to turn Moorman into a believably authentic Cyrano.

It's "Cyrano," after all -- and everyone will be coming to see the man with the long nose.

The main man

"Cyrano de Bergerac," as most folks will remember from high school English class, is a romantic tragedy about a famed soldier and poet with an oversized proboscis who unfortunately is carrying a torch for the fairest maiden in France, Roxanne.

Things get complicated when Roxanne falls for Cyrano's fellow soldier, Christian de Neuvillette, who is too prosaic and tongue-tied to master the language of love. So Cyrano volunteers to be Christian's invisible surrogate and speech writer in the campaign to win Roxanne. As expected, he succeeds only too well for all involved.

First performed in 1897, the play has been rediscovered and adopted by virtually every generation since. It is periodically revived on the professional stage, and enjoyed a mainstream retelling in 1987 when comic Steve Martin wrote and starred in a movie update titled "Roxanne."

Gallanar says the play first got his attention in a cartoon version he saw in his youth. "It was a 'Mr. Magoo' cartoon," he confides. "For some strange reason in the mid-1960s, they made a series of 'Mr. Magoo' classics - cartoon renditions of classic plays like 'A Christmas Carol.'

"What appealed to me was the story. You see this basic story a lot -- in sitcoms, in movies -- it's everywhere."

The same mix of comic and tragic elements that has fueled the play's popularity through the years poses a special challenge for any director attempting to revive it.

As he gets set for another evening of running cast interference and untangling the text's mixed messages, Gallanar reflects on the obstacles already met.

"We have a variety of different actors. Some of them are kids, some of them are interns and some of them are professionals."

Notably included among the smattering of children are Gallanar's own daughter, Isadora Gallanar, as well as Addison Helm, the son of co-star (and managing director) Lesley Malin.

"When you're dealing with so many different kinds of actors, you have to talk to everybody differently."

Altogether, the summer production is another key step forward for a troupe that has been stepping up for some time. Even in a harsh economic environment, when people have notably less discretionary income for tickets, the company sold out its October run of "Macbeth" and had its second-highest attendance records for its outdoor productions last summer, despite near-continuous rainfall.

The troupe's last production, "The Country Wife," also sold out, even though it was a little-known Restoration comedy. Word of mouth about the company's quality has clearly gotten around -- and rave reviews from a variety of the region's media can't have hurt at all.

"It's the largest cast we've ever assembled. It's huge," Gallanar emphasizes, then ends with a wry note of understatement. "But it's great fun, like herding cats."

The company will also present "Twelfth Night" beginning June 26 and that production runs weekends to July 19. There will be a marathon double-header production of both plays Saturday, June 27.

DC Theater Scene Reviews Cyrano

Cyrano de Bergerac

June 10, 2009 by Steven McKnight
Filed under Features, Our Reviews

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Usually, the success of Cyrano de Bergerac depends upon the perfomance of the actor playing the French swordsman with the heart of a poet and the prodigious proboscis. Yet in the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s quality outdoor staging of the classic work, it’s the rest of the 40 member cast that supplies the panache which makes the evening entertaining and memorable.

For those unfamiliar with the story, Cyrano (Frank B. Moorman) is a proud soldier with the brains and talents of a true Renaissance man. And one outstanding facial feature. He loves from afar his cousin Roxane (Ty Hallmark), who in turn has fallen for a handsome young man named Christian (Theo Hadjimichael) newly assigned to Cyrano’s company in the Guard. Further complicating this romantic triangle is the fact that De Guiche (Dave Gamble), a powerful nobleman, is determined to force a marriage of convenience on Roxane that will allow him access to her charms. (A romantic quadrilateral?)

Ultimately Cyrano befriends Christian and lends his poetry to the inarticulate suitor while disguising his own feelings for Roxane. Cyrano decides it is better to have at least a partial role in winning her heart since he imagines she could not love a man with such a disfiguring nose. And what a nose it is in this production! Rebecca Ellis has created a prosthetetic device that would do Pinocchio proud.

Cyrano de Bergerac is a large work in size, cast, and lyrical themes. When done well, it offers a host of charms, including comedy, romance, drama, adventure, and tragedy and Chesapeake Shakespeare Company uses its classical background to do it very well.

Moorman handles the virtuoso role of Cyrano with a knowing intelligence and a droll sense of humor. The fact that he is a little seasoned for the role, however, undercuts the romantic credibility. In addition, due both to acting choices and the strain of a tremendous line load, Moorman fails to take full advantage of the opportunities to enjoy the passion of the character.

Fortunately, Moorman is surrounded by a wonderful cast. Ty Hallmark shines as Roxane, sweet and fair, aristocratic yet girlish at the same time. She beams the look of love when near Christian, including the second most famous balcony scene in English literature. It is Hallmark’s reactions that help make many of scenes, including the tragic finale, so touching.

Hadjimichael makes a fine Christian, deftly balancing the rough and ready soldier’s attitude with the tender side of the character. Gamble is intimidating and authoritative as the aristocratic scoundrel, while still giving the character the needed dimension.

The quality of the acting extends throughout the smaller roles. As Cyrano’s friend Le Bret, Michael P. Sullivan has a strong presence and a gift for handling expressive dialogue. Other memorable roleplayers include David Tabish as the pastry chef and poet Rageauneau, and Frank Mancino doubling as the poet-satirist Lignière and a Capuchin Monk.

Director Ian Gallanar demonstrates an adept feel for Cyrano de Bergerac and effectively summons the right energy from the cast to meet the dramatic demands of each scene. His choice of the well-regarded Burgess translation of the play (used by the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 1984 Broadway production) makes the dialogue and themes more accessible to broad audiences. Marilyn Johnson’s attractive period costumes and the appropriate setting of the ruins at the PFI Historic Park help the audience lose themselves in the seventeenth century era.

If you have ever enjoyed outdoor classical theatre in general or a past production of Cyrano de Bergerac in particular, it’s worth the drive to Ellicott City. The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company has a real nose for the spirit of Cyrano de Bergerac.

Cyrano de Bergerac
by Edmond Rostand
directed by Ian Gallanar
produced by Chesapeake Shakespeare Company
reviewed by Steven McKnight

For Details, Directions and Tickets, click here.